Comments on: Guardian 25,420 – Puck

By: William

William — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:30:06 +0000

Thank you Uncle Yap. So exotic to have a blogger running in and out of China isn’t it?

Got there in the end but took ages. Is the F = following (of FREEMAN) some editors mark? Don’t think I’ve come across this before.

Marvellous crossword, Puck, many thanks.

More please.

By: Davy

Davy — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:18:02 +0000

Thanks UY,

An excellent puzzle from Puck which provided great entertainment. I couldn’t see how the ‘F’ was clued in FREEMAN and didn’t think of f=following which I thought was quite sneaky. I put DINGO for 21a but totally failed to see it in the clue, so I must agree with Gervase on that one.

My favourite clue for its graphic surface is TURBOPROP. Thanks Puck.

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:47:24 +0000

Thanks, Puck and Uncle Yap for an entertaining afternoon’s solving.

I got the theme quite early in the process but like others, I had various accompaniments to Piano!

What a treat to follow the link to Maestro Arrau and what an inspiration he is to the world.

Giovanna

By: Robi

Robi — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:29:28 +0000

Difficult but entertaining puzzle.

Thanks UY; although I got PIANO PIECE, I couldn’t parse it, so thanks also to NeilW @2. I never realised that F OFF meant following off – yet another F*ing abbreviation, although it is in Chambers. Perhaps someone can give me the context for this.

I did like LOLLIPOP amongst many others.

By: liz

liz — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:09:00 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap. I found this quite hard and resorted the check button much more often than I would have liked. Struggled to see 15dn for ages, then worked it out once I had solved SOFT PART. Lots of enjoy, even if I made heavy weather of it!

By: gm4hqf

gm4hqf — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:04:28 +0000

Thanks Uncle Yap and Puck for a nice blog and, for me, a tester of a puzzle.

Took me ages to finish and last in was 6d ECCE HOMO. One of these puzzles where, if you don’t get the solution to the referenced clue, it is hard work.
Once the penny dropped on PIANO PIECE the going got a bit easier. Too many nicely crafted clues to single one out.

By: smutchin

smutchin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:28:41 +0000

Enjoyed this but found it very tough. CLAIR DE LUNE was the first solution I filled in, because it was the only phrase that made sense from the letters, and GRAN was a relatively easy one to work out, and from that I guessed that 15d had to be PIANO PIECE, but couldn’t for the life of me work out why. (Thanks NeilW for the explanation.) From there I was able to get MOONLIGHT SONATA, though again it took me a while to work it out because there were the “wrong” number of letters in the anagram fodder – I did wonder if MO might be from “Doctor” doing double duty.

There were still several gaps left when I eventually admitted defeat.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:22:23 +0000

Thanks all
This was a vey well used theme for a dozen solutions. The delightful clue at 15d led to a solution which was used in a good variety of ways.
For some reason I cannot explain (like Roger) I struggled with my last in ‘denier’ although it should have been straightforward.

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:46:45 +0000

Thanks Uncle Yap and Puck for a very good blog of an excellent puzzle.

Thanks too NeilW for the parsing of 15d – simple once one sees it.

16a was a tease because I nwas tempted to see Mo as Doctor. But eventually the penny dropped.

Many excellent clues inc 10,20, 16a,. 21a, 25a, 2d, 17d.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:25:16 +0000

Thanks to UY and to Puck for a good workout.

Although not piano-related, 17d could also have a musical nuance, in that LOLLIPOP is a term Beecham used for short titbits to delight audiences (and this is the last week of this year’s Proms).