Okay, let me tell you about this crossword I was tackling the other day. You know how sometimes you get completely stuck on one clue? That was me.
Hitting a Wall
So, I was cruising along, filling things in, feeling pretty good about myself. Then I hit this one: “sport with rikisha”. It had quite a few letters, which sometimes makes it easier, but not this time. My brain just went blank for a second.
My first thought was, okay, “rikisha” – that’s like a rickshaw, right? Those carts pulled by people, usually. What kind of sport involves that? Seemed weird. I started thinking about racing, maybe? Like, rickshaw racing? I tried to picture it. Sounds exhausting, honestly. But “RICKSHAW RACING” felt too long for the squares I had, and just “RACING” didn’t mention the rickshaw part specifically.
I also considered if “rikisha” was maybe a person’s name, like some famous athlete? Nah, that didn’t feel right for a crossword clue like this. Usually, they’re more straightforward, even when they’re tricky.
Digging a Bit
I put it aside for a bit, filled in some other clues around it, hoping the crossing letters would give me a hint. I got a ‘P’ and an ‘L’ near the middle. ‘P_L_’. Polo? Polo uses horses, not rickshaws. That didn’t fit the “with rikisha” part. Maybe some weird variation?
Then I thought, what if the clue is super literal? A sport played with, or involving, rickshaws. I went back to the idea of ‘Polo’. What if… what if it’s actually a thing? Like, people playing polo, but using rickshaws instead of horses?
It sounded kinda funny, maybe something done for charity events? I mentally checked the letters again. R-I-C-K-S-H-A-W P-O-L-O. That seemed to fit the length I had. It was a bit unusual, definitely not a mainstream sport, but crosswords love obscure stuff sometimes, right?
- Checked the first letter: R – matched the crosser.
- Checked the P and L: They fit perfectly.
- Checked the last letter: O – also matched.
The ‘Aha!’ Moment
So I penciled it in: RICKSHAW POLO. Felt a bit strange, but the letters all lined up with the other words I already had. It just clicked into place. Looked it up later (just out of curiosity, after finishing the puzzle, of course!) and yep, it’s actually a thing people have done, usually for fun or charity. Crazy, huh?
It’s always satisfying when you finally crack one of those weird ones. Took me a while, circling back to it a few times, but got there in the end. Just goes to show, sometimes the answer is exactly what it sounds like, even if it sounds a bit odd.
