The King Cricket crossword by Bert

1. Fantastic.

2. Although it won’t download which is disappointing as there is nothing I want to do more right now than solve it.

3. Great stuff, Bert. Although the excel version seems to be absent.

   I can’t imagine anyone will solve the whole thing.

4. Link fixed. You should be able to download it now.

5. How should we proceed once we have solved it? Put it in the post?

   1. As we say, there is NOT a fantastic prize, so you should probably just frame your handiwork or something like that.

6. Brilliant!

7. I’m

   I’m in over my head here

8. I’m, wringing my hands with the prospect of this. Bert has a track record of immacualte cryptic clue crafting.

9. How y’all getting on? Just curious. I do hope none of you is allowing “work” to get in the way of doing a crossword.

   1. Working through it. There are some corkers in there, although some (e.g. 13 across) do require some prior knowledge of the compiler’s predjudices.

   2. Prejudices? Are you suggesting that my opinions are not in every way universal truths?

10. I’ve managed to solve 27 across and possibly 26 down across and as that’s two more cryptic clues than I usually manage I’m happy.

    1. yes. I’ve solved 7 across and that is one more cryptic clue than usual. This is like a scene from dangerous minds where Michelle Pfeiffer makes education ‘fun’.

11. 17, 5 Mary’s confused by initial explanation – is Giles the right man for English cricket? (2,4)

    hahahahahahahahahah

    Hats off!

12. ooooh

13. this is very good Bert. VERY GOOD.

    More devilish than our one – http://bedouins-cc.co.uk/page13/page7/index.html
    Though ours is still worth a visit. Unless you’ve all done enough flim-flammering today and really are ready to get down to work for good now and you mean it this time?

14. Stuck on last bit of 1 down and 24 across. Otherwise I think I’m done, although I’m a bit dubious about a couple of other answers.

    1. And I’m done.

15. Done

    Great stuff Bert. You are my hero

16. I’ve got about 2/3 through. Employment, parenthood and husbandness have prevented me giving it the attention it deserve. There are some lovely clues, though.

17. I’ve been unable to even glance at this until now, bogged down with the drudgery of attending cricket at Lord’s (Sunday, Tuesday) and the Paralympics (Monday).

    I used to do cryptic crosswords myself (sometimes compiling as well as completing). But in latter years I have graduated to the glass bead game and eschew less cerebral puzzles such as crosswords.

    Those are my excuses, anyway.

    Your crossword looks very good, Bert.

    1. Excuses rejected. Get on with it, man!

       (In an early draught you were in it – Nicked off two of the faithful (5) – or something like that.)

18. BTW, I realise that very many here are cruciverbalists, but that not everyone is. So on the off-chance that you want to have a bash at the crossword but don’t know where to start, here is a pointer.

    Most cryptic clues are divided into two parts, the word play and the definition, in either order. Sometimes there’s a link word in between, like “giving” or “yielding”. The word play is normally a method of generating a set of letters. The definition is normally a straight definition of the answer. These two halves should match. Take the clue above:

    Nicked off two of the faithful (5)

    In this case, the clue divides like this, with the definition first:

    Nicked off / two of the faithful (5)

    “The faithful” refers obliquely to the commenters here, two of whom are GED and ED. Put them together and you get GEDED. Or, if you prefer, EDGED, which is what stupid cricket commentators should say instead of saying “Nicked off”.

    The point of the clue is to have a superficial and misleading meaning, in this case something like “Stolen from two people”, which has nothing to do with the answer. In this crossword, all the clues bar two have word play and definition parts.

    Hopefully that wasn’t in any way patronising, children.

    1. If it were patronising, it probably wouldn’t have required us to concentrate so hard when reading it.

    2. Where I come from, the pseudo-verb “Geded” means “stolen from”. I have no idea why. So that particular clue is ambiguous in its ambiguity, making it an unsatisfactory clue.

       OK, I just made all of that up, but your explanatory comment put us all through agony, Bert, so I thought I should return the favour.

    3. KC contributor will be found right in wager (4)

    4. The twisted French follow a Scandanavian example (6)

    5. Stop being clever!

       It’s alienating the rest of us.

    6. A scary heartburn mix-up brings snaps from St Lawrence (15).

    7. Stumper exudes ciphers, we hear (10).

    8. These are all very good, Ged, Scott, Daneel. I had several clues for King Cricket themed answers that just wouldn’t fit into the grid, and so were sadly rejected. My version of Scott’s (that would have Ximenes turning in his grave):

       A rash, tipsy Trott heard snuggling up to inter-county shooter (5,10)

       I haven’t worked your one out yet, KC. Something about a Green Card, maybe?

    9. If we start seeing numbers within parentheses appearing in comments on other posts, we are not going to be happy.

    10. Scott, Bert – I like that one (two)! Took me far longer than it should have…

        Admirably restrained bloke order confused after reports of cheap housing (8,10).

19. My favourite (non cricket) clue:

    H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O (5)

    I’ll admit – I heard this on the radio. Clues above – struggling.

    1. Yep, a lovely clue that one. My favourite:

       He floated the company using the double entry system (4)

       Answer – Noah

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