Comments on: Guardian 25,325 – Puck

By: Abbo4

Abbo4 — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:17:54 +0000

As a big reggae fan, I loved this puzzle, so thank you Puck & Andrew. Nice to see the 30th anniversary of Bob Marley's death getting a nod, albeit a week late. Very cleverly set - as I think the comments above indicate, it didn't actually rely on a detailed knowledge of the Wailers back catalogue to complete. Another possible Marley allusion that may or may not have been intended was a combination of the clues to 14a and 7d which might at a stretch give Three Little Birds (diver, quail, & tit), another Marley song, with the whale that is the answer to 14a possibly providing some homophonic prey for The Wailers...?

By: john g

john g — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:25:24 +0000

Really enjoyed this one, but yet again i completed three quarters of the puzzle leaving one quarter completely blank. Is this a recognised crossword phenomenon(quarteritis). I also regularly get within one or two clues of finishing. I feel that i should be better at crosswords by now as i have been doing the grauniads for about 4 years daily.

By: Martin H

Martin H — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:56:56 +0000

I didn’t get round to this until late this evening, and on a first run only found SHREW and IRRUPTION, so I thought it was going to be one to finish tomorrow. But then The Wailers came up, and with so many mentions of Dickens I though there must be a Marley somewhere, and then the rest was pretty straightforward. Not really a theme, but helpful – at least for me – where the parsing was not obvious (NATTY). And, as Eileen has noted, some authentic ellipses. An excellent end to the evening. Thanks Puck – and Andrew for the ram in the mirror.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:35:35 +0000

Oops – I miscounted the ellipses!

[I certainly didn't mean to imply that only two out of three made sense.]

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:05:07 +0000

Thanks Andrew, and – as greyfox @2 said – apart from the very well clued EXODUS you spotted them all!

As others have commented, a splendid puzzle with the Unlikely Pair cleverly interwoven.
Normally I find Puck’s style a bit leaning towards overconstruction, and although today’s crossword was no exception, we put that aside and enjoyed the puzzle very much.

After Jacob & Bob turned up (not even that quick), the code was cracked. And the speed of solving doubled.

As Eileen said, two ellipses that really made sense (and the third one 23,24d was justified by a fine surface).

Others needed the blog for LIDOS. We did too.

We especially liked the unusual homophone device in BRAISED (21ac).
And the constructional use of ‘McEwan’s Atonement’ (in 15d) and that of ‘Uriah Heep’ in 29ac.
The latter had the THE POGUES as a kind of musical odd one out today, but the surface was of course Dickensian. On top of that it was also clever for another reason: Uriah Heep was one of the most popular British rock bands of the 70s, one that might certainly be associated with a surface like this.

For a while we thought Puck made a mistake in 7d (ATTITUDE).
We read it as ‘A TIT’ in (DUET)* and couldn’t get rid of that idea. Therefore we considered that it had to be ‘A TIT’ in (DUEL)* [ so, a typo], but of course it had to be A + [TIT in (DUET)*] – nice clue!

Many thanks to Puck.
Ans chas @33, keep your head up!

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:52:25 +0000

Davy #34
I think you are saying what I said in #21.
That is, that The Wailers is not a theme (except’tosh’) and no knowledge of them, BM or the music is required to complete the puzzle.
All the rest is after thoughts and is why I was confused by Puck’s intentions.

By: Richard in Strasbourg

Richard in Strasbourg — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:50:01 +0000

Came to this after work and at first though it would be easy. Not at all Thanks Puck, and to Andrew for an excellent blog, especially the explanation of jamming and raconteur. I still have very slight reservations about “a” for adult but overall a very satisfactory challenge. Que ça continue!

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:45:33 +0000

Eileen (31)-
I agree. The fact that it’s possible to get a clue wrong by putting in a non-existent word can hardly count against it.

By: Davy

Davy — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:03:52 +0000

Chas at 33,

Had you heard of Bob Cratchit and Jacob Marley ?. These Dickens’ characters were the entrance points to the main theme. The Pogues was an answer to just one clue and so no further knowledge was required. Why would you need to know anything else about them ?.
Could you elaborate on why it was not a well-constructed puzzle ?.

By: chas

chas — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:18:16 +0000

Thanks to Andrew for the blog.

I find myself in disagreement with most of the comments so far: I did not find it a well constructed puzzle and was certainly not easy to fill in. I had heard of Bob Marley and his group. Similarly I had heard of the Pogues as a singing group but knew nothing else about them.

Far from best crossword of the year I would call it the worst!