7. Ten Things to Consider When Stuck
“Congratulations to all who completed this puzzle which was printed with the wrong grid.”
Sunday Telegraph
Even the best solvers get held up or seriously stuck at times. Here are ten reasons why you may also hit a wall, with suggestions as to how to make a breakthrough.
1. Check for a wrong entry
The first point to consider is whether you have made a mistake in an earlier entry. Once a word is ‘inked’ into the grid, you naturally become reluctant to consider other possibilities for the solution in question.
Even experienced hands like me trip up by inserting incorrect answers into the grid too quickly, for example without having matched wordplay to definition or vice versa. It’s maddening to spend a long time working from wrong assumptions so do check this possibility first.
2. Ignore the surface reading
The vital fact to keep in mind is that the setter’s aim is to produce a sentence that appears to mean one thing but may well, and usually does, mean something totally different. In the very best clues, this is achieved by the creation of a highly misleading image. The solver’s response is to enjoy the image but ignore it – the solution may come out after a close examination of each word rather than appreciation of the scenario presented. Try not to miss the subtlety of a clue, but only after being sure of the solution.
3. Look carefully again and consider each word in the clue
Cunning setters find ways of using familiar combinations and juxtapositions which require splitting before any progress can be made. Consider the clue below. You may well have got stuck on this until you realised that the two words British Isles have to be separated to uncover the definition.
SANDWICH CLUE: Ambassador travels round British Isles (8)
TOP TIP – PARTS OF SPEECH
Use of misleading parts of speech is a strong feature. Participants in my workshops are misled time and again by this and my suggestion is that, when temporarily stuck, you reconsider carefully every word of the clue which could have an alternative part of speech.
4. Endings
Based on a definition in the past tense, you may have pencilled or, even worse, inked in the ending -ed when the actual solution is, say, caught or known. Similar problems can arise after putting in an -s or an -ing – sensible practice, usually, but needing reconsideration when you are stuck.
5. Take a break to do something else
This is the most popular tip of all from solvers. Doing the washing up or taking the dog for a walk has the most liberating effect on the blocked crossword mind. You may find that this extends to getting a solution the next morning – or even during the night.
6. Ring the help line
If you cannot wait that long, the solution to the current day’s puzzle can be obtained via a paid phone call to the number shown at the foot of each day’s puzzle.
7. ‘Cheat’ via electronic aids and the internet
Crosswords are rarely a competition so you make your own rules as regards using electronic aids. Using dictionaries to confirm a solution is just common sense; going further to root out a solution electronically is now much easier than hitherto as word completion tools, especially prevalent now on the internet, virtually guarantee finding tricky answers.
But is this cheating? Typically half of my students will be firmly against what they see as cheating; the other half see it differently as a means of shortening a process which would anyway have led to the answer later. The ultimate, if that’s what you want, is a programme called Crossword Maestro. It reckons to solve a high percentage of clues but that surely takes the fun out of the whole thing. Incidentally, the developer claims his programme knows over 4000 anagram indicators. Without going that far, and if conventional dictionary/thesaurus hunting has failed or is too time-consuming, you can try a word completion tool. Some of these are listed in Chapter 12.
You can also seek help with a particular clue via a website such as www.answerbank.com. This, I’m told, nearly always finds someone kind enough to give an answer. Finally you can type a clue into Google and see what comes up. Impressively, on a random test, this threw up the answer to six of seven clues from different newspapers!
8. Consult the blog
See Chapter 12. Not only does this usually give the answer on the day of the publication but it helpfully gives the wordplay or an explanation.
9. Phone a friend
It’s remarkable how two or more brains working on a clue can come up with answers much more effectively than one.
10. Ask Alexa and her like
One assumes that artificial intelligence (AI) will before very long facilitate the solving of all crossword clues, perhaps even setting crosswords too!
ROBOTS TO KILL OFF CROSSWORD COMPILERS INSIDE 15 YEARS
This Daily Mirror 2018 headline looked more suitable for a 1st April story than 27th February when it actually appeared.