Comments on: Inquisitor 1163: Common Knowledge by Samuel

By: kenmac

kenmac — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:13:11 +0000

Yes, you’re right Hi. I meant to put that in my blog, I have added it now.

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:35:36 +0000

P.S. I thought the title “Common Knowledge” was a nice touch!

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:05:39 +0000

Thanks Kenmac.
Felt rather pleased with myself as this is the first puzzle by Samuel that I’ve managed to finish.
I was expecting to be brought back down to earth on reading the comments here – “Pretty strightforward”,”not too hard at all”. Thanks all!

The theme fell early for me as well and I thought the cluing was more straightforward than usual for this setter.
A very enjoyable puzzle and a nice tribute to the lady who sadly passed away towards the end of last year.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:45:13 +0000

I too got BULGARIA very early on (first pass) and immediately thought "Wombles", soon confirmed by TOBERMORY & ORINOCO. So, not too hard at all. Possibly uncharitably, I assumed that the L-R swap was simply a device to extract the setter from a hole. Problem: with most of the grid constructed with various Wombles and GREAT UNCLE nearly there on the diagonal (with WERT at 3d), how is the Bottom Right corner to be finished? Solution: make 31d IRIS and change its counterpart to WELT - at least all the answers are real words and L & R are natural exchanges. (Even at the expense of being stuck with ILIS as a final entry.)

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:06:25 +0000

Thanks Kenmac. Pretty strightforward. The only thing I had to check was the author.
I agree about the letter exchange. I could not see the point either, and it had the added disadvantage of leaving a non-word (ILIS) in the grid, which is always a pity!