Comments on: Guardian 25,595 – Brendan

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:09:30 +0000

Loved this. Spent hours on it. Left with lots of pencil and a few blanks.

Thanks for the blog, Andrew, and the delightfully ghastly themed puzzle, Brendan.

By: Dolores Tadpole

Dolores Tadpole — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:55:16 +0000

To Gervase@7, if you’re still puzzling over where you came across “stone-blind”, maybe it was Blind Love by Tom Waits?

By: mark

mark — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:26:05 +0000

As others have said, not a cryptic crossword.
Lazy by the setter. I shall avoid in future

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:57:49 +0000

I agree with previous posters.

Not very cryptic and very unBrendanlike.

I particularly disliked 2d.

By: Tony Pay

Tony Pay — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:56:01 +0000

If I’m ignorant of — or, in this case, rusty on — the theme of a crossword, I tend to think of it as an opportunity to discover or rediscover some knowledge I might not otherwise have considered. (I sort of feel I should know SOMETHING about EVERYTHING — even though I don’t!-)

By: Martin P

Martin P — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:36:46 +0000

Did all but three even though I’ve never seen or read the confounded play.

I’m with Carol Vorderman.

By: AlexCrewe

AlexCrewe — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:26:38 +0000

Just finished the puzzle which I greatly enjoyed.

Macbeth is the most familiar of WS plays so I am surprised at the amount of hostility to its use as a theme. As to the lack of mathematical themes, did we not very recently have a “T” based puzzle that none seems to remember?

By: AlexHackney

AlexHackney — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:08:39 +0000

Just back to solving after a few months – a bit rusty so the last few haven’t really sparked. Don’t know the play that well but this was a lot of fun. Thanks Brendan. ‘ictus’ was a new word to me – but guessed it from ‘deictic’ etc.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:12:18 +0000

I’m a big fan of both themed crosswords and, in particular, themed crosswords by Brendan. However, this one, sad to say, didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

If you were well acquainted with Macbeth, then this puzzle was almost trivially easy – as others have said, more like a general knowledge crossword. If you aren’t well acquainted with it then it’s virtually unsolvable without recourse to research, which isn’t much good if you’re on the train or just looking for a quick lunch time break.

A good themed crossword should be more or less solvable even if you don’t know much about the theme (there should at least be solid cryptic pointers, if nothing else), while at the same time offering deeper rewards for those who are familiar with the theme.

In this regard, this one just didn’t quite cut it, unfortunately – although having said that, it was nonetheless a Brendan crossword and therefore inevitably had its pleasures.

By: William

William — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:04:16 +0000

Thanks Andrew. I’m in the ‘not-too-keen’ camp on this one. Brendan is among my favourite setters but I had a nasty feeling about this from the outset. My gut told me that the short down clues were all linked to the theme but, being a poor old scientist, I just knew I’d struggle. Got there only with a lot of external aids and that’s not my preferred way of solving crosswords.