Inquisitor 1395: Dominance by Kruger

23 comments on “Inquisitor 1395: Dominance by Kruger”

1. Kruger always strikes me as being what I would call a “lazy setter”, in that he makes things very easy for himself, and this is a perfect example of that.

   Firstly we have the clueing gimmicks. Part of the challenge for the setter of using a single gimmick (eg all clues contain a misprint in the definition) is that some of the required letters for a thematic message will prove diffucult to generate. Here Kruger has chickened out of this, and said to himself that “this is too difficult for me; for each clue I’ll use whichever of the three gimmicks looks easiest”. This ends up untidy (“approximately equal numbers of each”), and upsets the balance of effort between the solver and the setter – much more effort required from the solver because the setter can’t be bothered to put in the effort.

   Secondly, there seems little skill in simply having a grid fill that has little more to it than the fact that ten entries are entered with some letters replaced. This seems to be a feature of most Kruger puzzles and I always solve them with an air of disappointment. With such an unchallenging grid fill for the setter, would it be too much to expect the themed entries to be symmetrically placed?

   There are some setters who seem intent on churning puzzles off a conveyor belt as quickly as possible without thinking of the quality and I place Kruger firmly in that category. I am sure that if he/she spent more time on individual puzzles then he/she could come up with better puzzles. Other Inquisitor regulars such as Schadenfreude or Ifor do things with care and attention, and so end up with puzzles that are more detailed and so more enjoyable to solve.

   I apologise for being grumpy but I think there should be a fair balance of effort between the setter and the solver, and this puzzle doesn’t have it. I have set very few puzzles and I tested myself by taking a stock grid from Crossword Compiler and filling a grid with the other examples of non-symmetrically placed female entries as in this puzzle. It took exactly six minutes. I am sure Kruger is faster than me. I then got a grid fill with symmetrically-placed entries. It took just over nine minutes.

   Sorry Kruger, but I think you are capable of doing better puzzles than this – so should try to do so.

2. Well, I liked it. Pity about 6d, though.

3. kenmac – in 6a “locally originally” is clueing the L in Truffle; and in 10a “Independence Party” doesn’t produce IP but I+LAB – so no problem there either, I think.

   Thanks to both kenmac and Kruger – I have no problem with the construction of the crossword, unlike Mike @1…

4. For clarification, both Norman @2 and John @3 are referring to 10a. Well, John is anyway.

   I have corrected the blog for 10a.

5. For clarification, Norman is referring to 6d. Evoqueen, anyone?

6. For clarification @3 I meant 5a not 6a – sorry!

7. I think we can all identify the feeling of wanting to rip the setter’s head off when we struggle with a puzzle (my hit list contains several Listener setters over the years, trust me), but I just don’t agree with Mike D.

   As someone who, when solving, constantly flicks his gaze between clue and grid (like most I assume) I found that the more entries I was putting in, the harder the puzzle got, but surely that’s part of the challenge?

   In the end, I had a complete grid save for 6a, which I would never have got in a billion years, not being familiar with ‘ff’. If I were forced to pick a flaw, I’d say it was a tad de trop to clue one of the thematics so obscurely. But overall, a good puzzle I thought

   Thanks to Kruger

8. Oh God now I’m at it – I meant 5a, not 6a!!

9. The aesthetic criticisms at #1 above didn’t occur to me. I worried for a while about my early solutions COCKNEY and JACKET not fitting, but guessed what was happening when MALE seemed likely in the spelt-out letters. The last entry to succumb was TRUFFLE/TREEVELE, with nervous recourse to Chambers to verify the FF bit.

   By then I was expecting the quotation to be from Darwin or some other naturalist’s observations (as picked up by Kipling: “The female of the species …”), but Google insists firmly that it’s the Tao Te Ching. Blimey.

10. Apologies for the minor errors in my blog (5a and 10a) both of which are now corrected and both of which I had had no problem with at time of solving.

    I guess my biorhythms must have been unfavourable when doing the blog.

11. Although there was a certain amount of retro-fitting of missing/misprint letters to fit the quote once I had identified it, I had already intuited (a genuine PDM) before then that it was something to do with gender swaps (from 15A and 27D). It fell fairly quickly after that and 5A wasn’t a problem as I’m a keen birder.

    Mike@1, respect, but I can’t say how much/little effort (how measured ? time, brain-cells used or killed ?) Kruger spent compiling this so all I can say I guess is that once the theme was obvious the puzzle wasn’t all that challenging for me as a solver as I didn’t have to rely on the quote and I didn’t think the asymmetry of the themed entries was an issue. It may well have been more challenging for others and I’m sure the reverse has applied with other puzzles. But isn’t that the pleasure and beauty of puzzling ? And each to their own ?

    So, I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating for me, I did enjoy it so thanks to Kruger and to kenmac for the blog.

12. Mike: you make it sound so easy. Why don’t you shower John Henderson with your efforts and let us judge how good you are? I wish I were as good as Kruger at setting barred-grid puzzles

13. Kruger has given us some damn fine puzzles: Military Marches (#7) from way back, the Big Rock Candy Mountain one (#1243) which was many people’s favourite puzzle of 2012, plus the Match Play golfing puzzle (#1230) from the same year, and my personal ‘best of last year’ (#1331) which had WATER flowing down through LOCK GATES followed by a BARGE. He’s also had a few others that weren’t nearly so good. So a bit of a mixed bag.

    This was somewhere in the middle. After getting COCKney & JACKet early on the theme was apparent, but that didn’t help a whole lot with the remainder of the puzzle, as other solvers also found. And, yes, 5a was a bit of a pig – partly because 3 of the 8 letters in the entry were unchecked, whereas all the other ‘specials’ had a single unchecked letter. All in all, I thought this was OK. So, thanks to Kruger, and to kenmac for the blog.

14. Lock gates puzzle. Possibly my all time favourite.

15. @14 – Lock gates puzzle (Operation): http://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/05/07/inquisitor-1331-operation-by-kruger/

    Possibly my favourite blog of all time. 😀

16. Mike, I am really surprised and troubled that you express yourself so strongly. That was very harsh criticism. I calculate that anywhere between thirty and a hundred hours go into the setting of a thematic cryptic crossword (yes, over weeks or months, too – there’s a lot more to it than just getting Crossword Compiler to help fill a grid.) Then there are the multiple exchanges with test-solvers, vetters and editors (and the occasional rejection). Charles (the other blogging Numpty on Listen With Others) keeps on reminding me that the income from crossworlding is slightly less than one of Her Majesty’s guests at, say, Pentonville earns as a basic wage if he/she works so we clearly do it for love.

    We anxiously wait to see what the real expert solvers on 15^2 will say and it is a really depressing moment if the openers vent their frustration by using that horrible word ‘underwhelmed’ or by laying into the setter.

    Of course we really value the criticism, positive or negative, and know that errors will be spotted from which we can learn, but it does sweeten the pill if that is done in an amusing or encouraging way.

    Kruger possibly has broader shoulders than I have as he has been voted the IQ solvers’ favourite setter for a couple of years in succession hasn’t he? Still, other commentators above have clearly enjoyed his puzzle so obviously it was successful and well received – perhaps your angry words will worry him less than they have worried me.

17. My thanks to Kenmac for his (as always) comprehensive and fair blog and to the largely appreciative comments from other contributors. However …

    Denton @1 : Your views of me as a setter are noted – my opinions of you as a blogger are equally damning but will remain private.

    I’m grateful for your advice on how to set a crossword. I was previously unaware that thematic entries had to be symmetrically placed in the grid and that all clues had to be of the same type – rules that many other setters obviously don’t know either. Has it ever occurred to you that some solvers may actually enjoy the challenge of identifying different clue types as they proceed?

    As for the “conveyor belt” reference, less than 100 thematic puzzles in 20 years can hardly be viewed as a highly productive assembly line. And to assert that I don’t pay care and attention to the setting process is just insulting – both to me and the publication editors.

    Your advice that I should try to set better puzzles is a revelation – I’d never have thought of it! You are clearly oblivious to the fact that setters try extremely hard to produce the very best puzzles they can within the restrictions of the thematic material available and take many, many hours to do so – not the 6-9 minutes that you glibly quote for an electronic grid fill.

    Some puzzles will inevitably be “better” than others (and that’s always subjective) but if solving mine always leaves you with “an air of disappointment”, there is a very simple solution – don’t do them. They aren’t compulsory.

    Sorry Denton, but I think you are capable of doing better blogs than this – so should try to do so.

18. I can hear my late mother saying when she was exasperated with any fallings out: “Be friends!”

19. Shortly before my first blog on this site, Gaufrid offered some advice: “Don’t say anything that you wouldn’t say to the setter if he/she was standing in front of you.”

    That hasn’t stopped me from being critical of some puzzles, but it has served me well.

20. Jane Teather gave me similar advice when I was starting to blog: “If you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all.” She was talking about ‘damning by faint praise’.

21. I don’t necessarily agree that you shouldn’t say so if you don’t like something – negative comments are often very useful (as you always acknowledge, Chalicea).

    But there are limits – illogical comments which amount to little more than a character assassination are just OTT.

    I would like to feel that I continue to learn from constructive feedback, whether it be good or bad.

22. ‘Damning by faint praise’ is a very effective way of letting the setter know that the puzzle wasn’t well received. The only problem for me is that is all it does. I much prefer constructive criticism so that I might learn. I only get annoyed with negative comment when the tone is nastier than it need be.

23. Late to this one. Found it quite difficult to identify the pairs but got there in the end. I enjoyed it. I don’t understand the unnecessarily aggressive sniping. Must be the time of year …

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