Comments on: Inquisitor 1270: 19/116 by Raich

By: Raich

Raich — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:15:44 +0000

Many thanks, Hihoba, for the excellent blog and to all for their comments. It was particularly gratifying that people with little or no interest in football were able to work through it and enjoy it. I reasoned that, in a UK publication, it was unlikely that anyone would not realise that this was about football clubs once the words began to appear.

Addressing a few points that have been raised, the info could be confirmed in a number of places on the Internet but also without it. Football’s equivalent of cricket’s annual Wisden, the Sky Sports Football Yearbook (formerly Rothmans) has it all in a single paragraph (p 768 of the current edition).

Re Rangers and their possibility of losing titles, I guess if they had lost them, the next question would have been should the titles be given to the runners-up (in all cases Celtic) so perhaps the 116 would have remained correct after all.

I’d not noticed the SPL (Scottish Premier League) mentioned by Wil near the highlighted bit so it was as well that it had been specified that 23 letters were to be highlighted. The SPL is a reasonably recent creation whereas the puzzle goes right back to the start of the League so perhaps drawing SPL into into the puzzle would not have been appropriate.

While most people probably know this already, I’ll just mention that, because of the breaches, Rangers have been demoted to the fourth tier of Scottish football so, barring further league reconstruction, won’t be adding to their titles for at least three seasons. Whether this leads to the 19 increasing in that period is quite another question however with Aberdeen in 1985 having been the last.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:29:42 +0000

Despite not being the slightest bit interested in football in general, let alone Scottish football, we still enjoyed the puzzle. With a bit of electronic assistance we managed to sort out the relevance of the title and hence were able to shade in the relevant squares! Heaven help us if the internet had not been available!

An impressive compilation by Raich and thanks to Hihoba for the blog.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:24:14 +0000

A very nice crossword. I was unsure about the numbers in the title, and also wondered whether one was supposed to shade the letters SP near the beginning of the hidden phrase.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:16:44 +0000

A good job that Rangers weren't stripped of their 5 recent titles – they were found guilty in late February of "failing to make proper disclosure of side-letter arrangements during 2000-2011" and fined £250,000 – or else the puzzle would have had to become "19/111". My first thought on seeing the puzzle's title was Jim Laker's famous feat in a test match in the 1950's, but a quick check informed me that his figures were 19 wickets for 90 runs. I spotted DUNDEE UNITED in the sequence of extra letters quite early on, and then the unclued entries tumbeld out. So, quite an easy one. Nevetheless, thanks go to Raich and Hi.

By: regalize

regalize — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:40:30 +0000

Grrr! I hate football and sectarian Scottish football in particular (even though my cousin is Bobby Lennox). This puzzle was published when I was actually in Kilmarnock. 15 18 and 33ac gave me the way in. It was a case of ‘phone a friend’ or resort to Google (which I hate having to do to complete a crossword).
However, a lovely, lovely puzzle. Thanks Raich and Hi.

By: kenmac

kenmac — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:48:39 +0000

Thanks Hi for explaining the title. I had everything else but the title eluded me though I suspected it was something like that.