Comments on: Guardian Prize Crossword 25,226 by Enigmatist

By: TabacoyChanel Calzado Femenino

TabacoyChanel Calzado Femenino — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:34:20 +0000

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By: maarvarq

maarvarq — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 05:41:04 +0000

I finished it, but I didn’t enjoy it, and had to get several clues explained here.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:09:25 +0000

Thanks Geoff, another one I missed. This crossword is completely watertight!

By: Geoff

Geoff — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:56:58 +0000

Bravo to Enigmatist for a toughie – got there in the end – and to PeeDee for a great blog.

1dn is not light on the definition: newspapers contain articles, therefore if all four are sure to contain one it will be a definite article. Clever.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 09:43:31 +0000

Sil@23 The ‘Spare Tyre’ clue reads quite naturally to me, I don’t find the need to force the meaning for it to make sense. I can easily imagine someone making a “well thats a let down” pun on finding a flat spare. I’ll try it on the children next time they have a puncture on their bicycles, its just the sort of thing they find funny!

I think space “Pioneer” in quotes as he didn’t actually go anywhere except in his imagination:

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before…”

Still gives me goose bumps after all these years.

Hope everyone enjoyed the Derby do, and not too many sore heads this morning.

By: tupu

tupu — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 09:31:38 +0000

Sorry Sil! I should have just let myself ‘crash out’ after a ‘tyring’ but most enjoyable day!

Hi BigglesA. I agree but my own (pedantic)point was that the clue said nothing about a ‘flat’ tyre and only, by implication, one that had been ‘let down’ – admittedly a slightly less plausible though not impossible scenario.
Now, like the dormouse, Id better go back to sleep again!

By: Biggles A

Biggles A — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 04:36:33 +0000

@22.23. It’s a little pedantic I know but it seems to me that there is a difference between a tyre that has been let down deiberately and one that has just been allowed to go flat.

I did acknowledge that ANISEED could be a synonym for ANISETTE but the OED says it is s very rare usage and I still think it is unnecessarily obscure. I now find the same source gives BERRY as another esoteric synonym for SWELL which is a relief because I was beginning to wonder if it was a slight on Mr Pleydell.

By: grandpuzzler

grandpuzzler — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:48:26 +0000

Thanks Enigmatist and PeeDee and kudos to all who completed this puzzle. I could only get about 1/3 of the answers. There was a radio program called Twenty Questions that I grew up listening to in the 40′s. Is this what the clue refers to only a British version?

Cheers…

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:43:01 +0000

Welcome home, tupu.
But it wasn’t me who said something about LET-DOWN [other than that we didn't like the clue very much] – I think you refer to Biggles A’s post.
Maybe I should have asked the other John H this afternoon what he really meant in this clue, but I was too busy explaining to him that I sometimes dó like his crosswords ….
Back to 15ac, I do not fully see why it reads “this spare tyre”.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a Brit.
Does it mean “a spare tyre in a state like this”?
If so, then it’s alright.
And I still wonder why “Pioneer” is written as “Pioneer” in the clue of 2d.
Apart from this, I’ll stick to my earlier verdict:
one of the most satisfying Saturday crosswords we had recently.

By: tupu

tupu — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:21:49 +0000

Hi all
Lovely to meet so many of you.

Sorry – I don’t quite see the problem with 15a. It seems to depend on let (past participle passive) down and (a)let-down (noun). A spare tyre which is found to have been ‘let down’ would be a ‘let-down’ if needed after a puncture. Of course as Sil says, not all flat tyres have been let down but the clue does not mention a flat tyre but a spare that has been let down. Or am I missing something else?