Guardian Prize Puzzle 25,676 by Shed

18 comments on “Guardian Prize Puzzle 25,676 by Shed”

1. 

   Biggles A

   #1 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 00:14

   
   

   Thanks PeeDee, my sentiments and experience exactly. I’m just still not sure about 23, I can’t really see that a dictionary would define one slang term by another. I’m probably too critical though and I can’t see any other explanation, unless there is a dictionary titled U!

2. 

   molonglo

   #2 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 01:17

   
   

   Thanks PeeDee. Like Biggles A, I could only make the apostrophe S work if U=dictionary, a real puzzle

3. 

   NeilW

   #3 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 02:48

   
   

   Thanks, PeeDee. I enjoyed this very much. I didn’t have a problem with 23, not in a puzzle where we are using an Anglo-Saxon dictionary that also contains the word re-fart!

   By the way, mixed messages in your explanation of 22. 🙂

4. 

   Biggles A

   #4 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 06:08

   
   

   NeilW @ 3,

   Good point. By the same token though, a question mark might have been helpful.

5. 

   r_c_a_d

   #5 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 08:45

   
   

   Thanks PeeDee. I just could not parse COPYCAT and left it pencilled in until the end. Always was blind to tpyos 🙂

6. 

   Robi

   #6 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 10:04

   
   

   Good puzzle, fairly straightforward for a Prize one.

   Thanks PeeDee; the surface to 7 was hilarious, likewise BOG, US 🙂

   I, too, liked INFER and the mega-tarts.

7. 

   Paul B

   #7 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 11:01

   
   

   Infer and the Megatarts? Sure I saw them back in 77.

8. 

   rrc

   #8 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 11:14

   
   

   26a and 2d were my two favourites

9. 

   rrc

   #9 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 11:15

   
   

   my two favourities were 26a and 2d.

10. 

    RCWhiting

    #10 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 14:07

    
    

    Thanks all
    Very little doodling around my print version so I presume it was pretty easy.
    I did like the unsplit word in 4d (with-in).I enjoy these, there are a couple of good ones in today’s. More please.

11. 

    Taco_Belly

    #11 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 14:57

    
    

    Thanks PeeDee and Shed,

    Really enjoyed this last Saturday – one of those which requires two or three visits and then somehow all comes together – apart from 23d which I struggled to parse (per molonglo@2).

    My only addition is that the term Anorak (16a) can appply to anyone obsessed with statistics or collections, hence the “of sorts” – that’s how I read it anyway.

    Great blog – my favourite (out of many)was also 26a.

12. 

    Colin

    #12 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 16:19

    
    

    I’m not entirely happy with 18A – in terms of the name of the comic character, as suggested by the clue, “Wonder Woman” has always been two words and should really have been clued as such. “Superman” or “Spiderman” as one word, fine, but not “Wonder Woman”.

    Still, I guess that on the Venn diagram there isn’t that much of a crossover between crosswwrd afficionados and comic anoraks, so I bet I’ll be the only person complaining about it…

13. 

    Matt

    #13 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 17:00

    
    

    Enjoyed this. INFERNO, STRATAGEM my favourites.

    Thankyou shed, thanks Peedee.

14. 

    Shed

    #14 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 17:48

    
    

    Thanks all, especially PeeDee, and apologies to Wonder Woman, who should indeed have been two words. I’m ashamed not to have checked that.

    I’ve had quite a bit of stick from friends and family about 23dn BOGUS. As several people have suggested here, the idea was indeed that, just as ‘period’ might be defined in a British English dictionary as ‘full stop (US)’, ‘john’ might be defined as ‘bog (US)’. I’m not suggesting that it really would be, but in the parallel universe of crosswords it could be.

15. 

    Shed

    #15 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 18:00

    
    

    Oh, and I meant to say, Taco_Belly #11 is spot on re ‘anorak of sorts’ (except it’s 16d, not 16a). Not all anoraks are birdwatchers, but all birdwatchers are anoraks. This is not meant as any derogation to birdwatchers: if there were more anoraks, the world would be a much better place.

16. 

    RCWhiting

    #16 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 20:37

    
    

    …….and drier…….

17. 

    drago

    #17 - Sat 7th Jul 12, 23:28

    
    

    Thanks PeeDee, and thanks Shed for standing up for anoraks. I convinced myself that US in 23d was ‘ubi supra’ or ‘ut supra’ which could conceivably be dictionary annotations. Overthinking.

18. 

    Paul B

    #18 - Sun 8th Jul 12, 17:41

    
    

    I’m for Spider-Man rather than Spiderman, I must confess.

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