Comments on: Guardian Prize No 25322 by Araucaria

By: Tenniel

Tenniel — Wed, 25 May 2011 05:47:28 +0000

The bird Emberiza citrinella has the common name "Yellowhammer", so a HAMMER is MAYBE YELLOW.

By: mismanager

mismanager — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:09:05 +0000

I’d like to claim that I was aware of the dotterel because of my years of membership of the RSPB but my knowledge predates that: there is a pub of that name at Reighton, near Filey on the Yorkshire coast. Its sign depicts the bird. My misspent youth at last pays a dividend!

By: NeilW

NeilW — Sat, 21 May 2011 15:09:20 +0000

…Even if it’s only in A’s dictionary!

By: NeilW

NeilW — Sat, 21 May 2011 15:07:04 +0000

Thanks again, bridgesong. Just came back to this before bedtime. I’m amazed at the length to which everyone is going to find a better explanation of “fustian”, although I commend the effort. Sadly Araucaria never visits. I have finally visited the umpire: the annotated solution gives: “fustian=theatrically bombastic.” Chambers gives the verb “to ham”, from which it would seems reasonable to derive the noun HAMMER.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:35:27 +0000

Thanks bridgesong.

I had no idea about fustian at all. Still think it is a bit of a stretch having had it explained to me. Otherwise, very enjoyable indeed!

By: Robi

Robi — Sat, 21 May 2011 10:49:39 +0000

Thanks to Araucaria for an enjoyable puzzle that wasn’t too difficult once the special clues were unravelled.

Like TC@2 my COD was GEORGE. Thanks bridgesong; I, too, failed to parse HAMMER correctly. I thought POLAR [region] was OK for world’s end.

By: Davy

Davy — Sat, 21 May 2011 08:44:32 +0000

Thanks bridgesong,

Another enjoyable puzzle from Arry that suprisingly I didn’t need any aids for. I didn’t know GRENDEL but the clue was plain enough. Similarly I had to check DOTTEREL and the long one but I knew they were right. I thought ‘DIY production’ was excellent in 24a. Even the related anagram soon fell into place once I had spelt THESEUS correctly. Credit to my better half also for coming straight up with HYSSOP which once again I hadn’t heard of. What have I heard of ?. Answer – very little.

So many thanks to Arry for a very entertaining puzzle.

By: chas

chas — Sat, 21 May 2011 08:17:10 +0000

Thanks to Bridgesong for the blog – it explained a couple of cases where I could not parse the clue.

I found the Greek thematic answers fairly quickly but (I’m sorry to say as an Englishman) George and the Dragon took me much longer.
I had heard of Grendel but I did not remember where it fitted in so Beowulf was my last one.

The anagram for 24a took me an age to work out but when I finally got it I looked back at the clue. I saw that Araucaria had been totally fair – just rather cryptic!

By: Biggles A

Biggles A — Sat, 21 May 2011 07:18:31 +0000

Thanks Bridgesong, I saw that one too but it is in the context of worthless, sorry, pretentious and I still have difficulty in understanding the connection.

By: bridgesong

bridgesong — Sat, 21 May 2011 07:01:00 +0000

Further research shows that the quote in @7 above is by Doll Tearsheet, speaking to Falstaff, after Pistol has made a rather pretentious speech, so justifying the ham actor connection.

Don’t we learn a lot by doing crosswords!