Aren't All Crosswords Cryptic?

It's Memorial Day, so Breakfast Bytes is off today. Well, obviously not completely, since you're reading this. Pop quiz: what was Memorial Day called before it was called Memorial Day?

Crosswords

I have a hobby of sorts. I like to do crosswords. But not the American crosswords like in the New York Times or other newspapers. I like the British kind. They are called “cryptic” crosswords. An American crossword just has definitions that you need to find another word for. We have that kind in Britain too, but they are usually called something like the “Quick Crossword”. The real crossword is the 15x15 cryptic crossword.  Every newspaper has one. They come online at midnight in Britain, which is 4pm in California, so it is ready and waiting for me when I get home from work. The timing is great for me since the Times Crossword (the one in London, although it is just called "The Times" like the way that the British Open Golf is just called "The Open" since there were no others when it started) is ready for me each evening.

When you explain how a cryptic crossword clue works, it sounds a bit unusual. Part of the clue is a definition, like in an American crossword clue, and part is some other way to get to the answer, known as the wordplay. However, there is no indication of which is which. The definition might be at the beginning of the clue, or the end. Sometimes it is well disguised (like "A" for arsenic).

The simplest example of a cryptic clue is a double definition, where the wordplay is simply another American-style clue. For example:

kind disposition (6 letters)

The answer is NATURE. But they are not always a two-word version that only has one place for the division between the two definitions. How about:

boat put in water (6 letters)

It's LAUNCH which is both a boat and a verb meaning to put in water.

Or the long clue down the right-hand side of the crossword at the start of this column is:

Observer newspaper's possible target" (3,2,3,4)

As you can see, the answer is FLY ON THE WALL. It is a sort of double definition, with "observer" being one, and "newspaper's possible target" being the other (because you might try and swat a fly on the wall with a newspaper).

But usually, the wordplay is more complex. An anagram, or one word inserted in another. Anagrams are indicated with a word like "confused" to tell you to jumble the letters. A word put in another is indicated in some way. Here are a few examples.

The man would run into ring being two-faced (8)

It's DIHEDRAL since "the man would" is "he'd" and run is "r" (from cricket scoring) and ring is "dial". The definition part is "two-faced".

Another one from the crossword above:

A tiny bit wrong, cultivator said (9).

It's SCINTILLA which means a tny bit, but sounds like ("said") sin (wrong) tiller (cultivator).

One more from the crossword at the top of this post:

So the mare's chopped up for it.

This is what's called an &lit since the whole clue is the definition. But buried in the clue is "so the mare'" being chopped up, giving the letters of HORSEMEAT.

Ok, that's enough. I know that a few crossword clues go a long way if you aren't used to them. I'll go and do tomorrow's now.

Try It

My favorite, the Times Crossword, requires you to be a subscriber. But The Guardian crossword is free. Here is a link. The "quick" crossword is just definitions. The "cryptic" crossword is the main event, what this post has been about. Try it.

Every cryptic crossword in Britain also has a blog that explains the whole crossword that day (or next week if it is a competition crossword with a deadline). The Guardian, and most others, is here, the Times is here.

Answer to Pop Quiz

Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day. It was a day when it was traditional to decorate the graves of ancestors, but after the civil war it became focused on people who died in the armed forces. There were a little over 4,000 Americans killed in the Revolutionary War (what I grew up, in the UK, knowing as the American War of Independence) but over 600,000 were kills in the Civil War, so there were a lot more graves to decorate. Memorial Day is different from Veterans Day (11th November) which remembers all veterans, not just those who were killed. Veterans Day is also the anniversary of the end of the Great War, or the First World War. which ended at 11:11am on 11/11.

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