February 19 2011
You Always Remember Your First - Hopefully
I know I do. The first time I cracked a Times crossword by myself, no reference books, no search engines (as you’d expect in 1976.) That would make me 15. I was on a Central bound train, heading off to the Easter Show to meet some mates, and I filled in the last Across before doing the Eddy Avenue bus shuffle. Yes, I was on cloud 9 all through the marmalade section, and even still on the Tilt-A-Whirl.
I kept the grid too, of course. Tacked it like a trophy on my bedroom corkboard, where it slowly turned yellow in direct sunlight, and curled up like a Dead Sea parchment. But every time I sat at my desk, I’d stare back at that memory of triumph. The whole grid completed. Gotcha, sucker!
So tell us your debut as a successful solver. Do you still own the snippet? Was it one setter in particular – an Araucaria, an NS, a Loroso – that had you clicking your heels when the last letter fell into place? Love to hear your boasts, with an eye to a future column.
Mind you, nobody is likely to trump a bloke called Ken. No surname supplied, but Ken sent an email to ABC Brisbane, on hearing the Fidler/Astle interview, and dished it out with both barrels:
Loved the interview with DA , only caught part of it live and podded the whole thing later. Have nailed to my billiard room walls several things , the pelt of the black feral cat that took three years to nail, the best target I’ve ever shot, but the best trophy is the two DA cryptics FULLY SOLVED without any help. Please tell DA that he’s a bastard (in the best Aussie vernac) Ken
So while we wait for Loroso to judge our best clues, tell us your cryptic moment of crowing. Carn, confess, we’re all addicts here.
Comments
JD — 19 February at 01:10PM
I don't remember my first completed crossword, ( it was probably in one of my mother's magazines), but I do remember the first clue. It was Crosby has nothing for lotto. (5). I could see how there were two parts to the clue, and that the sentence as a whole didn't have to make sense. I was probably 12ish.
Mauve — 19 February at 02:03PM
The first time I solved The Times cryptic on my own, without opening the Chambers dictionary (my first-packed item on every holiday), I was lying on the carpet at 2am in my bedroom in a shared house in 1983.
I tore it out, folded the ragged edges to make a neat rectangle, and blue-tacked it to my door, where it remained until I moved out of that room 5 years later.
It too became yellow with age, making quite a work of art, as I recall some of my answers were in blue and some in red. I also remember "Umbria" was my final clinching answer.
Anthony Douglas — 19 February at 03:38PM
A substitute teacher in year 4 (or perhaps 3) gave out a cryptic he'd made as homework. It can't have been too hard, as I finished it, though I remember he was a little surprised.
And I learned that mettle is a homophone of metal.
No idea how many years passed before I did another one!
Nib — 20 February at 10:35AM
I used to only be able to get anagrams and containers and nobody had ever explained how they worked. I was mighty pleased getting 'South American flower' as 'Amazon' prior to learning from your book about the variety of methods used in clueing.
Eld Jaws Anon — 20 February at 09:38PM
Well, TBH, I haven't actually solved one completely on my own - yet. I do hope to one day... your recent book, DA, has been quite a help ;-) ; I'm not so, err, puzzled now :-D.
Having said that, I do remember some crazy puzzles under the guise of "Wordwit" in Brissie's Courier Mail during the 80's when I was a child still - I did get some of those!
David Colville — 21 February at 04:30PM
The first time I got one out was a Herald crossword about a year ago - one compiled by the divinely benevolent EM, not that sadistic DA, of course!