It took me a while to get into this one, as the special instruction is a bit… mysterious.
Once cracked, however, the sense of relief that I hadn’t been utterly stumped was quite something.
The across clues are all undefined, but instead contain a hint, so the underlined elements of the across clues below are not the definition but rather the hint. Each hint, preceded by Ctrl (or Cmd) is a keyboard shortcut. The down clues function as usual.
I hope that you all stuck with this one too and enjoyed it as much as I did in the end. Many thanks to IO for the challenge!
8. Crack army introduced folding quality (4,11)
QUIP (crack), TA (army introduced, Territorial Army) + PLICATION (folding)
HINT: Q
PE (games) breaks ON (at work)
HINT: O
PAST (old) + E (earl)
HINT: V
“BOWLED” (took over, “reportedly”)
In the cricketing sense
HINT: B
(TRY + REPLENISH)* (*after breakdown) + INK (writer’s liquid)
HINT: K
[Gatsb]Y (back); (JUST (hardly) + I (one) + F (furlong)) ahead
HINT: J
REP (someone selling) + LACE (doctor)
HINT: H
(FIGHTERS HERE)* (*trained) boxing SPA (resort)
HINT: R
AVES (routes, cycling)
As in ‘avenue’
HINT: S
[s]PRINT (run, section off)
HINT: P
COY (like mistress to Marvell) to stay P (quiet)
Marvell is a poet who write ‘To His Coy Mistress‘
HINT: C
CEMENT (union) monitors (ALTERING* (*suspect) + N (name))
HINT: E
RUT< (course, <northbound) + PIN (arrest)
Dick Turpin is a legendary English highwayman from the 18th century
NOT< (<to get worked up); SIEST[a] (having been cut, short)
‘having been cut’ is the instruction to insert, while ‘short’ is the instruction to abbreviate
APP (program) is 0 (cipher) loaded
ILL (confined to bed) + SAY (perhaps)
M[agdalen] (introduction to) dons ACE (one)
[be]AT A BAL[lroom] (embraces)
(COP (PC) arrests (I (one) + NIL (nothing) + L (left)))< (<jumped up)
T[o] S[tarmer] (hats off) keeping OFF (away)
[t]IME LE[ft]< (some, <to bottle up)
UN[r]ELATED (off the point, R (Rex) has departed)
COP’S* (*sadly) fracturing LIMB (leg?)
TOR[to]ISE* (not one ‘to’; *set about)
“TOO EARLY” (well before time, “did you say?”)
GA[ga] + PING [pong] (games, with second halves cancelled)
‘9’ refers to 9 across, so we are looking for a synonym of ‘OPEN’ for the solution
Double definition
TO GO (not for eating in, i.e. the instruction when ordering food to take away)
Way above my pay grade. A mere handful of short down solutions entered and no idea what was going on in the acrosses. One of very few occasions where I have come here just to understand how I failed so miserably. Quite a few nho’s amongst the down solutions and, amongst the acrosses, plenty of instructions I would have no idea how to find on a keyboard so, for me, the hints were far more confusing than they were helpful. Hats off and many thanks to Oriel for solving and explaining.
PostMark could not have echoed my thoughts any better.
Thanks for a sterling effort with the blog , I did the Downs first and managed the Across using the letters and the wordplay , which was generally very friendly. The three long Acrosses a bit of a guess but did seem right.
I know we have to put up with the nerds but there is really no need to encourage them .
I thought this was a neat idea for a grid, and the “hints” were an interesting spin on clues without definitions. COPY, STONIEST and A POP were my favourites, as well as my last in TWIRLY. Computers are hardly a niche in 2025 – not sure knowing some simple shortcuts counts as nerdery!
Thanks Io, and thanks Oriel for clearing up the parsing of TOFFS and GAPING for me.
Yes, a lovely blog that filled in some details I neglected to track down. Like our blogger I was stuck for a while, then realised I might be looking for computer terms and started trying out answers, eg, ‘application’ and ‘hyperlink.’ That helped me get a few more downs. When I correctly parsed ‘justify,’ I finally figured out the theme of the across clues. Thanks to Io and Oriel.
Had 22d as GA[me]+PING[-pong], but GA[ga] is more fun [and my younger son’s first word, prompted by his three-year-old elder brother: “Say gaga to me…”]
Loved the puzzle. Glad I persevered, after only getting TURPIN, ACME, and PEER at first. OPEN was my first acrosser. [I’ve been ^C-ing and ^V-ing for ever.]
Thanks ^I(talic) & ^O(pen)
Thanks Io and Oriel.
Coincidentally, like ub@5, JUSTIFY became the gateway to the theme for me. Jay means victory in Hindi/Sanskrit since you ask.
Had to slog it out tho. Well worth the time and energy spent.
Loved several clues. Top faves: COPY, STONIEST, I’LL SAY and TOFFS.
Took a long while for the penny to drop (which happened eventually with BOLD), but loved this … I don’t know most of the shortcuts, but was easy enough to figure out which word was the “hint” once that knowledge was in place. Like FrankieG @6 I had GA(ME) … GA(GA) *is* more fun but is it (a) “game”? Many thanks Io & Oriel
Well, I was happy looking up the shortcuts and bunging them in, after getting JUSTIFY and PASTE. Contrary to Ros, I did not find the wordplay very friendly (monitors in 27a?), particularly for the long acrosses with unfamiliar non-dictionary answers. But I liked all the short ones, particularly TOFFS, GAPING and A POP.
Fun for the novelty.
Note, centre alignment
For me the was a complete bust. I still don’t see what leads one to “computer shortcuts” as the theme. Even if I knew that, I still would not have got any across answers! I guess that’s what comes of being 90 years old and thus “post computer age”. Even without that knowledge , I can make movies with commentary and music and also powerpoint presentations. I guess, being self-taught, one has more patience and never bothers with “shortcuts”.
Think I may be TOO nerdy for this. Have only ever hand-crafted HTML, or used a text editor for code, so unfamiliar with some of the WP or publishing short cuts.
However, got there in the end having corrected WHIRLY to TWIRLY.
Bit of slog though and some chores got postponed as a result.
Big thanks to Oriel. Smaller thanks to Io
When I twigged the rationale the across clues made sense.
TOGO was a great clue .
Thanks to both equally.
My decision to never attempt crosswords by this setter is again vindicated. 🙁
I hated this: I managed to get about 4 answers and even with the across clues filled in from here I couldn’t figure out most of the downs.
A Pop? Elemi? Atabal? Lipscomb? Even with the blog to explain the parsing how on earth anyone can actually come up with those answers is beyond me. Maybe just reading every page of a dictionary until you get an answer? If that’s the answer then I have no interest in it.
A waste of time and I learned nothing from this except to avoid IO in future.
I quite rarely attempt puzzles with special instructions, so with that and the setter I approached this with quite a bit of hesitation. I was baffled for a while, with just a couple of downs and a pencilled-in PRINT early on. Eventually, however, the penny dropped, and I winkled it out from there.
I knew some, but not all, of the shortcuts, but knew I was looking for computer commands, which helped. Like TJ, I thought it might be WHIRLY for a while!
Less fearsome than I had been mentally preparing myself for in the end, but lots of fun. Part of the enjoyment of a well-constructed difficult puzzle is being pretty confident of answers even when you’ve never heard of them.
Thanks both.
Thanks Io and Oriel
Excellent though difficult puzzle
All solvable if you were prepared to persevere – and with Io, in my view outside assistance is necessary and not off limits, such is the way his puzzles are constructed
It never ceases to amaze me why non-solvers post negative comments that display their lack of knowledge, inability, or unwillingness to persevere (I’m not suggesting all comments should be positive, but they should be constructive)
My 0.02…
A crossword for techies only. Even after it had been explained to me, I had no idea what was going on!
Probably the only time my children will be better at a crossword than me.
I looked at this yesterday and didn’t get very far, but thought it would be fun to do with my daughter next time we were travelling together, which happened to be today. Two heads together meant we got a foothold and realised what was going on. I do use some of the keyboard shortcuts so was expecting to use some of them as we went on.
Thank you to Io and Oriel.
Got it done eventually but it took most of the day, which is really too much. OK, computers are not new but this was too techy for my taste and I agree that elemi, atabal, and Lipscomb – and I live in America – were too obscure for me at least to get without googling a map of Texas, etc.
Resolved not to waste so much time again!
I’m a fan of themes and special instructions, and liked this. Found it very hard, downs in particular, hence coming back so late to find out the few I just couldn’t get.