Cryptic: Winter companion

     Welcome in and thank you for joining us in this special meeting called “Winter companion”. Firstly, I would like to congratulate all of you for succeeding during our first meeting, which means you’ve made it to the correct location today (if not, please refer to issue 1014).

     With the winter celebrations coming right up, we have prepared a special test for you today. Don’t worry, given the holidays and the festive spirit, this test will not affect your status with us. However, all who succeed will gain bragging rights with their friends, as it is intended to be challenging and test your wits.

     The first part contains seven cryptic clues. The number in parentheses is the total number of letters of the answer. These will be referred to as the “list A” clues.

     Love to run everywhere with ginger reportedly (6)

     Breathing in quickly and repeatedly when searching the ground for food (7)

     Found on a cliff and wants to be hugged (3)

     Adorable little chap for endless fire (3)

     Extreme tricks and stunts unleashed with a little patience (4)

     Why you ell I hear followed by an untrue statement hiding in small places (6)

     Unsettled drain for snow drifts all day (8)

     The second part contains eight more cryptic clues. Like above, the number represents the total number of letters of the answer. These will be referred to as the “list B” clues.

     Age audibly left out of three timber (4)

     So to speak beloved antlers (4)

     It’s with to be patient and it’s up to endure (4)

     Confused rib tab eats carrots (6)

     Misled act loves yarn (3)

     Money in baking goods (5)

     Bright initially, sky twinkles and radiates (4)

     Limo uses contain cheese (5)

     The third part consists of ordering the list A clues according to the order determined by the list B clues. As you notice, there are seven list A clues and eight list B clues. Therefore, one answer from list A will need to be repeated during the ordering. Lastly, please read the first letter of each ordered answer and you shall receive the hidden words of the day!

     Step One: List A

     The first clue for this test is the name of the test today, “Winter companion”. This should allude to the fact that we will be working with Petpets today and, more specifically, Petpets originating from Terror Mountain, the home of the Winter celebrations.

      “Love to run everywhere with ginger reportedly (6)”. “Love to run everywhere” is the definition of the answer. “Reportedly” shows that we are looking for a homophone of the word “ginger”. With a bit of thought we reach the answer JINJAH.

     “Breathing in quickly and repeatedly when searching the ground for food (7)”. This clue uses synonyms and searches for a word that means “Breathing in quickly and repeatedly”. With a definition of “searching the ground for food” the answer is SNUFFLY.

     “Found on a cliff and wants to be hugged (3)”. The point in this case is “Found” which signifies that the next phrase “on a cliff” hides the solution. The definition is “wants to be hugged” and the answer is ONA.

     “Adorable little chap for endless fire (3)”. This one starts with the definition “Adorable little chap”. We then have the pointer “endless”. It signifies that we have to make the next word endless, or without an ending, thus removing the last letter of the next word “fire” to get the answer FIR.

     “Extreme tricks and stunts unleashed with a little patience (4)”. “Extreme” is the pointer that shows that we have to take the extremities, or better said, the first letter of each word, in the next phrase, “tricks and stunts unleashed”. With a definition “with a little patience” the answer is TASU.

     “Why you ell I hear followed by an untrue statement hiding in small places (6)”. This clue is made up of two parts. The first pointer is “I hear” which means to read the first part, “Why you ell” and extract what you hear, thus YUL. The next part is a synonym of “an untrue statement” which is also a LIE. The part “followed by” asks you to put them together. With a definition of ”hiding in small places” the answer is YULLIE.

     “Unsettled drain for snow drifts all day (8)”. “Snow drifts all day” is the definition of the clue. “Unsettled” is the pointer which signifies that “drain for” is an anagram of the answer. Therefore, the answer is RAINDORF.

     Step Two: List B

     In the next part, we will be getting some definitions of the physical appearance of the above, to help us order the list A clues.

     “Age audibly left out of three timber (4)”. The first pointer is “audibly” which instructs us to read “age” as the letter H. The second pointer is “left out of” which means remove said letter from the word “three”. The definition is “timber” and the answer is TREE.

     “So to speak beloved antlers (4)”. The pointer is “so to speak” which refers to a homophone. The homophone we are looking for is a synonym of “beloved” and the definition is “antlers”. Another word for beloved is dear, and the answer is DEER.

     “It’s with to be patient and it’s up to endure (4)”. This clue uses the same word, different adverb approach, as shown by “it’s with” and “it’s up”. The same word means “to be patient” and “to endure” depending on the adverb, and act as definitions. The answer that fits both of these definitions is BEAR.

     “Confused rib tab eats carrots (6)”. The pointer is “confused” which shows that the next phrase “rib tab” is an anagram of the answer. The definition is “eats carrots” thus the answer is RABBIT.

     “Misled act loves yarn (3)”. Another anagram, shown by the pointer “misled”. The definition is “loves yarn” and the word to rearrange is “act”. The answer is simply CAT.

     “Money in baking goods (5)”. In this case, the definition is “baking goods”. We are looking for a synonym of “money”. A slang term that refers to money, and is the answer, is BREAD.

     “Bright initially, sky twinkles and radiates (4)”. The definition is “bright” and the pointer “initially” wants us to take the first letter of each word in the next phrase “sky twinkles and radiates”. This leads to the answer STAR.

     “Limo uses contain cheese (5)”. In this case, the pointer is “contain”. It signifies that the previous phrase “Limo uses” hides the answer. With a definition of “cheese”, the answer is MOUSE.

     Step Three: Order

     In the third and final part, we have to order the answers from list A according to the order provided by the answers of list B. Bear in mind that the definitions are quite liberal, therefore some Petpets might not fit the definition perfectly or can be argued to have a better description; however, there shouldn’t be any confusion as to which Petpet fits which definition. Furthermore, one Petpet from list A will be used twice.

     After ordering them, we should then take the initial letter of each Petpet to get the words of the day.

     TREE - FIR

     DEER - RAINDORF

     BEAR - ONA

     RABBIT - SNOWBUNNY

     CAT - TASU

     BREAD - JINJAH

     STAR - ONA

     MOUSE - YULLIE

     Finally, we get the words of the day which are FROST JOY! Two words which sum up the Winter celebrations perfectly. A fitting end to a festive test, not too difficult and without any consequences for the ones who haven’t managed to get the answer. However, I would urge you to keep practicing as, to continue coming to our meetings, you will need to prove your mastery in cryptic clues.

     In the meantime, I want to wish everyone happy holidays and I hope you enjoy the celebrations.