Well, how was it for you?

 Cryptic of the week: Confront, over Tea, abundance of debts (9)

For my last post of 2009 I thought it would be a good idea to ponder the benefits of all my puzzling over the last 7 months or so.  For all my Rubik's Cube twirling and cryptic challenges am I transformed into a stellar performer at work and in other areas of my life?  Propelled onward and upward on a star-bound trajectory by newly minted grey cells?  Well...no, not really.  If I am honest, I would have to say it hasn't made the slightest difference in other areas of my life.

• I still have a terrible sense of direction
• My memory is as capable of holding on to information as a sieve is of holding on to water
• The penny still takes a long, long time to drop
• My thought processes are still firmly within the square and the envelope remains unpushed

However, on the bright side, with cryptic crosswords and Rubik's Cube I have two enduring hobbies that give me enormous pleasure.  I still marvel that my noggin can retain the excruitiating sequences required to solve the Rubik's Cube, including the 5 x 5, and that I can understand, let alone complete, cryptic crosswords.  

Lots of challenges remain though. These include conquering the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword, and thanks to the yuletide generosity of my 4 year old son, getting to grips with the Rubik's Cube 4 x 4.  Completing these weekly posts has also, surprisingly, been a pleasure and one that I hope to continue with.  Have a wonderful New Year!!

Big Dave

Cryptic of the week: Environments which might see my costs spiralling (10)

Well, last weeks post was useful.  A wonderful reader told me about Big Dave's Telegragh cryptic crossword website.  This site kindly gives clue hints for all the Telegraph crosswords and, should you still be floundering, offers to reveal the answers.  Well, armed with cryptic crossword number 26,084, two clues completed, I visited Big Dave's site and checked out the hints for 3 clues.  Using these as a springboard I have managed to complete the crossword, bar 22 across - "Road crossing small Scottish course". 

A couple of popular cryptic clue answers were featured in 26,084 - Liani (climbing/climber and nails) and Copious (policeman and debts) but, this being the Telegraph cryptic crossword, the clues were slightly more obscured than usual.  To aid my quest to crack the Telegraph crossword I purchased "The Daily Telegraph - How to Crack the Cryptic Crossword" by Val Gilbert.  Reading the book you would think that the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword was no different from the Woman's Day cryptic crossword as it has shed zero extra light on mastering their crossword.  The clue answers do not seem any more difficult to other crosswords I am doing, no obscure words like quinsy or ineluctable, and the clues look like any other clues, just...somehow more difficult.  I think they combine clue types more often and make anagrams more difficult to spot but other than that, I am at a loss to say why I find their cryptic crossword any more difficult to do than Woman's Day or NZ Listener magazine. 

On another note, re-reading last weeks post I feel I may have come across as slightly facetious (there's a good cryptic crossword answer waiting for a clue to be designed - my challenge for the next post) regarding Paris Hilton and whether or not she does cryptic crosswords.

Any excuse to show another Paris photo.

It wasn't meant to be so and I have no idea whether or not Paris whiles away her spare time doing cryptics.  No reason why she shouldn't I suppose, she is clearly brighter than the persona she projects and must do something with all the spare time she has on her hands between partying, filming and holidaying. A bit of downtime with a cryptic crossword would be just what she needs to relax.  Anyway, enough of Paris.  If you want to visit Big Dave's website visit the link at the side

Celebrity question

Cryptic of the week: Spread out and started trade for the day (6)

My puzzling is settling down into a bit of a frantic routine.  Friday I start the Listener crossword - usually finished by Sunday, Monday.  Then a bit of Rubik's Cube and a few games of chess (plus all the usual family committments and work of course) and it's Wednesday and the Woman's Day cryptic which I generally finish by Friday - Mother-in-Law buys it, I just flick through it to cut out the cryptic and occasionally catch up on the latest Paris Hilton gossip (I wonder if Paris does cryptic crosswords?). 

Paris - Keen Cryptic Crossworder? You decide.

I need to get faster so I can shoehorn another cryptic into my week.  If I could solve the Listener and Woman's Day cryptics faster this would leave more time to ponder over the cryptic crossword in the Weekly Telegraph.  I live in NZ so subscribe to it to ensure I get to read at least one decent paper a week.  The Telegraph's cryptic crossword follows all the same rules I assume but my progress with it is painfully slow.  I am lucky if I manage 3 or 4 clues before it's time for the Listener crossword again.  From what I have heard, the Telegraph is the easiest of the broadsheet cryptics, and this is certainly borne out by my feeble attempts at the Guardian and Times crosswords.  I am certainly making progress, finishing all clues in the Listener and Woman's Day cryptics most weeks now but I am still waiting for that satisfying gear change, that must surely come, when I can knock them both off over a cuppa.  Anyone out there got any tips for me? Paris?

Blowin' in the wind

Cryptic of the week: Old stager put chopped up tree in van (7)

Well, what a week.  I came across the cryptic clue - "A whirl of activity in bed, Dylan sang (4)" - in the Listener and very cleverly (I thought) identified "whirl" as an anagram indicator.  I then thought that "activity in bed" meant "sleep" (yes I know what else it could have meant but sleep was my first thought!).  Therefore I was looking for an anagram of a word, beginning with 'E" that meant sleep, which would somehow have some relevance to the "Dylan sang" bit. 

This was a classic case of over-thinking a clue.  I struggled and tormented myself trying to work out this clue, even going so far, embarrasing I know, to search the internet for Dylan songs for references in the lyrics to females with four letter names beginning with "E".   I was so wed to the idea that it was an anagram clue that I barely tried to fit the clue into any other clue type.  Well, the following day, the answer just popped out at me, as they so often do, before I had time to start anagramising (is that a word? - if not, it should be) the clue again.  It was an inside' clue "...bED DYlan..." = Eddy.  Seems easy now of course looking back at it.  I can't believe I wasted so much time on it. 

A number of weeks ago I gave you my 5 tips for Cryptic Crossword beginners.  Add tip numer 6 to the list - don't overthink the clues!  Having said all that though, over-thinking surely must be a good sign that I have not yet ventured onto the slippery slope of senility.

Senile dementia or Performance Pressure - you decide!

Cryptic of the week: Sacked, no doubt! (2,3,3)

I decided to rest my Rubik's twirling for a week or so to see how firmly planted in my grey matter the sequences were.   After all, memory problems are one of the first indicators of senile dementia and I am on a quest to see if I can avoid clambering onto that particular train.  

After resting for a week, I fully expected to be able to pick up the 5 x 5 Professor Cube and twirl away with nonchalant ease but was quickly brought up short with cuber's block.  I couldn't quite remember the rotations for a couple of easy sequences to get the points in place, then, further on I completely lost it on one sequence, being unable to remember whether it was single or double layers I was supposed to be rotating.  These were sequences that just a week ago I barely had to think about as my fingers twirled the cube. A quick glance at the instructions and all was soon well but it just goes to show how fleeting memories can be. 

I wonder though, if my planned Cube abstinence heaped some pressure on my grey cells that somehow caused the cuber's block?  If my abstinence had been unplanned would I have been similarly stymied when I picked up the cube or would I have twirled away without incident?  Anyway, for now I have decided that it was performance pressure rather than the onset of senile dementia.

Why am I doing this?

Cryptic of the week: Right always, that is a daydream (7)

I’ve been enjoying recording my puzzle musings so much that I almost forgot that I am doing it for a reason. You may recall, I am hoping that the unfamiliarity of sitting at the keyboard and, rather than checking the news and weather or deleting email offers to extend my manhood, trying to write something vaguely, possibly, maybe of interest, will tease a few extra brain cells into existence. The latest research shows that you can slow down or even reverse the signs of senility, including Alzheimer’s. The problem I have is - how do I know whether or not all this extra mental exercise is carving new neural pathways through my grey matter? How do I go about measuring brain improvements, assuming there are any of course.

For instance, I believe I am getting better at cryptic crosswords but is this because I am now privy to the dark arts of the cryptic compiler and puzzle over them almost every day? I can solve the Rubik’s Cube now in around 5 minutes or so - just practice or freshly minted brain cells sending my twirling fingers into a blur of motion.  I am tackling a greater range of puzzles than I have ever done before.  Perhaps with the aid of the extra brain cells I am getting to grips with a new puzzle style a lot quicker than I may have done previously but how would I know?  Is there anyone out there who can advise on this? I think I’ll have to do some research and get back to you.

Getting it of my chess

Cryptic of the week: Tuft that is forming small cloth (6)

One of my favourite puzzles, if it can be called a puzzle, is Chess Problems.  They don't appear in many mags and papers anymore - Wellington's Dominion Post and Listener Magazine are the ones I read fairly regularly.  What I like about them is not so much the conumdrum they pose but the images they evoke. 

The accompanying text always gives a potted history of the match in question and most times some background on the protaganists - Gaprindsahivilli, Kasparov, Alhekine, Karpov,  Short - the list of wonderful names goes on.  It reminds me of when I was growing up, Chess seemed to be a far bigger event than it appears nowadays and the important matches were given big, clash of the titans build-ups.  Nigel Short, the British Grandmaster was born in Leigh, just 5 miles down the road from where I was born, and is just two years younger than me so his battles had that added edge to them.  I can still remember seeing him on John Craven's Newsround and being in awe of him.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I will be visiting the UK in July/August next year and have a cousin who always used to beat me at Chess.  He sent me a newspaper clipping, not too long ago, of a local school tournament in which he won the parents event and his youngest son won his school year's battle.  I have bought myself a chess computer and chess set to try and improve my meagre chess skills so I can challenge them and one of the exercises I work through is setting up the board for the chess problems.  Amazingly, with the actual chess pieces in front of me I do fair a little better at the solutions than when I study the diagram.  Not sure why this should be.  With the chess computer I am working my way through the fun levels first. 

I got through the first 4 fun levels unbeaten (2 games at level 1, 4 games at level 2, 6 games at level 3, 8 games at level 4 but came unstuck a couple of times at level 5.  I have decided that I will remain at level 5 until I beat it 10 times without defeat.  Judging by progress so far it is going to take me a long time to get onto the normal levels where the computer stops making schoolboy mistakes.  I'll keep you posted on progress.  Incidentally, I have decided, nothing, no.., NOTHING, taxes the brain more than chess.