A rather dry, themeless cryptic
◆◆ · By n0hk · Published over 3 years ago
Constructor's Note
Thanks for showing interest. This crossword is an early attempt of mine at a regular cryptic crossword [so please don't hang me for any gaffes]. While some of the words share a similar theme, there's no special instructions; other than good luck, and have fun!
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- BJ constructor · over 3 years ago
Thanks for trying out my puzzle! 
If there were any clues you liked/hated, feel free to let me know—it's the best way I can improve in future - Mike D 8:18 · over 3 years agoThanks for sharing it BJ! I'm new at cryptics so I only managed to get a couple of these, but it's always fun to try!
- BJ constructor · over 3 years agoThanks for the kind words Mike! One thing I tried to do was have a few wordplay indicators 'hidden' in compound words, such as "upset [to get tes]" or "bless [to remove a b]"—which would be pretty cruel for a new solver.
- Mike D 8:18 · over 3 years agoOh wow that is definitely beyond my abilities
- BJ constructor · over 3 years agoThanks for the kind words Mike! One thing I tried to do was have a few wordplay indicators 'hidden' in compound words, such as "upset [to get tes]" or "bless [to remove a b]"—which would be pretty cruel for a new solver.
- quatrevingtneuf 29:22 · over 3 years ago28A was quite nice. some of the clues seem to have part-of-speech mismatches? a good effort
- BJ constructor · over 3 years agoI was quite pleased with 28A :)In the spirit of improvement, could you give an example of something you thought didn't really work?
- quatrevingtneuf 29:22 · over 3 years ago13A - seems like either the def doesn’t work, or “object” is doing double duty 23A - part of speech mismatch (though i suppose for an &lit we can be a little lenient) 9D, 16A, 18D - can’t sort out your intended parsing
- BJ constructor · over 3 years agoThanks for responding. Here were my intents: Definition of 13A is just 'Organic' (related to organs). If you still think that's still suspect then it's probably a dud. 9D A'then'a (aa) picked up (surrounding, maybe dodgy?) some (hence somewhat) of the odd letters of upSeT cHeMist
- quatrevingtneuf 29:22 · over 3 years agoafaict “viscus” is a noun only, so that’s probably a loss
and i’m not used to seeing odd/even applied to a subset of a string, though that may be down to regional conventions- BJ constructor · over 3 years agoYou're sadly correct wrt viscus. I'm not yet prepared to give up on the D->V wordplay; so have replaced it w/ a (too hard?) clue, going from reductions->discounts->discus->viscus. I don't love "left not" as the deletion indicator, so I might still tinker with it.Thanks again!
- BJ constructor · over 3 years ago18D = change 'B' (born) in cenobite to 'J' (to top Judge), and anagram it (suffered); meaning banishment. 16A is probably doing too much, but Not one French waiter -> water -> eau, anagrammed with SOL(sun)shine removing (absent) 'in', and meaning "drinking holes".
- quatrevingtneuf 29:22 · over 3 years agore: 16A - i believe this constitutes an indirect anagram, which is generally non-kosher
- BJ constructor · over 3 years ago
- BJ constructor · over 3 years agoThank you very much for pointing that out! I've changed the clue to be "Old places of sin use haloes badly? (9)". It's still a somewhat cryptic definition, but just a straight anagram of use haloes; and the link to 17A might get people over the line if they get stuck.