Inquisitor Review of 2016 – The Results

by

Whodunnit?

Take away the “Where’s my prize?” and “No i at the newsagent’s today, please would you send IQ” emails from my inbox, and there are still a significant number of correspondents bemoaning harsh difficulty levels. I find this quite hard to fathom, particular in the year just past.

Regular readers will know that part of the Inquisitor publication process is aiming to group puzzles in fives to produce a consistent rolling average of difficulty. Because an editor can only work with the puzzles he’s sent, there was a greater need in previous years to offset one more difficult puzzle in each quintet with an easier one. In 2016 though, setters seemed to be hitting a more consist average-difficulty mark, and this resulted in fewer “extreme” puzzles – only seven triple-star, and therefore seven easier single-star partners.

Surely (you’d think) the plaintiffs would be using the poll to vote for the easier puzzles and support their case. It doesn’t look that way. Maybe it’s only lovers of the difficult puzzles who vote in our poll, but four of the seven toughies found their way into this year’s top 6, five into the top ten. Only three of the easier puzzles scored at all. Conclusions on a postcard, please, to Perplexed of York.

I like a tough puzzle, as you probably know, but I can’t remember one that stood out from 2016 for me in terms of difficulty. Possibly Kruger’s Fulfilment? The Enemy’s Gift by Poat, maybe? Or Multiplication by Radler? There were quite a few that were time-consuming, yes: Lato’s Connect Four, Xanthippe’s Text Message, Double, Double by Harribobs, Pleasant Spot by Shark and Provisions by ’Eck, but all ticked over nicely until denouement time. But that’s what makes the Inquisitor, isn’t it? Every single one was enjoyable in its own way, and I (indeed we, the team) continue to love working my (our) way through the lovely stuff we’re sent. Long may it continue.

As last year, many solvers expressed the above sentiments but said that they’d prefer not to vote. Perhaps they hadn’t attempted/completed them all, found it difficult to choose three or (nice) only joined at the end of March when they found us in the i, so couldn’t vote for the first three months.

Here’s the complete summary of votes, with more than half of the year’s puzzles represented. Warm congratulations to Serpent on topping the chart with his excellent Cluedo-based puzzle. I’m pleased to announce that he will be the first recipient of an annual trophy (more of that in an upcoming post), though our three previous winners will also have their achievements recorded on it. Commiserations to eXternal on achieving another Clue Two runner-up: thanks to him (warning to solvers) for having already submitted Clue Two III. Third time lucky, maybe?

The stats: numbers in the central column indicate the number of posts on each puzzle’s Fifteensquared thread, asterisked team difficulty levels, numbers in the penultimate column indicate the number of votes (of whatever value) given to the puzzle. Many thanks to everyone who contributed. If you’d like copies of any Inquisitors, please leave a comment below or drop me an email. Here’s to 2017!

Posts Votes Points
1 1425 Process of Elimination 21 Serpent** 16 29
2 1457 Clue Two II 17 eXternal*** 14 24
3 1431 Life After Death? 31 Nimrod*** 15 23
4 1462 Double, Double 15 Harribobs*** 13 22½
5 1460 PW RBS 19 Base** 9 13
6 1444 Ours 14 Eclogue*** 6 9½
7 1466 Lucky Number 38 Triton* 3 8
8 1456 Bad Company 8 Schadenfreude** 3 6
9 1448 The Enemy’s Gift 10 Poat** 4 4
10 1452 Intended 10 Ifor*** 2 4
11= 1433 Underline & Highlight 10 Ifor** 3 3
1421 Domain Name 13 Ferret** 3 3
1424 Dickens 9 Shark** 2 3
1442 Text Message 19 Xanthippe** 2 3
15= 1450 Triptych 17 Phi** 1 1
1449 Pleasant Spot 10 Shark**
1447 One and Only One 4 Ace of Hearts**
1418 It’s a Wrap! 21 Plench***
1420 Coming Through 7 Phi**
1432 Female Quartet 20 Schadenfreude**
1435 Prize Puzzle 13 eXternal*
1446 Seasonal Change 8 Schadenfreude**
1438 Something Fishy 20 Phi***
1427 Fulfilment 14 Kruger***
1468 Rule 10 Ifor**
1465 Wattwhip 11 Phi*
1430 Re?olution 23 Jixaur**

7 comments on “Inquisitor Review of 2016 – The Results”

  1. Many thanks to all setters on providing such enjoyment and puzzlement week in week out, and a special word of congratulations to those who scored so well in the final results. I didn’t vote since I find it hard to remember enough about the puzzles from one year’s end to the next, and rating puzzles is no easy task anyway. They’re all winners in my book.

  2. My congratulations to Serpent, and to all those who scored well in the results.

    Thanks to everyone involved in producing a wonderful series of puzzles.

  3. I agree with everything NormanLinFrance says.

    Some further comments :

    1. “PLUNDER”. I was sad and surprised at Pointer’s “Plunder” being disallowed for voting. First, it was undoubtedly a 2016 puzzle and, secondly, the solution, complete with Hihoba’s excellent blog, was already published, on Fifteen Squared, on January 4, a full seven days before the January 11 deadline for voting for “Puzzle of the Year 2016”. I would have definitely put this as my no. 1, and not just because grey cell deterioration had dimmed my memory of earlier puzzles.

    2 DIFFICULTY LEVELS IN 2016. It seems that many others, besides myself, have felt that 2016 did indeed represent the IQ hardness thermostat being turned up a few degrees, an opinion which has caused some perplexity in York. I have only been doing IQs since about 2006, and the Listener since it was taken over by the Times, (when prizes were expensive Movado watches !) but feel this is long enough to form a reliable overview of ongoing ease/difficulty levels. My feeling about the Listener has always been that it happily mixes fiendishly difficult with very easy, and the one thing that appealed to me about IQ, in my earlier days with it, was its reliable consistency … you always knew you were going to face a tough but ultimately do-able challenge.

    All this began to change with the new format, quickly adopted by most setters, of first having to work out an instruction, usually from missing or extra wordplay letters, before you could start sensible grid entering. PLUS the also relatively new “Only Connect” requirement of discovering esoteric associations between obscure names or words in order to complete a thematic endgame.

    This often more than doubled the time taken by average solvers like me to complete puzzles of this type, compared with those of earlier years.

    3. STAR RATINGS. These are awarded in advance by our editor and “his team”. All of those worthies are of course in the élite solver bracket, and may simply be unaware of the extra time it takes us average solvers to reach that 90%+ plateau of clues solved before we can even start entering answers ? Also, I guess that star ratings for some are different for others. One of the three-star puzzles above, for example, troubled me far less than some of the two-star or even so-called one-star puzzles.
    ————————————-
    … AND FINALLY …
    There always comes a time, (pace Federer, Nadal and the Williams sisters,) when one has to accept that a new generation has taken over. And it may well be that those who are now growing up with these new-style puzzles find that the challenge they present are totally in tune with their own tastes and expectation.

    So a very genuine thank you and good luck to all who are involved in the EVOLUTION of one of our favourite pastimes… particularly our editor and his team, and the setters they rely on.

    And equally sincere congratulations to those who were voted top setters for the year and those who remembered well enough to be able to cast their votes. I am not at all surprised that three-star puzzles predominated at the top. Those who have climbed Ben Nevis and Scafell will probably rate those conquests higher than a stroll up Box Hill or the Brecon Beacons ?

  4. Our apologies for not voting this year – time just ran away from us. Had we voted though, it would not have made any difference as we totally agree with Serpent at number 1.

    Many thanks to all the setters and everyone else behind the scenes of the IQ. It still remains our favourite puzzle of the week – we were so worried when it was dropped by the Indy, so many thanks to the i for taking it over!

  5. The INQUISITOR is clearly now in competition with THE LISTENER in terms of becoming very hard with votes by those who persevere for puzzles that demand most persevering. When it began in the 80s it provided a gentle introduction to specialist barred puzzles (and Harold Massingham went as far as to ban rare words for a while). No longer does it fulfil this role in the new regime — and I have a few regrets about that and feel some sympathy with MG. That said, I do not wish to spoil the party for those who prefer the harder liquor. There are still other drinks available at the cruciverbal bar!

  6. Many thanks to everyone who voted for my puzzle. I am thrilled to have won in such distinguished company.

    And many thanks to John and his team for all the work they put in to make the Inquisitor such a great series.

  7. I should pay more attention! We have been having work done on the house and the chaos is all pervasive. I had “remembered” that the deadline for voting was 31st Jan, so finally got round to logging on today only to discover my error. I had been looking for witty clues and themes and had chosen 6 worthy candidates to share my points. Serpent’s 1425 was certainly one of them. Congrats to him and grateful thanks to the editing team and the 15squared team for providing so much enjoyment and mental stimulation in 2016.

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