c4countdown

For those who couldn't make it, below is a version of the puzzle booklet that was circulated at CobliviLon. Enjoy! Solutions were included in the back of the booklets and are available on request, or in the Google document linked below. There was also a crossword that I couldn't simply copy and paste here, which is also available on request, or in the Google document linked below.

Document: Puzzles for CobliviLon (capitalisation of the event name is wrong in this pdf file, sorry)! I'm not 100% sure how the viewing permissions work on this thing, so if you need me to share the document with you, let me know.


SET+M


Here’s a game for those who like stemming. Every stemming letter gives only one solution, and they have been placed in the correct position within the word. Don’t worry if you don’t know an answer, you can move on to the next line and take the extra letters with you! Some of the words are pretty obscure; see if you can make it all the way to the 9-letter words.

1)

• i) LEG
  ii) _ _ _ N
  iii) _ U _ _ _
  iv) _ _ _ T _ _
  v) _ _ _ _ I _ _
  vi) C _ _ _ _ _ _ _
  vii) _ _ _ _ _ _ A _ _

2)

• i) TAM
  ii) _ _ L _
  iii) _ E _ _ _
  iv) _ R _ _ _ _
  v) _ _ _ _ I _ _
  vi) _ _ _ _ T _ _ _
  vii) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I _

3)

• i) NIP
  ii) _ _ _ T
  iii) _ _ E _ _
  iv) _ O _ _ _ _
  v) _ _ M _ _ _ _
  vi) _ R _ _ _ _ _ _
  vii) _ _ _ _ _ _ U _ _

4)

• i) CUR
  ii) _ _ I _
  iii) _ _ _ _ E
  iv) _ _ _ _ _ M
  v) _ _ A _ _ _ _
  vi) _ _ _ _ _ _ T _
  vii) _ H _ _ _ _ _ _ _

5)

• i) DOH
  ii) _ _ E _
  iii) _ _ _ T _
  iv) _ _ S _ _ _
  v) M _ _ _ _ _ _
  vi) _ _ A _ _ _ _ _
  vii) _ _ _ N _ _ _ _ _

6)

• i) RED
  ii) _ _ _ V
  iii) _ A _ _ _
  iv) _ _ _ I _ _
  v) _ _ O _ _ _ _
  vi) _ _ _ _ P _ _ _
  vii) _ _ _ _ _ _ S _ _

7)

• i) RIB
  ii) _ _ E _
  iii) _ _ _ N _
  iv) _ O _ _ _ _
  v) _ _ _ M _ _ _
  vi) C _ _ _ _ _ _ _
  vii) _ _ _ _ Y _ _ _ _

8)

• i) AND
  ii) _ E _ _
  iii) _ _ O _ _
  iv) _ R _ _ _ _
  v) _ _ _ _ _ I _
  vi) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ R
  vii) C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Bedtime Teaser 1
BABYDEER
“Bambi went on a bit”



Numbers – Use only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (all can be solved exactly)

1) Normal – 6 small: 6 9 3 5 2 10 → 908 | 10 9 5 7 5 4 → 722
1 large: 25 8 7 1 7 4 → 654 | 25 5 10 3 4 6 → 916
2 large: 50 25 7 6 1 8 → 555 | 75 25 8 4 1 4 → 694
3 large: 75 25 100 5 8 1 → 998 | 25 100 75 8 5 9 → 407
4 large: 25 100 75 50 7 4 → 137 | 100 50 25 75 10 9 → 607

2) Aegilops – 33 9 5 4 6 10 → 523 | 77 59 9 1 3 6 → 947 | 17 89 96 9 8 5 → 903

3) Hyper – 50 4 8 2 1 9 3 7 → 8584 | 75 150 25 5 8 4 7 10 → 9661 |
75 200 50 100 25 150 3 2 → 3993

4) Junior – 1 3 4 7 2 → 97 | 10 1 9 6 8 → 31 | 10 8 5 8 3 → 73

5) Nasty – 87 1 4 9 5 1 → 981 | 37 5 7 3 7 1 → 995 | 62 87 37 12 2 8 → 949

6) Octorock – 7 8 9 1 4 → 344 | 20 8 2 1 5 → 313 | 10 20 3 9 7 → 589

7) Omelette – All 6 numbers must be used in your solution
3 9 4 2 7 10 → 883 | 50 5 7 3 2 8 → 868 | 75 25 8 4 7 9 → 657

8) Spoilage – 169 594 321 465 10 5 2 → 6812 | 337 366 438 905 926 4 6 → 2862 |
436 654 737 540 229 560 3 → 8989

And just for fun…
9) Preposterous – 7 4 9 8 1 4 3 9 → 73469 | 50 3 2 7 2 6 8 3 → 44338 |
25 100 75 3 8 5 2 1 → 39689

Bedtime Teaser 2
HERCHAIR
“Her chair is a seat of authority”



Conundrums – There are no standard plurals (–S or –ES ending) among the solutions

1) Normal – Unscramble the 9-letter words
NICKHDEAL | BADSUSIED | CUTEDRUNK | SMILYNOTE | ALLNIGHTY
2) Aegilops – Fill in the missing letters to find the unique 9-letter words (no rearranging needed)
HUOUN | OMRIED | LOEPT | HFEU | COSRW
3) Duckdown – Fill in the missing vowels to find the unique 8-letter words (no rearranging needed)
MSTS | NNTR | LCLS | SQG | CHS
4) Goatdown – These scrambles have one letter missing – find the unique 9-letter words
NEEDFARE | SHIPMEET | DARKCOLE | LOSESHOT | WAGEPOLL
5) Goatdown Jnr – These scrambles have one letter missing – find the unique 7-letter words
TAGSAG | ICLIMB | ACRANK | CHAVER | BARLAG
6) Hyper – Unscramble the 12-letter words
IAMGUESTINDC | ERASEDCOBLIV | ACTIVESINGLE | LAPCONTAINER | COTIRELESSLY
7) Hypergoatdown – These scrambles have one letter missing – find the unique 12-letter words
RETRYMOTION | CHIRPYOXLEG | FINERKNIGHT | TIREDSENSUM | UNSOCIALTOY
8) Hyperlock – These scrambles have one letter too many – find the unique 12-letter words CRYPTICALHATI | OBVIATINGSHOPR | DISJOINTERANT | BLEAKESTLINES | YOURMULTICAST
9) Hypertouch – Replace one letter of these scrambles to find the unique 12-letter words
POSTPONRSRSP | DIDMALARKEYH | WAKESLUMMERS | POOPYGNITCHN | CHAMBERCREDT
10) Junior – Unscramble the 7-letter words
MYACORN | ISCAKES | USESBUM | WEREBOY | TRYABIB
11) Lockdown – These scrambles have one letter too many – find the unique 9-letter words
BETTEREDGN | HOLYGELDIN | DEPILATONG | MOODYWITCH | CHAFEDMOST
12) Lockdown Jnr – These scrambles have one letter too many – find the unique 7-letter words
UNDERRIP | EATSLOTS | VOYAGURS | HHATGIRL | BILLRAGE
13) Nasty – Unscramble these extra-tricky 9-letter words
CONRACHEL | PUNCHLIES | OBLIVIONA | KENSOLVED | HOOPDRYER
14) Octolock – These scrambles have one letter too many – find the unique 8-letter words
FLOWERTUB | IGNOMINUS | NUDISMSAY | COACHYHUM | NOTEJOIST
15) Octorock – Unscramble the 8-letter words
COMEDIER | REBUNGLE | MISERIED | BLEEDAWL | NOSEHUMP
16) Omelette – These scrambles have letters missing – find the unique 9-letter words
SUNPLAN | HIEHIE | POPSELF | LOLADAM | WELLIES
17) Spoilage – Fill in the missing letters to find the unique 12-letter words (no rearranging needed)
IVTAOL | LRFY | NVEEESS | UCPBE | UPMTA
18) Touch Jnr – Replace one letter of these scrambles to find the unique 7-letter words
BBUKFIZ | YOUBOYQ | BIXIHEX | WWEBBUP | KKRZDOG
19) Touchdown – Replace one letter of these scrambles to find the unique 9-letter words
THINPAINT | DIDMICKLE | FLANKYHEN | GROOVYYHD | COMMCHOKE

And just for fun…
20) Preposterous – Unscramble the 18-letter words
ONLYPLAYCATCHYSAIL | BRAINYMISCOUNTMILE | IRONFACSIMILEPIVOT | ANNRUTTERNEEDIDIOM | ETHICALDREGCORPORA

Bedtime Teaser 3
ALENIGHT
“Ale night was a right royal booze-up!”

Bedtime Teaser 4
SELLCUES

Yeah you've got access locked down. I had to request access through my Google account. Quite excited though, good work!

Matt Morrison wrote:Yeah you've got access locked down. I had to request access through my Google account. Quite excited though, good work!

Thanks. When I clicked through from your email request, it went to the sharing settings automatically and I changed them so that anyone with the link can view it. Hopefully it should work now.

Adam Gillard wrote:Bedtime Teaser 4
SELLCUES

Heh, I didn't notice this before, very nice.

Thanks Adam for the hard work it took to make these puzzles, some really tough ones in there so much of my 5 hour journey back home was spent thinking over them so it flew by.

David Barnard wrote:Thanks Adam for the hard work it took to make these puzzles, some really tough ones in there so much of my 5 hour journey back home was spent thinking over them so it flew by.

Thanks David! I had fun setting them, and tried to include some trickier ones in there. This was my first foray into crossword compiling, so I'd be interested to hear what the frequent cryptic crossworders thought of it.

Just wanted to add my thanks for the puzzles, must have taken ages to compile, Adam, great stuff

Adam Gillard wrote:

David Barnard wrote:Thanks Adam for the hard work it took to make these puzzles, some really tough ones in there so much of my 5 hour journey back home was spent thinking over them so it flew by.

Thanks David! I had fun setting them, and tried to include some trickier ones in there. This was my first foray into crossword compiling, so I'd be interested to hear what the frequent cryptic crossworders thought of it.

Yeah, that 6 large spoilage is extremely difficult I still can't crack it