Inquisitor Review of 2017-8 – The Results

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Where next?

A familiar figure sits in the first-class lounge, presumably waiting to embark on the next leg of his round-the-world crossword tour. Having navigated the coast of Australia in 2017, last year Harribobs arrived in the USA to take in the sights of the Western states. And now, having conquered America, where will he head next? It could be time to dust off the atlas and revise the provinces of Canada or the countries of North Africa…

Looking back at Hihoba’s excellent blog on December 5, it’s not difficult to see why Harribobs triumphed again. Even with the use of software, it’s still a breathtaking grid-fill – and you evidently excused Colorado and Oklahoma merely touching at a corner rather than having a line border in the grid. The margin of victory for Go West, Young Man was greater than that for the 2017 winner Captain’s Log, even more so if you consider that last year he was 9 points clear of a field jockeying for second place – this year, he was 11 points ahead, but with the clear second, Ifor’s Provider of Name Filling Entry, itself 10 points clear of third.

The details follow, but by way of summary here are a few statistics (you may wish to compare these with the 2016-7 figures):

  • 26 solvers voted, 21 (+me) on Fifteensquared, 4 via email, none via Twitter
  • 32 of this year’s 52 puzzles received at least one vote
  • 10 solvers said that they wished to abstain, usually because choosing between puzzles was too difficult or they had not attempted all puzzles
  • the five 3-star (harder) puzzles received a total of 33 votes
  • the four 1-star (easier) puzzles received a total of 6 votes
  • 4 of the five 3-star puzzles were in the top 12
  • most voted-for puzzle (17): Go West, Young Man by Harribobs.
  • most talked-about puzzle (32 comments): Landmark by Pointer
  • only 8 of the 26 voters awarded a 3 (4 of them to the winner), there were 19 2s but no 2½s this year
Position . No. . Title with starred difficulty
(***tougher-*easier)		 . Setter . Posts/
Votes		 . Points
1 1570 Go West, Young Man*** Harribobs 30/17 31
2 1562 Pro…Name Filling Entry** Ifor 28/15 20
3 1557 Wall of Sound** Nimrod 22/9 10
=4 1537 Circulation** Shark 19/5 7½
1568 Such Delight* Chalicea 19/6
=6 1523 Silvester*** Eclogue 18/5 7
1543 Barcode** Xanthippe 19/6
8 1530 Banner Advertisement** Serpent 18/6 6
9 1555 Landmark** Pointer 32/4 5½
10 1558 Artists** Nudd 18/3 5
=11 1526 Inner Turmoil*** Harribobs 28/6 4½
1548 Round Robbin’*** Ifor 24/4
=13 1550 Ivy** Eclogue 27/6 4
1554 Wings It** Schadenfreude 15/5
1573 Stagnation** Eclogue 7/4
16 1571 Unassuming Champion* Ploy 18/3 3
=17 1541 Shift** Gila 14/3 2½
1547 Northern Lights** Phi 16/2
1551 You Will Have** Kruger 14/3
1572 All Change** Nimrod 18/3
=21 1565 Keep Trying** Radler 17/2 2
1567 The Magic of Opera** Phi 15/2
1569 Hit and Miss** Penumbra 22/2
=24 1528 Seven Shaded Shapes* Pointer 12/2 1½
1552 Floors** eXtent 9/2
=26 1532 Change of Entry** eXternal 9/1 1
1533 A Little Light Relief** Eclogue 7/1
1546 Craft Show** Triton 14/1
1549 Heaven* Chalicea 15/1
1563 Just in Time** Poat 29/1
1564 Soft Tube** Schadenfreude 10/1
32 1539 Noble Aims*** Nimrod 28/1 ½

My usual annual thanks for support to Gaufrid, for cheerfully maintaining this fantastic site, to the four IQ bloggers who efficiently (and also, I think, cheerfully) go about their business, to my wonderful solving team and to all setters, other solvers and commenters who make my job so enjoyable. To 2019!

John H

5 comments on “Inquisitor Review of 2017-8 – The Results”

  3. A worthy winner indeed.  That grid fill in Go West was certainly something special.  It showed technical skill perhaps but the main reason it is special is that it is so right for the puzzle, even if it were easy to construct it would still be something special.

  4. This year, I’m going to give marks out of 10 on a weekly basis, because I found it difficult to remember them all. I’m certain I missed out on a few I should have included. However, I see I had voted for the first three, then three of the next five, but I was the only one who voted for Nimrod’s Red Baron. So my memory wasn’t too bad.

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