Comments on: Inquisitor 1225: One Down by Schadenfreude

By: Lansdowne

Lansdowne — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:21:07 +0000

Duncan says “Schadenfreude seems to be keen on anniversaries – two of his previous three Inquisitor puzzles also focused on anniversaries.” Surely the point is that few other Inquisitors relate to anniversaries, or otherwise relate to the date they are published. The Saturday crosswords before being labelled Inquisitor would routinely be based on the date, a distinctive feature that was lost in the rebranding.

The fact that one could identify the clues where the length differed from the grid space makes this a fair puzzle. Too often we see the dread words “numbers in brackets indicate the length as entered” and occasionally those words are true but missing.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:53:48 +0000

Doh! What an idiot. Having completed the initial grid-fill, I sunk the ship, but was then distracted, and failed to return to the puzzle to insert the debris. How stupid do I feel. Ah well, I never send them in anyway.

By: kenmac

kenmac — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:46:45 +0000

Another great puzzle from Schadenfreude. I just love it when the final grid consists of real words. To me it shows up other compilers who leave us with a grid full of nonsense (Rasputin’s RHUBARB excepted: http://fifteensquared.net/2012/04/11/inquisitor-1223-fools-by-rasputin/.)
Like Hi (and Ho and Ba and probably the entire population) I had more than my fill of that damned ship but this puzzle was a welcome relief. My PDM came when a tentative search for 21d gave me KARNATAKA. My synapses then sprang to life and suggested CARPATHIA. 1d wanted to be YESTERDAY for some time and that threw me for a while but it finally succumbed to pressure.
Great blog, Duncan.

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:13:35 +0000

I tumbled across the theme very early, having CE??E??R? for 1D relatively early on, and having been bombarded by Titanic-related items on the radio and television for weeks. Completion was another matter! Having tentatively entered READERS instead of NEEDERS at 7D didn’t help. However the greatest difficulty was on the bottom row for me, where it took me ages to realise that AITU and SANA (which I had originally entered in full) had to be abbreviated, and the IN formed part of INSERT (I was expecting SORT!). A superb puzzle from Schadenfreude. Hard but fair!
I should mention that Ho had solved a very similarly themed puzzle from the Crossword Club magazine (by Curmudgeon?) involving both flotsam and Titanic. Did anyone else have this experience?

By: Speo

Speo — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:30:16 +0000

Thanks to duncanshiell for the excellent blog and Schadenfreude for the Titanically challenging Inquisitor.
I had to delve slightly deeper to solve ARABIN @ 31d as although I sourced chambers for rabi as being the
‘harvest’ part of the clue; Wikipedia gave the International Vehicle Registration as ANG [also mentioning
that it was an unofficial registration].
However further research on the kingkong homepage, [the anorak zone], lists AN as the correct registration for Angola since c1928. Clue solved!
Many thanks to all, a really enjoyable Inquisitor to solve.