Inquisitor Review of 2017-8 by Nimrod

23 comments on “Inquisitor Review of 2017-8 by Nimrod”

1. So so hard to pick out a handful from among the 10 or 11 that stood out for me this year. After a very enjoyable trip down memory lane, I’ve settled on

   2 pts: #1537 Circulation by Shark
   2 pts: #1562 Provider of Name Filling Entry by Ifor
   1 pt: #1523 Silvester by Eclogue
   1 pt: #1573 Stagnation by Eclogue
   (so Ecl… and Log… can each have a point)

   Thanks to John H & the team, and best wishes for the new year to all the setters, my fellow bloggers, all those who have commented, and also to the (many?) silent lurkers out there.

2. This was a partial year for me. My first Inquisitor was Unsatisfying by Phi on 17 March, and out of 40 puzzles published since then in the range of this review I attempted 28. (I don’t always have time to do the weekly puzzle, and on a few occasions I have elected not to start one after studying the design and reading the preamble.)

   I am bowled over by the range of themes and designs that I have encountered in this period, and I have absolute admiration for the skill and creativity that has gone into the constructions of all the puzzles that I have attempted. The other striking thing about them all is the standard of clueing, which is consistently high and on a couple of occasions has even compensated for an unfulfilled theme.

   With only half a year’s puzzles behind me I will decline participation in the statistical review, but I’ll just mention my three favourite puzzles: Wings It by Schadenfreude, Wall of Sound by Nimrod and Go West, Young Man by Harribobs. It almost goes without saying that these are closely followed by about a dozen others.

   A happy new year to all setters, bloggers and solvers out there.

3. I couldn’t possibly rank the puzzles in any sort of fair way so I will just take the opportunity to say thank you to the setters for producing such fabulous puzzles and to Nimrod for bringing it all together.  Thank you also to the bloggers who so clearly explain all those end-games that I so frequently fail to get right.  The IQ is a truly great institution.

4. Many great puzzles, so hard to choose!

   1562: Name Filling Entry by Ifor (3 points)
   1570: Go West, Young Man by Harribobs (2 points)
   1564: Soft Tube by Schadenfreude (1 point)

5. 1562: Provider of Name Filling Entry by IFOR (2 points)

   1557: Wall of Sound by NIMROD (2 points)

   The above were stand-out choices; I’ll distribute the remaining 2 points to puzzles whose theme particularly appealed:

   1567: The Magic of Opera by PHI (1 point)

   1568: Such Delight by CHALICEA (1 point)

   Happy New Year to all.

    

6. I went through my archive and found 7 puzzles I had enjoyed a lot. After a bit of thought I decided to award 1 point to 5 and a half each to the two puzzles  by duplicate setters (Harribobs and Eclogue).

   1523 Sylvester (Eclogue) 1

   1526 Inner Turmoil (Harribobs) 0.5

   1550 Ivy (Eclogue) 0.5

   1555 Landmark (Pointer) 1

   1568 Such Delight (Chalicea) 1

   1570 Go West Young Man (Harribobs) 1

   1571 Unassuming Champion (Ploy) 1

   Happy New Year to all. It has started well with Doctor’s Orders by eXtent!

7. Another year of fantastic puzzles, and another difficult decision to make. Many thanks to all setters for the challenges and the fun.

   In my records, I give each puzzle a personal rating for enjoyment — so a puzzle with a theme that interests me (e.g. music I like) is likely to score more highly than what might be a brilliant puzzle but has a theme that leaves me cold.

   In chronological order, I have highlighted the following (themes in brackets):

   Inner Turmoil by Harribobs (orderliness), mainly for the sheer satisfaction of finally arriving at the solution after a very challenging solve.

   Wall of Sound by Nimrod (Leonard Bernstein), with the added fun of an Only Connect-style wall.

   Artists by Nudd (Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms) — a lovely tribute to a great band and album. I particularly liked the ‘damaged clues’ idea, using the tracks from the album.

   Provider of Name Filling Entry by Ifor (heart transplant) — Ifor’s puzzles are always a pleasure to solve, and this was my favourite of his contributions this year. He manages to write clues that utterly baffle me for a while, before the eventual “Duh!” moment.

   Soft Tube by Schadenfreude (Velvet Underground) — another band with a special place in my heart; my favourite Schadenfreude puzzle this year.

   Keep Trying by Radler (Kafka) — this took me a long time to solve, but when I came back to it after a break and things fell into place, it was all worth it, especially the way the final step revealed itself.

   Go West, Young Man by Harribobs (Western states of the US) — relatively straightforward clues, with a hugely impressive PDM, an amazing feat of grid construction.

   All Change by Nimrod (traffic lights) — quite a challenging solve, mainly because I did not spot all the ‘traffic light’ clues in the test-solve version (the published version had a few amendments). Another good PDM.

   So, where to award my 6 points? I will go for:

   2 points to Artists by Nudd, the puzzle I enjoyed most all year

   1 point each to:
   Wall of Sound by Nimrod
   Provider of Name Filling Entry by Ifor
   Keep Trying by Radler
   Go West, Young Man by Harribobs

   … and I’ll post this quickly, before I change my mind!

8. Even more difficult to choose this year – thanks to all the setters for some brilliant puzzles. Since I can’t give points to everyone, I’ll just allocate one to each of my favourites:

   1530 Banner Advertisement by Serpent

   1550 Ivy by Eclogue

   1557 Wall of Sound by Nimrod

   1558 Artists by Nudd

   1568 Such Delight by Chalicea

   1571 Unassuming Champion by Ploy

9. So many good ones, but I shall keep this simple abd award points to those I felt were the most novel. My 3 points go to Go West Young Man, and 1.5 to each of Barcode and Provider Of Name Filling Entry.

10. As always, it’s never easy picking the best. I’m sure I say this every year but the standard of the IQ is absolutely astonishing; it’s my go to puzzle every week. So my sincere thanks to all the setters, bloggers, Gaufrid, and of course JH for keeping the whole thing ticking over.

    My own voting system throughout the year highlighted 8 puzzles. I’ve whittled that down to a Gold, Silver and Bronze. Those that impressed me but just missed out are 1530 by Serpent, 1561 by Vismut, 1563 by Poat, 1564 by Schadenfreude and 1565 by Radler. All brilliant.

    My favourites of the year are :

    1570 Go West, Young Man by Harribobs. 3
    1543 Barcode by Xanthippe. 2
    1557 Wall of Sound by Nimrod. 1

    Each a stunning construction, but I have to doff my trilby/fedora to Harribobs for a feat of magic and thus earning my gold medal.

    Happy New Year to all of the IQ community.

    Regards

    Phil

11. Once again it is very difficult to choose between puzzles of such an incredibly high standard, but the stand-out one for me was 1570 Go West Young Man by Harribobs because of its amazing construction. I’ve awarded it two points and distributed the remaining four equally between the others which I had as contenders. There is an element of “through gritted teeth” with my nomination of Nimrod’s Wall of Sound No. 1557 as I invariably do not complete his offerings and this one was no exception. I simply have to acknowledge the quality of this puzzle, however, and happily I’ve since managed to break my Nimrod duck with solving his No 1572 All Change.

    My list is:
    1570 Go West, Young Man by Harribobs 2
    1554 Wings It by Schadenfraude 1
    1557 Wall of Sound by Nimrod 1
    1562 Provider of Name by Ifor 1
    1568 Such Delight by Chalicea 1

    Happy New Year to all

     

12. I can only echo the gratitude and congratulations outlined above: picking up a copy of the i on Saturday morning and looking at what is in store has become a highlight of my week. The variety and skill displayed by setters continues to amaze. My votes go to:

    2 points: 1555 Landmark by Pointer. Simply, it’s the puzzle that has stuck in my mind the longest over the year. Possibly relatedly, it feels like I notice the Ribblehead Viaduct appear in films, adverts etc. more frequently ever since. A real pleasure to complete.

    1 point to:

    1570 Go west, young man by Harribobs

    1548 Round robbin by Ifor

    1562 Provider of name filling entry by Ifor

    1554: Wings it, by Schadenfreude

    Cheers and Happy New Year to the Editor and team.

13. Thanks to all setters and bloggers

    My votes are as follows:

    1562 – Provider of Name Filling Entry – Ifor – 2 pts

    1548 – Round Robbin’ – Ifor – 2 points

    1541 – Shift – Gila – 1 point

    1532 – Change of Entry – eXternal – 1 point

14. This is the first year I’ve kept a list, knowing this was coming. There seem to be six on it, so I will simply, and rather lazily, copy it. I think it might unfairly omit a couple of very strong puzzles right at the end of the year.

    1546  Craft Show by Triton

    1551 You Will Have by Kruger

    1554 Wings It by Schadenfreude

    1569 Provider of Name by Ifor

    1565 Keep Trying by Radler

    1569 Hit and Miss by Penumbra

15. Let’s go with, though there were many good ones to choose from:

    Go West, Young Man by Harribobs 2pts
    Provider of Name Filling Entry by Ifor 1pt
    Barcode by Xanthippe 1pt
    Circulation by Shark 1pt
    Seven Shaded Shapes by Pointer 1pt

16. Another amazing year, which almost goes without saying now. I’m surprised by how many puzzles are given only two stars, including some I’m surely not alone in having found fiendishly difficult. Is ** the new ***?

    Having enjoyed my annual reminisce I’ve settled on 5 puzzles to award points to, but as two setters each appear twice in my list I’ll give those puzzles one point:

    1 point each to:

    1526 – Inner Turmoil and 1570 – Go West Young Man by Harribobs, both of which were astoundingly impressive grid constructions

    1533 – A little Light Relief (my favourite IQ theme yet) and 1573 – Stagnation (an all-round excellent puzzle) by Eclogue

    2 points (and so my puzzle of the year) to 1530 – Banner Advertisement by Serpent, which had everything I like most about the Inquisitor

17. Go West, Young Man – 3 pts

    Inner Turmoil – 1

    All Change – 1

    Wall of Sound – 1

18. Joyce – This is my choice and a difficult one too.

    For the grid construction alone I have to award Harribobs 3 points for 1570 – Go West Young Man.

    It is difficult to seperate the others so 0.5 points each to the following:

    1526 Inner Turmoil – another Harribobs!
    1548 Round Robbin’ – Ifor
    1554 Wings It – Schadenfreude
    1557 Wall of Sound – Nimrod
    1562 Provider of Name – another Ifor
    1550 Ivy – Eclogue

    Thanks to John, all the fantastic setters and dedicated bloggers.

19. Either I am getting too generous with my marking or these puzzles are just getting better and better. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.

    1570 Go West Young Man is my clear winner on 9.5 (out of 10) and gets 2 points.

    After much deliberation about which were the most enjoyable of several which scored 9, these get one point each:

    1523 Silvester – Eclogue

    1530 Banner Advertisement – Serpent

    1563 Just in Time – Poat

    1573 Stagnation – Eclogue

    A terrific year bookended by two superb puzzles by Eclogue.

     

20. Bert’s choice – a brilliant year and very difficult to put them in order, and with only 6 points to distribute, a great pity to miss out so many good puzzles, but in the end:

    One point each for:

    1526: Inner Turmoil – Harribobs

    1570: Go West, young man – Harribobs again

    Half a point each for:

    1530: Banner Advertisement – Serpent

    1537: Circulation – Shark

    1543: Barcode – Xanthippe

    1550: Ivy – Eclogue

    1554: Wings It – Schadenfreude

    1555: Landmark – Pointer

    1562: Provider of Name Filling Entry – Ifor

    1568: Such delight – Chalicea

    Many thanks to John for another great year of IQs

21. I really must award points week by week, otherwise it’s so difficult to remember them. I’ll go through the list first, picking out my favourites.

    1526 Harribobs
    1528 Pointer
    1530 Serpent
    1539 Nimrod
    1541 Gila
    1543 Xanthippe
    1552 eXtent
    1557 Nimrod
    1562 Ifor
    1570 Harribobs
    1572 Nimrod

    That gives me 11, so 0.5 to all except 1570, Go West Young Man, a clear winner which gets 1 point.

22. I agree with Jane@7 and have chosen the puzzles which gave me most enjoyment. There were plenty of other puzzles with an amazing grid construction which would have beaten some of these on that criterion, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Nevertheless, it was still difficult to whittle down my selection, even to these six, to each of whom I give 1 point.

    1530 Banner Advertisement by Serpent

    1547 Northern Lights by Phi

    1549 Heaven by Chalicea

    1552 Floors by eXtent (so 1.5 to Serpent!)

    1569 Hit and Miss by Penumbra

    1573 Stagnation by Eclogue

23. Many thanks to all fellow setters, JH and the IQ team for another cracking year of puzzles, and to all bloggers, commenters and lurkers on here.

    2 points from me for each of the following:

    1558 Artists by Nudd – for the great use of album tracks in clues, and for being the first puzzle where I’ve used Spotify to help my solve

    1562 Provider of Name Filling Entry by Ifor – for the very clever identification and execution of the theme

    1570 Go West, Young Man by Harribobs – for that grid!

    Here’s to 2019

    Ali/Gila

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