Comments on: Guardian 25,444 – Shed

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:22:23 +0000

RCW, mathematically speaking you are of course right, as is MattD.
But why on earth would you want to see TREX as one big multiplication?
Moreover, it would be a very unfair device in Crosswordland where it is all about wordplay [which, in my opinion, this isn't]. And what happened in this case to the ‘.’ in T.REX (as the band was called)?
I’m sorry, but I find this explanation (within the borders of Crosswordland) absurd.
If we were to accept this, then WAY could equal WAXY. Or to stretch the boundaries even more, ANTIMESON might be clued as ANON.
Maybe, others will disagree but I am fine with my own explanation.

By: Shed

Shed — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:44:59 +0000

Thanks all, especially Uncle Yap for a clearer analysis than I could have produced myself. Thanks also to NeilW #1 and Eileen #8 for parsing ‘en route’ the way I meant it to be parsed. QUIRINAL was a new word on me too, but when a friend pointed it out (having come across it in the Daily Telegraph Quick Crossword), I thought I’d better get in there before Paul did.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:21:12 +0000

Sil,now I am being pedantic, but matt was simply pointing out that multiplication is both associative and commutative.

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:14:54 +0000

Apparently it’s Geordie for Fool

By: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:13:33 +0000

To call someone a Clart – means they faff around. Not sure if I picked it up in Glasgow or Newcastle (or perhaps from my in-laws) but sounds reasonable to this muddy explanation.

By: FranTom Menace

FranTom Menace — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:45:08 +0000

It’s grand, I was at a loose end a couple of weeks back and picked a random crossword from the archive, it happened to be a Shed. Mightily impressed with it (they don’t come up often!) I did another couple the next day, I have to say that it’s my style of puzzle. The odd liberty with the standard rules but none which I’d consider as unfair.

Having no compiler as a favourite, if it came down to it then Shed would certainly be up there.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:48:46 +0000

First I would like to say that I agree with cholecyst @4 that this puzzle was “a little gem”. One that took us, just like tupu, quite some time to get into – so no “over easy challenge”.

There were a few words that were new to us (toadflax, John Aubrey, clarty, Quirinal) but they were all gettable – which is another plus for this splendid crossword.

As to TREK, just like some others we were (or to be more accurately, I was) on the 10cc track. After having ???K, I suggested that the answer might be TREK (from the definition). And see, my not-into-pop PinC got the T.Rex connection!
I am fine with the clue. But not with MattD when he says “Multiplying the whole thing by 100 is the same as multiplying ANY of the different numbers by 100″. I think the clue works only because X is the last letter of T.Rex.
T R E X multiplied by 100 = T R E (X multiplied by 100).

Nowadays we see Shed more as part of Biggles than in his own right.
But this was a warm welcome back!!

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:52:29 +0000

I think matt @19 makes it perfectly clear that ‘trek’ is absolutely valid even if you want to be a mathematical pedant.
And I am sure nobody wants that,do they?

By: apiarist

apiarist — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:28:27 +0000

amulk. I really can see what you mean but as you say it is “crosswordy” and therefore I think the full stop, no matter where it appears, can be forgotten and overall increasing tre x by 100 can become tre k.

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:19:14 +0000

Thanks for the blog UY

I was pleased to complete this while away on holiday and without any dictionary or on-line aids. I usually find Shed difficult but I thought this was pitched just right in terms of level of difficulty and accuracy of clueing – apart from 25ac. (I agree with the comment by Mark @10 – ‘anneal’ is not a synonym for ‘reinforce’.) But thank you Shed for an entertaining couple of hours while the rain was falling outside my hotel window.