Comments on: Independent 7357 (Saturday Prize Puzzle) by Bannsider

By: Peter Biddlecombe

Peter Biddlecombe — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:42:46 +0000

A tough challenge which I enjoyed. I remember this grid from the Times puzzles around 8 years ago. As well as possibly being hard to fill, it’s slightly “cornery” – although the two central long answers are well-checked, once you’ve got them the puzzle falls into four quarters and you can get rather stuck if one of them is putting up a fight. So I think the Times xwd editor who ditched this grid (probably Mike Laws) did the right thing.

By: Bannsider

Bannsider — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:29:56 +0000

I remember the puzzle you mention, Mike, I think: in a Times Championship final, I believe (I was safely hiding away in the audience!).
In fact one or two may remember this grid, a refugee from the Times, which I always found intriguing as a solver, and which is not the easiest to fill with reasonable words. I am therefore relieved to find that solvers don’t appear to have found it as difficult as I feared. As for making it a pangram, maybe next time

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:03:59 +0000

Pangrams aren’t that hard to construct, with a little patience, even avoiding obscure words. Dipangrams are trickier, but by no means impossible. I did a few, on grids that were part of the particular paper’s standard set, but was teased by one particular solver for tucking the awkward letters away in unchecked squares. The only thing I could do to “appease” him was a puzzle in which at least one of the occurrences of each letter was in an cross-checked square, which arguably could be described as a “tripangram”, on the grounds that each letter occurred in three different words.

Then I decided to give up, before it became too obsessive!

Anyway, enough waffling. Thanks to Bannsider for a superb crossword, ideally judged for a Saturday prize puzzle.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:59:15 +0000

Yes, this was one the best puzzles to have appeared in the Indy, I thought – esp liked LAID BACK, ERDGEIST, INTIFADA, CHORUSED, LEG BREAK, HOLD GOOD, UNTITLED. It was particularly impressive that unfamiliar words were clued so clearly and precisely that they could be eventually deduced without doubt from wordplay. A little easier than previous Bannsider puzzles, I thought, tho hard by Indy general standards. Would not worry too much about the pangram element.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:38:49 +0000

Yes, a satisfying challenge. A bit disappointed (if that’s the right word) though that it didn’t turn out to be a pangram.

By: jmac

jmac — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:10:03 +0000

A wonderfully devious puzzle. In addition to the clues mentioned by Duncan in his preamble (especially CHORUSED), I particularly like HOLD GOOD. If only all crosswords were this stimulating.