Comments on: Guardian 25,801 – Gordius

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:37:26 +0000

Having made 3d WARMED (Alien sea=MED seemed to work), 12a would have to have been WALMED, so I didn’t finish it, though not being familiar with Walmer, it might not have helped.
26a leaped out as I live in the leaderless town.

Where was the definition for 1d? I don’t think it’s a common enough phrase for the whole clue to be acting as one.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:26:37 +0000

Gervase
“Favourite contrarian”. How lovely, that’s made my day.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:24:41 +0000

Oh,Paul. Was it really you?
Was it really you who bought me those six delightful pints of real ale?
Was it you who introduced me to all those fun-loving chums of yours?
And was it your chums who individually took me to one side and said “Don’t be……..”.
But that’s enough indiscretions for now.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:57:55 +0000

I suspect some of us have already met RCW at the pub, but that’s just one of my strange little personal beliefs. It would be nice to see him (again), either way.

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:55:23 +0000

Thanks Gordius and andrew
To me this one did start off as a series of write-ins that stopped abruptly in the NE corner. The WARMER / WALMER clue took quite a while to fathom with a mini aha and some added geographical knowledge to follow out of it.

On my final parsing run, I discovered errors in MEDEA and ABROGATE and didn’t see the anagram in MIDAS TOUCH. To my mind the compiler has done his job when he has so deceived me, but on closer scrutiny has the correct clue in place that leads you eventually to the correct answer.

May not have ‘wowwed’ me … but certainly generated some thinking challenges.

By: Mike M

Mike M — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:33:47 +0000

You guys go to the pub?!? And I’ve never been invited???
Humph.

By: Gervase

Gervase — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:25:33 +0000

RCW @23: According to Wikipedia (so it must be true, cf Chambers), interacting with cliques is part of normative social development, regardless of gender, ethnicity or popularity. I’m sure I speak for my fellow cliquistes in hoping that you will get along to one of these pub sessions. I, for one, would love to meet our favourite contrarian.

By: jim

jim — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:10:33 +0000

Derek@19.
Brown tongues?
Surely we can agree to disagree without being offensive.
When I used to buy the Guardian for its crosswords I did many Gordius puzzles, and a lot were better than this one. There were some good clues here, but overall I didn’t like it. With the Guardian providing such an excellent selection of puzzles, there are always alternatives to the daily selection.
And although Araucaria is at times a brilliant setter, he’s not beyond criticism.

By: Mike M

Mike M — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:11:18 +0000

For what it’s worth (i.e. little), I thought this was a perfectly reasonable crossword…. not the best ever, but certainly not the worst.

Nice to see RHEUMY/ROOMY making an appearance – like catching up with an old friend. (Im surprised no compiler has ever tried to compile a perfect “old chestnut” crossword, with ANCESTRAL/LANCASTER, and all the others we know and love. Maybe someone should).

Also for what it’s worth, I do agree with above poster that there’s a certain amount of mild snobbery on this site at times, and that there is a cult hero often mentioned here who can seemingly do no wrong. But said hero did just compile a bespoke crossword for my mum’s 75th birthday, and she was overjoyed – so I guess that puts me in the cult too…. oh well…

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 17:28:53 +0000

I (wrongly, I now see) put DELEGATE at 1ac (saw DATE but couldn’t understand ELEG, of course), and HERE for 2d, which seems to fit the clue, more or less.

Thanks Andrew.