It could be that some of you are old enough to remember a form of crossword set about every 8 or 9 months by Ximines in The Observer newspaper called Printer’s Devilry One year, I got as far as a Highly Commended for solving the puzzle and submitting a clue in place of a single word (really was the tie-breaker).

A Printer’s Devil was a printer’s apprentice, who was always given the job of sorting type. When type got in the wrong place – and sometimes appeared in print, the apprentice was always blamed – but sometimes it was reckoned he did it on purpose. The types of fault included particularly were the introduction or omission of punctuation (including spaces and changes of upper and lower case letters), or the omission of a sequence of letters.

The Clues:

The clues in the puzzle were the sequences of words (real words, but they made no sense). They originated from sensible statements (perhaps of more than one sentence) after the Printer’s Devil had (i) omitted a word formed from a sequence of consecutive letters, and (ii) then changed the punctuation (and spaces) to obscure the omission. If you can work out what that word was, and insert those letters in the right place, then re-punctuate, you’ll get the original sentence (or two). However, the final full version makes perfectly good sense, while the ‘devilled’ version doesn’t.

My Examples:

Example 1: My (Highly Commended!) Clue

That puzzle was in the 1960s, about the time that the first nuclear fusion process had been accomplished in a Laboratory: it promised an era of cheap electricity. The apparatus which was used was called Zero Energy Thermo- nuclear Apparatus – or ZETA for short. That much is necessary for you to understand my clue that I repeat below: at that time, everyone would have read about ZETA in the newspapers.

The description of the clue formation is a bit forbidding, but it is easy to understand – though not to solve. So I’ll show you my clue for the word lissome.

Clue: Cooking eggs on freeze tablets cheap in half-a-second.

The letter sequence must be inserted into the clue at some point. If it is inserted between the ‘b’ and the ‘l’ of tablets, you will get:

Cooking eggs on free Zeta? Bliss! Omelets cheap in half-a-second.

Irrelevant words like freeze and tablets have disappeared, while Zeta and Omelets (that is an acceptable spelling) come in to make sense. The word ‘free’ now ties up with ‘cheap’, eggs ties up with omelets while ‘Zeta’ implied quick heat and ties up with ‘half-a-second’.

The answer to the devilled clue is simply lissome. There will be only one place it can be inserted.

Note When the word is omitted from the original statement, it is always in such a way that the rejoining of the letters in the devilled version is ‘seamless’ – meaning it never has a space before or after it. In the undevilled version, it also fits in a seamless way.

The winning clue on that occasion was:

If Adam seek, eternal Eve merely waits to be revealed.

But please also note that the word which has been omitted has no relevance to the clue at all, other than making sense of it: i.e. ‘lissome’ doesn’t refer to anything in the clue at all.

Example 2: One that didn’t get into this year’s quiz.

This time the clue is

In the middle of appalling squalls are hard to find.

Key words or phrases appear to be middle, appalling, squalls and ‘hard to find’. Of these, the one most difficult to envisage fitting to the rest seems to be ‘squalls’. So perhaps that’s where the break should be. But where? Wherever the word ‘squalls’ is split, both ends must fit into other words. That virtually rules out a split between the s and q, and the q and u, so there are only 4 places where the split can happen. A little trial and error will soon show that although you can form other words beginning with squ, (e.g. square, squeeze, squawk), you then have to find words which end – or can otherwise fit into the ending ‘alls’. Suppose you thought the missing word might be ‘awkward’. In that case, the clue would read

In the middle of appalling squawk, wardalls are hard to find.

Which hardly makes sense. The actual answer is:

In the middle of appalling squalor, angels are hard to find.

Thus the answer to the clue is ‘orange’.

Your Clues:

The following are 10 clues for you to ponder over. To help you, I have quoted the number of letters in the solution word in brackets after the devilled version. These clues have better hints in the devilled version than the one for ‘orange’, but there is more devilling with the punctuation.

1. The Agriculture Ministry confirms that Pa’s Tuscan include those on flood plains. (7)
Answer: The Agriculture Ministry confirms that pasture claims can include those on flood plains.

2. She knew, when she saw them, onerous dangers confronted her. (7)
Answer: She knew, when she saw the monster, numerous dangers confronted her.

3. Small tins of beans won’t fill theme, sarge: Cans should be used. (7)
Answer:Small tins of beans won’t fill the messpan, i.e. large cans should be used.

4. Uncle Sam started by ask initial as the appro. A Ched - the rest of Letty’s family. (8)
Answer:Uncle Sam started by asking Aunt Letitia. Last he approached the rest of Letty’s family.

5. Partial answers by ministers per mitre; parity of response is always more satisfactory. (8)
Answer: Partial answers by ministers per mit repartee; totality of response is always more satisfactory.

6. At the farm census, the count of calves should be taken. Beration as steer numbers will be affected! (8)
Answer: At the farm census, the count of calves should be taken before castration as steer numbers will be affected!

7. He tightened his grip on the reality of festive occasions. Demands control by horse-riders! (6)
Answer: He tightened his grip on the rein. Formality of festive occasions demands control by horse-riders!

8. If your request for my expertise is accompanied by a rose. N.T. willingly with some of my time. (7)
Answer: If your request for my expertise is accompanied by a Rolex I consent willingly with some of my time.

9. The concert was cancelled because the Welsh choir lost – Mould have sung in his place. (7)
Answer: The concert was cancelled because the Welsh choir lost Morgan. I could have sung in his place.

10. I can’t get at my documents, because I cane nor force the top of my desk. (7)
Answer: I can’t get at my documents, because I can't roll open or force the top of my desk.