Comments on: Everyman N° 3,392 (2nd. October 2011)

By: Miss S Tyrrell

Miss S Tyrrell — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:22:52 +0000

Hi PeterO – thanks for taking the time to reply. I am very much a novice at these crosswords and hardly ever complete them. So I am very grateful to this blog to help understand where I have gone wrong and, hopefully, improve my technique. Thanks again.

By: PeterO

PeterO — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:32:11 +0000

Miss S Tyrrell – as you probably saw, you are not the only one to misspell buoyant (you won’t see it any more, because I have corrected it). I got it right when solving the puzzle, and in the explanation of the clue, but still managed to get it wrong in giving the answer. In the non-prize puzzles, this would not be an issue, because with the utilities I use the answers are taken straight from the website, and any misspellings are the Grauniad’s fault, but with a prize puzzle like the Everyman, I have to fill in the answers myself, and typos are a little more likely to creep in.

By: Miss S Tyrrell

Miss S Tyrrell — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:19:41 +0000

Thanks Wolfie – I should have checked more carefully. Was misled by the answers given above to think I had spelt it correctly. Thanks again.

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:10:06 +0000

Miss Tyrell

I’m afraid you have been held up by your mis-spelling of ‘Buoyant’.

If it’s any comfort, I wasn’t sure of the spelling either, and needed to check before entering it.

By: Miss S Tyrrell

Miss S Tyrrell — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 19:43:09 +0000

I have waited all week to find the answer to 19ac. I was left with B-U-E-A G by the downward clues and could find no word to fit. I now see the answer is BOOMERANG but that conflicts with the spelling of BOUYANT. Have I missed something? No-one else has mentioned anything regarding this.

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:37:38 +0000

A straightforward but enjoyable offering from Everyman. Thanks to PeterO for the clear and illuminating blog.

My grandfather would have been distressed by the clueing of 13ac. He was a stevedore at Liverpool docks and always insisted on maintaining the distinction between a stevedore – the skilled operative who was in charge of the complex process of loading and unloading the ships – and the docker, who carried out the unskilled manual jobs under his direction. This distinction is not reflected in the dictionaries however, so I cannot fault Everyman for eliding the two terms.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:30:31 +0000

Thank you, Peter.

This was a pleasant Sunday morning stroll for me, in which I especially liked ASTRONOMER ROYAL for its nice surface, and AMBULANCE CHASER, which made me smile.

The Everyman and the Guardian Quiptic are still the best puzzles for beginning and improving solvers, imho. Once you get used to Everyman’s style, as a less experienced solver you’ll always have a good chance of finishing.