In the sample clues below, the links take you to explainers from our beginners series. The setter’s name often links to an interview with him or her, in case you feel like getting to know these people better.
The news in clues
As I type these words, we’re still on the fifth prime minister of the topsy-turvy current administration, one who might grin grimly at the humour in Rosa Klebb’s Financial Times clue …
16a Hammer rebellious ex-Home Secretary following ultimate in careerism (7)
[ wordplay: reversed (‘rebellious’) name of ex-home secretary, after (‘following’) last letter of (‘ultimate in’) CAREERISM ]
[ SUELLA reversed after M ]
[ definition: hammer ]
… for MALLEUS.
Latter patter
Carpathian begins her quiptic (this paper’s weekly “cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry”) with a misdirect on “flipping”:
1a Lift best flipping prize (7)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘lift’ + reversed (‘flipping’) synonym for ‘best’ ]
[ JACK + reversed TOP ]
[ definition: prize ]
In the word JACKPOT, the “pot” makes perfect sense; a pot is a very sensible place for storing the components of a prize. Why “jack”, though? That one is down to poker, specifically the form of poker where the pot accumulates until a player can open with two jacks (or better).
But, we might still ask: why is that card called a “jack” when in other languages he is a more specific “valet”, “fante” and so on?
The reason is that there is barely an item or device that was not called a “jack” in the 16th and 17th centuries. A vessel used in the production of soap? Jack. Horsemeat that has been salted and washed to disguise its taste? Jack. A caterpillar when it is being used as bait by an angler? Jack, of course. People must have uttered sentences such as: “Could you jack me the jack that’s jacking on that jack please, Jack?” (Readers might remember the fun we have had in the past with Billys and Johnnys.)
Also, the word is the subject of our next challenge. Reader, how would you clue JACK?
Cluing competition
Many thanks for your clues for HERB. It is one of, to mangle a phrase, the most bumper of crops we have had here, though the audacity award goes to
Thespectacle for “Rather bland ingredient?” This only works if we accept the calumny against this plant and any of us who have enjoyed Yotam Ottolenghi’s sweetcorn and avocado with sweet chilli and lime sauce cannot accept it.
If you haven’t been back recently, I recommend reading them all; the runners-up are Jacob_Busby’s “Volkswagen Beetle that is driven off bay?” (to which I’ve added a question mark) and Patjberry47’s “Leaves the girl behind, initially”. The winner is one which hides its join perfectly: “This may be found in Botany Bay, perhaps” (from which I have removed a question mark to keep the balance).
Kludos to Albery; please leave entries for the current competition – and especially non-print finds and picks that I may have missed from the broadsheet cryptics – in the comments.
Clue from elsewhere of the fortnight
It takes a special strain of brain to see the nonsense of “lad on nae mobile” in a well-known phrase; that is what has happened in this Times clue …
5d Boy phoning, ringing no Scottish or Italian number (2,5,1,6)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘boy phoning’ containing (‘ringing’) Scottish word for ‘no’ ]
[ LAD ON MOBILE containing NAE ]
[ definition: song in Italian ]
… for LA DONNA E MOBILE. Elephants, yeah.
The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book by Alan Connor, which is partly but not predominantly cryptic, can be ordered from the Guardian Bookshop
