Comments on: Guardian 25,774 – Bonxie

By: nametab

nametab — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 19:00:34 +0000

A post 5 days late: did anyone notice that an (almost) alternative solution to 8d is ‘rotten’ – as in Jonny Rotten erstwhile punk?

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:04:47 +0000

Well, um, Google finds 1.78 million hits! This includes dictionaries and dear old Wikipedia. Guess a new reference work might be on your Xmas wish list,

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 22:48:21 +0000

Well, I found this incredibly difficult. As you can see from the time of this blog.

Very enjoyable and I just wish this had been switched with last Saturday’s offering!!!!

“Quite a delightful morning exercise which did not trouble me at all…”

Yet again UY you astonish me. Thanks for the blog andd thanks to Bonxie for the puzzle.

P.S. I can only find rennet as a mistake for reinette! What is your source?

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:54:15 +0000

Actually the Eavis’s decided not to attempt it because all the portaloos were at The Olympics. Winning gold medals – very buttock clenching?

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:34:47 +0000

Thanks Bonxie and UY

I cringe whenever I see Bonxie – as it usually means a lot of hard work and often getting one or two wrong. Although this was no push over – managed to get through it. A number of new words and new definitions of old words – but the clue-ing made it a case of confirming the meaning of the word rather than go looking for options.

PORTAL was my cod … and amused to read that this year’s Glastonbury festival was closed due to a shortage of PORTALOOS – which put an extra smile on to the face for the surface of it.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:13:42 +0000

Jimmy Savile too.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:52:14 +0000

Flying moves? Drop kicks?

Still it’s nice to be reminded of professional “wrestling”. Jackie Pallo. Billy Two Rivers. The Boston Crab. Showbiz just isn’t what it was.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:16:49 +0000

For some reason, I have always found Bonxie one of the hardest Guardian setters. Today’s offering, however, was eminently doable.

Splendid (and precise) clueing all around, with clues like 5d (BANK STATEMENT), 23ac (CONSTRUCT) and one of two clues we didn’t find (PORTAL, 26ac) some of the best.
Just like RCW, we were playing around with the obvious TOR. But referring to the Glastonbury Festival in this way, Bonxie made clear he’s a ‘now’ setter.

TWEED (24ac) (the other one we didn’t get) is, we think, the Achilles heel of this puzzle. Weak construction – one we’ve seen before, though. Also no need to capitalise King.

But all in all, splendid crossword, even though we weren’t taken by the imagery of 7d and 18d (a bit typical to the Guardian, IOO).

Many thanks to Bonxie for a challenging (but not too difficult) puzzle and UY for the excellent blog.

By: Davy

Davy — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:02:19 +0000

Thanks UY,

An excellent puzzle from Bonxie that I really enjoyed. The last one in was BANDONEON which took me an eternity
to get and even then I missed the parsing. I also failed to spot the clever anagram of ten across. Loved the
simplicity of AMEND and the great surfaces leading to UNLACED and BANK STATEMENT. Favourite clue was, you guessed it,
PORTAL which gave me a good laugh and also had a surface that painted a picture. I could see those ladies queueing
up with rings in hand. Apart from 10 and 11 across, I didn’t have any problen with the parsing so thanks Bonxie for
a tough but fair puzzle.

By: Martin P

Martin P — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:57:05 +0000

Sue and I found this a cracker in t’ pub this evening.

Favourites as RCW’s.