Hey all! My name's Brad and I'm more enthusiastic than good with crosswords.
I got into doing Cryptic crosswords with some friends around mid 2021, and at the end of August decided to try set one for one of their birthday presents. The challenge in setting them seems pretty cool, so I've kept at trying to do it; and am very much learning on the job as to how they work! (Read: it took multiple grids before people told me that things like indirect anagrams weren't allowed; if you're going back through the older ones be prepared for some badness).
I hope that my little creations bring you some amount of joy similar to what I've already derived out of making them :)
It's been over 2 years since I've constructed a mini, but I was inspired by the ones that Aaron's been putting out recently (which you can find over at https://crosshare.org/illogicaljoker). It seems like a good size of puzz - short enough to…
This grid was tested by Liam and Juff, and much improved by Skald's guidance. All remaining dubious choices are mine.
If this puzzle had a theme song, it'd be "With A Little Help From My Friends". Without their constant encouragement I'd likely have poked around in the cryptic-sphere for a while, then gotten frustrated with myself and moved on. Everyone I've met in…
When I started writing crosswords, I wasn't very good at breaking up words and defaulted to honking great anagrams. Since then, I've had constant encouragement and advice from better crossworders, and I've gotten better at breaking up words into…
I'm trying something a lot different with this one, any feedback about what did or didn't work for you would be appreciated. There was certainly a lot of feedback from my wonderful test-solvers teamcrazymatt, Juff, and Pixlate.
The title of this grid…
In kiwiland we have a bit of a melting pot of cultural influences, which means some crossword clues have unexpected difficulty spikes or dips than what the setter would've intended. This gets reinforced through watching people solving crosswords on…
Another crossword with a bridge theme, because I'm as predictable as ever. ♡ Thanks for showing some interest in it, and a special thanks to Skaldskaparmal for the test solve. They've helped me develop as a setter by pointing out bloopers, and…
Watching a https://www.twitch.tv/butlerontheair crossword stream (check them out!), I had inspiration to write a grid with only one clue. Turns out that this is pretty difficult, and others have found a neat way to sidestep this and create so-called…
This grid has been checked by Stjtb7650, who streams crossword stuff at https://www.twitch.tv/stjtb7650 and you should totally check them out if you're bored enough to click on one of my grids. They did a fantastic job of pointing out the weak points…
I'd like to thank BlueJay - not only for testing this grid (which they've done an exemplary job of), but also being one of the first people to welcome me into this hobby.
Of all the grids I've created, this is certainly one. In an effort to try and…