Comments on: Guardian 25,672 – Gordius

By: JollySwagman

JollySwagman — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:59:43 +0000

Lovely puzzle as usual from Gordius – likewise UY’s blog.

Particularly liked 11a. It works on more than one level. Firstly just as a well-formulated clue to yield the answer.

Secondly a sort of meta-misdirection to send pedants off on a wild goose chase leaving them eventually into a group denial that somehow the simple word “deploy” doesn’t mean “To spread out and place strategically”.

But it’s a funny thing that it only works for Gordius. Had Nimrod or Monk done the same they would not have drawn any fire.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:52:38 +0000

Well stone me there IS a Fidelio Overture. Four even, though the other three are called Leonora. The only Overture I’ve ever heard of is The William Tell and I’d always assumed that the associated opera was never performed.

So I’m obliged to conclude that the clue is very clever but just too..erm…arcane…recherche…whatever, and I shan’t be doing any of these Gordius’ things again.

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:45:58 +0000

Thanks Gordius and UY
Found this a really interesting challenge that divide into three:
- the actual writing in the answers – which was relatively straightforward apart from COIL which gave me trouble after first writing in PEAT (with knickers in a twist for PET around A ) followed by COAL with no sensible parsing and finally COIL (which I ended up parsing incorrectly as a dd – COIL = TWIST and also the part of the petrol engine that generates the spark )

- the parsing – which was the sting in the tail with 19, 20 and 22. Thought that FIDELIO was particularly good, as it was evident from the clue that the answer had to be flipped with something added. When googling FIDOLIO OVERTURE their were a number of references caused by the number of versions that Beethoven wrote before settling on the fourth one.

- the surfaces – which I only appreciated when going over the full grid again.

Overall a very enjoyable solve !

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:32:36 +0000

gloriam @13:

I don’t agree that the clue to MAMBA is loose. Adding ‘it’ would, controversially, introduce redundancy AND ruin the surface.

By: Taco_Belly

Taco_Belly — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:29:41 +0000

Many thanks to Uncle Yap for the blog. As a new-boy to 15sq I was very thankful to get an answer to the parsing of 22d which completely failed me.

Sad to say (for a few moments) I thought 10d was CRYSTAL TIPS (a UK childrens TV chararacter with amazing hair=Waves) but after taking the correct medication saw I was wrong.

Good fun without being too taxing – but loved 4d.

By: paul8hours

paul8hours — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:56:21 +0000

This went in quite quickly until I put 19d as ‘osprey’ which seemed to fit nicely, never having heard of Toller. Thanks for the clarification as always.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:54:37 +0000

I dislike 22dn a lot. Fidelio is not an overture it is an opera. I accept that the clue as it stands has quite a nice surface and that substituting ‘opera’ ruins it but ‘overture’ is too loose for me. Like others I had to go to the blog.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:32:47 +0000

Thanks all.
I enjoyed the debate about POL, especially RCW @15.

“I love a bit of looseness” then “I admired ‘deployed’ as the perfect verb”. That’s a win-win for RCW.

By: chas

chas — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:18:17 +0000

Thanks to UY for the blog. I needed you to explain why OILED was the right answer.

Superb misdirection in 10d: the numeration was right for British Navy and I persisyed in this until I had C-Y as the start then it fell into place. I may be fairly old but I never used a crystal set. Radios had valves when I was a lad.

I also parsed 7d as MAM plus BA.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:31:31 +0000

Thanks all
I love a bit of looseness, especially on a Tuesday.
I parsed 7d as Harry did.
After a too easy 75% this was redeemed for me by the SE corner where I (eventually) admired 15d and especially 13ac. ‘Assail’was a struggle to write in until the dictionary gave me a musical solution.
I could not parse 22d (except in the tupu fashion) until coming here.
When I solved 11ac (quite early) I admired ‘deployed’ as the perfect verb for what he had done.