Comments on: Guardian Cryptic N° 25,823 by Arachne

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 02:41:51 +0000

Thanks Arachne and PeterO

A very tough nut this one that took a number of sessions to complete – and only finished the WASP early this morning ! A bit harder because A usually gives quite a good start with slightly easier clues but not this time for me at least.

Missed the parsing of both 10 (which was brilliant) and 16 (which I don’t think I would ever have worked out). Also missed the extra T and surely it must have meant to read “Damn, I twitter you …” – made fir two well hidden run-ons. Seems to be a spate of clever hidden clues of late!

Well worth a prize spit for mine. Well done spider …

By: Trebor

Trebor — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:02:54 +0000

TIGHTROPE really was magnificently clued.

By: stiofain

stiofain — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:23:11 +0000

Maigret got a mention in the quick today too.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:45:31 +0000

27ac ENDLESS is not &lit, it is just lit. ‘This’ to indicate the solution is more commonly clued as ‘____’.

Azed slip archive gives lots of genuine &lits which use similar devices. It happens that the latest competition asked for clues to PICAROON(!). The first prize winner used ‘____’. The second prize went to D.F.Manley(!) who used ‘me’ instead.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:33:36 +0000

Collins gives house as a synonym for attendance. It does not give attendance as a synonym for house. It treats gate similarly.

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:07:32 +0000

Gervase, sorry, I got distracted, I meant to reply ages ago. Thanks for the HU, I can see the sense of that.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:24:20 +0000

Here’s another one who didn’t see the mistake in 22ac.
Perhaps, the editor didn’t see it for the same reason – I don’t know.

Although it was (I would almost say, of course) a clever puzzle, we found it a bit of a slog today. Sorry M’Dear. Just blame it on us.

One of the three clues we didn’t get (TIGHTROPE) was really outstanding.
But I wasn’t happy with 27ac (ENDLESS). The construction is fine, but unlike Thomas99 I do not see something &Littish here. I see what Arachne wants to achieve with the use of “This”, but for me it doesn’t feel right.

As to 14ac, I had the same feeling as you, PeterO: a novel construction. Only to find a similar device in today’s Loroso puzzle in the FT (24ac: “Drivers surrounding head of Irish police as roads in Antrim are opened (9)”, lacking a definition (which is “The Master” ).
Great minds think alike, don’t they?
In this respect, I won’t say anything about 1ac, because it still hurts …. [not: ]

And now I have to complete an difficult equation: six + … = 7.
Phew.

By: Brendan (not that one)

Brendan (not that one) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:51:21 +0000

Another great crossword. Took some time though. Not helped by the error in NITWITTERY which I got almost instantly and assumed the extra T was an error!!

However I had posited ROYAL for 26ac with little confidence but as no other answers were forthcoming this hindered the solution of 13d which in turn made me question NITWITTERY!!!!!

Anyway it all came out in THYME

Arachne’s best so far in my opinion. I suspect as previously suggested by gf @29 that 22ac is a simple Grauniad typo in the clue. Easy to slip through proofreading as the number of solvers who didn’t even notice it testifies!!

Thanks PeterO and Arachne

By: slipstream

slipstream — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:31:18 +0000

Good puzzle. I enjoyed the wordplay for COMMAND, but I am astonished that I pulled MAIGRE from some dust-covered attic space of memory.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:07:41 +0000

Since Paul B has introduced us to panto season … Hello Boys and Girls!

It doesn’t matter how you try to justify NITWITTERING – Cinderella went to the ball, and this is a Grauniad balls-up.