Comments on: Guardian 25,547 – Chifonie

By: Gordon

Gordon — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:24:16 +0000

Hi Andrew
Sorry you are getting this late, but I do other things before my Guardian Weekly crossword in USA.
I’m surprised that nobody mentioned that Erica is not the true heather. Calluna is Heather, Erica is heath which is another plant altogether that very closely resembles heather and is sometimes mis-labelled as such. Both belong to the family Ericaseae which adds to the confusion though.
I suppose it is no worse than people calling pelagoniums geraniums, which they most certainly are not.
Can you tell I’m an pernickety gardener!
On another matter I thought clue 23a was very very poor.
Best wishes
Gordon

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:21:17 +0000

That’ll be ‘vide’ then Eileen. See also = C, as it’s apparently how you spell it.

By: Robi

Robi — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:35:27 +0000

Whatever next; perhaps we’ll have r=red soon (shock, horror!)

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:31:49 +0000

Sorry – !

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:31:16 +0000

Thanks for the tip, jackkt. [I'm afraid that, as far as I'm concerned, the single letter indication for 'see' is still 'v'. ;-0 ]

By: tupu

tupu — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:50:10 +0000

It is also in the free online Collins at the following address:

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/s

under abbreviations

By: jackkt

jackkt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:46:00 +0000

Eileen @26

I have Collins 9th edition (2007) and 10th (2009) and it’s in both.

A warning, if you buy the 10th edition it’s worth spending 10-15 minutes going through to check that every page is present as they had some binding issues resulting in missing chunks and duplication of other sections. According to feedback on Amazon I wasn’t the only one to experience this.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:42:15 +0000

As far as I’m aware setters can use any single-letter indicator they like, so long as it can be found in (the latest editions of) Collins and/or Chambers, for puzzles going into The Guardian, The Independent and The Financial Times. Not sure about The Daily Telegraph (although I suspect it’s the same), and in The Times you have to stick to the allowed list.

By: Davy

Davy — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:14:41 +0000

Thanks Andrew,

Very good puzzle from Chifonie that I enjoyed very much although the last four clues took a while to get. I think tupu hit the nail on the head when he described this as “considerable entertainment”. To me, entertainment is the key factor in a crossword and the yardstick is that the clues should be fair which today’s certainly were.

So many good clues so I’ll select ANCESTRY, PLASTER SAINT (I’d never heard of this but it’s a great expression), RAISE THE ROOF and SPECIOUS. By the way, ORACLE was the last one in.

Many thanks Chifonie.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:12:15 +0000

I will say about capitalisation and punctuation that when I was first introduced to cryptics, I was warned to (almost) ignore all of them as they’d probably be only there to mislead – this obsession with the “rules” – no they’re not rules they’re to be taken as guidelines – as how to set cryptics 50 odd years ago – the world moves on elsewhere.

If setters were obliged to follow Ximinean rules would Auricaria be allowed here or Anax in the Indy?

I don’t have an issue if setters do, I do if they’re obliged to.

Sorry I’ll end rant now.