Comments on: Guardian 25,409 / Enigmatist

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:47:20 +0000

Had this lying around 1/3 finished and took it out of the pile yesterday and started working hard on it. The long anagram came very slowly, since I had never heard of the phrase, but once I had a “guess” worked out, the internet proved it correct. Had a couple I couldn’t explain, thanks Eileen, and putting in AHEM confidently at 7 prevented figuring out 10/26.

It was still nice to manage to almost finish what had been impenetrable for some time.

Nice puzzle, Enigmatist!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:11 +0000

No problem, Graham – thanks for the response.

By: GHD

GHD — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:26:00 +0000

Hi Eileen,

Yes, sorry I was reading the question mark as yours and forgetting that it was in the original clue

Graham

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:33:24 +0000

Thanks, Graham, but I think you’re perhaps reading too much into this.

A man in a Post Office [building] might be sending a letter / parcel – and therefore be a sender – or he could be doing something else, hence Enigmatist’s [not my] question mark. I wasn’t querying the clue / solution.

By: GHD

GHD — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:09:28 +0000

Eileen,

I think for 27ac you have to read ‘a man in Post Office’ with office meaning holding the job of eg

“The term and office of a rector are called a rectorate”

So someone charged with the job of post(ing) could rightly be called ‘a s(c)ender’

Graham

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:23:51 +0000

Wonderful!

Many thanks, jetdoc.

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:00:13 +0000

Eileen, the original clue for 1a was ‘Bestselling single hardly covering Pulp in glory!’ but it underwent editorial bowdlerisation, unfortunately.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:07:33 +0000

Thanks all
That’s what I call a cryptic cossword.
Although I had been out all day it took me well into the night to finish – actually I didn’t write in ‘tarap’ because, unlike Eileen I couldn’t find a reference to it anywhere. The same excellent lady also unravelled a few that I had got but still puzzled me. B(W)ill’s mother was an unknown to me.
A very good day for The G.’s solvers, well done all.

By: James Droy

James Droy — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:38:12 +0000

Thank you Eileen but I despair; trying this on four long bus trips and over coffee waiting for said busses to turn up spending more than ninepence but not knowing that should be ‘right’, aware that Camembert is not somewhere but something, so I didn’t put it in however well it fitted same with ‘haunt’ seemed the answer but confusing my a from “with a” rather than tip of adviser. I doubt William’s blessed mother has heard that expression and to top it off with Tarap, a double bonus word that nobody has ever heard of and is not in the dictionary.
Much of the clueing seems clumsy even when explained: other ranks is commoner over in another place (the Times), as is one for ‘a’ instead of ‘i’. I suppose the Guardian is more class conscious and finds it somewhat repellent that officer casualties are more important (after all, they are people like us) that those of the other ranks.
I don’t mind complex anagrams, obscure words or phrases or the occasional clumsy befuddled sentence but a fulmination of flummoxers like this takes the…
All that said I usually find Enigmatist a doddle, so perhaps this is my c’uppance.

By: Engineerb

Engineerb — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:02:49 +0000

I’ve been doing the Guardian for about 5 years now & Enigmatist is still the only setter that I really cannot warm to. Just when I think that I may be softening toward shim he does something like this: a puzzle where a key entry depends on a saying that I (as a foreigner) had never heard of & that didn’t seem to make any sense when I tried to work it out. I parsed out the anagram – but the correct answer made no more sense to me than the myriad of incorrect ones that also contained 5 valid words. I have to admit that I gave up in disgust (it was a shame because I loved the “Drop Anchor” clue)