Comments on: Guardian 25,638 – Picaroon

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:17:50 +0000

Thanks Picaroon and Andrew,

Finally got to this one, earlier this week – and very glad that I did – what an excellent puzzle. Like many my favourites were the E-PIG and T[HE]ESTATE.

That SE corner was very tough and even after getting EGRESS finally – it still took quite a bit of thought to parse SERGE (which I hadn’t heard of as a French name – more from Russia – but happily see that is very common over there).

Not a big follower of the soccer variant of football and it required the help of Mr Google to help locate MESSI who I find out actually captains Argentina.

Anyway a great solve, even a few weeks after the fact!

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:15:12 +0000

Very interesting. I managed to get it all, although there was still a lot of pencil before I came here for the parsings…

Always nice to struggle with a new paradigm/wavelength.

Thanks for the entertainment, Picaroon, and the blog, Andrew & everyone else.

By: nametab

nametab — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:13:26 +0000

Thank you Picaroon. Some excellent constructions. One of those puzzles(like, say, Araucaria and Paul in 75% diffficulty mode) when you know that, if you keep concentrating, unravelling the misdirections etc, the answers will come. Very satisfying.
Agree very much with Tramp @30 concerning meeting needs of a majority audience in a daily. My circumstances dictate that the crossword often doesn’t get started until after 9.30 pm. If I want a taxing one, I’ll search it out when there’s time.

Gentle message to snipers: raising hackles doesn’t help your cause

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:09:16 +0000

Some good points there Jolly.
If I seek something a bit more challenging in my morning paper (there is never a Quiptic in my copy) I get lambasted on here because I am neglecting the needs of beginners. One could reverse that and suggest that the needs of folk like me are being neglected.
The only suggestion of yours which I cannot agree with is re:Azed, it is my Sunday delight despite all the obscure Scottish words. You do feel when it is finished that you have been in a decent tussle with the setter.

By: JollySwagman

JollySwagman — Fri, 18 May 2012 09:39:12 +0000

This was a fine puzzle. I’m surprised the Picaroon doesn’t want to tell us more about himself – and his cruciverbal influences.

I think you worry unduly about WITH as a bi-directional linkword. There’s probably a justification for it which I can’t think of right now but it sat well enough as a clue.

@RCW I agree – I think – well I am assuming what you meant was to have 2 puzzles – one vanilla – one tougher – like the Torygraph do.

In fact why the DT have no Toughie on Mondays, when the other papers also tend to have easy offerings, is a bit beyond me.

In the case of The Observer, they satisfy hardly anyone. The Everyman is too easy and the Azed is too hard, or at least too much populated with non-words.

By: buddy

buddy — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:35:30 +0000

Re Lionel Messi, it’s always as well to be upfront about your own pockets of igorance.

I’d never heard of William Shakespeare until I encountered him in a crossword.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:43:12 +0000

Really excellent puzzle by a setter we should savour.
The only clue that we more or less didn’t like was SLAP-BANG (10ac), but I am happy to say that we parsed it wrongly …. .
No cryptic definitions, but a crossword based on clever constructions – indeed, right up my street.

And such beautiful surfaces on top of that!
Like 2d or 13ac.
Splendid hidden answer in 13d (ILL AT EASE), nice inclusion of the device within the surface in 7d (‘I gain ground’) and an anagram in 21ac (TRADITIONALISM) that was not that obvious as it could also have been (AIM)* into something.
Special Prizes for the concise and elegant PIRATE (24ac) and TESTATE (19d).

In his post @45, Picaroon worries about the use of WITH in 25ac, which may be irrelevant to most solvers but which makes immediately clear to me that he cares about his work.

Top-notch crossword.

Many thanks to my fellow citizen Andrew for the blog.
Quite surprised though that Lionel Messi was a bridge too far.
Even Arachne – who is also not into footie – knows him (and wrote a (very nice) clue on this magician a while ago) ….

By: Tramp

Tramp — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:39:01 +0000

Picaroon: thanks for the thanks. If only I were a top pro.

Keep up the excellent work.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:54:09 +0000

Mardy league – Premier Division
Results
Paul B 2 RCW 0

By: Picaroon

Picaroon — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:52:07 +0000

Evening all,

Many thanks, Andrew, for the blog, as well to (the overwhelming majority of!) those posting.

Just for the record, I’ll say that I don’t agree with the use of “with” in the clue for EPIGRAMS here and I’m not too sure why I wrote it like that. Definition WITH subsidiary indication seems fine to me (with in the sense of “possessing”), as used in the clue for EGRESS. But I don’t think it makes grammatical sense to say: subsidiary indication WITH definition. So apologies for the lapsus calami.

Tramp: thanks for the vote of confidence. It means a lot coming from such a top pro.