Message to DTcrossword fan

[sp1814]

DT - we talked about this the other day, when I was one clue away from finishing the Daily Crossword cryptic crossword...it was the nearest I've ever come to solving it.

Anyway...earlier this week....I FINALLY FINISHED ONE!!!

And then two days later...I finished another one.

I'm sure you'd like to join me in congratulating myself, because I now feel 'proper brainy'.

[MarkRae]

I think you must mean the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword...

[sandyRoe]

de yes ed. well done.

[Baldric]

Egotist!

[commoner]

lol..I'll say congrats..if it was the Times Xword...but not if it was the Daily Express Little Crossword.....

I'm Daily Express Crusader standard mesel'..He he!

[sp1814]

Mark-Talbot..

Yup...stupid typing fingers.

commoner - give me a break. TheTimes crossword is LITERALLY impossible. Only the Stephens (Fry and Hawkins) have any chance of finishing that monster.

I'm talking about the Telegraph cryptic crossword, as M-T has correctly assumed.

[commoner]

lol...Morse did it every day..heh heh!....but well done anyway :-)

[shaneystar2]

I've done the DT cryptic crossword since I was at school and I left that institution in 1965 .
When you win the coveted pen then you can celebrate .
In all the years of doing it I've won the Saturday one once and got a crossword companion notebook which is very useful ...but I want that pen :0)

[MarkRae]

> Mark-Talbot..
> I'm talking about the Telegraph cryptic crossword, as M-T has correctly assumed.

Interesting. Are you hinting, or even implying, that you think Mick Talbot and I are the same person...?


> TheTimes crossword is LITERALLY impossible. Only the Stephens (Fry and Hawkins) have any chance of finishing that monster.

It's all relative, I suppose: http://tinypic.com/r/347b8mc/6

[Mamyalynne]

Hi Mick - good time that.

[MarkRae]

To be fair, Leanne, it was particularly easy today...

[Mamyalynne]

True.

[ladybirder]

Do you think you get better the more you do? When I have a break from them, I always find it harder when I start again?

[shaneystar2]

You get to know the style of the compilers ladybirder if you do them regularly .

[craft1948]

The Daily Mail cryptic must have 2 different compilers as some I can easily finish and some I can hardly understand..................

[DTCwordfan]

congrats sp - glad you are getting the hang of them - missed this thread earlier!

[Flyhalf]

I started trying Ximenes (or was it Toquemada?) in mid 1966.
I cracked my first clue not long before Christmas, and took around 12 months to complete one.
Nowadays I can tackle most puzzles with equanimity, EXCEPT The Listener. I can usually solve the clues, but the final adjustments tend to flummox me.
I suppose over time you build up methodology, and it gets to be like riding a bike (the legs hurt if you haven't ridden for a while).

[Svejk]

I don't think they've really got any pens at the Times. They just make up stupid names & addresses for the winners.

[sp1814]

Sorry MarkRae...I think I may have been affected by the wine that accompanied lunch yesterday!

ladybirder - with cryptic crosswords, I DEFINITELY think you improve the more that you do, because you begin to recognise the 'key word' which indicate whether there's an anagram embedded in the clue, or whether you need to look for abbreviations in the clue which form part of the answer.

It's a bit like learning a language.

Also, after a while, you can appreciate the 'elegance' of some clues.

There was one in the Telegraph a couple of weeks back that was literally beautiful. Hard to explain, but the compiler had used English in such a clever way as to make you stop and think, 'Wow'.

[Svejk]

I like to do the Times crossword on Sunday mornings. You gotta do something while yer waiting for the kettle to boil.

[DTCwordfan]

When I was growing up, my old man had to buy two Times and two DTs for the house - my youngest sister could take both papers crosswords and complete them in between twenty to thirty minutes - for both of them. The second copy was for the rest of us! She was one of these kids who could multiply three dec points in her head........she should have been a code-breaker.