National Puzzlers' League The World's Oldest Puzzlers' Organization

 BASE FIDDLES

A Base Fiddles puzzle is a variation of a cryptically clued form. Each word in the form is cryptically clued; in each clue is some extraneous material that must be removed before solving. The clues are given in alphabetical order by answer. The answer to each cryptic clue must be transformed according to form another part of a standard Enigma base; a list of the flat types that are to be used is given with the puzzle, and the removed material provides a clue to the transformed word. Finally the transformed words must be arranged to construct a form.

An example:

BASE FIDDLES: 6-SQUARE

Flat Types: metathesis, tail-to-head shift, first-to-second changeover, transposal, first-letter change, backswitch.

Clues:

a. Annoy Ed, backing out of gardener harvest

b. Breasts in back? Point and stare, confused

c. Function among pink porticos in Ephesus

d. Priest-king eats sloppily, gets letter from Athens about religious art

e. She detailed, copied, stacked, organized

f. Thicker poster showed Pole in Jewish feast

= Teki and Lucifer

The solutions to the cryptic clues are as follows. The extraneous material is given in parentheses, followed by the puzzle type and transformed word:

Finally, a square is made out of the words in the last column:

H	E	A	P	E	D
E	O	S	I	N	E
A	S	T	E	R	N
P	I	E	T	A	S
E	N	R	A	G	E
D	E	N	S	E	R

The Base Fiddles puzzle type was invented by Lucifer, and named after a similar puzzle type created by Harth.

 CHEVY CHASE FORMS

A Chevy Chase form has clues which may be cryptic or plain; it is up to the solver to determine which.

CHEVY CHASE DOUBLE SQUARE (Said one clue to another, "I'm cryptic. And you're not.")

Across:

1. The ones full of beans upset a Scot 2. Space between N region and P area? 3. Country where Latin enters North America 4. Peter backed away from Robin Hood portrayer 5. Connery, Penn and Nelson first diving into wide waters

Down:

1. For example, Jagger standing on head making musical sounds 2. Hue from sky endlessly in verse 3. One winding around heart of jungle 4. It's sliced up, put in bun 5. Refigured sales from Easter symbols

= Rain Man

The solution:

T	A	C	O	S
O	Z	O	N	E
N	U	B	I	A
E	R	R	O	L
S	E	A	N	S

The Chevy Chase Form was invented by Rain Man.

 CONNECTED PIECEMEAL

A connected piecemeal is similar to a piecemeal, but the shape formed is two piecemeals connected at one of the words. Also called a piecemeal window; it has also been composed in the form of two squares on top of each other, rather than side by side as in this example.

CONNECTED PIECEMEAL SQUARES    (8-letter words; one word is +)
AS	AS	AT	CA	DG	EH	EN	ER	ES	HE
LL	MI	OP	RE	ST	SW	TI	TI	UR	YE
= Wabbit

The solution:

YE	ST	RE	EN	SW	AT	HE
AS			MI			DG
TI			TI			EH
ER	AS	UR	ES	CA	LL	OP

This page was last updated on Thursday, June 18, 2015. /webmaster