Comments on: Guardian Cryptic 25467 Brendan

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:51:22 +0000

How delightful! I am growing to like Brendan more and more, perhaps it’s one of those “wavelength” things? Looked at the puzzle last night for a bit and I think all I did was put some bars in the multi-word spots on the grid. Oh, and got GUARDIAN – using the printed header to make sure I spelled it correctly – and thought “hmmm, that’s amusing, that’s the name of the paper…”

Sat down with it this “morning”, noticed a couple of setters’ names in clues, noticed the rampant use of words like “clue” in the clues… and all of a sudden I was filling in answers like crazy. An easy one for me in general, so perfect for a Monday, though a few went unparsed and stayed in pencil, thanks there scchua, and I failed to get TREE! I had forgotten what “Araucaria” means!

As mentioned by many, a puzzle loaded with affection and smiles, thank you for all of them, Brendan!

By: Boatman

Boatman — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:08:18 +0000

I agree. A very pretty piece of work, full of good feeling.

Incidentally, my wife’s name is an anagram of “Brendan? A1″ … Make of that what you will.

Stella – wrong side of the Irish Sea, I’m afraid – that’ll be the mother-in-law you were thinking of.

By: Davy

Davy — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:59:39 +0000

Thanks scchua,

I did most of this yesterday afternoon and finished it off this morning. The last one in was ON PAPER which was clever. Lots of great clues and tricky(to me) wordplay. I particularly liked LOGGING OFF, SENTRY, SOLVER and AGENCIES.

There were plenty of easy ways into this puzzle and the theme soon became apparent. For once, I didn’t have much difficulty in parsing the clues but wouldn’t describe the puzzle in general as easy, unlike NeilW. Maybe I just don’t have his massive interlect.

Thanks Brendan for a great puzzle.

By: MEB

MEB — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:59:32 +0000

I gave a little cheer when I saw the clue to 23a. I remember that, shortly after Enigmatist had been introduced to us goodness knows how many years ago as a 15 year-old schoolboy, he produced a clue based on the estimating anagram of his name. Like orchestra/carthorse it is one I have carried round in my head ever since.

By: Tony Davis

Tony Davis — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:06:23 +0000

Forgive my grumpiness, but it is infuriating, when viewing this blog on a smartphone, to be presented with a series of quite superfluous images of football and hockey players and diagrams illustrating concepts which are surely familiar to us all. End of tirade.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:26:33 +0000

An affectionate crossword is what we thought it was.

By: dunsscotus

dunsscotus — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:15:40 +0000

Thanks for all the help on this one, which I found quite difficult, and a special word of thanks for taking the trouble to provide the pictures.

By: stumped

stumped — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:12:20 +0000

Simply look at the category Guardian right here for names of setters.

By: MattD

MattD — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:26:17 +0000

Highly enjoyable puzzle but I am uncomfortable with 25a as unlike all the other setters mentioned, you had to know the names of the setters. Can’t decide whether that is better or worse than requiring some knowledge about Shakespearean characters or not for 24a. As eileen said, wouldn’t take long on google to find the name rufus!

However, didn’t spoil an enjoyable solve. Took far too long to get goalie though!

By: scchua

scchua — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:32:51 +0000

Thanks Brendan for dropping by and giving confirmation.

Hi Paul B, that was a hypothetical “if” – don’t think I have (nor ever will) encounter a setter who does not present fresh clues,……