Comments on: Guardian 25,363 / Boatman

By: Pat O'Brien

Pat O'Brien — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:12:45 +0000

Hi Duncan,
This puzzle was printed in today’s Brisbane Courier Mail. Like most others, I found it fairly easy and enjoyable.

I thought you may be interested to know that 19a appeared as:

“Sprinted after the explosion in Asian capital”.

This is unusual as they usually print them as they appear in the Guardian (typos and all).

But it is also the second time that they have done this recently – the previous time was a puzzle blogged by Uncle Yap a couple of months ago, when a particular clue prompted a bit of controversy and a lot of discussion and it was changed to read apropos a suggestion by Uncle Yap.

I wonder if they read Fifteensquared before publishing?

By: LR

LR — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:25:44 +0000

The led/lead mistake is not the worst mistake in this puzzle. LADY’S MAN is not an acceptable spelling of LADIES’ MAN.

For shame.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:59:53 +0000

Dave @34
I certainly agree on ‘a in 12a. The omission of the article would have left it open to be a verb or noun,an extra dimension.
Stiofain @36 Thanks.

By: aguers

aguers — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:07:14 +0000

@Brian H

‘the reference to an obscure American author who is only mentioned periphally in “The Oxford Companion to English Literature”’

Ellison is hardly obscure; this is more the fault of the Oxford Companion, which depending on which edition you’re using, can be extremely conservative in its coverage.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:15:48 +0000

Why did you did it, Taxi Phil?

By: Cruciverbophile

Cruciverbophile — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:05:05 +0000

Fascinating puzzle, thanks Boatman. It’s very noble of the setter to own up to led/lead mistake – one which anyone could have made – but shouldn’t the editor have picked this one up? Not for the first time, I wonder if there actually is a crossword editor at the Guardian.

By: stiofain

stiofain — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:57:53 +0000

sorry proper link

By: stiofain

stiofain — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:55:31 +0000

I thoroughly enjoyed this.
RcWhiting @32
anax has a theory on categorising these puzzles
the emergent theme causing a backward smile versus the need for specialist knowledge/google slog (sloogle?)
themed or thematic

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:53:07 +0000

Didn’t enjoy this at all, didn’t finish.

I do not like all the extraneous words in many of the clues:

across
10 in
12 a
16 for
22 on
24 into

down
3 created from
5 on
7 of the
17 gets

6a “carries” is barely justifiable
19a “in the lead” a mess
14d “split by colour” – prismatic does not mean this; “split into colours” would be nearer, but still not an adequate definition.

Rant over

By: Taxi Phil

Taxi Phil — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:53:39 +0000

20D having been my COD, for the benefit of Walruss, Scchua, and anyone else in doubt :

“Why did you do it ?” is equal to the slangy “how come you did it ?”, hence “why did” = “how come”.

Enjoyed this offering from Boatman a great deal, another favourite clue being 22A.