Comments on: Guardian Quiptic 648/Algol

By: Nic

Nic — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 05:57:02 +0000

Two ‘beginners’ here.

This is my first completed quiptic, (except for brulee, which we wouldn’t have ever figured out)

The theme was very helpful, nudging us in the right direction before we had fully solved the clue. To be honest, I rarely find quiptics easier or quicker, than cryptics so it was refreshing to have a theme.

5 ac, They must have fixed the error; our version has enigma’s.

By: John

John — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:28:32 +0000

Not really adding much, but perhaps there is s slight element of crypticness in that when the ball goes into the hole in golf, it has been sunk. (So both the ball that cannot be holed, and the ship that cannot be holed, are unsinkable)

By: Pierre

Pierre — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:51:10 +0000

Thanks for commenting, Mike – glad you enjoyed it!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:25:57 +0000

Thanks, I enjoyed.

To answer the question about a themed quiptic, I consider myself to be the target audience (beginner and the quiptic is about the only cryptic I can consistently solve) and I managed this and enjoyed the themed element. As far as I am concerned the point of a quiptic is that it should not be too hard but contain all the elements of a good cryptic. A theme doesn’t necessarily make it hard, especially when the entry clue is as easy as this one, but it does add one of the fun elements of many harder cryptics, so in this case I’m all for it!

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:19:30 +0000

Uh? So 11 is a Quick clue? That would be why it’s called a Qui[ptic] then. Strictly speaking, we should be complaining that there aren’t enough of these in general.

Remembering when I was even more of a beginner than I am now, I have to say that had I seen 8ac as the first clue in those days I would have given up immediately. I suspect other beginners might feel the same. Psychologically, that clue should have come further down the list so that people “have got a start” before they get too frightened!

Fortran eh? I was already brainwashed by the Algol family before I finally got to use Fortran. There again I could have never got a spacecraft to go wildly off course by accidently leaving out one punctuation character!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:53:55 +0000

Seems peculiar to bother to have a themed Quiptic: obviously you can if you want, since someone has, but per the rationale behind the quiptic mission, to wit keeping things simple for beginners, it seems, well, rather odd!

I’m further surprised that we didn’t see A BAND ON SHIP in this one, though we were close.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:55:03 +0000

Pierre – I agree it’s not really cryptic, I was just trying to excuse it on grounds of its relation to the theme.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:40:01 +0000

Morning Andy, and thanks for your thoughts on ‘uncharacteristically’. Still not convinced, though …

Morning Andrew. You are of course right on BLUE, thank you. I understood the reference in UNSINKABLE, but my question remains: why is this cryptic?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:23:44 +0000

Thanks Pierre. I thought this was good fun, with lots of watery references that weren’t obviously linked to the theme (e.g. 2ac)

10 ac – you can have Royal BLUE and Navy BLUE

23,16 – the myth has it that the band played “Nearer, my God, to thee” rather than “Abide with me” , though this is probably not true. I was reading this Wikipedia article yesterday which debunks a number of the legends.

11ac refers to the fact that the Titanic was described as UNSINKABLE, though, according to the Wikipedia article, only after the sinking.

By: andy smith

andy smith — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:10:48 +0000

Thank you Pierre (& Algol). Some of these clues were very neat I thought.

Re 12, 8 I thought the ‘uncharacteristically’ was just that a drop in the ocean is something small and insignificant, but something that is ‘titanic’ isn’t..

I prefer Fortran btw.