Cryptic Crossword Clues

[IrvinaYalom]

Right, I am aware that this might be a bit niche and that I may be totally alone in thinking that this would be a good thing to exist but I am going to go ahead and ask anyway and hope that I am not as alone as I think I might be!

I have recently discovered the joys (oh yes- the joys are multiple!) of doing cryptic crosswords. Being new I am obviously no expert and during these early days of crossword exploration and discovery I have repeatedly bemoaned the lack of "clue explanations". Now it may well just be me who experiences this but I quite regularly find that even upon discovering the answer to a more challenging clue I don't quite understand exactly how or why the clue in question lead to that particular answer. So this leads me to ask...

Would anyone else out there be interested in an ongoing thread upon which we could post about cryptic crossword clues and help each other see what's what?

anticipates tumbleweed

Sometimes you can look too hard for an answer!

I'm loving this thread. I haven't attempted a cryptic crossword for about twenty years, but I might have to go back to it ... I hated when they presumed you had knowledge of works of art, music or opera; but I loved the anagrams.

When I say twenty years ago, I mean more like thirty; definitely in the days before having the internet to discuss, let alone, find answers to difficult clues!

Ah, I'm very glad to hear your interest has been re-piqued Eggy, you obviously still have the skills!

I do find it frustrating that the cultural references tend to err on the side of the (ultra) highbrow. I am young and medium-brow at best.

Only got a few clues so far in the Guardian Prize Cryptic. At first only got 9a, 28a, 20d/1d, 23d. Spent remainder of evening mostly fruitlessly but just managed to get 22a shortly before sleep which turns out to be worth sharing I think:
Ladies and gentlemen in Florence possibly missing New York, a US city (10)
It's a tough one, but pleasing to have solved.

This thread reminds me so much why I loathe cryptic crosswords. Just say what you mean and mean what you say. Games and imprecision suck. FFS. (mutter mutter)

The coded language in this thread is just so you don't spoil the joke for other people. It would look exclusionary to someone who doesn't 'get' it though. We could have a spoilers-allowed version of this thread where we explained each clue in a more step-by-step way for learners?

I spent my entire childhood, teens, twenties and thirties utterly mystified by the gobbledegook spoken by various family&friends.

It clicked when I realised that it's mainly a way for fans of REALLY TERRIBLE puns to share jokes without being murdered by non-pun fans.

I think (although could be wrong) that lljkk is referring to the clues/puzzles themselves and not our discussion of them!

Gosh.
But then that would also rule out poetry, simile, metaphor, satire, riddles and jokes. That would seem a very sad existence to me.

Is there a good resource for looking up the commonly found clues - like river being flower etc? All the things that experienced solvers would think were obvious! I'd be up for the spoilers allowed thread that inquiquotiokixul suggested as I need a lot of help with clues!

I found that the best way of learning to do them was to look at the answers in the next day's paper and fathom out how they worked . You don't have to wait if you do them on-line.

I too, am very up for a "spoilers allowed" thread! That is kind of how I envisaged this one originally but fully understand that it's not the norm for serious crossword types so am all for a new thread where it's specified.

We could just ask MNHQ to add a Spoiler Alert in the title of this one?

Desperatelyseekingcaffeine I found one called fifteensquared.net (I think) that has been quite helpful. I'm very much a novice but finding the weekly free paper's cryptic crossword slightly more fathomable week-by-week

I hated today's bloody "golf themed" Guardian puzzle. Teamed up with my (very much more experienced and crossword literate) Dad and have very almost battled through it. Only a couple of clues to go...

Why are the themes never my areas of expertise? (I'm now desperately trying to think what my areas of expertise actually are and I can only come up with "online dating- specifically, dating apps". Do you think I should write in to the Guardian and request this as a theme? )

Thanks chipinthesugar, I did look at their quiptic thread and found it really useful. Was really chuffed that I only missed 4 clues on this week's one!

Resurrecting a slightly elderly thread. Hi.
Anyone else doing the Private Eye crossword? I've got 8 answers so far, so there's a way to go yet. Some of them are quite tricky. Some quite rude. Some both.