Results: Clue writing contest 1541 Secretive
Winner
Nicola Thorp, Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex
Alien in service, working as a spy perhaps?
Alien = ET
in = going inside …
service = anagram fodder
working = anagram indicator
as a spy perhaps = definition, with “as” meaning “like”
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The surface reading (as understood here at least) has “alien” in the same sense as “enemy alien”, and initially you might expect a straightforward sandwich clue, with “working as a spy perhaps?” as a possible definition. The wordplay components are straightforward when identified, but there’s nothing wrong with familiar material if it fits in well, and the definition is trickier.
Good clues
Mike Horgan, Wirral
Clandestine editing service captures extra-terrestrial on film
This uses the same wordplay structure, with “editing” as the anagram indicator. Still a good story, but the indication of ET seems rather a giveaway.
Bernie Green
Fearful of discovery, alien takes part in bizarre service
Same wordplay structure again. I’m not quite convinced that the participation described is a good way of avoiding discovery. Bernie is secretive about his location — so that we can send you a prize without needing to email first if you win, please include your full postal address in each emailed entry.
Christopher Roberts, Farnham, Surrey
Furtive four inside hide
This is still a sandwich clue, but the filling is different. This means that the bread, “secrete” has a similar meaning to the answer, which requires careful choice of words to avoid a clue that’s rather too easy to solve, and may also be thought a bit too easy to write. Not a big problem here because “hide” is fairly likely to be understood as a noun in the surface reading.
Steve Allen, Milton Keynes
Quartet in leak is keeping mum
In this version of the same wordplay, the “leak” indicating SECRETE seems to be an item on the same list in a thesaurus rather than a precise synonym, but everything else seems perfectly fair so I think I’d accept this in one of our puzzles.
Liz Hayto, Arnold, Nottinghamshire
Private Home Counties island, hiding four
This uses “SE Crete” rather than “secrete”, avoiding the need for a synonym of “hide”, which is therefore available in a different form as the containment indicator.
Luciano Ward, Evanston, Illinois, USA
South east part of Greece includes small island (very quiet)
Very similar structure, with (I = “small (ie abbreviated) island” and v=very), instead of IV. As the definition, “quiet” is a bit vague, but fits the story well, compensates for the easy SE, and may suggest that pp=pianissimo is part of the answer.
Jonathan Storey, Spondon, Derbyshire
Tight-lipped about entering cult? I have joined!
This is a sandwich/additive combination — re=about in sect=cult; then I’ve, with “joined” indicating the addition. We can equate “cult” and “sect” from two definitions of “cult”: “a specific system of religious worship, esp with reference to its rites and deity” and “a sect devoted to such a system”.
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Jim Stewart, Telford
Sly’s Rocky IV, set in Crete, lost money
Some subtle wordplay is used to create the scenario here — a fairly realistic one as the next Rocky movie, apparently coming up later this year, will effectively be Rocky VI. With money meaning “tin”, “IV, set in Crete, lost money” gives us (IV, se, Crete) as anagram fodder after subtraction, and “Sly” is the definition. As stated before, I’m not troubled by occasional use of future or past tense in the cryptic reading. If I was, “losing money” would spoil the surface story only a bit.
Ron Elliott, Buxton, Derbyshire
Severe tic distressed mum
Stephen Hogg, Sheffield
Severe tic worried mum
Two versions of a maternal concern story, with anagram wordplay, and mum as in “keep mum” as the definition.
Steve Randall, Reading
Shabby incomplete tea service is not coming out
Another anagram, of “te service”. I enjoyed the middle class embarrassment scenario, and “not coming out” as the definition.
Paul Taylor, Manchester
Eviscerate a deficient organisation like MI5?
Another anagram created by losing one letter, with “organisation” as the anagram indicator and “like MI5?” as the definition.
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Comments on some other clues
In this configuration, vertices at rear of cube are hidden
“In this configuration” seems rather transparent as an anagram indicator, but the rest of the clue arguably puts it in a convincing context. I’m not convinced that expecting the solver to see the result of the anagramming as a plural entity (to justify “are” rather than “is”) is fair. There are expressions like “can be” which work for singular and plural things, so this can be avoided.
Silent order I have joined embraces religious instruction
This uses (SEC(R.E.)T + IVE) and has a strong surface meaning, but I can’t quite agree that an order is the same as a sect, one being restricted to monks or nuns and the other not.
Uncommunicative secretary I’ve replaced — the start of a rotten year!
This replaces the ARY at the end of “secretary”. The em-dash is misleading punctuation of a kind I’d be happy to allow if everything else was scrupulously fair, but “the start of” as an indicator for three starts is unfair. This is/are issue is the reason why indications like “initially” are used so often.
Be uncommunicative, yet cite verse, strangely
This one is in this list because “Be uncommunicative” can’t be equated with “uncommunicative” unless the word indicated can be a verb. Dropping “be” produces a nonsensical service, but we can use the old puzzle idea of the answer “speaking to the solver” and use something like “I must be …”.
It is hidden in Church of England Verse
I can see that this clue is trying to do the right kind of thing, but the thinking required is not the kind we expect our solvers to use. The answer is an anagram of (it, CE, verse), and these are all in the clue (with CE as a well-used abbreviation). But there is no word to tell us that anything is to be anagrammed, and the only definition I can see is “hidden”. I would equate this with “secret” rather than “secretive”, and I’d also expect the definition to be at the beginning or end of the clue unless there are clear reasons for a word in the middle to be seen as the definition. If the entrant is reading this, please don’t give up, but have a look at the early reports in this series (at the end of the index page) to understand what we’re looking for.
Limited style can ruin a cryptic
I’m afraid the ruin here comes from steps which I’d count as too difficult for any solver to get SECRETIVE as the answer without help from checking letters. “Limited style” is supposed to indicate “S,E”. “Limits of style” would be OK for this purpose, but not “Limited style” which would much more logically indicate STYL. Then “can” is then supposed to indicate “creative”. As a noun or verb, “can” cannot indicate the usual adjective meaning of “creative”, and the noun meaning of “can” cannot indicate the “creative person” noun meaning of “creative”. “Can create” would be much closer to “one who can create” for this meaning and solvable though a bit poor, but we certainly can’t throw away “create” as well as “one who”. We’re also expected to equate “ruin” with “destroy”, which we might do metaphorically, but we generally don’t rely on this kind of metaphor in deletion and similar indicators (“drunken” anagram indicators might be an exception). As a definition, “cryptic” would be OK for me in a clue where everything else was fair.
Clue writing contest 1544 Strong-arm
Readers are invited to compose their own clues for the word above. Clues must be original and cryptic, of a standard similar to those in the Sunday Times Crossword.
Email your entry to puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. The contest closes on Monday, March 23, and the best entry wins £20.
Previous articles in this series
1355: ABDOMINAL CRUNCH – Introduction to the series
1356: APERY - Structure of cryptic clues
1357: AULD REEKIE - Definitions in cryptic clues
1358: BLANK - Anagram and sandwich clues
1359: BROAD ARROW - Homophone and double definition clues
1360: CATCH
1361: COLD SHOULDER
1362: CRANKY - Additive and cryptic definition clues
1363: DARBY AND JOAN - Hidden and takeaway clues
1364: DEPONE - Reversal and letter switch clues
1365: EMPTY-NESTER – All-in-one and novelty clues
1366: FADDY - Hybrid clues
1367: FLASH DRIVE
1368: GEODUCK
1369: GREEN-WELLIE
1370: HONESTY
1371: IDIOT BOARD
1372: JIGSAW
1373: LIFE TABLE
1374: MANGONEL
1375: MINIMUM WAGE
1376: NOWELL
1377: ORIGINALLY
1378: PHRASAL VERB
1379: PREACHIFY
1380: PROBLEM PAGE
1381: SABRE
1382: REFERENCE BOOK
1383: SAMOVAR
1384: SELF-ABSORBED
1385: BUTTERFLY
1386: SHIRK
1387: SPARKLING WINE
1388: SUPERIOR
1389: ASYMMETRIC BARS
1390: APRIL FOOL
1391: TERRA FIRMA
1392: TOOTLE
1393: MARATHON
1394: URBAN MYTH
1395: VEGGIE
1396: WIENER SCHNITZEL
1397: ABSENTLY
1398: REPECHAGE
1399: DIAMOND JUBILEE
1400: ANTIQUARIAN
1401: BATIK
1402: STARTING BLOCKS
1403: BELAYING PIN
1404: BRAZIL
1405: CHEEKBONES
1406: CLICHE
1407: SLOW MOTION
1408: CRAMPED
1409: CROWN DERBY
1410: DIVIDERS
1411: EMBARRASSINGLY
1412: ENTRAILS
1413: FELLOWSHIP
1414: GIRDLE
1415: AGINCOURT
1416: GLOTTAL STOP
1417: HOSEPIPE BAN
1418: HUMBLE
1419: INTIMIDATED
1420: LAMBRUSCO
1421: LOOSE END
1422: MEDICINE BALL
1423: MOLTEN
1424: NEGOTIATE
1425: PALLADIAN
1426: PERFORMANCE ART
1427: PLATFORM
1428: PRESENT
1429: STARK RAVING MAD
1430: TWELFTH DAY
1431: ROMAN HOLIDAY
1432: SALIVATING
1433: SLIDE RULE
1434: SMOOTHLY
1435: STREAM
1436: SWORN ENEMY
1437: TOMATO SOUP
1438: UNIVERSAL
1439: VOLTAIRE
1440: WITH PLEASURE
1441: POMEGRANATE
1442: ALICE BAND
1443: BAFFLEGAB
1444: BEER BELLY
1445: BRADSHAW
1446: CARRY ONE'S BAT
1447: CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
1448: CROQUE-MONSIEUR
1449: DOC MARTENS
1450: DRUM MAJORETTE
1451: FEDORA
1452: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
1453: GOLDEN DELICIOUS
1454: HEADS WILL ROLL
1455: HOPPING MAD
1456: KNOWLEDGE
1457: LITTLE RED BOOK
1458: LOSE FACE
1459: MORAL HIGH GROUND
1460: NO-BRAINER
1461: OPEN SEASON
1462: PICKING OAKUM
1463: QUICKSILVER
1464: ROUGH DIAMOND
1465: SEPTEMBER
1466: SHUT YOUR FACE
1467: STUMBLE
1468: TIN LIZZIE
1469: UNMENTIONABLES
1470: WINKLE-PICKERS
1471: AFTERSUN
1472: ARMAGNAC
1473: BARBARIZE
1474: BOMBER-JACKET
1475: BURLESQUE
1476: CENTRAL POWERS
1477: CLOUDSCAPE
1478: CONTEMPLATE
1479: CROWDIE
1480: CENTENARY
1481: DING AN SICH
1482: EDMONTON
1483: FALLACIOUS
1484: FLUGELHORN
1485: FURROW
1486: GRISSINI
1487: HOLDING PATTERN
1488: INFORMATICS
1489: JOIN UP
1490: KILDERKIN
1491: MACHAIR
1492: MATRICULATE
1493: NAPIER’S BONES
1494: NETTLESOME
1495: OXTAIL
1496: PERNICKETY
1497: PISCICULTURE
1498: PUPPY LOVE
1499: REALLOCATE
1500: SEBASTIAN COE
1501: ROWDYISM
1502: SCULPTURE
1503: SIPHON
1504: SPECTATOR SPORT
1505: STYROFOAM
1506: TAIKONAUT
1507: SARAJEVO
1508: TRADITIONALLY
1509: UNDERSHOOT
1510: VIBIST
1511: ZORBING
1512: AIR SHOT
1513: ANACRUSIS
1514: BAD BLOOD
1515: BIG DIPPER
1516: BUCKYBALL
1517: CELEBRITY
1518: CLOSING DATE
1519: CONTRABASS
1520: CRASHWORTHINESS
1521: DAMPEN
1522: DUCKWEED
1523: ESTUARY ENGLISH
1524: FISHCAKE
1525: GERONTOCRACY
1526: GOOGLE
1527: HOLY ROLLER
1528: INFLATIONARY
1529: JACK KETCH
1530: LARGER THAN LIFE
1531: LOOSESTRIFE
1532: MESSIAH
1533: MOJO
1534: NINETEENTH HOLE
1535: OVEN-READY
1536: PEDANTRY
1537: POOL TABLE
1538: PROFESS
1539: QUIZMASTER
1540: ROUGHHOUSE