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EV 833 Off Course by Glow-worm

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midazolam | 14:30 Sun 19th Oct 2008 | Crosswords
17 Answers
In case you miss today's Sunday Telegraph, here is the link to this week's enigmatic variations

Glow-worm's last EV (799) concerned old musical instruments called "worthy of note"

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Thanks for the link.
Hi Midazolam!

Hope you are well.

You were sadly missed last week.

Can't say this week's made the earth move. It's one of those where the instructions make it look more complicated than it is.
Hello Midazolam and Novalis,
I had just about found my direction on this when the thread appeared.
i agree with Novalis, you were missed last week Midazolam. Have you received any response from Seven on the statistics Midazolam?
Ciao
Question Author
thanks all - yes shame there was no link between the radiating words to make it more impressive

regarding the letter to the ev chief editor concerning the time frame - no response i am afraid - so that was a waste of time and effort. I can't see why they do not take heed from the masses

i will try and post the letter for you all to see
Question Author
I would like to start by saying that you are carrying out a commendable role as crossword editor since you have taken over a couple of years ago. The telegraph crosswords and in particular the �EV� Sunday thematic crossword, which remains one of the hardest crosswords in publication today, are a joy to solve.

Many avid solvers of the EV crossword have felt that the timescale until submission is far too short. This time scale has been gradually reduced over recent times and I can understand the difficulty in analysing the entries when the results are published only 2 weeks later.

However, as mentioned, this crossword is very difficult and can take even the most experienced solver many hours of solid solving to complete. If one cannot start the crossword until Monday then it proves very difficult to post the crossword in time. Some solvers who pay for subscription are abroad, and they feel that with the postal system they cannot submit them. I am also sorry to say that many solvers are actually deterred from solving the crossword because of this.

Other thematic crosswords have a much later timescale until entry and I have had no complaints regarding this. I have attached some comments from a group of very experienced solvers, who have e-mailed me over recent months. We feel that as your website puts it: �Enigmatic Variations, perhaps the toughest barred cryptic crossword anywhere�, should give solvers more leeway to complete it.

I do hope you can look into this and I will be looking forward to your comments. It may actually increase the interest into the wonderful world of cruciverbalism and in particular the EV.

Question Author
comments include....

What a pity, however, the EV series seems to spoiled by its very short time-frame for submissions. Published on a Sunday to be in by the Thursday. The Inquisitor and Listener series allow a full extra week!
I think EV's policy in this is counterproductive and it seems to have the effect of discouraging would-be solvers from having a proper go and therefore from becoming regular readers of their paper.
Shooting themselves in the foot, I'd say.


As I am no where near the standard of many of the fans of the EV, I find the new submission date far too early for my feeble attempts. When the closing date was the Monday following I could manage to submit about 60% of them, now unfortunately, it is about 'once a flood'!


Totally agree about the time frame and always felt that 8 days was just right.
Even when it was brought forward to Friday it wasn't too bad but Thursday can mean a bit of a struggle -- to say the least.


I live in Portugal, so sending them in is rarely practical. Today was an exception, but post services here are pretty unpredictable. Things can take two days or ten days. This makes the whole thing very dicey in terms of arrival. I chance it if I can get it in Monday's post, and have actually won EV once, so it must have arrived on time.


Now that the time- scale to send in completed EVs is shortened I don't send them in at all, the post has only got to be 1 day late and the crossword will arrive late.


If the info gathered from this exercise convinces the powers that be at the Telegraph that they'd get a better response if they gave us an extra week it would be wonderful.

cont

Question Author
cont


i shall post fiirst thing tomorrow ( second class ) and hope that it arrives by Thursday.
When the closing date changed from Friday to Thursday
( as it did for Cryptic and GK ) with such ironic timing that it virtually coincided with the abolition of Sunday postal collections I wrote to the Telegraph crossword editor on this subject but did not receive a reply.
Personally I would like it to go back to the Monday closing date but, if that is not possible, then to Friday. Thursday is too soon.

The Monday closing date did give time for the post to get into gear, anyway, does it really matter if we don't get the results until the third week after the puzzle?


Absolutely spot on Midazolam. It is most impolite that Kate Fassett did not even reply.
Hope you are getting a good nights sleep now!!
Posters seem to have found this one relatively easy. As a mere mortal who is having trouble can someone explain to me the conflict between ARABLE and GATES
Hello Aloysius535
ARABLE is correct, and you are correct in assuming the anagram for 15d, you've just got the wrong one. Concentrate on 17a and that should help.
Thank you for this midazolam and I hope that you do get a reply.

As to this week's EV the grid fell into place, but I wasn't sent "off course" even temporarily ! I must have missed something !
Hi Midazolam!

That you have not received a reply to a such well constructed letter containing so many cogent arguments is disgraceful.

Please keep us posted on the situation.

I could be extremely tempted to go above the head of the crossword editor and write to the managing editor/managing director of Telegraph Media Group to see if that elicits a response.
I am not sure that I understand the complete wordplay for 8a for which I have SARDINE TIN. I note SARIN (poison) surrounds DINE but am left with the letter "T" unaccounted for. Am I missing the final subtlety?
Hello Crofter
I had the same problem initially. SARIN is correct! You therefore have the correct entry for 8a. N not T is the correct unclued letter! Now if you have the other 7 "OFF COURSE" clues (which exclude 1 or 2 letters) you will be able to put together the relevance of those radiating unclued, but elsewhere defined answers.
Thanks Doc for your explanation re. sardine tin. I, also, had thought 'dine' but see it now.
Many thanks for the "nudge" in the right direction!

I DO like to dot all the i's and cross all the t's!
Finally went in ALL the right directions (I hope) Don't think I actually went off-course anywhere, but really only picked up the 'subsidiary' trail towards the end.

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EV 833 Off Course by Glow-worm

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