If you haven’t solved our guest cluedoku puzzle, here it is. If you have solved it, but missed the wonderfully annotated solution, here it is. Based on your feedback, here’s a Q&A with Chameleon, also known as Charlie Methven.
What on earth made you want to do this?
A few years ago, I did what I called a “crossletter” for a Norwich-based mini-magazine in the form of a bookmark.
This had 26 clues, each leading to a letter of the alphabet (“Line of people, or just its front, say” for Q, “Sign of affection” for X, etc). After that it occurred to me that I could do a similar thing cluing numbers, at which point it seemed obvious to try to do it as a sudoku.
When I landed on the “cluedoku” pun, I knew I had to at least give it a go, but I didn’t quite realise how difficult it would be to come up with 81 clues.
Parts of the puzzle are straightforwardly fine cryptic clues. How did you decide where to put them?
I used an online sudoku generator to get the solution grid, and then more or less arranged the clues at random, although I did deliberately put snappy/memorable clues in at clues 1 and 81 and tried to avoid similar clues appearing close together.
And how much did you expect the solver to have to use sudoku logic?
I set the puzzle on the assumption that the overlaps from the sudoku would be needed to figure out some of the clues. I wanted solvers to need some element of cryptic-style “crossing” even if the answers weren’t exactly words.
I suppose each column, row and square is a bit like a nine-digit word (not one in Chambers, I’m afraid).
The huge amount of extra help given by having unique numbers in every row, column and 3×3 square meant that you used some pretty devious clues. How did that feel? Liberating?
I’m not sure about liberating, exactly, but I definitely felt I could take more liberties.
A lot of the definitions are pretty oblique, and some of them (like “Man’s arms’ leg’s digit”) are almost like quiz questions redirecting solvers to a bit of trivia which will then yield the solution. I don’t think solvers would stand for THREE being defined that way in an ordinary cryptic, but I thought it’d be more fun for setter and solvers alike if I could use these sorts of definitions here.
Actually, now I think of it, those definitions seem a bit closer to the sort of quizzical ones often found in American crosswords, so maybe a greater number of crossers always invites more liberal definitions. I’m very grateful to those who attempted the puzzle for putting up with clues like these!
They were some of my favourite moments. At what moment did you feel most ‘out there’ (or, to be more polite, pioneering)?
It probably has to be clue 76, the one with the backwards-then-upside-down string of Greek letters.
I had to install a new font (with only one character) to display it properly in the puzzle, and even when I was writing up the solution I kept forgetting the precise sequence of transformations needed to get the answer.
One of my own favourites was the other Greek letter one, “Give 2c – π”.
I suppose the clues referring to visual forms of the numbers (2 as a “Swan’s neck”, 7 as the “Introduction to Zen” without a bottom line) are also a bit off the wall, but I actually think there’s scope for using that sort of clue a lot more in an ordinary cryptic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clue telling me to flip a W in a word to make it an M, for example. Maybe more experienced solvers have?
Not in a regular puzzle, though it reminds me of more elaborate devices in the Listener, Inquisitor and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Readers, could this be a useful addition to a setter’s armoury? And Chameleon, surely the cluedoku is a one-off?
I was very flattered to see some of the commenters looking forward to the next one, but I’m afraid I won’t be attempting another numerical cluedoku any time soon.
Aside from the time required, it’s almost a supply-and-demand issue. You’ve got to have anagrams in a cryptic crossword – even a hybrid one – and I haven’t left myself many of those to work with for a future puzzle (although there’s a great Brian Eno-based clue waiting to be written … ). I’ve more or less used up the available homophones as well.
I’d consider doing another cluedoku with a different set of nine solutions, though. I like the potential topics suggested by Catarella and TonyCollman in the comments under the original puzzle, and I’d be very intrigued to see either of them or others have a go at doing a puzzle using this structure.
If I did another Chameleon cluedoku, I think I’d use the seven colours of the rainbow plus black and white, as solvers could then colour in each square as they solved. How’s “Cry over Norwich’s core Canary”?
Hang on … ah, very nice. Finally, where would you advise visitors to your site to go next?
As luck would have it, I’ve just uploaded Chameleon #7, which may or may not contain some Easter eggs for cluedoku solvers.
Other than that: I got a pretty good reception for Chameleon #6 when it was in the hot seat at Big Dave’s Rookie Corner, Chameleon #3 has an Abba theme, if that floats your boat, and I think Porcia may have Chameleon #5 in mind when she comments that I sneak “visual chicanery” into my puzzles.
Thanks very much to everybody who persevered with the puzzle, apologies to anyone who abandoned it, and thanks also to you, Alan, for hosting it in the first place.
Many thanks to Chameleon, Chameleon #7 is recommended and I hope others are inspired …
