Now this is a pretty nifty idea, a circular crossword in a square grid. We had a circular crossword in a crazy-shaped grid a few weeks ago, and the entry method is about the same, words go inwards, outwards and are jumbled, and the ones on the corners go in diagonally - so really this grid is four 6x6 crosswords to fill in, with a quotation and a name running in two squares.
I hadn't heard of Centigram before, and a peek at the Listener site shows four puzzles, the most recent being 1992 (long time between drinks!), and that one of them was the floor plan of a house with 6x6 rooms. Centigram, if you're reading, I'm really curious to see that crossword, it sounds fascinating.
The diagonals touch every entry (and none were jumbled), so let's start with them and work on these 6x6s.
Couldn't get 6, but 17 is TUPI in SD giving the lovely word STUPID. 13 is MEEMIE, so the I's cross if MEEMIE goes inwards as does stupid. 14 is a cute clue for CARPET, 15 looks like ASSURE, couldn't get 16, 18 is D,EARTH, 19 is HUMERI, 20 is a wonderful clue for STUMPS. Damn, I just noticed I left the P off the end of 21. 22 is an excellent clue for IMATED. So a little hunt and pecking to get DRUIDS and ETHISM, and I had one corner out quite readily.
This was the approach I took to get the grid completed - the lower left corner (in my Americanized version of crosswording, I call that the Desert corner) and upper right corner (New England) were trickier than the lower right (Florida) and the upper left (Hippy corner).
Getting the quotation really helped in getting out these tricky corners. The second "square" in was looking promising already with DEARTHSIM, and then later on NERSBLOWY. I could also see DONNE, so I knew I was dealing with John Donne (though the only quote I knew from him was "no man is an island"). Googling John Donne quotes involving earth and blow brought up the Holy Sonnets and the quotation I was looking for.
To get the end, there was a little dilemma - the quote matches the crossword well, it's given something round corners - the letters in the corner of this grid were ULRS, which could make SLUR, which would fit rounding square sounds, or LURS, and a lur turns out to be a trumpet, so the blown trumpet is at the corners.
This is one impressive puzzle, Centigram. I was slow to get started, but once I got that first corner out, it was a lot of fun to fill in. I can't heap enough praise on the clues - this is my style of cryptic clueing - the surfaces range from smutty to bizarre and for that many 6-letter words, they are presented in any number of ways.
And I'll call this one a victory for George - current tally: George 20, Listener 16. Current streak - George 1.
I've already sent them an email, but congrats to the Google NYC team for taking runners-up in last week's Listener - nice to know a winner.
And since we have a metric setter, here's a video for a song by the late great band, the Centimeters
6 comments:
Oh, an addition - I scanned the grid using a nifty new scanner at the library - it scans pages and emails them to you. I had highlighted the quote in the grid, so I added it in with a brush in paint, which is why it looks crappy.
I enjoyed this one too - cleverly set. The same dilemma of slur and lurs, thankfully correctly chosen.
My longest run of successful solutions ever on Listener - 5 in a row. Your blog encourages me!
Go for the gold - I only got two of those five so that's awesome.
Thanks as ever for an excellent blog. In particular this week, thanks for the Centimeters video. They're not a band I'd come across but then my collection does have a UK-centric core with European fringes.
Thanks Colin - I discovered the Centimeters from a very eye-catching cover to "The Facts of Destiny". It appears they put out two DCs, did a bunch of very weird concerts and disappeared.
Just got round to reading this and seeing a ref to our (first) sort-of-win as Google NYC. Next time you're in town, drop by the office on a Friday after 11am EDT and you'll find us firing on all pistons (till we get fired that is).
Post a Comment