It was another fantastic year of Inquisitors in this crossword centenary year, for which, on behalf of the solving team, I’d like to thank the ever-ingenious compilers; also to say how much we’ve enjoyed solving the submissions. We wish we could have shared many more great puzzles with you, but there are only 52 weeks in the year! Of course, dear solvers, you’ll see these puzzles in due course, many in 2014…
When feeding back their comments to me, each of the solving team grades a puzzle out of 5 on scales of Enjoyment, Difficulty and the ‘wow’ factor of the Final Step, or Penny Drop Moment. I solve each puzzle from scratch and do the same: my own ratings are given for each puzzle below. Where I have contributed as a setter, the given ratings are distilled from comments made about the puzzle by the guest editor.
As you can see below, puzzles are “blocked” in fives. With the exception of the April puzzles (all mediums), in each five (note the middle score), one (*) is considered the easiest of the bunch, and one (***) the hardest, with three medium (**) difficulty puzzles completing the group.
| END OF 2012 | ||
| . | ||
| 22/12/12:1261 DIY Card | Rasputin 433** | |
| 29/12/12:1262 Warm Inside | eXternal 423* | |
| . | ||
| INQUISITOR PUZZLES 2013 | ||
| . | ||
| 05/01/13:1263 Brain Transplant | Samuel 434** | |
| 12/01/13:1264 Centre Forward | Ferret 333** | |
| 19/01/13:1265 A-trocity | Shark 554*** | |
| . | ||
| 26/01/13:1266 Woodchuck Puzzle [#1]….. | Plench 434** | |
| 02/02/13:1267 Woodchuck Puzzle [#2] | Plench 535** | |
| 09/02/13:1268 Ply | Schadenfreude 545*** | |
| 16/02/13:1269 Work in Progress | Gila 434** | |
| 23/02/13:1270 9/116 | Raich 324* | |
| . | ||
| 02/03/13:1271 Voyager | Regson 333** | |
| 09/03/13:1272 ? | Anax 423* | |
| 16/03/13:1273 Manoeuvres | Nutmeg 434** | |
| 23/03/13:1274 Modesty | Kruger 433** | |
| 30/03/13:1275 Divisions | Stan 444*** | |
| . | ||
| 06/04/13:1276 Fundamental Error | Lato 434** | |
| 13/04/13:1277 The Long View | Wickball 434** | |
| 20/04/13:1278 Misprints | Schadenfreude 434** | |
| 27/04/13:1279 Security Question | Charybdis 433** | |
| 04/05/13:1280 Cut Short | Nudd 535** | |
| . | ||
| 11/05/13:1281 YZ | Samuel 324** | |
| 18/05/13:1282 5 Down | Kruger 334** | |
| 25/05/13:1283 Office Issue | Ifor 444** | |
| 01/06/13:1284 A to Z | Schadenfreude 554*** | |
| 08/06/13:1285 The B*stard | Chalicea 323* | |
| . | ||
| 15/06/13:1286 Main Entry | Ferret 323* | |
| 22/06/13:1287 Tour de Farce | Eclogue 545*** | |
| 29/06/13:1288 Matters in Particular | Radler 433** | |
| 06/07/13:1289 The Sound of Music | Nutmeg 434** | |
| 13/07/13:1290 As the 1 Across Said… | Wiglaf 333** | |
| . | ||
| 20/07/13:1291 Babel | Dysart 354*** | |
| 27/07/13:1292 Revelation | eXternal 435** | |
| 03/08/13:1293 What they do | Kruger 433** | |
| 10/08/13:1294 Barriers | Samuel 323* | |
| 17/08/13:1295 Waiter | Phi 433** | |
| . | ||
| 24/08/13:1296 Twelve | Raich 324* | |
| 31/08/13:1297 Adaptation | Shark 444** | |
| 07/09/13:1298 A Win for Surrey | Nudd 333** | |
| 14/09/13:1299 Truly Wonderful | Lato 544*** | |
| 21/09/13:1300 Alphanumerics | Schadenfreude 544** | |
| . | ||
| 28/09/13:1301 Epitaph | Ferret 535** | |
| 05/10/13:1302 Post Mortem | Ifor 555*** | |
| 12/10/13:1303 Persuasion | Phi 434** | |
| 19/10/13:1304 The Great Divide | Samuel 323* | |
| 26/10/13:1305 Take… | Nimrod 435** | |
| . | ||
| 02/11/13:1306 Trusts in Men | Wan 433** | |
| 09/11/13:1307 Storm Front | Jambazi 434** | |
| 16/11/13:1308 27X (date specific) | Schadenfreude 535** | |
| 23/11/13:1309 A Position of Safety? | Nimrod 354*** | |
| 30/11/13:1310 Scepticism | Hypnos 423* | |
| . | ||
| 07/12/13:1311 Transfer Window | Kruger 333** | |
| 14/12/13:1312 Shortfall | Phi 535** | |
| 21/12/13:1313 Leading Light | Nudd 433** | |
| . |
NB not including 1314 Rhyme by Schadenfreude (live puzzle)
I invite you to vote for your favourite puzzles of the year. You have six points at your disposal. Normally 3= your favourite, 2= second and 1= third, but you are at liberty to distribute your points differently, with halves (no other fractions, please!) if you like. Please register yours below: we’ll close the voting on January 8th, the solving deadline for Rhyme by Schadenfreude, for which you may not vote this year (By all means include the end-of-2012 puzzles by Rasputin and eXternal, not included last year). Compilers may not vote for their own puzzles! Here are my own best of a fantastic bunch:
1st (3 pts) Tour de Farce by Eclogue
2nd (2 pts) Ply by Schadenfreude
=3rd (½ pt each) Post Mortem by Ifor and Shortfall by Phi
Best of the rest, all 5*5s above: Cut Short by Nudd; Epitaph by Ferret and 27X by Schadenfreude. As ENigmatist, I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating on the “Woodchucks” with PLoy and CHarybdis, the latter of whose brilliant idea it was.
Again, I must convey my gratitude to Gaufrid, without whose endless work on Fifteensquared it would be impossible to look back with so much fondness on all of these puzzles; and to our four brilliant bloggers for their continued painstaking efforts each week.
Have a fantastic Inquisitorial 2014!
Nimrod
My votes are:
Post Mortem by Ifor (3 pts…brilliant all-round construction)
Take… by Nimrod (2 pts…very amusing)
Truly Wonderful by Lato (1 pt…great PDM, plus I won the champagne, although obviously that doesn’t influence my decision)
It’s very hard to pick…on a different day I might have chosen differently
I can’t believe Trusts in Men by Wan only gets two difficulty stars. For me, this was the hardest of the lot by quite some margin…I just couldn’t get to grips with it at all. I suppose it just proves the old crossword adage that you have to be ‘on the same wavelength’ as the setter (or not!).
Sincere thanks to setters and bloggers, and season’s greetings to all!
I quite agree about Trusts in Men by Wan, which I rated top difficulty.
My points would go to:
3 What They Do by Kruger
1 Cut Short by Nudd
1 A Win for Surrey by Nudd
1 Woodchuck Puzzle (the second one) by Plench
But honestly there could equally well be points elsewhere. What an excellent year of puzzles.
It’s so difficult to choose as the standard is almost always so very high – but here goes:
1st (3) Woodchuck Puzzle by Plench (great fun, fun to blog and a favourite movie)
2nd (2) Persuasion by Phi (OUCH!!)
3rd (1) Shortfall by Phi (best PDM of the year, IMO)
It’s a shame to have to exclude so many great puzzles from my list – thanks to all this year’s setters! – but my favourites were:
1 (3 points) The two Woodchuck Puzzles by Plench. Both were good puzzles in their own right, but I thought the overall idea was brilliant
2 (2 points) Storm Front by Jambazi – even though I’m not a special Pink Floyd fan, I found this great fun to solve with an aesthetically-appealing final step and a very appropriate title
3 (1/2 point each) The very entertaining Shortfall by Phi, and Ply by Schadenfreude with its clever punning on E(a)RNEST and PL(a)Y
My top three would be :
1) Post Mortem by Ifor: (I concur with Nimrod’s 555 rating – the only one he gave) with a jaw-dropping PDM of the postcode. I blogged it, and did wonder for a while if I was going to get it finished in time!
2) Pl(a)y by Schadenfreude: a great construction with excellent clues and a coding exercise too.
3) Trusts in Men by Wan: easier (I thought – though others clearly disagree!), but fun because of the unusual musical instruments it introduced.
I’ll leave Ifor to tell the full story about Post Mortem…(maybe he has done, I’ll check back…)
And for fairness, I’ll ask Helen to recast her vote: (has she used 9 points rather than 6?) Do we count Woodchuck as one puzzle? (Sadly, sorry PL and CH, I think not).
Happy New Year to all!
John
…on the wife’s machine, clearly…
I do like a fun/different endgame, and really enjoyed –
3 pts 1287 Tour de Farce (about the ladykillers)
2 pts 1302 Post Mortem (Canterbury)
1/2 pt 1292 Revelation by eXternal (chess game)
1/2 pt 1275 Divisions by Stan (hyperbolas etc).
I also liked 1267 the second woodchuck puzzle, 1309 Position of Safety, and anything with a code to decipher.
Hmm, yes. I really wanted to give 3 points to the Woodchuck Puzzles as a pair, but I can see that that would mess up the voting system! So I’ll allocate 1 point to the first of them and 2 points to the second, leaving my remaining three votes as they are.
I have spent ages trying to make up my mind on this. As the editor explained, when we test-solve, we mark for Difficulty, Enjoyment and PDM (or Wow factor), so I have been looking through my comments to find puzzles that score highly for Enjoyment and PDM (Difficulty doesn’t matter, as long as it doesn’t impair the other two).
And, oh dear, it’s not easy. For example, the puzzle with the best PDM hasn’t made it onto my shortlist because I wasn’t keen on some of the clues. I got it down to a shortlist of 11, and I really don’t know how to exclude five of them. I can’t possibly rank the six that are left, so I will award 1 point each to these (and I will regret rejecting the others as soon as I have posted this):
Woodchuck #2 by Plench (dependent on #1 having been published;I’d have preferred to give them a point jointly)
Security Question by Charybdis
Alphanumerics by Schadenfreude
5 Down by Kruger
Cut Short by Nudd
Shortfall by Phi
… with apologies to the others. There have been some fantastic puzzles this year, and it’s a huge honour to be a test solver. Keep them coming!
And, by the way, the comment at 6 above was not from me. The esteemed editor was using my computer, on which I was already logged on to this site.
Well that seems to be nineteen different puzzles so far, plus the ones that we couldn’t add only because of voting limitations. It is indeed an honour to check all these wonderful puzzles. Maybe there should be one Special Award to the Woodchuck Puzzle pair for utter originality and laugh-provocation. Without wishing to overgrovel also a Most Esteemed award to the editor for supervising so much entertainment so carefully.
We had great difficulty with the scoring – so many great puzzles to choose from.
In the end we have chosen 6 puzzles, awarding them 1point each.
1297 Adaptation by Shark (the three little pigs)
1309 A position of safety by Nimrod (Dr Who and JFK)
1287 Tour de Farce by Eclogue (The Ladykillers)
1307 Storm Front by Jambazi (Pink Floyd)
1304 great Divide by Samuel (Tyne Bridges)
1267 Woodchuck by Plench
As the ‘penny dropping moment’ for the Woodchuck pair came in the second one, we’ve only included that puzzle.
Thanks to John and all the setters and bloggers.
Favourites:
1st: 1287 Tour de Farce by Eclogue
2nd: 1279 Security Question by Charybdis
3rd: 1292 Revelation by eXternal
Many other really good ones, but a few of those dropped out of my top three owing to little glitches in the preamble making the final hurdle a touch ambiguous on occasion. Still, a great year.
Thanks John H & the team.
It really has been enjoyable to go through the year’s puzzles. My votes are:
1st Plench 2 (I too wish the two could be treated as 1) 3 points
2nd Brain Transplant by Samuel 2 points
3rd = Take… By Nimrod .5 point (even though I got the final step wrong at the time)
3rd = Divisions by Stan .5 points
Thanks to John and to all the other setters, the testers and bloggers for another great year of Inquisitor puzzles. It’s hard to separate so many of an excellent bunch, but if pushed I have to go (nothing startlingly original here, unlike my winner’s puzzle ..)
1st 3 points Plench’s Woodchuck 2
2nd 2 points Shortfall by Phi
3rd 1 point Security Question by Charybdis
Here’s to a very happy and successful 2014 to you all
My votes are as follows, based purely on those that were literally memorable for me:
1st: 1267 Woodchuck #2- for the sheer imagination in ‘replicating’ the previous week’s puzzle, with both topical and great movie themes – 3pts
2nd- 1309 A Position of Safety by Nimrod – although the twin commemorations (JFK and Dr Who) had been trailed ad nauseam in the media, so most solvers would have been on ‘high alert’, there were still enough PDMs and ingenious linking of clues and wordplay to make this both a tough solve and a real pleasure – 2pts
3rd equal: 1275 Divisions by Stan and 1292 Revelations by eXternal- for their inegenuity and indeed, bravery, in making something apart from the usual art/cultural/literary references the focus of the puzzles. – 1/2 pt. each
Thanks very much to all the setters and bloggers for a great year of puzzles and real mental stimulation…Happy New Year to all.
I am not sure if it is fair that I vote as I only attempted around two-thirds of the puzzles and missed all of Jan and Feb, so adjudicators should feel free to discount them if they feel that is the case.
With apologies to those that I missed then, and acknowledgement that these are just my favourites of many great puzzles, my votes go to:
3 points – 1299 – Truly Wonderful by Lato. I commented at the time that I thought this was everything that a puzzle should be.
2 points 1280 – Cut Short by Nudd. Quite a feat to get all the breaks at the 27th letter.
1 point 1279 – Security Question by Charybdis. A very fine ending to a puzzle.
Wan
A superb year of puzzles making the choice extremely tough but if really pushed –
3 pts – Cut Short by Nudd
1.5 pts – Post Mortem by Phi
1.5 pts – Woodchuck 2 by Plench
I’ve only got into these recently (and realise I’ve missed a lot over all these years) and didn’t do them all this year, but for what it’s worth:
1.5 to Plench 1, since 2 without 1 wouldn’t have worked
3 to Plench 2
1.5 eXternal Revelation
Leaving the others with nul points, but there’s very little in it anyway.
Thanks for all the pleasure to all of you.
Looking back at the list makes me realise how many puzzles I started but never fully finished. As ever, this is always my fault. Of those that I definitely did finish, here are my top scorers:
1pt – Storm Front by Jambazi – I’m a sucker for a well-highlighted final grid, and this one took that to another level. I hope there are more of these album cover puzzles planned!
2pts – Alphanumerics by Schadenfreude – A great way to celebrate the 1,300 and, well, I’m a sucker for a well-highlighted final grid…
3pts – Woodchuck 2 by Plench – I completely fell for this and, given that I was due to have my own puzzle published 2 weeks later, was genuinely worried that there might be another printing error on my big day! Very crafty stuff.
Happy 2014 to all
Ali/Gila
My votes… 3 points to 1287, 2 points to Adaptation and 1 point to 1276. All of these had a fun element, as well as being clever and well-constructed.
I might be in the minority (but have decided not to stay silent) – I really didn’t like any of the crosswords that had ‘illustrations’, pictorial representations or anything similar. In my view (!), they are often less effective than claimed – to me, the Pink Floyd one was just a triangle with some lines going off at each side. Beauty must be in the eye of the beholder.
@Joan MM
You’re not alone, alhough I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I don’t like them. They must be just as hard or harder to create, so hats off to those that set them, and the clue solving part is fine, but looking for things to shade doesn’t really do it for me either.
I have to say that in my view the end game is very much part of the Attraction of the Inquisitor and illustrations are all part of the portfolio of options open to the setter. As such I disagree fundamentally with Joan MM.
Mang @ 23 – yes, the end game is very much part of the attraction of Inquisitor, but I too have felt that some illustrations are a slight let-down. I realise the limitations of a (normally) black and white grid that’s fairly small, so I definitely don’t expect great things.
A quite exceptional run of puzzles this year of which both editor and setters can be proud.
Here are the votes of the Finland jury:
1. Truly Wonderful by Lato – 3 points
2. Woodchuck Puzzle 2 by Plench – 2 points
3. Post Mortem by Ifor – 1 point
And that concludes the voting from Helsinki
If I’m not too late:
3 points goes to Woodchuck no.2 (I’d love to know how many irate emails the Ed got before the penny dropped)
2 points for Adaptation
And 1 point to Post Mortem
Some lovely puzzles this year. Thanks to all.
Ross #26:
If you haven’t read this, then you might enjoy it…
http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2013/feb/28/crossword-blog-story-of-woodchuck-puzzle
Ross#26
I’m not in the least embarrassed to admit that I was one of them…
Not only that, but Mr H has quoted me on the blog! (I’m the reasonable one asking for my money back or a download link…)