Comments on: Guardian Genius No.68 / Paul

By: mhl

mhl — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:20:55 +0000

Thank-you, Chatmeister, that’s great

By: Chatmeister

Chatmeister — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:24:26 +0000

Mhl
“[Somehow I missed this post when it came out - it would be great if we could have a separate category for the Guardian Genius.]”

Your wish has been granted.

By: mhl

mhl — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:19:10 +0000

[Somehow I missed this post when it came out - it would be great if we could have a separate category for the Guardian Genius.]

I’m most annoyed about TOGA, having entered FORA as well – that was my last entry and considered both possibilities, not spotting the “A GOT reversed” construction. I think this is the first time I’ve submitted something wrong to one of the prize puzzles for a very long time

I thought the rubric was somewhat unfair for this puzzle, as well – it would be normal to indicate when themed answers are missing the definition part, as the LLAN place name clues were here. This did waste quite a bit of time for me.

By: Ralph G

Ralph G — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:37:39 +0000

Not able to make anything of this for 10-15 minutes so wrote in VERY for ‘so’ at 21d as nothing else was on offer, and it was easier after that. Still didn’t get the justification for 26d TOGA, and it’s my favourite type of clue!
‘Container for the thing contained’ collectors might like to know, or be reminded, that LLAN was another ‘enclosure’ word, like ‘garth’ etc. Then, as the most commonly enclosed building was a church, it came to mean church. Hence all these place-names and the further meaning of ‘village’.

By: stiofain_x

stiofain_x — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:55:15 +0000

Thanks for the blog Gaufrid
Andrew I had TOGA too reading it as being “got up” or dressed in something.
I didnt quite finish but got closer than any previous Genius efforts and thought there were some nice clues typical of Paul.
Stiofain

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:46:17 +0000

Andrew
Thanks for the correction to 26d. Like you, I was not totally convinced by ‘fora’ when I solved the puzzle but I couldn’t see an alternative.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:38:31 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid. I found this one very hard, and was pleased with myself when I managed to finish it (still no £100 though…). 26dn is actually TOGA (confirmed by the online solution): this took me a long time to get. I think the logic is “leader in Augustus rose” = “leader in Augustus got up” = “A GOT up” = TOGA, &lit. I nearly put FORA, which is certainly very plausible, but wasn’t quite convinced so kept looking.

I thought the rubric was nicely misleading, with its reference to “places in the grid” meaning place-names rather than (or as well as) just locations in the grid.