Talk:Crosaire

Untitled
Let me be honest about my view of Crosaire puzzles: I'm not a big fan because they're so unorthodox. But I can see that the puzzle has a loyal following, and attempting a few has shown me that the puzzles are solvable even though they break lots of the usual rules. For me they're one of the last survivals of the style you'd have seen in Times crosswords before 1965 - and therefore quaintly charming, but that might count as the xwd equivalent of thinking that Ireland = leprechauns and slightly eccentric rustics! Given the age of the setter, this (the clueing style) isn't too surprising.

This list doesn't highlight the tricks that are specific to Crosaire and not seen in other cryptics. This limits its value to someone used to other puzzles but wanting to try Crosaire. From my own experience 'other cryptics' mainly means the UK 'broadsheet' puzzles, but they're not necessarily the right thing to compare with. There are Irish points that you'd expect to find in an Irish puzzle - e.g. Senate = Seanad, and there may be other tricks that are used in other Irish papers too.

I'd suggest splitting the list into at least two parts: Standard tricks which are used by Crosaire, and Tricks only used by Crosaire. There might be an 'Irish Cryptic xwd tricks' list in between.

I think it's also worth mentioning things like word order which are different in these puzzles. In the example "How to lend an ear to those that do the cutting in the ship", "lend an ear" = HEAR and ship = SS are routine. What's unusual is putting the "those that do the cutting" definition in the middle.

Finally, there are some entries that seem very unlikely to be used more than very occasionally - "distant object = far thing" and "the muses" = "them uses" - unless this is intended as an example of changes in word-breaks.

Happy to discuss by e-mail as I don't look at Wiki discussion pages very often .... peter@biddlecombe.demon.co.uk PeterBiddlecombe (talk) 15:08, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation
There is a lot of tedious debate about the pronunciation of Crosaire. Unless you have definitive information from the man himself, I suggest leaving out the following:



One thing I'm pretty sure of: "Crosaire" is NOT Irish (Gaelic) for "Crossword" ("Crosfhocail").

Crispin.cheddarcock (talk) 15:55, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Nope ... it's Irish for crossroads.195.217.37.130 (talk) 13:33, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

place of birth
Article states that he was born in Dublin Info box on the right says he was born in Belfast Any sources for either? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.42.249.125 (talk) 11:42, 12 March 2019 (UTC)