Comments on: Guardian 25,167 (Sat 13 Nov)/Araucaria – Juncture repair job

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:16:17 +0000

Davy @ 33

From my POV to know you have to put ABC..XYZ around the circumference of the crossword made it a lot easier. Clearly one person’s meat is another one’s poison! There are certainly some Saturday crosswords I just give up on – but this wasn’t one of them! I used to give them a wide berth but now I give them a go – admittedly I find the set-up on most Saturdays a lot harder than the majority of the weekdays.

By: Davy

Davy — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:49:44 +0000

Daniel @32,

I don’t really see how knowing that each answer either started with or ended with a unique letter of the alphabet, made this an easy (relatively tame) puzzle. I would say that it was more difficult than an alphabetical jigsaw, where the first letter of each answer was known. I found this quite tricky but there again there’s usually one person who says regardless of the complexity of the crossword, that it was either easy or too easy.

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:57:44 +0000

I say it was ‘relatively tame’ as you knew exactly what the requirement was – (A to Z) – and some of the brief clues indicated a simple choice of possible answers (e.g. SUIT or QUIT). By process of elimination the final solution was more readily achieved than many other crosswords when several answers may come to mind. I normally struggle with Saturday crosswords (relatively speaking) – they tend to take me a lot longer (and I suppose more enjoyable when solved).

By: cryptomaniac

cryptomaniac — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 22:31:29 +0000

Hi all

Enjoyed solving this Xword, one of the few from the Guardian that I have managed to vanquish…

Had to struggle with many of the clues, though Google and Wiki came to my rescue admirably, once I had a little to go on.

Wonder if anyone noticed that Susannah is a principal character from Tristram Shandy (I haven’t read the book – this is just Wiki info). Seemed to me to be a very nice touch. Hats off to Araucaria!

Cheers

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:05:12 +0000

I struggled with the NE corner because I had dejectment/rejectment for 6d until the end

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 20:31:44 +0000

You’re correct. On re-reading, I have to retract. Demento shows up in an American dictionary I have here as a deranged person, but the “nearly” in the clue definitely favors the shortening of dementia.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 20:15:35 +0000

Welcome, Brad,
But could you perhaps tell us what DEMENTO means, because I cannot find it anywhere (in relation to this clue).

And BTW, in my first post (#14) I put rightback on 28 minutes.
A bit optimistic, it was actually 38.
Still pretty quick .

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:31:53 +0000

Being a beginner, I am very much hesitant to step in, but I thought 17ac was a double of dementi/demento.

By: tupu

tupu — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:39:46 +0000

Hi Sil

See 23. We’ve crossed again! We can’t keep (not) meeting like this!

My point for what it was worth (not much!) was that I was trying to juxtapose dementia/ dementi – the change of final letter being the removal of rather than a substitution for ‘a’. But as I say it is now quite clear this won’t do.

Part of the confusion arises from the fact that ‘escribe’ is such a rare and specialised word and unlike villager is not used as the answer. Also another reading of the clue as a standard one is possible (see rightback). Your point that the answer has to begin with ‘a’ and 17a has to end in ‘i’ doesn’t really arise, since either way round one gets ascribe and dementi.

The ultimate problem was to understand both answers rather than to get them. Once one goes back a week later to the wording of the clue for 17a all is revealed.

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:34:49 +0000

Thanks rightback. This was an enjoyable variation of the Araucaria A-Z Special.

I wonder whether the ‘dodgy anagrind’ in 19d might also be part of a double definition.
“So I need to keep off the beer then, doctor” … “ ‘Fraid so, old chap”
“Do I have to ?” … “ ‘Fraid so, if you want to get better”.

Just a thought.