Comments on: Guardian Genius 80 (February 2010) – Puck

By: liz

liz — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:11:03 +0000

Mr Beaver — I’ll remember to use Word Wizard next time!

By: liz

liz — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:08:14 +0000

Thanks, Andrew and to Sidey for pointing out the BEES.

I thought I would never get into this. I got 14ac…and nothing else until I next sat down with it when I slowly started to crack it.

Failed to get ISTABRAQ, despite thinking along the right horsey lines — I thought ‘bra’ would be in there — but I was convinced that the name started with A.

Some of these Genius puzzles I find much too hard, some too easy. This was in the middle and I enjoyed it very much.

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:04:06 +0000

We found this fiendishly tough – it took a long time for the penny to drop as to exactly what the theme was. Still, it was most satisfying to get the dam’ ting done.
Like others, had to use Chamber’s Word Wizard for ISTABRAQ, but I have no guilty feelings about that! Our last to go in was COVETABLE, not a word you hear every day, but obvious once the light had dawned…

By: sidey

sidey — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:25:38 +0000

Thanks Andrew. The theme seems to conclude with BEES anticlockwise round the centre square.

By: Tom_I

Tom_I — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 10:30:43 +0000

Thanks, Andrew.

I quite enjoyed this, and finished it in a couple of days, as far as I remember. I didn’t immediately see the theme, but got enough crossing letters to work out that Bs had to be removed from the down solutions, and then it fell into place.

I had to look up ISTABRAQ to check, but it was gettable from the wordplay, especially after SQUA(bb)ISH went in.

By: bridgesong

bridgesong — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:50:51 +0000

Andrew

Thanks for the blog. I failed to finish this, Istabraq being unknown to me, and as a result perhaps I also failed to find squabbish. I had (Sir Carol)Reed as 24 across, but I’m sure that your solution is correct.