Welcome back to George vs the Listener crossword, where reading preambles is not our forte. But more of that later.
No, more of that now – I am TERRIBLE at reading preambles. Want me to mess up a crossword, put something in the preamble that I have to notice. Maybe include a reminder for me at the end of the clues. It may be a condition, preambuloseits.
Let’s see what I can miss this week with Quinapalus… there’s a second grid, some clues with misprints in definition, some missing wordplay in answer. Alphabeticall jigsawiness will ensue. OK…
Quinapaulus gave us the intriguing 3-Dish small but perfectly formed last year which I breezed through. This looks to be tougher, though it appears there’s only two 9-letter entries, and two 7-letter entries (and those intersect each other) so those could be the way in.
There is no 1 across, but there is a first clue. It looks like it could be A LA with “Cooked Like” and we’re away. B,H,P comes next and that’s two of the misprints. Can’t see any of the next two, though it looks like one should be an anagram of C,GREEN and is probably a missing letters clue. The one after it is another anagram for CAUDLE, and a misprint, then C,O,O, another misprint.
Not having much luck finding these extra letter clues, I know there’s not as many of them, but shouldn’t I have gotten one by now?
Finally – DO(G)ENDS and ENTE(R)ER – I can solve these missing letter clues! The next one looks like it should be an anagram of (TRUDE) and mean garrison. Since it’s alphabetical it must start with E.,. I can’t think of anything that fits.
I went through the rest of the clues wondering why I could really only solve the misprints clues. I didn’t have enough to start on a grid fill – I didn’t have either of the 9 letter or 7 letter clues.
This is looking dismal.
And so it sat with me missign the obvious until the deadline came. I hoped to come back to it when 4231 came out, but I didn’t.
It wasn’t until last night that I read the preamble and realized what I was missing… the CLUES are in alphabetical order, not the answers. I was ruling out some really obvious answers – so REDU(I)T, PY(R)ITI(S)E and LOCUST TREES (with any possible combination of an S and a T removed) can go where they should. You idiot!
I looked at it for about another hour and a half yesterday and managed to get some of my answers making sense in a grid.
But this is well and truly a mighty victory to Quinapaulus and the Listener crossword! I still don’t have enough of the message to know what comes next, looks like there could be GRID and STAPLE in there.
2013 is shaping up to be not my year – 2013 tally: 4-2-2
Feel free to point out how to read a preamble, how to piece together a message, and when to give up, and I’ll see you next week when Elfman gives is the mising link between ALOE and LYNN
Filed under: Listener Crosswords |
George versus the Listener Crossword 
George – Tip 1 – if preamble says “hightlight” appropriately there’s probably a colour involved. I’ve been caught out often enough this way in the past. Tip 2 -St Albans is in UK. Similar to USA but one letter less.
Keep up the good work.
Adrian
Yes, I had a good laugh at my inability to write UK on an envelope a few weeks ago, hopefully that was the first and last time I do that. I also invested in a rainbow of highlighters after the silly Battenburg cake puzzle.
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