Comments on: Guardian 25,663 / Paul

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 01:53:57 +0000

Thanks Paul and Eileen

Didn’t start this one to mid July and it took quite a few sittings to finally get it out. Spent another week trying to work out why SPOONERISM fitted and finally gave up and came here to find out – hilarious !!

What a brilliant puzzle for a Friday and whilst seeing the royalty theme did not twig on to the chess one as much.

Great fun.

By: Bodgel

Bodgel — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 09:50:25 +0000

Jackie, you’re right! And my old Chambers agrees with you. One of those wandering words, I suppose.

A belated thanks to Eileen and all for explaining some fiendish cluing.

By: Jackie Holt

Jackie Holt — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 18:13:00 +0000

Bodgel, that was my understanding of prude too, but -

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prude

- has the form used in the crossword as the first definition!

I’m really glad to have found this blog as I could not work out the reason for 11a (Spoonerism), despite much head-scratching. Thanks Eileen for supplying the (hilarious!) answer.

And thanks too to Paul for creating a such a superb puzzle, I was thrilled to have completed it. It wasn’t exactly a quick solve, but I enjoyed it immensely.

By: Bodgel

Bodgel — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:42:17 +0000

I see I have embarRassed myself further.

By: Bodgel

Bodgel — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:41:30 +0000

Definitely one of the 90% on this one – I got stuck at 11 right and one wrong (too embarassing to give details since it wasn’t even spelt correctly, but it certainly didn’t help with the rest). But I don’t think it’s just defensiveness that leads me to point out that a prude is someone who disapproves of someone else’s behaviour, while a goody two shoes is someone who seeks approval by his or her own behaviour. About as close in meaning as day and night, in fact?

By: r_c_a_d

r_c_a_d — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:49:30 +0000

Great puzzle. I don’t often venture into the midweek crosswords but I might start doing the Friday ones now instead of the Saturdays (which have been a bit dull recently).

By: MikeC

MikeC — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 09:05:35 +0000

I came late to this one. Very little success on first visit but made rapid headway second time around. An excellent puzzle, ingenious and amusing: thanks to both Paul and Eileen.

By: AndrewC

AndrewC — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 08:14:51 +0000

Maybe my brain wasn’t working but I was one of the 90%

By: rhotician

rhotician — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:35:21 +0000

Paul, Eileen, PaulB @25, RCW @28 and Thomas99 @32:

I began by solving 1ac which told me that 2dn began with M. I then, without really looking at 16, decided that the rest of the 2dn clue could only lead to ‘monarch’ for which the solution to 16 must be the definition. Sure enough ‘queen’ fitted the bill. The clue at 16 was therefore a simple Cryptic Definition, albeit, how shall I say, a bit feeble. Proceeding slowly and unsurely I completed the puzzle.

Turning to the blog I was gratified to see that the estimable Eileen seemed to agree about 16. “But there must be more to it than that” she said. Then looking at QUEEN on the screen the penny dropped. I scrolled forward to make a comment only to find that some foxy person had beaten me to it by some way.

Later it occurred to me that if I thought that 16 as a simple CD was a bit feeble then without ‘in a group’ it just couldn’t stand up. Hence my suggestion that ‘group’ might be doing double duty (as the definition and as part of the CD).

Clearly my three respondents don’t agree and I assume that Paul would deny it. Fair enough.

I agree with everyone on the general excellence of the puzzle. 11ac is superb. A definition by example and a CD, both very witty.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:04:56 +0000

rhotician @24-
No, “group” isn’t doing double duty. It refers to Queen as a pop group, not to the queen as a card. The clue’s a double definition; One of four cards = Queen and group = Queen. It took me a long time to solve, but it’s a conventionally constructed clue.