Comments on: Listener 4068: 364 263 by Xanthippe

By: Gareth Rees

Gareth Rees — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:31:35 +0000

I got pretty lucky with this one. I had assumed that the across clues were distributed into rows as 6,4; 3,7; 5; 3,6 when there was a second possibility 6,4; 3,7; 5,3; 6. Not sure why I assumed this, I think it was because I was trying to do it in my head. But this mistake suggested that COERCE would be on the right where it might intersect with ___ER. If I had spotted the second possible arrangement of across clues I would probably not have had the courage to write in COERCE so soon. So my mistake was very helpful.

Computer search was very helpful in this one to quickly find the possible deletions. Spending a lot of time thumbing through Chambers looking up OERCED, CERCED, CORCED, etc would not have been much fun.

By: Dave Hennings

Dave Hennings — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:28:26 +0000

I agree, Gareth’s bone is spot on. Unfortunately, I made one that looked like Shirley’s. However, I beg to differ on the printed solution, Erwin, which does look more like a mobile phone than a bone … although in my view it more closely resembles a bow tie! So I’m hoping my bone, which is like the rubber sort that dogs are given to play with, will be OK.
Dave.

By: erwinch

erwinch — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:07:30 +0000

I like your final grid Gareth. I couldn’t decide between a bone or a telephone handset for the outline so opted for rounded ends that could represent either – I see from the solution that it was indeed supposed to be a bone.

The Crossword Centre Message Board seems to be in trouble – do you know if it is safe to click on any of the recent posts?