Comments on: Guardian 24,522/Quantum

By: Chunter

Chunter — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:59:58 +0000

I can’t remember a time when the 4 three-quarters in rugby were called anything else. Nowadays a useful distinction is usually made between the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ centres.

By: Ian Stark

Ian Stark — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:36:33 +0000

>>>Best Clue = 6DN for the surface aspect of looking for links to the premium bond machine and help with picking random numbers!

Ah, I just read this as ‘aids’ = acronyms and ‘ernie’ is an acronym. Not sure that ‘aids’ = ‘help with picking . . .’

Struggled with a few of these but got there in the end. Top right corner gave me a bit of a battle and the whole puzzle took me twice as long as usual.

By: mark

mark — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:04:55 +0000

I still don’t get TWANG. It’s just literally the result of a pluck (y effort)? Like most I thought of it and rejected as not being a ‘good enough’ answer i.e not using the whole of the clue.
Not happy with that.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:46:17 +0000

I think BLAZER must be the answer most often associated with that, um, popular clue. For REEFER, the parts of speech are somewhat less helpful, shall we say.

By: John

John — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:49:30 +0000

I think “for battle” is stretching anagrind indicators somewhat.
I have never seen mistle thrush as a single word.
Referential has nothing to do with references in this sense.
But I liked 16 ac, 27 ac and 14 dn.

By: mhl

mhl — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:28:57 +0000

Work=go as in e.g. cars or other machinery working/going.

Oh, of course. Thanks…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:20:56 +0000

Work=go as in e.g. cars or other machinery working/going.

I thought the clue for TWANG was weak too – I think it’s just that a twang can result from plucking a string.

By: JimboNWUK

JimboNWUK — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:12:58 +0000

Ah, at least I wasn’t the only one to put “blazer”! And then I thought that the downs would be a doddle ending in B and A which is quite uusual… hmph!

For the record:
Worst clue = 12AC, barely cryptic given most of the answer (and its semantics) was in the clue
Best Clue = 6DN for the surface aspect of looking for links to the premium bond machine and help with picking random numbers!

By: mhl

mhl — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:06:37 +0000

I enjoyed this a lot, but I can see that some might find it not testing enough. Thanks for the post, Andrew.

The troublesome clues for me were (predictably) MISTLETHRUSH and HAEMATITE, because of never having heard of them before.

Could someone remind me why “work” can be GO?

I thought the clue for TWANG was a bit weak, since even though I guessed that early from “plucky” I didn’t enter it into the grid on the basis that it wasn’t neat enough – or have I missed a sense in which “twang” can mean effort?

By: Will

Will — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:43:41 +0000

I have it on good authority that the paper version has an analogue clock rather than computer. Odd. I put ‘Blazer’ in confidently for the smoking jacket. No such luck.