Comments on: Guardian 25,001 – Orlando

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Fri, 07 May 2010 05:43:29 +0000

I didn’t like the “unconnected” grid. Minor whine.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:06:11 +0000

“John H”,
I think you’re in a land of make-believe…

Seriously though I found yesterday’s puzzle great fun; but it needed to be taken in context with the article on crosswords published the same day.

By: brr

brr — Wed, 05 May 2010 07:56:42 +0000

I have completed a few puzzles from Orlando (and Cincinnus in the FT), but this was a bit too hard for me. I may need a bit more Rufus practice.

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:47:40 +0000

Hasn’t anyone heard of the Ould-ars Fig Tree?

By: Vin

Vin — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:30:01 +0000

Liked this one. It took me several hours, on and off, but I got there eventually without recourse to any aids. I got the grim Spector joke – very good. Just couldn’t explain the “shouldered” part of 9ac, though it seems blindingly obvious now! NW corner last to go in, held up by a carelessly entered MARK for 10ac. Once I’d realised it must be wrong I got CHUNTER and the whole corner fell into place. A very enjoyable crossword.
P.S. muck @21, shurely you mean the famous Lourdas fig tree?

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:22:09 +0000

And others said, this was quite hard – with clues less accessible [whatever that means] than usual in an Orlando.
We needed the excellent blog [thank you Uncle Yap] to find BUCKBOARD, and also for the explanation of 9ac as well as 18ac [which were just simple charades - and slightly disappointing].

Fine surfaces as ever with this setter, especially in 27ac (SPECTATOR) – as one probably will know, Phil Spector spends his ‘time inside’ nowadays! [I'm quite sure Orlando used these words deliberately]

We thought a bit of a novel homophone in 12d (‘rex’/'wrecks’).
Splendidly hidden word in a natural environment in 22d’s MILER.

Very clever crossword of a setter who’s normally somewhat lighter, but who shows once again that his way of clueing is immaculate.

Clue of the Day: the fantastic INSPECTORS (13d).

By: IanN14

IanN14 — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:50:04 +0000

No, “John H”.
Some of us enjoyed it.
Thanks.

By: John H

John H — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:33:40 +0000

Yesterday’s puzzle was awful, wasn’t it?

By: Brian Harris

Brian Harris — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:35:56 +0000

Good, solid, not too taxing, enjoyable stuff today. Definitely an improvement on yesterday’s special – which I found rather rather disappointing.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:19:51 +0000

Quite enjoyed it. The ‘Hants’ abbreviation for Hampshire has always puzzled me, though obviously not enough to look it up, and I was working on ‘….herts’ for a while.