Sleigh Team
Tis the season to be cryptic, tra-la-la-yada-yada. This week’s Brainstorm is a clue-making challenge, where we need to muster the best nine clues, one for each of Santa’s reindeers.
DASHER, for one, could be Reindeer shared crackers
DONNER? Try: Reindeer and I leave meal for doughnut
RUDOLPH? Nauru dolphin bit reindeer
Pick a deer, any deer. Pick three or all nine, or submit a single whim. And feel free to improve, re-tweak, or double-dip, as in the end I’ll herd the nine highlights. The winner will be that compiler who ‘owns’ the greater number of beasts, with a special prize to pick of the pack.
To make browsing easier, let’s resort to using a cap-R to denote Reindeer, as well as identify which of Santa’s herd you’ve chosen. So:
CUPID – Odd child holds up R
DONNER – R dresser?
PRANCER – Shonky carpenters offset R
Or then again, you may wish to break away from the (R) idea, with a maverick alternative, such as:
BLITZEN – Vocal attackin’ of polar tower?
VIXEN – Dancer’s partner a sex bomb
DANCER – Li Cunxin, for one, a present worker
Don’t be overwhelmed. Not every clue you post will be a pearl. The game alone will help you finagle and finesse the clueing craft, and should generate some fine ideas and not a few ho-hos. Saddle up. Deadline Friday nightfall.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Here’s my first 3 (I’ll try and keep the “1 of 9″ for all of them for a themed crossword approach):
VIXEN 1 of 9, 5, 9 (English)
DASHER 1 of 9 – Queen
PRANCER Star sign turns 100 to spin 1 of 9
December 15th, 2009 at 9:30 am
And the next lot:
DONNER 1 of 9 sounds like summer
COMET 1 of 9 in “Welcome to Woop Woop”
CUPID Roman sore backed 1 of 9
December 15th, 2009 at 9:46 am
A dashing start, X, though I took a little while to figure out how your CUPID clue worked, and suddenly Eros gave me a wink.
Cute.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:10 am
To complete the set:
BLITZEN Book ignited philosophical 1 of 9
DANCER Twist reverse 1 of 9
RUDOLPH Ben holds policeman back for 1 of 9
December 15th, 2009 at 11:23 am
DASHER: Do all sled haulers exhibit red noses, or just one?
December 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Hi DA. Cryptics are not my strong point, as you can see. I had a go, and I’m sure that counts for something.
RUDOLPH: Nureyev glows in the nose for Santa.
DASHER: Santa’s bacon loses his had for 500 Romans.
DANCER: 500 Romans turn right around a suffix to take Santa for a ride.
COMET: Santa is taken for a ride in a starry sky.
CUPID: Saint is not to stupid to lose his head for 100 Romans to take Santa for a ride.
VIXEN: Sounds like Tricky Dicky lost his head for 5 Romans to take Santa for a ride.
PRANCER: One who took Santa to the French capital as a prank to see the queen in the end.
DONNER: I left my meal for nothing to be taken for a ride with Santa.
BLITZEN: Santa has taken nothing from his copybook and put me in it. It’s a spiritual thing.
Seasons greetings to you, JD and all of your sharp minded fans.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Oops should have put sleigh instead of sled in that last one I guess…
RUDOLPH: Reindeer regretted rude remarks.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Ooops. Typo. DASHER: Santa’s bacon loses his head for 500 Romans.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
CUPID: Reindeer personalised mug feature?
December 15th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
NB: if this was a crossword, I’d reference all of the clues to a single ‘key’ clue (‘REINDEER’, i guess)
Dancer: Crab first advanced festive beast (6)
Cupid: Cow’s chew cups constant Christmas character (5)
Dancer: Festive beast craned neck (6)
Rudolph: Watery mammal in/out after first runner up, flying mammal (7)
btw, I’ve created a Cryptic crossword which (i think) is up to the DA standard (and am working on a second), if you have time I’d love you to have a look at it.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Dasher: Festive beast rehashed omelette without male (6)
Prancer: Solution heard after poor, heartless festive beast (7)
Comet: Net suffix alien to festive beast (5)
Vixen: Venison strangely without child, with ten of the nine (5) (apologies to Mr X)
Blitzen: Furious assault points to glorified venison (7)
That’s the lot
December 15th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
A most promising corral so early in the comp. Fine nine from X, and inspired Dasher idea from Simon L. Though none is a lock-in – far too early.
Simon L, not too sure about your RUDOLPH clue: Reindeer regretted rude remarks
Could this be the first internal Huh on record? I get the ‘rude’ idea. How does the tail work?
DK, some nice ideas. Next step I guess is disguising the ‘mechanics’ a little better, just like Santa’s elves spend Xmas Eve sanding the joinery.
And PD, re your own puzzle, let’s keep things to a Santa workshop at this stage. Keep crafting, and make SEVERAL good xwords. One thing I learnt as an L-plated setter, one good puzzle does not a festive season make.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Hold on, I did Dancer twice.
Donner: Redback has no point upsetting festive beast (6)
December 15th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Regretted – Rued
Rude – Off, as in an off-colour joke
Remarks – Homophone indicator
I’m not sure if remarks is an acceptable homophone indicator? And maybe rude=off is a bit of a stretch…
December 15th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Stretch away. But you’re probably right. After my GOLF/GULF polariser last week, I’m thinking RUDOLPH/RUDOFF is only courting trouble.
Kudos to PD for a pedigree herd too.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
VIXEN : Mrs Fox hauls seasonal freight
December 16th, 2009 at 4:47 am
DASHER: DA’s Herald carries next Friday’s treasured bounty.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I’m new to the boards – thanks for the heads up
First volley:
“Hi” from Red China – confused R
R leader endlessly rejecting terrorists’ bomb (thanks for the bomb DA)
R raced north by mistake
Unfinished pastry gobbled up by cow. Food for R?
December 16th, 2009 at 9:28 am
BLITZEN: Blizzard half entangled nine with another reindeer.
December 16th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
PRANCER: R joker is roundabout (with the exception of King Street)
and I forgot to put names to the previous entries…
DANCER: “Hi” from Red China – confused R
RUDOLPH: R leader shortly rejects terrorists’ bomb
DANCER: R raced north by mistake
CUPID: Unfinished pastry digested by cow. Food for R?
PRANCER: Drunken Marine Corps regurgitate soup made from Japanese reindeer
VIXEN: Victory went to Millhouse, we hear, replacing his head for R
December 16th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
RUDOLPH; Oddly enough, round world P&H is undertaken by mythical beast.
CUPID; Reindeer starting to carry unlimited parcels in darkness.
COMET: Halley discovered who delivers the Christmas presents
DANCER: Who’d answer the call of a yuletide courier?
December 16th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
And finally:
DONNER: No nerd unravels the mystery of creature delivering gifts.
BLITZEN: Wearing pince-nez ’til beast brings pressies back.
PRANCER: One who struts like an arctic gift courier.
December 16th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Almost a full stable, and it’s only Wednesday. Some great tangents, and thought I’d offer a little bit of general feedback:
+ the better ones have an easy fluency, both with surface sense and subtle wordplay.
+ may be a chance too, of erring on the simpler side, if you can secure that first objective.
(Some good advice re setting – which I don’t ALWAYS heed – is lose gracefully. That is, create the trap, but don’t begrudge the solver for snaring the prize. Ensure the structure can eventually, surprisingly, collapse – and leave an answer behind.)
+ beware the excess words, with the hidden formula included.
+ Indirect anagrams are taboo. Much too hard. And that usually includes indirect reference to a word that needs to be axed prior to anagramming, ie
Precious emerald box boy lost = DEAR (EMERALD anagram – MEL). Uh-nh.
+ Keep the fun stuff flowing and see if we can’t make the best venison display (to borrow from PD) in the window.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
There are some pretty fiendish setters out there. Looking back at my initial offerings I think I might modify DONNER slightly to give it the ring of a radio station advertising slogan:
1 of 9, the sound of summer.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
That’s a lovely tidy-up, X. A neat clue.
Good clues often come through a few drafts in real life too. This Storm – in the Santa spirit – is a little like a open workshop, my own stuff included.
December 16th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
ha, in light of the emerald advice, please delete my Marine Corps clue – lol – overuse of software I dare say
PS: LOVE “the sound of summer”
December 17th, 2009 at 8:37 am
For the themed crossword, we’d probably need a “central” clue as well, along the lines of:
REINDEER All 9 note in 2 notes about note
December 17th, 2009 at 8:44 am
That’s brilliant, X. Reminds me of an inspired Paul clue for SIXTEEN:
Square seen circling square, sort of square
Of course you realise this reindeer crossword is demanding to be made!
December 17th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I was thinking earlier that the reindeers would work brilliantly with your “all across clues share a common theme and are not otherwise clued” concept. Unfortunately, I’m not sure whether it’s possible to fit in Santa’s steeds as the complete set of horizontal answers for a symmetrical grid.
December 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
The other approach, I suppose, something Araucaria has done, is to include the nine deer in the clues themselves, somehow contriving their names into the definitions and wordplay.
But that’s a challenge for another day.
(Pretty sure most solvers will find this week’s puzzle, with a different theme idea, boggling enough.)
December 17th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
COMET: Overnight deliverer returns Mischa’s vehicle to the transport network
December 17th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Mischa’s vehicle: very nice. (Combined with deliverer + transport too.)
December 17th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
BLITZEN – After a sweet ballroom dance, two points awarded to dancer’s partner
DONNER – Kebab (with a nightcap) for this seasoned traveller
DASHER – Little queen is a gifted flier
December 17th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
and an idea for a generic clue, if you take up X’s suggestion of a themed crossword…
REINDEERS: These flyers must be sent out before Christmas
December 17th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
While some suspects (I’m looking at you, Blitzen and Rudolph) posed a challenge, I kept finding neat examples and ended up settling for an even (or odd?) three clues for each name. I supect many of the words used in the below clues could probably be substituted for more preferable ones, and hopefully some of the clunkiness can be cleared.
DASHER
Runner-up: disappointed woman. (Would have to be a down clue)
Reindeer-queen?
Bolt woman into supervault?
DANCER
Pavlova and rum cherry? No seconds! (The exclamation point is rogue)
She cavorts with Spooner, not with teen, obviously.
Twister warning switches from “general” to “cold”.
PRANCER
Springer unexpectedly encountered a prudish queen?
Edgy pullover: a half-cyan, half-cerise jumper.
Advertising solution to the audience: “Santa’s Little Helper”.
… And stretching the above clue to its silliest extremes:
Report, report, report, reindeer?
VIXEN
After an over, the team had lost one English player.
Heard Transylvanian sucks at veins? Not odd for a vamp.
Mrs Fox’s foxtail amongst crawling ivy?
And assuming the etymologies in question aren’t too related, an irresistable &lit.:
Foxy lady!
COMET
Satellite contacted company first.
Where to find a sleeping setter with a heavenly body?
Gothic arch back in court tower?
CUPID
Bench-boy spoonerised lover-boy?
Up in Scotland Yard, he shoots arrows.
Passport for mug-shot darts under the radar?
DONNER
Reindeer returns no/yes vote with hesitation.
Work new wrench without cross-dresser?
He dresses and redresses: no nerd.
BLITZEN
Santa’s helper finds inner stillness in a spot of meditation.
Bold sun god replaced by burning sky-beast?
No point in playing Liszt live without a Pole as present accompanist?
RUDOLPH
Either way, taking the backtrack test when losing course helps when lost in the fog.
Reindeer board game changed hands with students/headmaster.
Are you saying Homer’s phrase holds the record for brightest of the bunch?
Tramp recoils in unquiet rush hour like a deer caught in the headlights?
December 18th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Above and beyond, SG. I feel like I’m in Lapland, with so many wild deer around the place.
Some neat ideas here. Love the Dancer/Pavlova clue, and where that iffier PR-ANCER idea was going with report/report…
Not sure how these two work:
DANCER: She cavorts with Spooner, not with teen, obviously.
DONNER: Work new wrench without cross-dresser?
December 18th, 2009 at 9:27 am
I think SG’s DONNER is derived as follows:
Work= DO
New= N
Wrench = Spanner – Span (Cross) = NER
December 18th, 2009 at 9:36 am
That’s some mighty applied solving. Maybe too tough this time round, but SG is playing with some beautiful ideas, including some contenders for the final reindeer round-up.
Thanks Mr X – shrewd as ever. And thanks SG for the brainstorm.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Can’t get the Dancer/Spooner construction, though. Maybe it’s something to do with spoonerising to Can – der with DER being a teenager’s term for obviously ? SG, am I on the right track ?
December 18th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Dancer was bordering on the ridiculous, but you you basically had it, Mr X – I was aiming for a spoonerism of SANS + DUH/DER.
December 18th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
A question on a point of setting convention for DA, regarding my earlier off target stab at a RUDOLPH clue. Could this be rescued by using a near-homophone indicator? I’ve seen this used before in cryptics – ‘hammer chewer’ roughly sounding like ‘amateur’ being an example that comes to mind. Or is this clue mechanism to be discouraged?
RUDOLPH: Reindeer regretted rotten, rough remark.
December 18th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Simon L: ‘hammer chewer’ is a good example of a rough clue. I’ve seen Paul clue ‘wheelie’ [at least the wordplay part] as ‘truly to a child, say’ which is cheeky, but still a flight of fancy.
Some solvers can roll with this approximation better than others. I know I pushed the envelope recently with a+simmer+tree [a boil on gum, we hear], but given the Gotterdammerung over gulf/golf, I reckon homophone clues should tread with care.
December 18th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I think I’m going to have to change my Dasher clue and downgrade it to:
DA’s Herald carries next Friday’s tawdry gifts. Apologies to DS
December 18th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I thought I’d try constructing a reindeer-themed crossword and ended up with this as a result; it alas has its fair share of dodgy clues, which I’ve flagged with question marks for now.