“Boxing Day” by HEX — WSJ, 12/17/22

[ChrisKochmanski]

Once I got going on this one, it rolled, BUT … it took me a while, with some looking up of synonyms, to get the foothold I needed.

Fun!

[Jace54]

That was a fun solve! I also took awhile to get a foothold but finally got it in the bottom right.

[oldjudge]

I agree with Chris. The toughest part, which wasn’t very tough, was filling in the first few answers. It wasn’t that the clues were a lot easier after that, but with a cross or two they became pretty simple. Fun puzzle though. I miss the Cox and Rathvon Saturday CNP cryptics. Hopefully, they start a Patreon site.

[Barney]

The dearth of entries here probably says something.

[KayW]

When I first looked at this, I thought "There's NO WAY I'll get a foothold here!" since you pretty much have to get a solid start at either end. But lo and behold - it all fell into place fairly quickly. My start was in bottom right as well.

Another amazing one from HEX.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Do you think that HEX intentionally made the beginning and ending clues and answers more obscure than usual (for them) to make the foothold harder to get? Because once I got the foothold, things rolled pretty smoothly from there.

[Guffman]

A much longer than usual solve for me. Getting enough early entries was the challenge. Finding the "gift" about 2/3 of the way through helped me fill in the SE quadrant. Also got a bit dizzy from the back-and-forth lines. Not complaining, though. A completely fair and interesting cryptic as always.

[oldjudge]

Do you think that HEX intentionally made the beginning and ending clues and answers more obscure than usual (for them) to make the foothold harder to get? Because once I got the foothold, things rolled pretty smoothly from there.

I’m not sure they did. I found the end clues easy and, although there were some tougher middle ones, having crosses makes your life a LOT easier.

[Jeanrosz]

Loved it. Took a while to get started but I carried on..

[Bird Lives]

I forgot to look at this till someone on the Zoom mentioned it last night. Like others, I got stumped by the opening. But once I started going backwards from the end, there were no bumps.

I'm unfamiliar with the term HEX. Is it for Henry and Elizabeth CoX?

[iggystan]

That was a fun solve! I also took awhile to get a foothold but finally got it in the bottom right.

That was my foothold as well. Once I started there, everything fell into place pretty quickly. Always love a good HEX cryptic.