Guardian 26,166 / Otterden

40 comments on “Guardian 26,166 / Otterden”

1. Thanks to mhl for the blog.

   It is a shame there were no clues for the capital cities. On 1d I had BAKU and SOFIA but when faced with ?A?R?? I picked MADRID. This then left me with D?R? for the start of 30a and I failed to find a city that fitted.

2. I also didnt like the unclued status of the “theme”.

3. Thanks, mhl.

   I see the annotated solution offers both LIMA and LOME as possible solutions for 8dn so I suppose anyone who entered the competition will not be too aggrieved but I spent as long on this question at the end, trying to see a reason to choose one over the other, as I did on the rest of the puzzle – very irritating.

4. Far too easy for a Prize in my opinion.

   The only problem was finding the odd capitals that would fit. (Lome or Lima!!!!! and Baku!)

   So the capitals that would fit the grid weren’t actually unique!!! Oooops.

   Didn’t particularly like “Comes across” = “Spanner” either.

   Overall pretty poor.

   All done and dusted in the half hour!!!!

   Thanks to mhl and Otterden

5. A bad idea badly executed. And nothing to admire in the clueing.

6. I’m sure this isn’t the worst prize crossword ever. I’m not going to try to prove it though.

   Some very weak anagrams, ‘end user’ from endures is particularly daft. Some very weakly expressed definitions, ‘comes across’ not even being the correct part of speech.

   I have a feeling that the definition for ANISEED is supposed to be ‘liquid flavouring’, as in the flavouring for pastis or ouzo, and ‘provide’ as a weak anagrind. I may be too charitable though.

   It’s a shame the Graun feels the need to dumb down the prize crossword these days.

7. Many thanks mhl.

   I now add my name to the general Chorus of Disapproval.

   This may not have been the worst Grauniad Prize Puzzle ever but it was certainly the worst in my experience.

   Maybe Hugh has been ill? If so, I do hope that he gets better soon.

8. Thanks, mhl.
   I agree with all the above. Like chas @1 I spent too long thinking of MADRID until, convinced that it ended with a B (from BERN,) I managed to get Madrid out of my mind and found ZAGREB. But this didn’t didn’t give me the usual satisfaction of a clue solved.

9. Thanks mhl. I don’t want to dump on the setter. Cracking the theme and nutting out how the capitals fitted in was a pleasant way to pass the time. Like NeilW but not for as long I fretted over Lima/Lome. I was quite pleased to get SHTICKS, late on.

10. It may well have been the easiest prize crossword ever but at least that meant I got to finish it all for once!

    I did find some of the clues hard because I thought they had to be harder than what I was doing – enduser from endures being a case in point – and found myself thinking, “Is that really it?”

    I didn’t find the undefined clues enhancing my experience partly because I misread the instructions and thought each side represent a proper noun with three words and was trying to find Indian take away dishes to fit!

    And I had scanner not spanner and still don’t understand either.

    Thanks for the blog and the genuine feeling of achievement for finishing one. Now do I need to finish a proper one??

11. I also had scanner. as in something that scans across. With canner in place of panner. Does this work ?

12. I wasn’t impressed by this puzzle. The edges were not really a crossword; so I did the middle bit (which was a bit too easy as others have said) then wrote in the cities at the end.

    I hope future crosswords have clues to go with the solutions. If I wanted to just fit lists of words into a grid then I could easily do that myself.

13. At first I thought that the unclued words were European cities. Then 4 obviously were not. So spent time trying to find a link. Noticed Lima and Lome were both possible – spent even more time trying to find a link.
    Nevertheless I quite enjoyed the puzzle. I could hardly believe “end user”. LOI was Shticks which I had never heard of.

14. Lighten up! Who says the prize should be harder (than what?). History suggests that many a Cryptic is harder than most Prizes. Even so, I concede that this one was easy. I disagree with the negative comments regarding the unclued capitals, they removed the initial letters of many solutions and made it harder to get going (made up for with easier clueing). From the instructions it was obvious that an unclued capital could have more than one answer, but since there was no further constraint both Lima and Lome must be acceptable. One out of twelve is not that bad. Well done Otterden. Thanks mhl.

15. Unlike others, I enjoyed this puzzle and I am more familiar with some of Otterden’s individualistic takes,on crosswords from his puzzles in the New Statesman. I too got hung up on the SW corner, being convinced that Madrid was to go in, and then trying to get Doha to fit which, of course, it would not. Eventually had to resort to Google to assist in completing.
    To those who didn’t like this puzzle, don’t despair of Otterden, he sets some very good challenges.

16. A very strange puzzle. Part easy cryptic with the exception of one clue, and part general knowledge (GK).

    It made sense to complete the cryptic clues first and the only one I couldn’t solve quickly was 6dn. I had the necessary GK for the capital cities but I was held up in the NE because I didn’t have the crossers from 6dn and 8dn for the final capital of 1ac, and because I only had ??m? for the first capital of 8dn it took a while for me to decide that it wasn’t Rome when I couldn’t think of a capital that would fit ??o?r. I eventually remembered LIMA, which quickly led to SEOUL and SHTICKS. Those of you who were torn between Lima and Lome without looking at a list of capital cities have superior GK to me.

17. Thanks mhl and Otterden

    I thought that many of the surfaces were very neat, and I found 9a very good indeed. I did not think of Lome so was not troubled by the choice.

    Overall, rather easier and, as such, a bit less satisfying than many a prize (or other) puzzle. I don’t enter the competition and assume (perhaps wrongly) that there are so many correct entries in any case that winning is mainly a matter of luck.

18. In my defence this puzzle was not compiled for the prize slot but that is where it ended up! I deliberately made the interior clues easier to compensate for the difficulty inherent in solving the unclued edges.
    However, I somehow feel I will not be attempting this particular format again

19. Well I quite liked it! The extra task only removed 4 normal clues and there were still 28 left, a fairly normal number. And finding the captials was fun and balanced the easiness of some clues nicely. That said, I did also find a few of the normal clues rather hard – partly I think because of things like “spanner” which seem to bend the rules (although one of Azed’s winners today actually has an verb-phrase-for-noun definition too; but there it’s at the end of the clue. I think it’s a topic Azed’s discussed in slips in the past).

20. Thanks mhl,

    I enjoyed this even though apparently it could be done by a blindfolded five year old.
    I even failed to finish it as I couldn’t think of TEHRAN (what a clodpoll). I had no problem
    selecting Lima as I’d never heard of Lome (Rome?). Also, surely if there are multiple possibilities
    for the capital cities, then it isn’t possible to derive the correct answer so just put in the most
    likely answer. No point in even thinking about it. My favourite clue was KID GLOVES.
    Many thanks Otterden.

21. I tried to make this more of a challenge by refusing the use of internet aids to get the capital cities. This had the unfortunate result of MADRID and DARU (capital of Papua New Guinea’s western province, it turns out)in the SW corner. On the positive side, at least I didn’t torture myself over LIMA and LOME in the NE, having never heard of the capital of Togo.

22. I appreciate the notion of the setter trying to be novel, but the four sides were guessing games rather than acrostics. Interestingly enough, I had Beirut where you have Tehran and Madrid where there is to be Zagreb. Why should it be the one and not the other? The other clues were over easy though. I liked NECKTIE. Thanks, Otterden, thanks mhl.

23. Sorry Otterden but a collection of chestnuts surrounded by unclued capital cities, a couple of which needed an investigoogle wasn’t my cup of tea at all.

24. I agree with quite a lot of the comments above – I saw LIMA without thinking of LOME so that didn’t bother me, but I don’t think that assembling a random collection of cities round the perimeter should be what crossword solving is about. I had about two thirds of the capitals before realising they weren’t all European. I don’t agree that this was the easiest prize puzzle ever, though it was certainly a lot easier than most of the recent ones.
    Thanks to Otterden and mhl

25. a peck is a measure of volume, not weight

26. Jeff C-
    Surely Madrid and Beirut don’t fit do they? I thought of them first too as it happens, then worked out what did work. That’s was the challenge/fun, I thought. If you could just chuck in the first ideas you had for all of them it wouldn’t be very hard

27. Ah yes, the ‘peck’, I’d forgotten that.

    It has been mentioned before that this setter produces very good puzzles for a different publication. Are there stylistic differences between that and the Graun that have stopped the setter managing to demonstrate this skill yet?

28. Thanks, Otterden for dropping in and for admitting that this may not have been a great choice as a prize puzzle. Therein lies the problem – editorial choice which is often bizarre in the Guardian.

    I’d forgotten about the “peck” thing as well – yet another example of a setter being let down by the editor.

29. Thanks all
    I solved all the crossword clues with little to remark on. I then decidedthat the rest wasn’t a crossword and abandonned it. My first spot was ‘orly’ and I know very few airports! A silly idea.

30. I actually enjoyed this–it made me rack my brain coming up with all those capitals. I don’t mind the unclued entries, is what I’m saying. (And yes, I’m sure the thought was that you need easier clues crossing them if you want to have so much of the grid completely unclued.)

    I have to admit that I just plunked in Lima without even thinking of Lome.

31. I enjoyed this too, and no problem with the capital cities either. I am a little mystified at all the strong feeling this puzzle has evoked.

    An easy crossword as a prize, why not? Its not like winning the prize labels you as the “best solver” or anything, it is just raffle. Let everyone have a go.

    Thanks mhl and Otterden.

32. Nice setting to fit all the capitals in, though as above that didn’t necessarily lead to much enjoyment.

    I started at the bottom and fitted ‘herb paris yellow,’ at first, so thought I was going to have to find plant names. Once the capitals were more obvious I wrote most in although I thought 8 might have started with Rome until an ‘l’ appeared.

    Thanks Otterden for popping in – always good to hear from a setter. I also wasn’t sure at the beginning if the ‘of a kind’ in the instructions meant that each side had the same theme or whether it might change from one to another.

33. I had Hebron (district capital of the governorate) rather than Tehran.

    Probably too easy a crossword really, and a few dodgy clues, but I managed to control my bile and quite enjoyed it nonetheless.

34. I thought this was fun. Needed aids for three capitals – BAKU, and embarrassingly, OSLO (although that got rid of ORLY), and SEOUL.

    An enjoyable romp, and no harder than this week’s prize nut is cracking.

35. I do think some of the grumbling above is a bit overdone. True, the puzzle was easy for a Saturday, but certainly not the easiest ever. And I don’t understand the complaints that the capitals were not clued – it was still fun working them out. The only flaw was the double possibility for L-M-.

    So, thanks Otterden, and for dropping in. I for one would not mind if you tried something similar again in future.

36. I’m with PeeDee @31. I am a jazz musician and some of these comments sound like the sort of complaints you get from jazz ‘fans’ if your band isn’t trumpet-trombone-clarinet-banjo-bass-drums. It was a different crossword, not a bad one.

    Dear Otterden – as a part-timer at this malarkey (and therefore probably representing the majority of all solvers as opposed to Fifteensquared aficionados, whom I certainly respect) I found this an enjoyable jaunt opening up the possibility for Jo or Joe Average to enter, maybe win a prize and spread the word (sic).

    You don’t deserve to be slated in the way some have here until the day comes when you are being chauffeured around in your Rolls-Royce on the proceeds of your setting skills. Are you anywhere near that…?

37. I didn’t mind the standard of the puzzle but was dissatisfied with the perimeter answers. I was looking for something more inventive. Finding the middle words of each group was straightforward but then I thought the outside words of each set would be connected with those four countries (e.g. currency, river, mountain, etc). Having to compile an unconnected list of capitals was a bit lacking in inventiveness I thought. There was a puzzle some years ago where the undefined answers were shipping areas in roughly appropriate locations in the grid. Far more fitting (excuse the pun) for a Guardian crossword.

38. Didn’t like ENDUSER/ENDURES, ANEEDIS/ANISEED, ANNU(a)L, peck(a volume) and spanner – all sloppy – so I was grumpy by the time I got to the perimeter – and not much skill involved in solving that, either, just slog. I’m sure that Otterden started with the perimeter and filled in the other words. If he had looked at the grid from a solver’s point of view with the clues solved and the perimeter to go, he would have seen the problem. And sorry, no excuse for LIMA/LOME.

39. I encourage Otterden to give us this format occasionally, a most enjoyable break.

40. What a lot of panners!
    I would like to add my support to the broader-minded contributors and offer my thanks to the Setter and the blogger.

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