Comments on: Guardian Prize 25,310 / Crucible

By: rrc

rrc — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:21:21 +0000

probably the worst crossword I have seen in the paper since ive being doing the crossword. The theme is so contrived so to call it a link I think is stretching it completely to have a link as the letters o i l appearing soomewhere in a word is I think utterly ridiculous. Sorry but I hated this crossword.

By: Martin H

Martin H — Sun, 08 May 2011 20:31:34 +0000

…..been ruminating about these damned plants all day – some trees, some herbs, not oxlips – I recant.

By: Martin H

Martin H — Sun, 08 May 2011 09:22:54 +0000

Hi Jan – ok, I concede – banks of oxlip too, so Stella’s poetics work as well.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 07 May 2011 23:08:58 +0000

Yes, Jan @19, Eileen said it all.
And, while we had never heard of this artist, LOTI didn’t defeat us.
It hád to contain O, I and L.
It was in fact the only clue where the ‘theme’ really mattered.

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 07 May 2011 22:57:51 +0000

Great Blog, Eileen, thanks – I was defeated by LOTI, otherwise I agree with the favourites.

Martin @18, how about meadows of oxlip?

By: Martin H

Martin H — Sat, 07 May 2011 22:25:04 +0000

Oxlips again. You allow ‘a forest of oak’ because you already have the collective noun ‘forest’, giving you specifically trees in the plural. Is there such a word for a population of flowers? ‘Field’ clearly won’t do, circumscribing as it does any number of things besides flowers, from sheep to magnetism. Stella says it might be poetic, but the collective plurals of sheep, fish etc are simply standard English.

By: Handel

Handel — Sat, 07 May 2011 21:19:50 +0000

Average difficulty we felt. Wee obstacles was DOD! Thanks Eileen and Crucible.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sat, 07 May 2011 21:17:43 +0000

Thanks Stella @11 [ I really should have seen that] and Crucible @12 [thanks for dropping in] for confirmation.

By: muck

muck — Sat, 07 May 2011 21:10:06 +0000

Thanks Eileen for the blog & its beautiful presentation.
13ac LOTI and 16dn UROLITHS were both new to me, but fair and obvious.
7dn OXLIP was obvious too, but I shared others’ doubts about plural ‘flowers’ in the clue.

By: PeterO

PeterO — Sat, 07 May 2011 16:25:27 +0000

I wonder if if would be acceptable to omit ‘initially’ in 7D, perhaps changing ‘laughing’ to ‘laughs’. I think the texting term is now so well established as not to need the extra guidance, and the surface would be smoother.