Comments on: Inquisitor 1215: Countdown by Schadenfreude

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:50:28 +0000

You’re not alone in 1217.

By: Geoff Dennis

Geoff Dennis — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:03:52 +0000

Impossible!
Mind you I am stuck on this weeks 1217 too and doubtless thousands of people solved it days ago.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:12:26 +0000

This was a rare IQ solve for me. Travelling out to Austria on the day of publication meant picking up a copy of the paper at the airport. The cryptic, concise and various other puzzles provided relief for the flight so the IQ was left as my bedside companion for the first few days out there. Part way though I spotted the potential for OREZ on the bottom line and EVLEWT on the top. A brief moment of doubt came when I still hadn’t resolved the clash between CONDUIT and LOUCHE and thus had HUITHGIE in the grid – French and English! I quickly realised that this was just a coincidence and saw that the clash had to be resolved the other way around. I was most grateful to have Chambers and Bradford’s on my iPod Touch!

A very enjoyable puzzle that kept me entertained for a few nights after the days’ exertions of XC skiing.

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:55:55 +0000

For RR & NH’s comfort, I failed to spot the reversed countdown numbers, and took a punt on the V of REVS being replaced by the S of STRAINT and was able to work through the whole grid using the “single misprint” principle as indicated by HG above. Unfortunately this left me with total gibberish, at which point I gave up!

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:51:41 +0000

For RatkojaRiku and Neil Hunter (and probably covering the same ground as Ken’s e-mail):

This took me a couple of sessions to work through, and neither was that short.

In the first session, I solved a fair number of the clues, and entered the answers as best I could: checked cells that didn’t clash were pretty certain to be OK, but there were a lot of clashes, or potential clashes from clues I hadn’t solved. However, I had enough material to spot that a judicious resolution of quite a few clashes produced number-words backwards – I think I saw TWELVE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, THREE and ZERO – anyway, plenty to make me feel confident that I’d cracked the theme, especially as it fitted in with the title. Then I went to bed.

Session 2: Took a deep breath then weighed into the task at hand. With EVLEWT entered in the first row, the first letter of STRAINT at 2d is misprinted as V, therefore all its other letters are correct. This in turn leads to the clashes with CONDUIT at 18a and TOURER at 24a being resolved in favour of 2d and producing misprints in those two across answers, so their other letters are correct, and so on. Next, putting in THGIE (row 5) and NEVES (row 6) causes misprints in unchecked cells (assuming we’ve solved 4d and 7d), so we know the other letters in those down answers are correct.

So, to answer RatkojaRiku’s question (and for anyone else): Yes, it is on the basis of there only being one misprint per entry, and making the logical deduction that once you find it, the rest are correct, and this then determines the misprint in another entry …

But if I hadn’t spotted those first few reversed number-words, I’m not sure how I’d have coped with resolving the clashes, finishing off the remaining clues, and finding the definition of BACK NUMBER! (I forgot the hyphen – would that have been marked incorrect, I wonder.)

By: Neil Hunter

Neil Hunter — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:44:32 +0000

Also my first failure of the year; like RatkojaRiku, I simply couldn’t see how to decide which of the clashing letters to enter, despite solving most of the clues.

Since I haven’t entered a comment before, and only recently discovered this website, I’d like to add what an amazing service it is.

By: kenmac

kenmac — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:10:34 +0000

I have sent a private reply to RatkojaRiku.

By: RatkojaRiku

RatkojaRiku — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:05:37 +0000

Thanks for the blog, kenmac, and well done to all who solved a puzzle that I eventually gave up on. How I wish I had spotted the reversed digits in the grid!

I suppose that the main problem for me here was that I didn’t solve enough of the clues to be in with a shout of finishing.

One thing that puzzles me: when you find a clash in two intersecting lights, how do you know which of the two clashing letters is the one to be entered in the grid? Is it on the basis of there only being one misprint per entry? Is there any logic behind this, or is it more a case of trial and error, ensuring that no more than one misprint occurs in any single entry??

In any case, this was my first failure of 2012 – I suppose the opposition this week was simply too good!

By: Chesley

Chesley — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:44:14 +0000

I think that was the toughest IQ ever (Listener+ standard). For me, potential misprints in unchecked cells meant too much cold-solving required to be entirely satisfactory or fair.

However, a brilliantly constructed grid and excellent clueing.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:09:31 +0000

A puzzle to marvel at, literally.
I’m in the (S)COT, HEBREW, TOFT brigade – but these are merely quibbles.

I felt that the clue for 8d (AVENIR) was rather weak (but no-one else seems to mind): IN for “politician” is like GOVERNMENT for “Labour”, and AVER & “justify” aren’t that close – declaring something as true isn’t the same as showing that it is.

(Glad I didn’t have to blog that grid – thanks Ken. And of course, Schadenfreude, not to mention the editor John H.)