Conversation:

Is it just me or is all this entry more daunting than the Times Crossword itself?

Such cruelty. I mean I even broke it up into sections and everything

I've always wanted someone to explain how to solve crosswords. I feel suitably prepared to go and tackle one of those things now.

Clive

Hmm, well, telling you the techniques is one thing. Actually being able to apply them is another! Feel free to post questions on my personal page if you really do take the brave step.

This entry puts me off every attempting to do a crossword again... no wonder I can't even get one word.

You should have mentioned the stupid person's way of doing crosswords; start with a random word, then keep adding in words that fit until you get frustrated and throw it in the bin (note: you don't need the clues to play this game).

I bow to your crossword skills...

I have to agree with Croz in that the entry is quite difficult to follow, even for someone like me who has been doing the crossword for a few years now. Having said that though, to try and explain how to solve The Times crossword is a task almost as daunting as the crossword itself, and I have to praise manolan for taking it on. There are a few things in the entry which are new to me . If you're going to criticise someone's efforts, you should be able to point out the problems and offer solutions, which I'm not able to do, having only been through the entry once (I only get a short amount of time online each day), so I must apologise for that, but I plan to read through it again when I get some more time, and hopefully make some constructive suggestions. Here's a couple to be going on with which you could add to the table of useful words...

"With it", "Trendy" - 'in'
"Fish" - 'ling'
Mention of a professor, or any university teacher - 'don'
"That is" - 'ie'
"I am" - 'im'
"Previous", "Former" - 'ex'

Hands down!!!

Excellent Entry! With the help of this Entry and some decades of additional English exercises even foreign speakers (like myself) might one day dare to solve those cryptic puzzles.

Did you know that in WW2, when they recruited staff for the Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchey Park, they had a very close look at those who could solve that kind of puzzles?

Jeremy

I did actually I remember reading a piece in The Times a year or two back about them using a crossword to recruit people, and they reprinted the one which was actually used. The clues were very different from the ones we're used to today. All I recall from the piece was that the person who finished it the quickest was disqualified for a simple spelling mistake, even though he finished it in half the time of the second place person.

That's cruel, much in the smae way that my comment was at the top. I have nothing against the entry at all, its just on the first reading I found it hard to follow just like the Times Crossword. It's probably due to me not having much patience to do crosswords really (I always preferred those cross reference puzzles instead).