B. J. Holmes - Pocket crossword dictionary

Crosswords are a waste of time. Theres always something more useful to do. Like pursuing a career, raising kids, wallpapering, walking the dog, writing a novel. At least, thats the way I saw it for many years. That is until I found myself flat on my back with a chronic illness. In that situation even the delights of TV, radio and records began to pall and, in frustration, I turned my attention to the cryptic puzzle in my daily paper.

Up till then I had never given the wretched, impenetrable thing more than a glance. At first I had little success, managing maybe a couple of answers if I was lucky before throwing it aside in frustration. However, in time and using assorted reference books, I eventually completed my first grid to my surprise and immense satisfaction. From then I was hooked, and was soon sampling all the broadsheet and tabloid papers buying, begging, borrowing or stealing. And, in time, I was picking up prizes from national newspapers such as the Financial Times and the Independent. Looking back, I can see that my interest in cryptics was kick-started when it dawned on me that there was some regularity in the tricks that compilers got up to.

As I couldnt keep all their little dodges in my head I began writing them down, solely for my own reference. In time the notes became a thick file by the side of my bed. Although I use assorted dictionaries, thesauruses, reference books and so on it was when I realised my own file had become not only my first means of attack when facing a virgin grid, but also my most-used source, it occurred to me there was a book in it that could be useful to others. And you hold the results in your hand.

The story goes that the first crossword appeared in an American newspaper (the Sunday edition of the New York World) at the beginning of the last century. Since then crossword puzzles have spread to most cultures and have taken a variety of forms from the original straightforward definitional type requiring factual answers to the more abstruse cryptic kind characterised by the use of convoluted clues, using puns and the playing of language games.

Todays grids can be square, rectangular or odd-shaped and can have either black squares or thick lines to separate the answers.

For a start cryptic crosswords must be enjoyed by a large number of the population because virtually every British newspaper, national and local, carries one. And there have been many famous addicts, notably film star Richard Burton, who we are told, had to have daily access to British cryptics no matter to what part of the world his job or wealth had taken him. Moreover, there is mounting medical opinion that they are downright healthy! Regular mental exercise is just as important as daily physical exercise and several prominent doctors have extolled the virtues of the crossword habit in staving off the ravages of age on the brain. Crosswords can be classified broadly into two groups. Firstly there is what is called the definitional type.

They are easily recognized because their clues are usually short and their solution calls for knowledge rather than language manipulation. They appear under various titles such as Quickie, Coffee-break and Concise. They have two main sub-categories: the general knowledge type and the specialised, the latter appearing in magazines and drawing on the specialist knowledge of their particular readership from pop music and golf to train-spotting. Then there is the cryptic which has less the nature of a knowledge test and more the character of a game a naked battle of wits between the compiler and the punter. And, like a game, it has its rules and conventions.

In order to solve cryptics it is useful to look at the exercise from the point of view of the compiler. In order to solve cryptics it is useful to look at the exercise from the point of view of the compiler.

The setter of a crossword is actually on a par with a conjuror. In both activities the name of the game is deception. Deception has two forms. Firstly, disguise. A conjuror will disguise the trappings of his trade: what seems like a solid box, can be hollow. Similarly, through the clever use of words a crossword compiler will draw a veil over his actual intent.

For example, Serve held by the Italian superstar (4) embodies a couple of disguises. Serve is dressed up in the clue as a noun, whereas the underlying intention is that it should be equated with the verb to DO (i.e. as a charlady). On the other hand, Italian is disguised as an adjective relating to superstar, yet its role lies in the two words the Italian (i.e. Italian for the) which is IL. Finally, DO held by IL yields the solution IDOL, a term which can be applied to a superstar.

Conversely a noun can be dressed up as a verb to throw you off the scent. Take Hide article held by Gonerils father (7) Sitting at the front Hide looks for all the world like a verb and you probably wouldnt realise it isnt until you start putting the thing together from the clues other parts. Gonerils father is LEAR dont worry if you didnt know this, its the kind of thing we have in our glossary. Then, LEAR goes around THE (article) to produce the answer LEATHER, a noun synonymous with hide. The second form of deception is misdirection. The astute observer knows that whenever a conjuror says Look, nothing in my hand, the real business is likely to be taking place somewhere else, like the magicians other hand.

And so too, with the crossword. One must fight the temptation to look where the compiler is directing our attention. Example: Set meal (2,6) This is a familiar phrase describing restaurant fare. Once we are on our guard that we might be being misdirected, the last thing we should think of is a restaurant! So, what else can the word set imply? A radio set? A television set? Bells might ring at that point, leading to the notion that, in that context, a set meal is in fact a TV DINNER. Remember, the crossword clue has to be synonymous with the solution (or at least be strongly suggestive of the answer) so the compiler will be very wily in using the only tools available to the craft: disguise or misdirection, usually both at the same time.

The beginner really needs to have a handful of reference books handy.

Now, there is a feeling amongst many solvers that the use of books, etc. is in some way cheating. I have no such qualms. Of course, there will be expert solvers who will pride themselves on finishing a broadsheet cryptic with no use of aids, but these lucky people must be a minority, an enviable elite. My attitude has always been that the compiler has many books and aids at his disposal so why should the common-or-garden solver (like me and most of the readers of this book) be at a disadvantage? So you need: a standard dictionary, the bigger and the more up to date the better. Obviously you can only use a dictionary if you already know what you are looking for, so the main function of your dictionary will be for confirming spelling.

However it can also be used for checking the existence of a word youve never heard of. As an example, the word barathea may mean nothing to you as it meant nothing to me when I tackled the following clue: