Comments on: Guardian Prize Puzzle 25,843 by Paul

By: fearsome

fearsome — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:22:01 +0000

thanks PeeDee and Paul
I’d gone along with Simon’s version of Puff Pastry,
Puissance I only got with help and then didn’t fully parse it
I rather liked sweater girl

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:03:40 +0000

Hi Simon S, I had not thought of that – I think it works well both ways. I will add your explanation into the blog too.

By: Simon S

Simon S — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:32:26 +0000

Oops, should have read, pasted and sent before finishing, sorry!

Thanks Paul and PeeDee – I did very badly with this one..

Isn’t 1D PUFF PAST (struggle to overtake) particulaR hungY (backmarkers of both)?

Simon ô¿ô

By: Simon S

Simon S — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:30:42 +0000

Thanks Paul and PeeDee – I did very badly with this one..

PUFF PAST (struggle to overtake backmarkers) particulaR hungY (backmarkers of both)?

Simon ô¿ô

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:01:53 +0000

Thanks Paul and PeeDee

Good level Prize puzzle in my opinion which took me a number of sittings to complete and found the SW corner, with the interlinked and overlapping clues, tough going. It was only the very clever clueing of 16 and 23,24 together with a very well disguised hidden TSAR that stopped me griping about it and admiring instead. Is it only me getting dimmer, or are the setters getting better with these hidden clues?

Struggled with the local knowledge with ROY OF THE ROVERS but smiled at the wittiness of it after Mrs Google helped inform me of this comic.

Parsed 11d incorrectly, going with the coarser ATE LEG (as in leg of lamb) to mean ‘dined on’ – nice to see the more civil version!

By: CGK

CGK — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:59:10 +0000

As a definition of ‘spider’ wouldn’t you say ‘hairy thing’ was on the wrong side of vague, even for Guardian setters? Wouldn’t ‘brown thing’ be about as precise?

I wouldn’t have written, but it comes on top of Paul’s ‘bow’ pronounced beau but meaning ‘front’ in 25,831–which at least attracted unconvincing attempts at justification.

(Hairy also means frightening, but I think implies associated danger, so doesn’t really work as an explanation.)

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:50:13 +0000

Thanks, Paul and PeeDee for the fun – just the ticket in the wintry weather.

Roy of the Rovers brought back memories – boys comics were so much more fun than girls. Nothing equalled The Eagle!!

Happy memories of the Puissance events and the Harvey Smith – David Broome rivalry- from safety of armchair, of course!

Giovanna x

By: Davy

Davy — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 09:55:55 +0000

The actress Lana Turner was known as “the sweater girl” although apparently she disliked this term of reference.
Good crossword Paul, lots of fun.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:42:56 +0000

Thanks all
paul8 is absolutely right.
Examples from my youth would be Jayne Mansfield, Diana Dors and of course Marilyn.
Posed in a tight sweater these beauties left nothing to my adolescent imagination.

By: paul8hours

paul8hours — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:40:53 +0000

Thanks paul & PeeDee.
Arab Spring was cleverly clued. Put ‘sweater girl’ into google image and you will see that ‘homely’ was not the ides, then or now !