Comments on: Guardian Prize Puzzle No 25,232 by Araucaria – a river runs through it

By: Biggles A

Biggles A — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 21:43:41 +0000

Sil @21,

I think we are saying much the same thing. ALPHABET was one of my early entries, before the theme had emerged, and I explained it to myself that way then.

Bridgesong @8 and Wolfie @15,

Points taken but I still don’t much like it.

By: muck

muck — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:45:33 +0000

Thanks to Araucaria & bridgesong.

“I think that in fact all the rivers except the Tweed (which is Scottish) are English”

The source of the Tweed is in Scotland near Moffat, but then it forms the Scotland-England border from Peebles and finally enters England a mile or so before Berwick-upon-Tweed.

By: liz

liz — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:42:34 +0000

Thanks for the blog, bridgesong. I enjoyed this a lot. Can’t remember now which river was the first to alert me to the theme. I didn’t know ALPH and had to confirm it by Googling. Despite solving the clue, ‘Ribble’ was the river missing from my list. I also had ‘prophetic’ at 1ac for a time, until I realised that 5dn had to be ‘exert’.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:37:17 +0000

Re my ‘fleabytes’ (as Tokyo Colin calls them), I’m with malc95 (#9) now – from that perspective typical Araucarian wit.
Although I do not understand what Biggles A (#4) means with “if a=alpha”, I withdraw my comment on that one as it can be read as “on A [there's a] stake (BET)” – the famous ‘A on B’ device again, this time done in a proper way.

It is a very nice crossword, and we enjoyed it very much, but the fact that there is nearly always some (not much, though) iffy cluing going on in an Araucaria, does annoy us at times. Sorry, can’t help.

By: Carrots

Carrots — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:31:10 +0000

Excellent sport: a classic puzzle in the Araucarian mould. Finishing it lifted my spirits after nursing a hangover triggered by “Derby Day”.

Although ALPHABET went in fairly early on, I wouldn`t know an “Alph” from a holy cow. Other pot-holes I fell into included SAFETY HAT for SAFETY NET and CHOUGH spelt as CHOUFF. If there`s a possible alternative to any answer (however daft) I can be sure to find it.

Well now, let`s see what Brummie has in store for us…another hangover for me I suspect.

By: tupu

tupu — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:20:12 +0000

Hi Robi
I’m no expert on contemporary usage, but K does seem regularly used to indicate pounds e.g. ‘That cost me 5K’ or ‘He must get about 60K a year in that job’.

By: Robi

Robi — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:46:56 +0000

Thanks Araucaria and bridgesong for a useful blog.

Managed to finish this with help from my computer. I thought 18 was fairly impossible until 5 was done. Still not sure why ‘K’ is £1,000 – K is used as a general indicator of one thousand in many places e.g. kilogram(me). Is there some significance to the ‘£’ in this clue?

Quite interesting parsing the clues without the river part.

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:43:12 +0000

Thanks bridgesong. This was a lot of fun. Alph is something of a crosswording chestnut when it comes to holy rivers, I think. Regarding the muddle that is 5d, I wonder if the special instructions should have read “these may be disregarded…”as they have often done in the past with Araucaria.

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:12:28 +0000

Sorry about the intrusive question marks in the above..

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:11:28 +0000

One of the meanings of ‘Cook’s tour’ given by the OED is:

“Cook’s tour, a colloquial phrase for the customary tour round the trenches by officers and N.C.O.’s of relieving?units?, the ‘Cook’s Tourists’ being guided by the previous holders of the position.”

So I think Bridgesong is correct about 5d – ‘General inspection’ (inspection of a military unit by a senior officer) is the definition; ‘in the the kitchen’ clues ‘cook’, leaving ‘stour’ as the unclued river.