Write the real title here by Komornik

After scheduling this blog, I decided that I had to come back and add something –  it is our 800th blog on 225!

It’s Joyce blogging again. I have to admit that I did not attempt to solve the puzzle before blogging. Last year Komornik set a puzzle which took us ages to unravel and we had to cheat at the end. We found many of the clues were challenging to say the least. As Bert and I have ended up blogging five puzzles between us, I decided to look at the parsings for each clue as I progressed through the blog and work out whether I would have had any chance of solving them.

So…. here’s the false title that Komornik submitted with the puzzle plus the preamble:

Puzzle that conveys vital information, contrarily expressed as a number of letters (for want of a proper title) by Komorník

All seven-letter entries (one thematically always found abbreviated) and 40% of five-letter entries exemplify what has often entertained us (three words, ignoring an article). All other clues contain a surplus word, whose initial letters define the theme. Solutions include a trade name and several very well-known proper names. You may, if you wish, write the real title here:

and the puzzle…

S & B 2024 Komorník

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S&B 2024 – another by A. Bailey

Adrian Bailey (not sure if he has a setting monicker) has kindly sent a couple of puzzles for the York S&B meet, even though he couldn’t make the event himself. This one could be said to be ‘on the money’… (For anyone who wasn’t there but would like to try the puzzle before reading the blog, it should be at this link here)

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S&B 2024 – Dalibor

Dalibor, aka Sil van den Hoek, a doyen of this site, has sent a puzzle for the delectation and delight of the S&B 2024 crowd, even though he won’t be able to join the festivities…much missed… (For anyone who wasn’t there but would like to try the puzzle before reading the blog, it should be at this link here)

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S&B 2024 by A. Bailey

The puzzle may be found here:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Armistice-4Oct10_Redacted.pdf

This puzzle definitely felt like a change of pace for me, with some of the cluing outside the conventions of the puzzles that I normally solve. There were a couple of solutions that I could not parse without the setter’s explanations, which was not so much the fault of the clues as a result of my lack of the requisite GK.

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York S&B 2023 by Fez

A fun solve that requires a little extra brainpower to complete.

The puzzle may be found here:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Fez_SBYork2023.pdf

Fair warning: This blog is a bit coarser than the typical Fifteensquared write-up.

Fez advises: “Thematic elements of 12 answers are omitted from wordplay, possibly due to 1a taking an off-hand remark literally.”

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