February 23 2011

The Loroso Report - Contumely to Irenic

untitled For readers new to the game, this is a chunk from judging notes compiled by UK setter, Dean Mayer. To crossword fans, Dean is better known as Loroso (in the Financial Times) or Anax (The Independent.) The clues he’s scrutinising come from last week’s contest, the three best from the ten players involved.

The real reward in all this, thanks to the breadth of The Loroso Report, stands to be the forum confab the notes inspire, as all of us betray our cryptic aesthetic, or come to see the bias we favour as clue-mongers. Just so long as we maintain the blogosphere motto: Magis lux lucis, minor estus. (More light, less heat.) Let’s begin.

CONTUMELY: Scorn only cut me, perhaps (Nib)

Very nice, very simple, and a good ‘in’ for a crossword where this might be an uncommon word inclusion in the grid. A part of me is wondering if the simple construction is bit over-the-top but the more practical part is saying that shouldn’t be a concern. Yes, the anagram shouts itself and, yes, the anagram indicator is as straightforward as you can get, but I was always told by The Times editor that the crossword should be solvable by ‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’, and surely this clue does exactly that job. Highly commended.

CONTUMELY: Barb: fashion nut in pretty outfit (Mauve)

As soon as I read this my jaw hit the floor. No, honestly. Brilliantly spotted definition and accurate wordplay which ties in with it just as brilliantly. In some ways it’s a shame that when a clue is this good there’s little point in writing much about it. It’s done its job superbly and there are no technical concerns. But I will say this to the writer – if ever you feel the urge to submit a sample cryptic crossword to someone, try to squeeze this little gem into the grid; your recipient will see proof of how good you are at clue-writing.

CONTUMELY: Scorn cult money suspect (Sam)

‘Suspect’ has served me well as an anagram indicator on many occasions; it’s misleading and, like ‘supply’, ‘pants’ and other fairly recent additions to that stable can help to make a very smooth surface reading. Here it ties in well with the story that’s being told – however, the more I read it the more I feel that it’s bordering on unnatural; indeed it takes a few readings to understand the grammatical roles some of the components are taking. I’m probably nit-picking really, as I keep focusing on ‘cult money’ and telling myself that anybody involved with such a thing wouldn’t necessarily be (criminally) suspicious. There are lots of odd cults out there (phew – thank god for spell-check) but few are actually illegal. They’re just nutters.

DUENDE: Dundee Scotch – a wicked spirit! (Boniface)

This one reads brilliantly but I’m really not taken by ‘Scotch’ as an anagram indicator. Even if it appeared as an instruction before the word ‘Dundee’ I think it would be on the abstruse side. To scotch a rumour is to put a stop to it, so there’s no suggestion of jumbling. Yes, you can have blended Scotch whisky but the word Scotch is not in itself an indication of blending.

DUENDE: Urban chap suppresses an extremely elfin spirit (Mauve)

The writer of this clue has demonstrated excellent technique, although the implied unlikelihood of the story doesn’t have me thoroughly convinced. I’d guess that anyone could be described as having an elfin spirit if they’re slightly prone to mischief, and there’s no reason to believe that for an urban dude this would be any more unusual than it would be for a country dweller. This tiny nit-pick is probably irrelevant. Slightly more significant for me is the inclusion of ‘an’. Clues can contain link words or fillers, typically things like ‘with’, ‘for’, ‘from’ etc, which you can read as ‘which leads to/comes from’ but here we can’t really say ‘an’ plays a valid role here. ‘Extremely elfin’ is all that’s needed to indicate EN – indeed such pointers should not be supplemented with potentially misleading filler words, and I think ‘an’ falls into that category.

HAFIZ: Report has held back if he’s a Koran buff (Philth)

Good effort but a bit of a problem child in places. The homophone indicator ‘report’ doesn’t stand up by itself and needs to be extended to something like ‘reportedly’ or ‘according to report’, especially because syntactically it doesn’t match up with ‘held’ which, similarly, needs to extend to ‘has held’, ‘is holding’, ‘holds’ etc. Although the reading isn’t quite as smooth you’d be OK with eg: Reportedly has to hold back if he’s a Koran buff (5)

A lot of shorthand is used in cryptic clueing – little words that can be left out of a clue (making it still valid) but which the solver can mentally re-insert to make sense of things. So for my example we could read: Reportedly has, (which is) to hold back ‘if’ = he’s a Koran buff. If you try that with the original clue you find yourself adding several extra words which the solver couldn’t be fairly expected to guess.

IRENIC: Beheading: seductive and pacific (JT)

Lovely idea, but I’d see this as far too tough for most solvers. The answer is an obscure word and, arguably, the fodder word SIRENIC even more so. One of the toughest tasks for any clue-writer is to transform a difficult answer into a gettable one by using as simple as possible a wordplay construction, at the same time creating a clue that paints a compelling picture. This is another area where this clue doesn’t quite work for me; I just can’t imagine a beheading being either seductive or pacific.

Observe, opine, object or obey below. Tomorrow: Jejune to Oche

Comments

Boniface — 23 February at 09:49AM

DA - Irenic is not mine.

Scotch has more than one verb sense, I checked this before I used it in the clue. (v)2: To injure so as to render harmless.

We have scotched the snake, not killed it -Shakespeare.

I guess we could go on till the cows come home about how tight an anagrind needs to be but I would have thought that was OK. Any other views?

Well done with your CONTUMELY clues, Mauve and Nib.

Mauve — 23 February at 09:50AM

Ah, interesting that the two problems he picked with my Duende clue were the two exact problems I fixed with my rewrite.

My rewrite was "Homeboy suppresses extremely urban spirit" where homeboy suggests someone who really would need to suppress elfinness, and it also deleted the "and"

Sigh, I should have submitted my rewrite after all.

But I'm chuffed that he liked my Contumely

DA — 23 February at 10:13AM

Oops, thanks Boniface. Have now credited JT correctly with IRENIC.

And congratz too, Mauve. Your CONTUMELY deserves the encomium. (The first time I've ever written that sentence.)

As for your DUENDE redraft, this only goes to show how truly your compass is set. And that's a big plus too. Even if it lies on the cutting room floor.

Re 'scotch', Boniface, I agree. And the Guardian has run a lot more dubious signposts, including fearful, wicked, performs + travel (and that's in the last few months).

Any comfort, I thought Dundee scotch a smooth coupling, for a generous and original clue.

Boniface — 23 February at 10:30AM

Good stuff DA, and thanks again to you and Anax for doing this. Unlikely though it is, encomium has an anagram which is probably as far as you can get from encomium...

Sam — 23 February at 10:34AM

comment didn't post before, but if it turns up sorry for repeating myself -

Nice one Mauve, and having looked up 'encomium' in an online dictionary check out their word of the day: http://hotword.dictionary.com/duende/?c

Eld Jaws Anon — 23 February at 12:01PM

Congrats, Mauve & Nib on the commendations!

JT, I disagree with Loroso's comments re your irenic clue. As unpracticed a solver as I am, I'd probably have got this because I have studied a lot of Greek mythology (so SIRENIC stands out fairly immediately as the fodder, substituting for seductive - and I like the link between SIREN and ocean that comes through the "pacific" definition). I also like the construction that seems quite contradictory ("behading vs seductive & pacific"), but maybe that's just my twisted sense of humour... Maybe this construction seems to be breaking a "rule" but Nib has shown you can get away with stretching rules!

DA — 23 February at 12:24PM

I'm with Loroso on the S/IRENIC trick. Both words are out of reach of the garden-variety solver.

Also reckons he apportions the merit correctly in the Contumely showdown.

Boniface — 23 February at 01:10PM

Yeah, I'm with DA and Anax too. Only if either IRENIC or SIRENIC were common would this clue work, IMHO.

I like Anax's advice here:

'...transform a difficult answer into a gettable one by using as simple as possible a wordplay construction, at the same time creating a clue that paints a compelling picture...'

That's KISS Theory 101. So if hidden is the way to go for difficult answers (see yesterday's Loroso Report), then maybe the Fire'n'Ice clue was on the money.

Not so sure I agree with this aspect of the comments though:

'This is another area where this clue doesn’t quite work for me; I just can’t imagine a beheading being either seductive or pacific.'

But that was obviously the reason for JT's clueing IRENIC in that manner in the first place. Like DA, I like a touch of oxymoron...

Sam — 23 February at 01:13PM

Tried to post a comment a couple of times, but they seem to have been lost in the ether - anyway...

Nice one Mauve! Also, tried to post a link to an American online dictionary which lists 'Duende' as its word of the day, and how tricky it is to translate from Spanish... coincidence?

Mr X — 23 February at 01:32PM

It's great getting a different perspective on construction. I'm guessing that having seen Loroso's views so far, many of us would now put up a different shortlist from our efforts. By the time we get to the final "zaftig" we'll all have a good idea of what works with Anax, as opposed to DA or the forum in general. In my case, I'd stick with spurtle but then probably go with hafiz and susurrus with a soft spot still for weltanschauung.

SK — 23 February at 03:06PM

You're right, X. It's fascinating (and refreshing) to see our collection of clues critiqued from a completely different perspective. I didn't submit my Myrmidon (Change my mind, or be a mindless follower?) coz I thought it was a bit simplistic, but given Anax's comments re clueing obscure words, maybe I should have. Who knows...

Congrats Mauve on your Contumely. A fabulous clue, and rightly applauded.

Mauve — 23 February at 04:45PM

Thanks SK - and Sam and Boniface and DA.

I'm expecting your jejune to be well-received, SK. In fact it's my tip for winner.

I agree it's been fascinating getting such a scholared tutoring from a legend. I hope he keeps favouring us with his wisdom.

After digesting his thorough reviews of every clue, I can almost predict what his criticism of my final clue will be. Pre-empting that, I wish I'd used Benny instead of "Calming agent" to get my Nepenthe surface meaning cleaner. ie. "Benny penned the novel without drafting preface".

Also, I love Loroso's focus on surface meaning and ease of rhythm, sense and structure. It's my favourite part of a good clue. If the surface structure flows so effortlessly that it could have been lifted from a novel or piece of prose, that's when I get my best "aha!"s.

On the other hand if the surface sense is laboured, I'm immediately disappointed before I even try to solve.

PS: in my first comment on this thread, please read "elfin" for "urban" and "an" for "and" - just to be anal!

JD — 23 February at 07:57PM

Turns out the hardest part of this storm was selecting your top entries. Maybe should have stuck with:
Duende: Denude frantic evil spirit
Irenic: "Fire'n'Ice" holds key to peace
Bogart: As an extra, go back inside and act tough.
But they all seemed so obvious and simple.
I think the sticking point has been that they were all uncommon words which need simple treatment and there was a tendency to get carried away with cleverness.

DA — 23 February at 08:17PM

Well said, JD. Even forgetting the Loroso school of clueing, all of us should have considered a 'cold solver' as judge, rather than the inhouse pleasure of wowing our own coterie.

This pill is similar to the dosage any published setter should swallow too. The best clues are fresh, streamlined, tell 'good stories' [to borrow from Loroso] and ultimately plotted to give up their secrets.

Not that we ignored this imperative. Instead, we may have downplayed it.