I have been looking forward to the day when the talented setters Tony Sebastian and Vinod Raman would start setting professionally.
The day has arrived. The two are now creating cryptic crosswords for Mint, a popular business newspaper in India.
About wordview
The Mint crossword "wordview" is a weekly feature, an 11x11 cryptic that appears on Fridays. The crossword has a tilt towards business news (terms like SWEAT EQUITY, LIVE STOCK QUOTES and NAKED SHORT SELLING have appeared in the past), but nothing too esoteric and they're interspersed with normal words/clues. The level of difficulty is about the same as the Economic Times crossword.
Have a go at the Mint crossword and share your feedback. Link to today's crossword – here.
How To Access wordview Online
The crossword is available in the Mint ePaper every Friday, directly below the editorial on a page titled "Views". This is usually the second last page in the paper.
The crossword archives can be accessed by changing the date of the ePaper.
What can Mint do better?
A few suggestions for Mint to improve the presentation of their crossword.
- The most important one: the puzzles must be numbered.
- It will be nice to have a fixed deep link, or at least a standard URL structure, for the page on which the crossword appears online.
- Since the crossword is designed for Landscape orientation, it should print as Landscape without our having to change the browser print settings. The default orientation is usually Portrait. Financial Times crosswords, for example, print as Landscape by default.
- The window title of "Advertisement" needs to go!
- The setter's name is printed in a font size/position usually reserved for "Terms and conditions apply". Why not give the by-line a prominent place on the header?
Congratulations to Tony and Vinod, and I wish them many more "Award for a comedian (6)"s :)
Related Posts:
If you wish to keep track of further articles on Crossword Unclued, you can subscribe to it in a reader via RSS Feed. You can also subscribe by email and have articles delivered to your inbox, or follow me on twitter to get notified of new links.
Older Post
Follow on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
Get RSS
8 comments
Hi Shuchi,
Thanks for the feedback! Let me action as many things as possible on your list over the course of the next fortnight.
Thanks,
Sidin Vadukut
Livemint.com
I am glad to read this. I wish the setters all the best.
The Hindu Business Line used to have a 15x crossword with business/trade/commerce/finance orientation but its clues were straightforward.
Hi Sidin
Thanks for dropping by. It's wonderful to see the newspaper so responsive to feedback about the crossword.
All the best!
Shuchi
Thanks Shuchi, for this post. It's a privilege to be featured here. Thanks also, Sidin & CV :)
Congratulations! Vinod. It is very nice and inspiring to see that you and Tony are now getting recognition for your excellent clues. Also, it is wonderful to see that the powers that be @ LiveMint are responsive to feedback. It is a great story and thanks for sharing it with all of us lookers-on. I have to now add Mint's puzzles to To-solve diet list.
Thanks a lot for this post Shuchi, now people will hopefully start solving the puzzle. And thanks for your recommendations as well, great to see such a prompt response from Mint.
@Vasi Sir, Veer Thanks a lot, do solve :)
Hi Shuchi: An off-topic comment that is not really an addition to your post, but do not know how else to pose this to you (The Contact US page for some reason would not let me past the word verification page and always said I entered the characters wrong!).
Just a possible suggestion for one of your erudite blogs on cryptic subjects. Can you expound on reverse anagrams (unless you already have, I searched but did not come across one) - came across a few clues recently but would like to know more about being able to recognize them, solve them with a certain felicity, learn what the indicators (do indicators exist for such clues like how we identify homophones, containers, anagrams and other clue types) for such a clue may be and so on. I am sure you have a database of a large selection to cull from, but here are a couple from my recent Times / Everyman solving experience:
Everyman 2589: 12 - Use the grapevine in part of castle, with one a threat, as it were? (4,2,3,2,3,6) – KEEP {AN EAR TO THE*} GROUND
Times 2nd Qualifier 2010: 21 What implies students will be seen early in the day at Yale (5) ?SUNUP
Of course, the second one is a reversal clue where the reversal indicator is a part of the solution - so you reverse NUS after one gets UP, though nowhere does UP get clued other than as SUNUP (being the definition of the total solution)
Another clue that comes to mind is one in a recent Times puzzle I think, where the solution was Revised Version...
Thanks, Veer
Hi Veer
I have written about implied wordplay in the past but perhaps it needs a more elaborate post. The reverse anagram has become very fashionable these days! Thank you for the suggestion.
I tested the Contact form, it worked for me. The word verification is case-sensitive - could that have caused the problem? Let me know if you face the problem again, and in any case, you're welcome to email.
Regards, Shuchi
Post a Comment