Comments on: Guardian 24,391/Araucaria – Herbal medicine

By: Gail

Gail — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:13:45 +0000

I’m late to this, I know, but I’ve been lurking on Fifteen Squared for some time…

Strange, I found this one of His Lordship’s easier themed puzzles. I got Overdone as my very first clue (being of a literary bent I realised it was the Bard’s Bawd)with Bennet to follow (again due to my love of Austen). Herb then followed quickly. But like others I had Nick of Time which held me up!

I can’t agree that Araucaria is unfair. I always find him the most imaginative of setters, and I’ve been enjoying his puzzles for over 30 years now.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:29:49 +0000

Bend the rules? If there are any rules—I consider there are—then I’d say Araucaria breaks them fair and square! What he does though is break them to often great effect. He knows what he’s doing and he does it very well. He breaks the rules because he knows the rules. This contrasts with the sort of setter who does a puzzle for a small society newsletter. They solve the Times puzzle day-in-day-out but then break all the rules when they set because they don’t realise there are any rules. This is often seen in submissions to the Times clue-writing competition, and even the Azed competition from time to time.

By: rightback

rightback — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:49:22 +0000

Thanks to all commenters – looks like I found this more difficult than most people, but then I don’t have a garden! I wonder if Araucaria had heard of the ‘other’ Eric Coates?

By: Paul Daniel

Paul Daniel — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:47:13 +0000

23 ac Eric Coates, inventor of piccolo toothbrush thingy.
http://tinyurl.com/42yfx2

By: Geoff

Geoff — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:46:13 +0000

Fortunately I was familiar with both Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) and Herb Bennet (aka Wood Avens, Geum urbanum), both of which grow (as wild intruders) in my garden.

Agree that this was trickier than most other recent offerings by Araucaria, to some extent precisely because it contained more of his trademark liberalisms. As far as I am concerned, he always manages to bend the rules just within the limits of intelligibility – ‘et’, ‘al’, ‘icco’ etc are unorthodox but not too difficult to spot.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:20:39 +0000

20ac for METEORIC was a strange one – hardly a cryptic clue at all, I thought.

I knew ERIC COATES, but I agree about “icco” and the other “partial” indications. Very Araucarian, and not too hard to crack, but rather unsatisfactory.

By: Comfy Settee

Comfy Settee — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:34:53 +0000

Didn’t find this one too tough, having got BENNET straight away, with HERB (and the theme) becoming obvious straght after. Perhaps I was lucky that I got them in this order!

METEORIC was an interesting one… as well as relating to meteors, it can also relate to weather (as per meteorolgy), and METEORIC WATER is precipitation, thereby, giving another slant to the “coming down” angle.

ACETATE held me up slightly, because I tend to think of it as sheets of material rather than a fibre – a hangover from the days of OHPs, I suppose.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:42:37 +0000

Snap! I too was held up for a while by putting in ‘nick of time’ but 22ac had to be JACKET. I read this as ‘and version’, version meaning translation, [French and Latin] so I thought it was fair.

I share your reservations about the parts of words in 8ac, 23ac and 13dn. but would always forgive Araucaria almost anything and I really enjoyed this puzzle.

It was pretty easy to get onto the theme. 10ac. had to be herb [confirmed immediately by the very easy 14ac] and 3dn had to be Bennet, though I didn’t know it was a herb. I did know herb Robert. I liked the clue for MARJORAM.