Comments on: Independent 7922 / Hypnos

By: Graham Pellen

Graham Pellen — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:59:44 +0000

Like M_Oz I live in Adelaide. I have occasionally posted comments but they are always too late to be read or commented upon (apparently). I was born in the UK and although I have lived here for nearly 50 years, most of the English references are within my ken. As for this crossword, I got most of it, but the football references so beloved of some setters and contributors are irritating to me, although I still always check the weekend football results from England (particularly, these days, from my home town, Crawley). Why? Perhaps because of the juvenile and sometimes brainless – and violent – behaviour and moronic chanting of UK soccer fans.

Like M_Oz I do the three-week old crossword six days a week and always come here to read the blog. Long may it continue.

By: eimi

eimi — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:18:49 +0000

Thanks for the vote of confidence, M_Oz, and I agree about the national game and the world game – some solvers would obviously prefer clues that reference a sport only played in a few countries.

By: M_Oz

M_Oz — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:11:40 +0000

Apologies for the late blog. The Independent cryptic is republished in the Adelaide Advertiser 3 weeks after the original publication.

I managed (without accessing the internet) all except WIGAND, (and ENDOW) and COLLINA. From the theme clue and the obvious ones SERPICO, ASSANGE and DEEP THROAT I presumed that all of the others which were obtainable from the clueing were political/government whistleblowers.

As an antipodean I presumed that POLL, DOWD were somehow UK-specific but I did wonder about PONTING (Ricky Ponting former Australian test cricket captain). I thought PONTING must have made some contribution to exposing match fixing in international cricket. Thank goodness for the blog!! Even if I had twigged the secondary cryptic meaning of whistleblower (which in retrospect is really clever) I would not have easily got to COLLINA although it is well clued.

I seldom get the puzzles out completely and failing on only 3 clues is a fair result for me. As a non-UK person I have been obliged to pick up a great deal of UK-centric trivia in order to have a reasonable shot at the Independent (best cryptic published in Australian newspapers in my view) so I am not very sympathetic to the UK-resident detractors who think that UK football trivia should be beyond scope. After all soccer is the major code in the UK, and it is the “world game”.

“Too tough”? … not from where I stand. I thought it was a good puzzle and an excellent blog by Duncan.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:02:52 +0000

I didn’t get round to this puzzle yesterday so have only just completed it via Crossword Solver. Some of the whistleblowers (of both varieties) were unknown to me but I got there in the end, with some help from being able to check my guesses. I must say I’m not surprised at the volume of comments, and that I too would have thought the puzzle better suited to a Saturday.

By: pennes

pennes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:20:32 +0000

Looking at the comments here I think that a puzzle that requires in-depth or specialist knowledge, available to most only by research, can upset a lot of people, whereas few will be upset by a non-themed puzzle.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:38:02 +0000

Amen to all that. A number of the Indy setters often drop in to their blog, to thank everyone for comments, to defend a clue, or to tidy up any queries. Anax, Tees, Phi, Raich and Quixote often do, and I for one appreciate their contributions. But if others don’t read the blog or don’t want to get involved, there’s no compulsion.

By: eimi

eimi — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:49:20 +0000

Quite so. I have no problem with the manner of the request and I greatly admire Duncan’s blogs, but I’m concerned that contributions should be freely given and not expected as of right, which is not a response only to Duncan’s polite request for my comments but other contributions I have seen in parts of fifteensquared.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:07:08 +0000

Thank you eimi for these intersting and valuable insights into the process of editing the crossword. I appreciate you taking the time to write your thoughts here very much, as I’m sure we all do.

I’m sure that Duncan’s did not intend his request to be a summons. The request seems very polite and respectful, with no compulsion to reply.

Thanks again for writing here.

By: eimi

eimi — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:21:54 +0000

Well, this puzzle generated a lot of comment and still received far fewer comments than another place, so this wasn’t attention-seeking. I have mainly been using Hypnos on a Sunday since granting Quixote’s request for a transfer back to the daily, but thought this far too difficult for that slot. Perhaps it might have been more suited to Saturday, but I get the impression that those who didn’t like it yesterday wouldn’t have liked it much more then. I knew all the whistle-blowers except Wilson and Wigand and thought it was quite a clever theme to link the two types of whistle-blowers, but I bow to the majority verdict that it was too tough. Thomas @7, yes I do have lots of puzzles to choose from, but very few at the easier end of the scale, so it’s often hard to get the right balance for the week.

I am very uneasy about bloggers or commenters seeking to summon responses from setters and editors. Some don’t even read the blogs here and surely it’s up to them whether they wish to contribute.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:49:46 +0000

Meant to add that we were glad we weren’t blogging this one!