Comments on: Guardian 24,581 (Sat 27 Dec)/Brummie – Bookish

By: Trevlac

Trevlac — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:16:02 +0000

A very satisfying crossword with some clever clues which reminded me of the much lamented Bunthorne. Corgi was my first non definition answer and I wasted ages looking for dogs.

By: Paul (not Paul)

Paul (not Paul) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:36:44 +0000

I thought that this was way too hard even for a prize crossword. My girlfriend and I managed half a dozen answers despite giving it several hours over three days.

And looking at the answers now, I don’t find I’m kicking myself over many. Obscure references and poor definitions. Not for me.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:01:01 +0000

I found this quite hard going and very satisfying to finish. My first was VIRAGO, which should have been a giveaway, but the second was VINTAGE, a publisher I hadn’t heard of [likewise MANDARIN] so it took a while for the penny to drop, particularly as the theme was so unusual. [To begin with, when I got 26, I thought they might be bands - then noticed the 'dull'.]

I agree about the anagrams in 15, 16 and 27 – brilliant. [I remembered what I called at the time one of the best anagram clues I'd ever seen in an FT crossword a couple of months ago: 'a climber of rocks in Devon {10}] I missed the ‘and cuckoo’, though, although that was the first answer I put in.

I thought 10 across was clever and have no problem with East and West wings.

Mhl: thanks for that. I had fun imagining the Queen ‘riding to corgis’.

By: mhl

mhl — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:11:10 +0000

A very nice theme, I thought – I got PICADOR first (horsemen? bullfighters?) and then ORION (um, hunters?)… I think I managed to convince myself that a CORGI could be a hunting dog before working out the publishers link.

WANNABE and NEWBIE crossing was quite funny, I thought, and I quite agree that the former was an excellent clue.