Guardian 27,177 / Shed

50 comments on “Guardian 27,177 / Shed”

1. Thanks Shed and Eileen.

   Satisfying crossword with STRUMPET the favourite.

   I’m not sure what was going on in 13A, although the parsing is fine.

2. A mostly straightforward and enjoyable challenge for me.

   With only the end E to go on at the time I’d quite confidently entered PAWNEE at 12 which parsed quite happily for me – NWA being the band and probably more of a ‘band’ than the LPO. Wonder if anyone else did similar??

   Thanks Shed for the workout and Eileen for your clear blog.

3. This was one of those puzzles that got easier the more of it was done, and the last few fell very quickly. Plenty to admire as always from Shed.

   Thanks to Shed and Eileen

4. @Doofs
   Love it! I was mucking around with ELP, ELO and getting nowhere.
   Shed’s surfaces have a certain surrealist quality, don’t they?
   Thanks Eileen, and nice weekend all

5. Lovely crossword – my first for a while – just emerging from a very busy two weeks and a crowded Music Festival at Easter.

   Thanks to Shed for the fun and Eileen for a great blog.

   I too loved STRUMPET at 2d when it finally emerged.

   Other favourites were Hamlet’s frail WOMAN at 8a, BRAVURA at 21d and INVERT at 23d.

   I missed the parsing in 12a PEOPLE as I too was trying to fit ELO! Didn’t even think of the London Philharmonic.

6. Thanks Shed an Eileen
   I thought it was on the easy side for Shed too, though I didn’t parse PEOPLE (missing LPO), GETAWAY or SALMON. Favourites were STRUMPET (of course!) and PRECLUDE. I hadn’t heard of the philosopher, but in his case I was able to build up the answer from the wordplay.

7. I’m another that always looks forward to Shed, but if anything this was over a little too quickly – makes up for my struggles with his Prize three weeks ago. But let’s hear it for any puzzle with GREENE, BARTHES and PROUST, the ‘band’ as LPO, and a sort-of assumption that you know that Chopin wrote preludes – no dumbing down here! GETAWAY last in; it took me some time to see what was going on here.

8. Thank you Shed for a fun puzzle and Eileen for an interesting blog.

   A most enjoyable solving time, but over too quickly, I should have tried harder to parse PEOPLE so as to make it last longer – wonder how Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent would react to the clue?

9. A reasonably straightforward puzzle today and I almost began to think it was Monday not Friday! Perhaps untypically, I solved STRUMPET before PRESIDENT (which was actually my last entry) so regrettably I didn’t get to share Eileen’s laugh-out-loud moment. My personal favourites were WOMAN, OVERSLEEP and INVERT. Thanks to Shed and Eileen.

10. You cant keep a good Serpent down!

11. An enjoyable puzzle but definitely at the easier end as evidenced by me posting at 12 noon rather than 12 midnight! As well as those mentioned I had AQUALUNG as a favourite, especially as I was working on SCUBA reversed to begin with. I’m another with 4d as LOI and who got STRUMPET before PRESIDENT and missed the gag until I came here.
    I have a question for setters or those who understand the setter’s art. Does the grid layout influence how difficult you make the clues? I got 7 and 8 on first reading and wonder whether not having starting letter crossers leads to more gentle clueing?
    Thank you Shed and Eileen.

12. Can anyone here help? I haven’t been able to access any of the cryptics ony Samsung Galaxy since yesterday evening. No grid appears, it just says “Loading comments…”.

    I tried emailing userhelp@theguardian.com and my email failed to send.

13. Two in a row and third this week: is the Guardian getting easier? This was a case of bottom upwards (Once I cured Sleepover to Oversleep – betraying my parenting years?). Took me ages to see Almond in 6d and then 10a fell straight in to finish, my lol moment. Liked 2d; again, band had to be LPO but not as I would describe them.

    Thanks to Eileen and Shed.

14. “Band” is the word orchestral musicians themselves use!

15. Oboist,

    Thanks. Just shows how unmusical I am.

16. oboist @14, that is interesting, and I see that ‘band’ is in the COED as colloquial for an orchetra – but I still cannot imagine Sir Thomas Beecham using the term…

17. Apart from never having blogged a Shed puzzle, what I was going to say here is summed up perfectly by Eileen’s introduction

    Thanks to both setter and blogger

18. I really enjoyed this puzzle. My favourites were OVERSLEEP, TREVI, STUMP, SALMON, STRUMPET & GETAWAY (LOI).

    I could not parse the OPL = LPO bit of 12a.

    Thanks Eileen and Shed.

19. I had the same problem suddenly occurring today. Got on to the Guardian helpline and they suggested using Chrome instead of Google, which worked but they still haven’t explained why it doesn’t work with plain old Google suddenly.

20. Thanks both,

    Like Trevor, I originally had sleepover for oversleep, and a mental note to quibble. Otherwise this was very straightforward but none the less enjoyable for that.

21. Thanks, Gerry. Just posted my tuppence worth across by, using Chrome for the very first time.

22. How about PLO? Could they be described as a band?Of what?

23. Thanks to Shed and Eileen. Very enjoyable. For some reason I had trouble catching on to RUSE and GREENE (my LOI) and did not parse PEOPLE.

24. I couldn’t get the crossword to load on IE11 this morning, so tried Chrome. I hate all the ads though (even with my ad blocker.) I found clearing the cache with ctrl F5 allowed IE11 to work.

25. Thanks Shed and Eileen. After yesterday I predicted a toughie today, but like others I found this gentle for Shed. I got 2dn quite early on, and used it to solve 30ac. One thing we can say about the new US President is that he is providing fruitful ground for Guardian setters.

26. A nice and gentle solve which suited me down to the ground. RUE as a plant was new to me but everything else went in nicely. I liked STRUMPET.
    Thanks Shed.

27. Julie @5
    Welcome back! I too particularly liked STRUMPET for its neatness and originality.

    WhiteKing @11
    You asked “Does the grid layout influence how difficult you make the clues?”
    I think the answer is Yes. A good setter will always be aware of how ‘accessible’ clues are, and, depending on how challenging she or he intends them to be, will take account of how strong or weak the grid is – e.g. which answers, and how many of them, have fewer than half of their letters checked by crossing words. Naming no names, I think one or two setters do not make enough allowance, or simply do not give any heed to the accessibility of certain clues. I agree with you that Shed pitched this puzzle just right, and I believe he was fully aware of these factors.

28. A fun solve, this one went in whole quarters for me – sw, ne, se, nw – with 2dn as last but best – made me laugh. Thanks both.

29. I found this well-written but very straightforward for Friday. The only slight query I had was why “surprisingly” was included in 3. It seemed to me that destroyed could serve the same function by itself.
    I learned quite a few useful nuggets today too – the Trevi Fountain, rue as a plant, the Hamlet quote – and that’s never a bad thing.

    Thanks, Shed and Eileen.

30. phitonelly @ 29

    I think “half-destroyed” refers to deleting half of “VIce”, while “surprisingly” is the instruction to make an anagram of VI with TRUE.

31. Thanks, Simon S – you just beat me to it.

    Hi phitonelly – you’re obviously far too young to know of the film and its theme song, ‘Three coins in the fountain’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkHkMH5uxrA – the story goes that, if you throw a coin in the Trevi fountain, you’ll be sure to return to Rome.

32. Simon @30
    Agreed. I was suggesting that “half” on its own could serve as the deletion indicator and “destroyed” as the anagrind. Maybe that sort of word split is not to Shed’s liking, or maybe he just preferred the surface the way he wrote it!

33. Thanks for that, Eileen. You’re right, I don’t know the film or song. I’ll take a look at the link later on when I’m on my home computer.

34. You can see Anita Ekberg dancing in the Trevi Fountain (and getting wet, of course) in Fellini’s La dolce vita

35. NNI et al. I have had the same problem getting Xwords on my Samsung Galaxy recently, using Chrome. No idea why

36. This gets my “best puzzle so far this month” rosette. Thank you Shed.
    I agree with Eileen’s comments – and thanks to her for throwing light on 12 across.

37. For me it wasn’t NWA it was ELO that couldn’t escape my mind’s eye. Luckily it was in the ballpark and helped me get to the true answer.

38. Alan B – thanks for your thoughts – that makes sense. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

39. Eileen is right as usual, so thanks to her and Shed

40. Doofs@2: blimey, you’re right. I never thought of NWA but your answer works at least as well as mine, probably better. I hate it when that happens. One of my cardinal rules is that there should only ever be one plausible answer, but I broke it there.

    AlanB@27: I for one do try to make clues gentler when there’s a paucity of checked letters in the solution, but after some 35 years of doing this I’m still surprised that some people think clues I meant to be gentle are fiendish and ones I meant to be fiendish are easy.

    Thanks to Eileen for a characteristically precise and generous blog, and to all who commented.

41. Thanks for visiting Shed and also for the crossword.

    I think you can be sure that not many people on here will have heard of NWA. I certainly haven’t and having researched them I am also doubly glad that I have never heard any of their “noise”(Niggaz Wit Attitudes indeed)

    The use of “bad” for LPO is of course fine. Anyone who listens to Radio 3 will hear this usage on a regular basis. (Especially on “in tune” which has daily visits from professional classical musicians.)

    The poster who mused about the reaction of Malcolm Sargent to “band” is obviously forgetting that he was a co-founder of the Proms. He was very keen to popularize classical music and make it available to the masses. I suspect he would have loved this use of “band”.

    Nice to see you back Shed. Hopefully your recent reduction in publications is down to your own choice and not our “illustrious Ed!”. (the same goes for your apparent decision to go “easier” which is much lamented in my circles!)

42. What a shame – such a very nice puzzle but so easy for a non-Monday/quiptic. I also saw STRUMPET as a likely answer for 2d, before I’d entered anything, from the clue’s formation. So I missed the fun – and the benefit of Shed’s effort. This happens I guess. (Just one other example, of many, is Brendan’s excellent 25290 from 2011 where a stonking example of interlocking other clues lead to his 13,17ac solution but one’s already almost certain of the solution. One still appreciates the artistry of the setter – but not the joy of revelation.)
    Nevertheless, it’s a big thank you to Shed for his brilliance (I’m sure I couldn’t do what he does – even if I had the patience!) and to Eileen for her continued kindness.

43. As an adopted Merseysider I had LPO as Liverpool P.O. and thought ‘who would know that’.

44. pex – O lucky you! I bet you’re actually pleased to find a queue at your musical Post Office! 🙂

45. Indeed William but the queues tend to be for other bands hosted by The Phil rather than the LPO.4

46. BNTO @41, the Proms summer classical music concert series in London was founded in 1895 by Robert Newman and the conductor Henry Wood. Sir Henry Wood and Sir Thomas Beecham did not get on well together.

47. 13 Odoriferous plant secures second trick (4)
    RUSE

    Should be

    11 Odoriferous plant secures second trick (4)
    RUSE

48. BNTO @41: NWA are (or were) themselves black so they’re entitled to call themselves that. I confess to being unfamiliar with their oeuvre but I was aware of their existence.

49. Hi Shed @40 – if it’s not too late: I’ve been out since early morning at Stratford for Shakespeare’s birthday celebrations.

    Many thanks for dropping in and clarifying 12ac. It must be really frustrating for you when you’re so meticulous. Thanks again for the puzzle – I’m glad it went down so well.

    colin @47 – apologies for the misnumbering, amended now.

50. “I think you can be sure that not many people on here will have heard of NWA”

    Don’t be too sure about that: beware of stereotypes, positive or negative 😉

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