Enigmatic Variations No.1462 – Incomprehensible by Kruger

5 comments on “Enigmatic Variations No.1462 – Incomprehensible by Kruger”

1. I’m not always a fan of puzzles where the theme becomes obvious after you get the first thematic item but this held my interest throughout. Not knowing which of the 10 letters was going to be used meant that there was still work to do right up until the last cell was filled. I thought the clues were really good – METAL with its very cunning definition held me up for the longest. It feels like a theme that must have been used before but it was elegantly implemented here – and no grid staring at the end which is always nice.

   Thanks Kruger & Mister Sting.

2. A fun and challenging puzzle. It took me some time to work out what was going on. I tried to resolve my first set of clashes as MAGA – a puzzle on Trump slogans really would have been incomprehensible – before gamma put me on the right track. Still took some puzzling out to get the other letters sorted. Thanks Kruger for the entertainment and to Mister Sting for the review

3. I’m always impressed by setters who implement a theme that imposes no fixed constraints on grid dimensions, positions of thematic entries and so on. The issue that keeps arising is whether to persevere with a partly-built grid or make a fresh start. And can another clash be squeezed in if I replace…

   I enjoyed this, and struggled with several clues well after I’d found the theme, so interest was maintained. Thanks to setter and blogger.

4. I made heavy weather of this, unfortunately, spending too much time trying to identify all the ‘extra’ letters as I went along – an approach I typically find very satisfying with clues of that type. I wasn’t enjoying it, and in hindsight I should have ignored the message and concentrated instead on just getting the answers to as many clues as possible whether I fully understood them or not.

   Now that I see what the instruction said I can’t help wondering whether it could have been given in the preamble instead: it might have caused some puzzlement (“Why is the setter stipulating that?”) until the penny dropped.

   On looking at the solution today I liked the way the thematic items were incorporated into the clashing cells.  The title gave me no clue to the theme, but that’s my usual experience!

   Thanks to Kruger and Mister Sting.

5. Great fun and as Ifor says, interest was maintained after spotting the theme due to the excellent clues. Nice touch to confirm that upper case letters were needed. Not the first time this theme has been used but it’s always welcome. Thanks Kruger.

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