EV 916

[Mampara]

Can anyone who is doing today's EV please confirm the following-

1) The number of letters in the clue reading ' Queen starts to handle useful instrument' ?

2) That the number of letters (12) is correct for clue ' Design German's day with English nets and line'?

[AHearer]

1) 4 letters
2) Yes, 12 is correct.

[turnerjmw]

Hi Mampara, as far as I can work out 1) "Queen starts to handle useful instrument" has 4 letters, and the number of letters for "Design German's day with English nets and line" is correctly shown as 12. But I also think "Girl returns after party in Italian city" might be 7, and "Anklets altered for most long and lean" might be 7.

Good luck

[Mampara]

Thanks A Hearer & turnerjmw.

I enquired about the 12 letter clue because the grid is a standard 13 x 13 and I wondered if there was a mistake. I imagine I will have to 'treat' the answer and find it's position.
Thanks for your input on the two 7 letter clues.

[AHearer]

I hadn't noticed them, but I agree with turnerjmw about the two 6s that should be 7s.

[AHearer]

While we're at it, I think "Noah's descendant..." and "Actor goes..." should swap places for alphabetical order.

[turnerjmw]

A bit of a brute, this. Lots of cold solving unless you're lucky or clever enough to tumble the theme early. As tough as an average Listener, I thought, but an interesting puzzle, for sure.

[turnerjmw]

Good spot, AHearer. I hadn't noticed that. And, of course, the clue should read "Return of goddess, mischievous character", not "Reurn".The editing of EV is appalling!

[dr b]

it gets better - now we have bars in the wrong places? See this and following replies:

http://www.b2g2.com/b...614742&user=dharrison

Thanks to Big Dave for pointing this out to me.

Getting bored with the cold solving....

[dr b]

Whoops, sorry, the missing bars refer to IQ 1127 - didn't look at all the headers on those messages.

[tweaker]

looks rather fun - it needs to be done.

[AndrewG-S]

Spent the day in the sun so just starting to look, seems this is going to take some time. Thanks for the clue length help which knocks off another one straight away

[dr b]

Finally got back & finished. Yes, very much more Listener-y than EV-y.

[tweaker]

Thanks for clue length amendments guys, I've noticed on several occasions (for the few EV's I have done) that there have been several errors in the cluing and lengths.

Possibly the title 'What you've got to do' is make these adjustments along side the puzzle also...

I found AZED 'jigsaw' puzzle a few weeks ago a fantastic solve, I'd go so far to say that it had to be my favourite AZED so far.

I hope this EV is as fun.

[AndrewG-S]

this is slow going. It looks like 8 of the clues to be treated are obvious (due to length), I am assuming the other 2 are the 13 length clues - does this sound right?

[dr b]

Andrew - the 13 letter clues are not treated. They are essential for figuring out what goes where. Once I had those placed the rest of the grid fell into place pretty easily - fortunately there aren't many instances where you are left with multiple choices as to what might go where (once the 13s are in). That is, if it looks like "answer X" probably fits here, it really will go here.

[AndrewG-S]

Thanks - that helps a lot - I have most of the answers but am still missing the "in candour" 13 lettter one - I think I need to focus on getting that, then it sounds like it will fall into place

[turnerjmw]

I wouldn't necessarily assume that. If it is indeed obvious that several answers need treatment due to length, presumably it's because the letter length doesn't appear anywhere in the grid. I'm not sure it makes logical sense to go on to assume that two 13-letter answers which do appear to fit in the grid must be the others.

At the risk of teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, I approached it by ignoring the treatment aspect initially and seeing how far I could fill the grid. If you can solve the 13-letter clues, and enough others, you may be able to work out which goes where by seeing where the 4-letter clues fall.

Sorry if this is a bit elliptical, but I don't want to give too much away or ruin your challenge

[turnerjmw]

Sorry, AndrewG-S, my reply was to your post of 12:22. Just to say that I found Bradford particularly useful for this puzzle

[Mampara]

Dr b

I'm relieved by your posting as I was worried by Andrew suggesting that the 13 letterclues could need shortening.
I have been cold solving madly and placing the answers in the margin but I just don't know whether the F -13 letter word goes in the top or lower part of the grid- can you help?

[dr b]

mampara; If the "non-F" 13-letter word were to go into a certain place, you'd have a couple of 4-letter words ending in an unlikely letter. That observation led to me to tentatively place the "non-F" word; at that point things started to fall into place quickly.

Trying to be helpful yet elliptical. Or elliptical yet helpful. May wind up begin neither.