| Across 2 Everyone shall be found in the final list! (3) 4 Is it ‘cos I’m oddly lacking? Cold, impassive? (5) 6 One cold diving bird returned – only its tip is visible (7) 8 Disease was airborne, I hear (3) 9 Give weaponless fighters a hand? Not exactly (3) 11 Handle eastern complaint (5) 12 Make use of a disguise, say (5) 13 Payback for rabbit (3) 15 Sum up a double diamond? (3) 16 Ascending notes disappoint (7) 19 Rubes solved puzzle (5) 20 Laugh exuberantly at river? That’s not on (3) |
Down 1 Grand round thing found between poles? (5) 2 Gobbled feta up, almost (3) 3 Pervert’s rest (3) 4 Ruin meal, including first course (7) 5 Ties curve up over tubs (7) 6 Homer’s work’s putting lithium into an atomic container – the end of Springfield? (5) 7 Raged about score (5) 8 Cook’s a one who may grant wishes? Not a one (3) 10 In the centre of 1499? (3) 14 Collection of egg-white nearly complete (5) 17 Fairy found in cafe? Yes! (3) 18 A university knocked head off bird (3) |
Crosswords by Māyā of Auckland 
Have only found 2 all 8 flu 15 add across & 2 down ate in Little gem. I reckon cryptic clues are generally to solvers with similar educational and cultural background to the setter. But I may try some more.I need to print out the frames for ease of use, but printer out of action now. lSincerely Anne Abley
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First sentence of reply not clear – apologies. I meant to say that cryptic clues are generally clearer to solvers with similar educational and cultural background to the setter.
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Hi Anne,
Thanks for having a go, and for the comments. I’m sure you’re right about educational and cultural backgrounds – that would be difficult to avoid! Although part of the art (?) of setting crosswords is to look for expressions you wouldn’t normally use (as long as it seems reasonable that these will be well known to the target audience). For example Cockney rhyming slang, teenspeak, and so on.
I try my best to follow the rules laid down by “Ximenese”, who literally wrote the book on cryptic crossword clueing – however this has been a hobby until recently, so I’ve had limited time to polish the crosswords up to the standard normally seen in newspapers etc.
If you’re interested, I now have a crossword in a local magazine, which should be reaching far more people than the blog, so I’ve done my best to make the clues fair (in the cryptic crossword sense of the word, of course).
That can be found here:
http://www.channelmag.co.nz/features/entertainment/the-channel-crossword-march/
Best wishes,
“Māyā”
PS a printable version of the above-mentioned Channel crossword is here https://channelcrossword.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/cmag131511-crossword1.pdf
PPS this one doesn’t require any local knowledge, however one clue does assume you have the actual magazine in front of you.
PPPS It’s 1 across 🙂
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