Pack Drill

Submitted to 1 Across 24/3/20

Pack Drill Solution Grid

The theme was card games:

Patience, Casino, Blackjack, Quadrille, Euchre
Piquet, Klondyke, Baccarat, Quinze

For good measure, the suit Diamonds was thrown in as well.

Jigsaw

Submitted to 1 Across 4/7/20

Clues are presented in alphabetical order of their solutions, which may assist solvers in placing them in the grid wherever they will fit.

Jigsaw

All across entries begin with A, all down entries with D

Sequence 6

Another in our Sequence series for 1 Across magazine, it appeared in the October 2020 edition of the magazine as Crossword No. 1989: Sequence 6 by Eclogue.  It was introduced by the rubric:

Unclued lights provide the names of all of the holders of an office to be deduced.  Most clues contain an extraneous word, to be removed before solving.  The initial letters of these words, read in clue order, provide some help for solvers.

Solution Grid

The unclued lights are the names of all holders of the post of United Nations Secretary General, starting with the earliest: Trygve LIE, Dag HAMMARSKJOLD, U THANT, Kurt WALDHEIM, Javier Perez DE CUELLAR, Boutros BOUTROS-GHALI, Kofi ANNAN, Ban KI-MOON and currently Antonio GUTERRES.

Feedback

Disappointing. Worked out theme quicly and got all secretary generals placed. Still can’t solve 7a, 11a, 15a, 9d. Seem very obscure.

 Very good.

 Enjoyable. I think it was Waldheim which set me on the right track. Did have to check out the various UN Sec Gens and how to spell them.

 However, Eclogue’s puzzle was filled with obscure words that meant we needed to guess and then use a dictionary lots of times which was not so enjoyable.  There also appeared to be many surplus words in the clues which may have been a clever addition but, if so, went way above our heads.  The UN Secretary General theme was not too difficult to discover and we did eventually finish, we think.

 Eclogue defeated us but we managed just over 90% (no recount allowed) of the answers, including all the UN leaders.  It appeared there were superfluous words in many of the clues but we couldn’t work out the connection or reason for omission and nothing in the rubric to help.  Kudos for getting HAMMARSKJOLD into a puzzle.

 To be honest, I didn’t get on well with Eclogue although I did get the theme and the names quite early on. I couldn’t parse a lot of them so will look forward to the answers. Some clues seemed to have unnecessary words in them to me - 13, 39, 42 Across and 4, 10, 23 Down. There were also more unknown words for me than I am happy with - I don’t mind a few!

 They have set themselves a stupendous construction task: getting those long foreign names in and still filling the grid is amazing. I regularly try to compose clever thematic barred puzzles, and almost always give up. The odd obscurity is inevitable, but what is Chambers there for? I did it in a couple of hours (Mrs K/C was out and it was dark, so I just bashed right on) and enjoyed it. Lots of work for that organisation over the next fifty years: I hope they are supported in all the right places.

 An impressive feat to accommodate this set of names in the grid! The trend seems to be towards more sparing information above the puzzle, which I for one appreciate. The more obscure entries were unambiguously clued. Artfully constructed for a pleasing solve.

 

Plain Speaking

Submitted to 1 Across, 30/11/19

Clues are listed in alphabetical order of their solutions and should be fitted into the grid where they will go.  The perimeter forms a quotation which the unclued entry completes.

Solution Grid

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” – Oscar Wilde from The Importance of Being Earnest

Solver's Comments:

The number on the left is the mark (out of ten) given and the Rman numerals represent the number of solvers giving that mark.

7 II

7.5 I 

8 IIIII

8.6 I

9 III

 

ROUSE - It reminded me of our love for both rose and red wine! [Er… that’d be ROUGE]

ROQUET Lovely surface and it fold me as it can’t be an anagram with a Q in it. 

OXER

IRRITANT - it kept me guessing. I had to look up TIRR to check its meaning. 

ROUGE - The last one I did! Good way of getting rid of the S. A neat, clever clue. 

RASCALLION - economical and not easy to spot definition. Clues not that special in general. 

OXER II - taught us a new Scottish word / Because Hamish is in it! [blush] 

REPACKAGES - just because of ACKERS for money

TARP - Liked the surface and wordplay

KRUSCHEV - nicely constructed. Clue made sense and flowed nicely as well as providing aclear answer. 

JEREMIAD - Taught me a new word 

UMPIRE - love a cricket ref. 

 

Enjoyed this puzzle but not sure about one of the answers. [They don’t say which one!]

 

A difficult grid to fill. I had six of the eight 10 letter solutions and struggled to get started. Finally realised one of them was incorrect and got going. Once the circumference was solved most of the others fell into place. Several new words - ANOA and OYER and a few I haven’t fully parsed. A good enjoyable struggle. Also enjoyed the clues for KHRUSCHEV, GAUZE and HOARSENESS. Many thanks. 

 

Really enjoyed this and found the quotation quite quickly which always helps solve some of the more taxing clues. A good mix of challenge and enjoyment. There were a couple of clues which I’m not sure about - 24/25d - but hope I got them right. [Yes]

 

Some v clever clueing. Not too difficult and fun to do. Thank you. 

 

Very approachable nicest clues. Took a couple of hours - neither wasting a week, nor leaving you feeling ‘so what - a good balance for a competition. The two J clues gave the start - one 4 letter could only fit there (alpha order being a useful aid) and then when 5 10-letter ones had been solved they could be put in asa. Working hypothesis. And Robert’s your pawnbroker. 

 

We hadn’t solved for long before we realised that Eclogue was filling a pangrammatic grid. However, unlike some of those, it didn’t lead to an overdose of obscure words though OXER was the last one we ’Scots’ entered.

 

I thought this was a well-constructed puzzle with lots of good taut clues.  My only serious reservation is that there is overly much reliance on unfamiliar Scots words.  Where uncommon words appear in the grid the wordplay needs to lead relatively straightforwardly to the answer (which can then be checked in Chambers - and it would have been appropriate here for the rubric to have referred to the advisability of using Chambers) if the clue is to be fair to the solver.  In the case of 25D (SYKE) the wordplay relies on an unfamiliar word used by Spenser, and the clue was, for me at least, impossible to solve without guesswork and the Chambers app wordsearch facility, and in the case of 24D (OXER), the wordplay uses another Scots word.  A couple of minor points: (a) in the clue for 18A (ROUGE), I think UGH is an expression of loathing rather than a feeling of it, (b) in the clue for 8A (TOUR), clueing OU by reference to an unfamiliar word, and encasing it in an IVR for a country whose car identification plates are rarely seen in the UK is, I think, pushing things a bit in a jigsaw-type puzzle where most of the clues have to be solved in the absence of checked letters.  I thought the clue for 13D (KRUSHCHEV) was admirable - not a word I'd like to tackle myself - and it was good that the quotation was sufficiently well known for it to be readily guessable after about half the answers had been entered in the grid.  Thank you, Eclogue.

 

 

Good puzzle

 

 

A nicely constructed puzzle made slightly easier by the quotation. I was unsure about OXER, which Chambers describes as a fence, being the ‘check’ required but it fitted well with OXTER without the T for time. I’m always impressed when setters manage to include the whole alphabet and only the small number of obscure words stopped this being 10/10.

 

Took quite a long time to put any answers in the grid so getting the quote was difficult. Some odd words (roquet, syke), but all in all good fun. 

 

HURRAH I FINISHED ONE. Must have been easy if I did it.