This is the puzzle Gaufrid from fifteensquared had a go at, and as I wrote before he pointed out that the theme may be a bit obscure depending on your generation… if you were young between the late 60s and the mid 90s it should pose less of a problem! Solutions follow… (more…)
Solution…Futean 001
This puzzle was the first, and there were maybe a couple of tenuous ones in here. 11 across relied on Wikipedia or Google to translate the word ‘Berkanan’ as it’s not in Chambers or the shorter Oxford (too archaic I think) and 25 across may throw those without good musical memories of the early 90s. Personally I was proudest of 26 across. Anyhow, click the next page for the answers… (more…)
Futean 003: Turn the wheel and look..
I’m not going to post the puzzle on the page anymore as it’s kinda faffy and it looks much better on crossword.info! So here’s a link to the new puzzle, entitled (though not necessarily for any good reason), Turn the Wheel and Look. Enjoy!
Futean 004 will definitely appear more quickly, I promise.
Commended Clue!
Phew…real life has interfered with updates, and especially puzzle Futean003 where the theme stretched my grid-laying abilities further than they were ready to go – a little overambitious perhaps! Hope you all enjoy the puzzle anyway!
More excitingly, my favourite setter (Paul from the Guardian) has a clue competition on his website and I threw a few in; 9 across from Futean 001 was commended! Will have to try hard for those precious bronze, silver and gold trophies, but I was chuffed nonetheless.
The futean crossword manifesto?
Does a setter need a manifesto, especially if the publish themselves? I found myself asking this question after Gaufrid from fifteensquared gave me some great feedback on Futean-002, both in terms of the theme and the clues.
Some questions over the clues were expected – and although the excuse that I prefer the less Ximenean setters carries a little weight, my low milage so far on the setter’s learning curve will carry much more. Theme-wise though, it raised an interesting question which has been raised many times recently (in the Guardian, anyway) and flips it. Whilst there have been questions raised on using terms and references which a younger solver wouldn’t have a hope of knowing, the question of whether it’s sometimes acceptable to include references an older solver might struggle with is a tricky one.
Modern literature shouldn’t be too much of a problem (readers don’t generally stop reading as they get older) but with popular music most people have an era which they know intimately and then a drop off – that point at which record collecting is as much about filling the gaps from days past than buying the sound of the new youth. Rock and electronic music were such an enormous part of my cultural upbringing that it’s where I naturally go to for ideas – likewise I’ve never been a sports fan, and the chances of a cricket reference in one of my puzzles are nigh on zero, let alone references to sports people which are often cause for me to discard a cryptic unfinished. Is this right, though – do the expectations solvers place on content actually outweigh the expectations they place on clue-style and Ximenean precision?
Who knows indeed – the best way to learn is from feedback, so let me know what you think! In the meantime, here’s a mini-manifesto to give you an idea of whether you’ll enjoy a futean crossword!
- I’m not a Ximenean, but will try to be good and fair at all times!
- I deliberately break the big X’s rules when a possible clue gives me a great big grin, there’s a good ‘&lit’ clue that won’t work otherwise, and so forth
- I accidentally break rules due to inexperience…whether I pretend it ‘s on purpose will depend on the clue!
- There will likely be references to classic rock or pop music in many puzzles from the mid-Sixties up to the millenium
- Literary references are just as likely to be modern, though the convention of assuming a greater knowledge of Shakespeare than, say, Pynchon will be assumed – after all, every Shakespearean character quickly gives up his or her identity to the call of Google
- I’ll check that esoteric references are likely to be Google-solvable if required, though I may keep it a little sneaky where I can
- Pretty much no sport unless the grid dictates it. Though in that case cricket will probably be a grassy chirper rather than a batty pursuit!
That might all over-egg the pudding, but hopefully it’ll give you more of an idea if you’re wondering whether to try one of the puzzles!
The next one (on the way still) has a theme that’s a little more vintage that 002! Enjoy.
Puzzle number two – for fragile, eggshell minds?
Getting better already I think! I had fun doing this one, and I have started wondering whether or not setting and solving cryptics are very separate, if related addictions. Daunted as always by some of the experts solving speeds on the wonderful fifteensquared.net, knowing that I failed to solve puzzles over the course of a month that took them half an hour, and that I considered myself quite an addict (it’s the pesky Enigmatist that always gets me stumped grrrr!) it’s an odd feeling then swapping over to the rolling adrenalin rush of finding possible approaches to cluing a solution; toying with them; settling on one; coaxing it into shape; on to the next… no wonder Rufus has such a high output, he probably couldn’t stop himself without therapy!
Anyhow, enjoy this one:
(Pop to my crossword.info page to find interactive and pdf versions!)
Across
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Down
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Futean 001 – First steps….
Have discovered immediately that I’m not a Ximenean, however I’m not too far off – better behaved than Araucaria I think (such impishness is a permissable companion to genius, though I’m not sure Don Manley would agree)… Here goes:
(Go here for an interactive version, or here for a printer-friendly pdf)
Across
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Dabbles in the art of the British Crossword…
Hey there. This section of the blog will make little to no sense to most Americans, unless they indulge in a transatlantic fetish for all things Araucaria, Paul, Pasquale or Enigmatist (or their equivalents for those who prefer the Telegraph to the Guardian…). Anyhow, I’ve got a dangerous obsession with what Brits just call a cryptic crossword, but am always a little befuddled by references impossible to understand for the under-fifties and/or any assumption of expertise on historical sports trivia and all that jazz – plus there’s so many more modern cultural artefacts begging to join the crossword club! Anyhow, to turn an educational, and beneficial activity (apparently doing cryptics has been proven to ward off Alzheimers) that nonetheless consumes time into a creative and productive one, I’ve started setting my own – no references I don’t understand, but darn it I know all the answers! Anyhow, the next post will have my first, under the setter pseudonym Futean (of course) and I’ll link to crossword.info where there are interactive versions of any puzzles.
I’ll also post any interesting crossword related thoughts as I go – any feedback much appreciated and enjoy the puzzles!
First tentative steps into the blogosphere…
OK folks – this post has a killswitch, it will self-destruct in less time than it takes you to read it, so hope you feel temporarily privileged…now prepare to be uninterested as I welcome you to Futean’s….
yup, it’s the working out how wordpress works post..(I promise, I will delete this…)
In italics, this blog will break all typographical rules about bold italics… stop it actually this is pretty easy to use think I get it….
Let’s post this, pick a theme proper, workout out to add stuff from Crossword Compiler, all that jazz….then work out a way to get you folks interested in reading what I have to say before I start any of that remote mind-control malarky…
