Comments on: Guardian 24,915 (Sat 28 Sat)/Shed – Busoni non grata

By: rrc

rrc — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:02:10 +0000

A very enjoyable crossword which left most of Saturday free!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:12:03 +0000

I got the right answer to 23 by the wrong reasoning – (Ha)milton was a childrens writer (Billy Bunter I believe). To in miln(e) is a much better way to parse it.

By: Shed

Shed — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:51:20 +0000

Thanks for the comments. I certainly don’t try to work out where the line breaks in the clues will occur, and anyway as Eileen says it will very between formats. I was surprised this got picked for the Saturday slot too. Perhaps it was on account of Brel and Busoni, both of which, with hindsight, I rather regret – but people seem to be more willing to have recourse to reference books/Google on a Saturday.

By: Tony Pay

Tony Pay — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:52:15 +0000

Shirley wrote:

Probably the reason you haven’t heard of Busoni is that he was a very minor composer in his own right – his music is almost unplayable.

Not at all. He wrote three very interesting operas — ‘Arlecchino’ stands out — and as a professional musician I can say that there is no essential difficulty in playing his music. Of course, his piano music is virtuosic.

The reason you haven’t heard of him is that he happens to be out of fashion, not that he was ‘very minor’.

Tony

By: rightback

rightback — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:39:32 +0000

Thanks to all commenters. Sil is of course correct that ‘don’ and ‘prof’ are not the same. I’m astonished to learn from Eileen that compilers consider where line breaks will occur in clues, and relieved by Shirley’s mini-bio of Busoni.

CGK, I agree with your interpretation of 8dn but I felt that ‘near’ meaning ‘tight’ was really in the same sense as ‘near’ meaning ‘close’. In more strictly edited puzzles, ‘double definition’ clues require the two meanings to be listed under different headings (i.e. senses) of the answer word. That said I was pretty sure of the answer to this, even with no checking letters, so it’s probably fair enough.

Your comment about 20dn is interesting and I can’t disagree, even though I’m fairly sure this is considered acceptable by purists.

By: CGK

CGK — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:23:08 +0000

Thanks Rightback: an excellent crossword, and though I beat your solving time it doesn’t really count, as I had to wait for your blog to discover why two of my guesses were correct.

In 8d, I’ll bet Shed wasn’t thinking of tight and close as similar, but of tight and near as both meaning miserly.

Though 20d was worth it for the wonderful surface reading, I still find this use of up hard to justify. There is no sense of upness here. The light may be vertical but the clue isn’t.

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:57:45 +0000

Thanks for the blog Rightback.

No question that the Shed clued Prize Crossword was easier than I had expected.

Nonetheless, three fiendishly clever clues to arrive at ASBO, SENTIENT and VERTEBRA.

By: stiofain

stiofain — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:09:43 +0000

I agree this was a bit too easy for a prize xword ( counting today that makes 4 in a row ) but a great puzzle nonetheless.
Asbo is my favourite clue in ages.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:19:39 +0000

I am ashamed then, to say that I do not ‘try to work out where the breaks in the columns are going to come’. That would be too much like hard work.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:49:15 +0000

Hi Sil

Re your last point: very soon after I discovered this site, someone commented how compilers do indeed work out where the breaks in the columns are going to come and, if possible, construct their clues accordingly. Ever since then, I’ve taken special note of hidden answers and it’s remarkable how often they straddle two lines of the clue.

[But ha! - I've just this minute discovered, while doing a bit of research, that this doesn't necessarily apply to the online version!]