Comments on: Guardian Cryptic 25746 Crucible

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:55:55 +0000

I worked this through much as Sil and his PiC did. Interesting puzzle. Got stuck with my inked-in SENT at 6. And not finding PLIMSOLL defined as a “line” anywhere… that was a very hard clue.

12 should read “10s was boss on board” since the answer is plural.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:09:02 +0000

Rather late coming to this (I don’t start doing the crossword until the train journey home from work), but a pernickety point: according to my Flanders and Swann CD, “Transport of Delight” has an indefinite article in front of it.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:04:42 +0000

Thanks, yvains, for the link, which, I think, provides the [missing?] link with 8ac!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:56:04 +0000

As a non-Brit I had never heard of Flanders & Swann (and after seeing a You Tube clip I do understand why). My PinC who is as British as one can be, had no bells ringing either.
FLANDERS was one of our first entries (and SWANN easy to get, too), but although they weren’t part of Our World, it was clear that 10,21 had to be a song from yesteryears. We wrote all the letters out, and only having an A and a G at the right place and being pretty sure that that little word in the middle was OF, we got to TRANSPORT OF DELIGHT.
The first part (TRANSPORT) confirming that our CORACLES (17d) was right. Thereafter, life wasn’t that hard anymore.

Very nice and satisfying crossword, eminently solvable without having any knowledge of 2 & 16ac.

While I am not so keen on using brand names for a solution (as part of a clue, I don’t mind that much), I had no problem with MECCANO (I had it, the boy next door had it) and OPEL (Duncan, Opel is defined as ‘transport’ and that’s what it is – the thing that Brits call Vauxhall).

A lively crossword, one perhaps with some clues that would be rejected by the editor of The Times, which is in fact exactly what I meant two or three blogs ago with ‘adventurous clueing’.But please, do not start a discussion on this again.
Perhaps easier than yesterday’s Orlando (although harder to get into), but just as clever.

Fine puzzle by a setter who also has two delightful alter egos (Radian in the Indy and the fabulous Redshank in the FT).

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:21:44 +0000

Thanks, Crucible and scchua – needed the blog!

This took a bit of getting in to but enjoyable once solved.

Duncan @ 24 N for Norway is in the phonetic alphabet as used when spelling words over the phone for example.

Giovanna x

By: bat020

bat020 — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:08:54 +0000

This was pure genius. As London omnibus user I was especially pleased to discover this, which I’d not previously heard: http://youtu.be/mVHbF0jAzMw

By: duncan

duncan — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:03:44 +0000

wee-ee-ee-eelll…… I got a lot further with this unaided than I first thought I would, largely because I figured there must be a songwriting duo in there, & guessed the right one. after that, much dredging of the grey-matter returned “transport of delight”, with a few crossers to fix it. I didn’t quite finish, but I’ve been in town all day & not concentrating, but I only missed three or four.

one of them was “punt”- not at all happy about “n = norway”, though I suppose with the transport theme, we should have expected a few vehicle country-codes.

I got “opel”, but I think it was inadequately defined. the name isn’t interchangeable with “car” unless you own several cars & an opel is one of them: “I’m going to take the opel”.

but no other F&S references? odd.

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:28:57 +0000

Thanks scchua and Crucible

I got round to this late afternoon after a few days off. A fine puzzle – I particularly liked 10,21 and 13.

By: muffin

muffin — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:16:41 +0000

Hi eileen,
Not quite sure I understand your reservations. Surely solvers won’t look at fifteensquared until they are either finished or stuck, so will want to see the answers anyway?

By: yvains

yvains — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:15:06 +0000

Thanks, Eileen – I’m sorry, I didn’t imagine anyone would be going to the blog, unless they were looking for a discussion/explanation of the puzzle – another time, I’ll wait for the blogger

Anywhere, here’s the link (or rather, a slightly clearer one – I thought the other one was a little bit fuzzy in parts, which is just what you don’t want with F & S!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yHrpPRYgYM