The 2014 Turkey is Cooked!

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Announcement
Hello All from Sotira and JerryWh

The turkey is now ready to serve… and you can get some here. (the link leads to a .pdf download, or you can solve online).

Having stuffed, cooked, basted and tested it, it is now out of the oven and available for solving. Have too many cooks spoiled the broth? Or have many hands made light work? Only you can decide.. and then do post a comment below. Our Celebrity Guest Blogger will publish the solution and his (or her?) blog next Saturday, 20th December, so please don’t give hints or answers to clues in the meantime…

All of the clues have been written by the volunteer setters. Sotira and I provided some feedback and comment, but we have tried to co-ordinate efforts and aim for a balanced grid overall rather than getting too involved in the clue creation process.

Jerry says…
It turns out to be hard work cooking a turkey! Sotira’s feat in doing it entirely unaided last year is impressive indeed. I enjoyed every minute of this, though, and I hope the volunteer setters did too… I think having two editors worked quite well, and may have somewhat improved the end result by allowing more interaction with the setters and by providing a second opinion in cases of doubt.

Sotira says…
A particular thank you to all those in “my half of the draw”, especially those who had to endure my sometimes cack-handed attempts at editorship. Thank you, also, to those who went out of their way to make the email correspondence a pleasant distraction. There were some very entertaining exchanges. To the editors at The Times — I have no idea how you do it. I have enough trouble keeping one grid straight.

We both say:
THANK YOU to the volunteers who have provided such an interesting set of clues, to our two intrepid test solvers, George H and Janie B, and to our Special Celebrity Guest Blogger…

And also THANK YOU to the setters who do something similar on a regular basis throughout the year, and help to make The Times cryptic crossword the flagship of the crossword world. And let us not forget the (other) bloggers, and the regular commenters here, who make TFTT the flagship of the crossword blogging world..

Happy Christmas to all!

Turkey

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

37 comments on “The 2014 Turkey is Cooked!”

  1. Well done and thanks for putting this together, Jerry and Sotira. I’d say it’s a very high standard with not a weak clue in sight. Kicked myself over my LOI where the definition misled me for ages but as things turned out the wordplay was there on a plate if only I could have seen it!
  2. Thank you thank you thank you Jerry and Sotira! I just took the liberty of putting a link over on the Club Forum. Now I’m going to sample it.
  3. Thanks, Jackkt, especially for that positive initial reaction. I can’t tell you how much we fretted over it — well, mostly I fretted and Jerry said “It’ll be fine”.

    Olivia – thank you. There’s already been a surge in visitor numbers so I think you’re now the official Turkey marketing guru!

    1. So far so good…
      Can someone who is qualified add a link to the “fifteen squared” website, please?
  4. Just completed this. I thought like Jack that there was some very fine stuff, and – of course – just enough to quibble about. Whoever wrote it, an early Christmas present to you – 8d was the standout for me. Time to give up the day job? 😉

    And a big shout-out go the eds.

  6. Many thanks Sotira and Jerry. Enjoyable. Too easy though. That’s not your fault – it’s ours – but it does show what we solvers lack that the pro setters have. A dash of that saltlash wit, or something. Still, a welcome dram on a cold morning. And your work – and patience, Jerry, over my floundering about with my clue – is very much appreciated.
    1. As vinyl1 says, there was a policy of trying to make sure there weren’t too many DNFs among those tackling the puzzle, which led to the rejection of some tougher clues.

      I hope we’ll see some of these alternate clues offered for perusal on blogging day (Saturday).

  7. Well done and thanks very much Jerry and Sarah, that was great fun. Some really witty and inventive clueage in there.
  8. Joekobi is right. I think we amateurs can all come up with a pretty decent clue or two, but composing a difficult one that isn’t just FAR TOO obscure is another matter – let alone a whole gridful. I do think this was well up to regular cryptic standards and found it highly amusing. Especially liked the puff adder and the dusky maiden.
  9. Well done Jerry and Sarah. Great fun to solve and I agree no real duffer in the whole collection. Some interesting words in the grid made for some inventive clues – part of the secret!
  10. Thanks very much Jerry and sotira. Like others I thought this was a pretty decent puzzle. Not hard, but very enjoyable to solve, and there are a few real corkers in there.
  11. Thanks Jerry and Sarah. An enjoyable diversion and unlike last year, I managed to solve my own clue.
  12. Many thanks to Sotira and Jerry, and their army of volunteer setters, for a very tasty Christmas turkey. Some most ingenious and inventive clues. As you warned might be the case, no amount of tinkering would activate the applet to enable an online solve for me, but the pdf version downloaded smoothly. Good fun.
    1. Mike, I had similar problems and I produced the thing, It took me about an hour of tinkering before I could test my own work. Getting it going involved opening up my Mac’s Java Console and messing with the cache and the security exceptions. Repeatedly.

      As the sous chef on the applet station, I definitely recommend the PDF!

  13. Very enjoyable to solve, and also to participate in the clue-making. Thanks Sotira and JerryWh. Lovely to see the deft handling of some of the tricky words in the grid. I thought 25a, 10a were brilliant.
  14. …but I enjoyed this turkey! I think clues where one struggles to spot the definition or where one can read the definition in several ways are the most challenging. 28ac and 14d were particularly good in that respect in my opinion. 7d was an excellent clue for a 3-letter word. 1d, 10ac, and 11ac were also very very good. Loved “puff adder”! But my favourite was 21d! Well done to Sotira and to Jerry and to all setters! Thanks for the early Christmas present.
    PS…I printed the .pdf
    1. 21D was my LOI so I breathed a big sigh of relief when it fell!

      Another big fan of the puff adder and the dusky maiden here.

  15. Solved on the train tonight – fun puzzle, and I think the overall quality’s an improvement on last year’s (maybe because I didn’t get to write a clue this time?). Nobody’s mentioned the Nina yet, but I think I’ve spotted one. Anyone else?
  16. I’ve just completed all the clues, but I have solved employing the iPad, using the pdf and a notepad, so I have not actually got a completed grid, and can’t look for the nina that I felt sure would be there somewhere. Too late in the day to start ruling up a grid now, but I’ll get a print off tomorrow, if I can, and take up the search.
    I take this opportunity to thank all setters, and the bloggers and contributors to this site for all the enjoyment and enlightenment provided throughout the year. Very much appreciated I assure you all.
  17. I can pass no comment on quality, as I am saving this one for a quiet leisure moment (and those are in short supply at the moment) but thanks to both for your efforts. Looking forward to solving it.
  18. This was fun and greatly appreciated. Jackkt’s 8D had me working and was my LOI but the abandoned strikers really stood out.
  19. Very good challenge and thanks to all involved. Tricky for me as the quick cryptic is my level. Completed but with 2 cheats and some unparsed. Have now managed to parse all but one. 14d gave me the biggest smile.
  20. May I add my thanks to all cluesters and especially Sarah & Jerry for producing this tasty treat for us all. My particular faves were the strikers at 21d and the sub marine release at 7d. Much kudos too for the setter of 5 for even managing to eke out a clue for such an awful word.
  22. Great job; I regard you all, as Noddy Boffin would say, with hadmiration amounting to hawe. 8d (LOI) took me forever, and I love it; also 14d. Thanks and Merry Christmas to Sotira and Jerry and all the contributors.
  23. Well done editors. Like DJimbo I found the vocabulary pleasingly diverse, and I agree with the comments regarding high clue quality and maybe improvement on last year. I’ve got ticks next to about a dozen favourites, and 15ac was my COT. (Who did that one?) While I was working it I gave more thought than usual to cluing, and I came away thinking that there were a number of words – especially the 3 and 4 letter ones – which could be very difficult to clue neatly, and all were brought off with elegance. Thank you setters and editors. Thank you especially Sotira and Jerry.
  24. Enjoyed this puzzle muchly. Some good clues, especially 7d, which took me ages and led me to convince myself that a chain-ometer existed at 10a until I had the correct crossing letter!
    Nikki.
  25. Great fun – took me about 30m. But some very good clues. Big thank you to our two editors for all the time put in to this. It was well worth it!
  27. Just spent a hugely enjoyable evening grappling with this – one still left to go, which is driving me nuts!

    Some absolute beauties in here – 18 ac was brilliant, I thought, and the surfaces of 11 ac and 12 ac were terrific – to name but a few.

    Thanks so much to Sotira and Jerry for orchestrating the whole thing, and to all the cluers for their nefarious offerings. Absolute treat.

  28. Thanks for this. I’ve tried entering the clue-writing competition, and I know how hard it is.

    For me this could have been a regular puzzle: perhaps there were a few more obvious clues than normal. The only thing I’d add would be a question-mark at the end of 21dn (the strikers).

    My favourite clues where the puff-adder, the “wonky” in 11ac, the clever anagram and surface reading in 16ac, the perfect surface reading of 22ac and the cleverness of 7dn.

  29. As a late visitor to the festive board I enjoyed this, probably more than a typical daily solve, because of the many chuckles along the way as well as the overall standard of clueing. If our old supporter friend had to be resurrected this was a great way to do it. Thanks to all involved.
  30. Many thanks to all conerned in this production. It had just the right level of difficulty for me to make it enjoyable. I didn’t time myself but think it must have been around 30 minutes – a rarity for me.

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