PEP Puzzles by deminimis0

Partial solution and second chance prize for PEP Puzzle 12 – the Crossword

This is my favourite puzzle of all the puzzles I’ve put together so far on this site.

It has been solved, but I think it is worthy of a second chance prize of 50,000 Pepecoin to the next successful solver. Read to the end of this post for details.

Most puzzle nerds probably first got hooked on solving puzzles from crosswords. While US crosswords have a particular style (grids where every letter is checked and pretty liberal wordlists), British crosswords tend to follow very different conventions. PEP Puzzle 12 is a crossword in the British style using cryptic clues that seek to follow Ximenean standards. Additionally, the clueing uses extra gimmicks commonly seen in ‘advanced cryptics’ like The Listener and puzzles published by The Magpie.

The Preamble

So, how is this puzzle solved? The preamble tells us:

Some clues’ wordplay generates an extra letter. The remaining clues contain a misprint (except for one instance, all misprints are in the definition). In clue order, the misprints describe what must be done with the other clues and their entries.

This lays down the first challenge for the solver: an indication is given that the clues use two different types of gimmicks (misprints and extra letters generated from the wordplay), but the puzzle does not indicate which gimmick any individual clue uses. That must be worked out by the solver as they work through the clues.

Some of the Clues

I won’t give a detailed explanation of how to solve cryptic clues as there are lots of other good resources for that (these, pages give good primers). In a nutshell, though, a cryptic clue will usually be in two parts:

  1. a definition of the answer, and
  2. wordplay, being grammatically correct instructions on how to manipulate letters or words to derive the answer.

Let’s look at some of the clues.

Clues that generate an extra letter

20 down is a simple container clue:

Small PC letters on bottom of page 1, perhaps written in fold (6)

  • A LAPTOP is a small PC.
  • ‘letters on bottom of page 1, perhaps’ gives ‘PTO’.
  • Those letters must be ‘written in’ to a word for fold. Here, it is ‘FLAP’
  • That gives the answer with an extra ‘F’.

13 down is an anagram clue:

Coy gnome rebuilt financial organisation (7)

  • The definition is ‘financial organisation’.
  • The word ‘rebuilt’ is an anagrind (or anagram indicator). It indicates to the solver the rest of the wordplay needs to be anagrammed.
  • An anagram of COYGNOME is ECONOMY with an extra ‘G’.

14 down is a hidden reversal clue:

Keep track of what patriot in Oman’s smuggling northwards (7)

  • The definition is ‘Keep track of’.
  • As this is a down clue, northwards indicates a reversal.
  • So what is ‘patriot in Oman’ smuggling northwards?
  • It’s a ‘namO ni toirtap’, or a MONITOR with an extra ‘I’.

1 across is an anagram clue, but first a letter must be deleted:

Cryptic PEP datum not quite correct (6)

  • The word ‘cryptic’ is an anagrind.
  • The words ‘PEP datum’ follow, but the words ‘not quite’ are a direction to ignore the last letter of datum (m).
  • an anagram of PEPDATU is UPDATE, with an extra ‘P’.

Like 14 down and 1 across, most of the clues combine different types of wordplay.

Once all of the clues that generate an extra letter are solved, the solver will notice that the extra letters are all the letters in the alphabet from A to X. Curious.

Clues that have a misprint

18 across is an alternating letters clue:

Busk regularly in idle year (4)

  • The misprint is the ‘S’ in ‘Busk’. It should really be ‘Buck’.
  • ‘regularly in’ indicates to the solver that they must take letters that appear at regular intervals in ‘iDlE yEaR’, which gives DEER.

21 down is an anagram clue:

Swelter, going berserk for bottle in the ring (7)

  • The anagrind is ‘going beserk’.
  • An anagram of SWELTER is WRESTLE.
  • This gives not a ‘bottle in the ring’, but a ‘battle in the ring’, so the misprinted letter is ‘O’.

11 across is a much trickier and unusual type of clue that uses roman numerals in the wordplay:

Mares add 95 to Big Bird’s head (7)

  • a ‘Big Bird’ can be a VULTURE.
  • V is 5 in roman numerals, so if we ‘add 95 to Big Bird’s head’, we’re being told to change the V to C, which is 100 in roman numerals.
  • This gives us CULTURE, which isn’t defined by the word ‘Mares’ but would be defined by the word ‘Mores’, so the misprinted letter is ‘A’.

We know from the preamble that all the misprints are in the clues’ definition part. Except for one instance. 15 across is a bit sneaky. It is an entirely normal clue (SPECTacles after A to give ASPECT) with the misprint being the ‘2’ in the clue’s letter count:

Lenses snapped in half after a view (2)

Once all of the clues with misprints are identified, the misprints spell out what is needed for the next step of the puzzle …

Second chance prize

Although the puzzle has been successfully solved, I won’t give a full solution yet as I think there should be a second chance prize.

I’ll send 50,000 Pepecoin to the first person to email me:

  • a copy of the completed grid,
  • the correct seed phrase for the original prize wallet, and
  • a valid Pepecoin address to pay the prize into.

Good luck!