Enigmatic Variations 1122 Pet Shop Boys et al by Dysart

10 comments on “Enigmatic Variations 1122 Pet Shop Boys et al by Dysart”

1. I thought that this was a terrific puzzle with excellent misprints. It just shows how as solvers we appreciate different levels of difficulty; I don’t mind some easy ones but I do like to have some that rattle my grey cells as well. Thanks Dysart.

   I interpreted the final move as a ring(circus) had to be drawn through MONTY PYTHONS jumbled(flying).

2. I thought this marked the second in a pair of very tricky puzzles that took the EV (for me) out of solvability, although to be fair I didn’t necessarily have the time to devote to it properly. Anyway, while Monty Python is among my favourite TV shows, I’ve always found the Dead Parrot sketch to be rather unfunny. Perhaps it’s because I had the misfortune to hear it told before I saw the masters perform it themselves. The Restaurant sketch, or indeed the other Pet Shop sketch, or that wonderful sequence about the Piranha brothers, and for that matter pretty much everything else from Series One, are more to my tastes, really.

   Still, a great deal of the thematic material well-presented by Dysart. Perhaps next time I’ll be able to give his puzzle a fairer look but it was not to be this time I’m afraid.

3. I agree with Jaguar that this was on the tricky side, and it took me a bit longer than the two hours I allocated to it. I liked everything about the puzzle, especially the way the names of the troupe ran counter-clockwise round the grid. Perhaps I was expecting too much to see the PARROT NAILed to its PERCH! Thanks anyway Dysart, and twencelas.

   I remember being in stitches when I first saw this sketch (probably on Sunday night at 11:30 on BBC2), as I also was, not unexpectedly, with the Spanish Inquisition.

4. I used to do The Listener but stopped doing so because you never knew if it was going to be possible to do it in a reasonable time; sometimes it took absolutely ages. Both The Inquisitor and Enigmatic Variations did at one time usually fall at a single sitting, even though that sitting was sometimes quite long, so you could set out to do them without the fear that your every waking moment for the next week was going to be waylaid. Now it seems that the EV and the Inquisitor are going the way of the Listener: becoming increasingly harder to cater for a certain number of clever people. Why can’t the editors be aware that there are plenty of solvers who are not at the top of the solving tree and don’t want to spend their lives on a single crossword but simply want a challenge for a reasonable length of time?

5. To be fair to the editors it’s partly down to the puzzles received. They can’t publish what they don’t get sent! I suppose puzzle setters sometimes try to be rather cleverer than is strictly necessary for a “fun” puzzle.

   Did you see the recent Tibea puzzle in the Listener series? Possibly not. Anyway, that seemed to be a tongue-in-cheek plea for more of the sort of accessible puzzle you might be talking about. Hopefully there are enough puzzles in the EV series that you still find accessible and fun.

6. Wil – I completely agree with you. My favourite crossword since the 80’s was that in the Independent magazine, which evolved into the Inquisitor – since about 6 months ago I’ve virtually stopped doing it – once I start a crossword I must finish it and a combination of a working life and a young family mean that any more than a single sitting for a crossword becomes too much like an obsessive chore. The irony of this one is that it is a most wonderful puzzle but it took me roughly 4 hours over 5 days to get to the end of it which is time I should spend more productively – did the clues really have to be so “clever”?

7. Jaguar – my post crossed yours – as I understand it editors review each clue and in this example it was not the novelty part of the puzzle that was tricky just the clues – a little clue reworking would have made this puzzle much more accessible. My great enlightment came when I spotted the theme characters and after that it was more a retrofit than a PDM at the end. I do agree with you that the Listener Tibea puzzle was making some point along these lines. I’ve probably said enough on the subject but even introducing a difficulty rating like a Sudoku puzzle would help.

8. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and I’m not aware of all of it but in my experience the editor usually doesn’t touch clues unless he considers them technically flawed. Perhaps it’s better that was for the setter so that he can feel that the finished product is “his” puzzle; and certainly I’ve seen that you can see different styles of cluing from different setters, even if you aren’t quite sure why.
   Anyway, I digress, but perhaps if a set of clues is particularly difficult the puzzle can be rejected or asked to be toned down somewhere along the line. Perhaps this one was somewhere close to the edge of solvability?

   The idea of a difficulty grading is an interesting one. Sometimes difficulties are a bit subjective — a grading system operates at the Magpie and there are times when you look at the puzzle and think the grade is far too high or low sometimes — but on the whole it does seem to be a fair reflection. Whether a system would work here is a bit less clear and it might have some risks if, say, a puzzle at highest difficulty rating puts a large number of people off from even starting.

9. There have been a few points raised above which I can address.

   Firstly, there has definitely not been a move to try to increase the difficulty of the EV. The aim is for the series to generally be easier than the Listener, but to still have some puzzles that will stretch more experienced solvers. This means that in any four week cycle, we aim to use one puzzle that is easier than average, two that are of average difficulty, and one that is harder than average. This isn’t always possible – we are reliant on the puzzles submitted by setters, and date-specific puzzles can mean this spread isn’t quite possible, but we always aim to redress this with subsequent puzzles. For every more difficult puzzle such as Dysart’s, there is an easier one (such as last week’s by Chalicea).

   Secondly, and as Don Manley mentions in his excellent Crossword Manual, an editor should not seek to improve clues, but rather to ensure that clues are a) sound, and b) fair. I could have gone through Dysart’s clues with a red pen and amended to be easier or more straightforward, but at that point the puzzle ceases to become a Dysart, as it would cease to reflect the individuality of the setter.

   Thirdly, I have thought about a “difficulty grade” being published alongside each EV. In fact each puzzle is already graded for difficulty when vetted. I think the problems outweigh the benefits here, however. Firstly, assessment of difficulty is highly subjective, and it is quite common for one solver to find a puzzle difficult, yet for another solver of similar ability to find the same puzzle straightforward. Sometimes a solver will have a blind spot when it comes to a particular setter’s clues, for instance, or they may simply be more knowledgeable about the theme of a particular puzzle. Secondly, the danger is that a solver may see a difficulty grading and think either a) as a puzzle is graded as being very difficult, it’s not for me do I won’t try it; or b) as a puzzle is graded as being easy, it won’t be challenge enough and so I won’t try it.

   Chris Lancaster
   EV Editor

10. For reference, the designated “easier than average” EVs thus year have been as follows:

    EV1104 Nice by Ferret (05/01/2014)
    EV1109 Seaside Capers by Piccadilly (09/02/2014)
    EV1115 Hurry Up by Moordon (23/03/2014)
    EV 1120 Curious Cocktail by Rustic (27/04/2014)
    EV 1124 Hard Graft by Chalicea (25/05/2014)

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