Inquisitor Review of 2014 – The Results

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From John Henderson (Nimrod et al) …

I’ll get me ’at

Inquisitor solvers, it seems, are a perverse bunch. For the second year running, the IQ Award has been won by the puzzle that stimulated more editorial correspondence than any other. In February 2013 the apparent republication of the previous week’s IQ drew irate, bewildered and polite emails in equal measure; in August 2014 once again (though rather more gradually), the inbox filled with claims of “surely some mistake”, as outraged solvers (one of whom had “wasted a significant portion of [his] life” on a puzzle that had “no reasonable solution”) weighed in. As before, pique and exasperation mellowed with the suggestion that the solver might want to “look again” at the preamble, meticulously worded, of course, by the setter. It had had to be: where “Woodchuck” had sent solvers up the garden path, “Soprano” had sent solvers up the wrong garden path altogether. Congratulations to Pointer, coincidentally racking up precisely the same number of points as last year’s winner.

A big pat on the back, too, to the runners-up. The a-mazingly constructed “Clue Two” by eXternal was my own Puzzle of the Year, actually accruing more 3s than Soprano but five fewer points overall (and 11 votes compared to 14). Third, 9½ points further back on the towpath, was Kruger’s “Operation” which, in another “Moment of the Year”, was won by a solver who spends his solving life on a houseboat.

Many thanks to all who voted – and to all the setters who make my job so much fun. That half of the puzzles in 2014 received no votes at all is by no means a reflection on their own ingenuity, surely an indication of just how good the top two really were.

Here’s the complete list. If you’d like copies of any of the puzzles, please leave a comment below or drop me an email.

1 1347 Soprano Pointer 31½
2 1335 Clue Two eXternal 26½
3 1331 Operation Kruger 17
=4 1318 Variations on an Original Theme Syd Lexis 7
1322 Any other Name Nutmeg
6 1359 Comparative Advantage Chalicea 6½
7 1357 Cause and Effect Eclogue 6
=8 1337 Racehorse Nimrod 4
1339 The Man with a Gun Phi
1364 Find the Word Phi
11 1340 Strange Hobby Schadenfreude 3½
=12 1314 Rhyme Schadenfreude 3
1344 IQ Test Samuel
1352 Identity Crisis Jago
1355 Holy Inappropriate Lato
=16 1334 Even Owl Wickball 2
1342 Omen Nutmeg
1350 3 Down Charybdis
19 1346 Strides Schadenfreude 1½
=20 1315 Affliction ‘Eck 1
1316 Swingers Lato
1341 Squaring the Circle Ferret
1348 Reset Shark
1358 Calling Card eXternal
1362 1 Across S.M.E.R.S.H.
26 1317 Who’s the Daddy? Eclogue ½

 

  1. Nimrod: thanks once again for putting this together. But why do the total votes come to 142? (Not divisible by 6.) And the lowest in the table should be ranked 25, not 26.

    On a positive note, I think it’s rather good that the puzzles in the table are fairly evenly spread throughout the year, which suggests that voters really did think about it & didn’t suffer from ‘short memory bias’. (For those that understand, the correlation between rank & puzzle no. is 0.024, where perfectly positively correlated = 1 and perfectly negatively correlated = -1.) Someone else can analyse any relationship between the votes for a puzzle and Ed’s star-rating of it … but only if they want to.

  2. Incredibly, HG, I think I can answer all of those questions!

    First, I have done ‘Eck a disservice: IQ1315: “Affliction” was also awarded a point. (Perhaps Gaufrid could insert that?). So 26th is properly located. That brings it up to 143. Second, a point was deducted from A Certain Other Blogger who voted two puzzles at 4&2, which I pared down to 3&2 (implicit max of 3 per puzzle), hence the total non-divisible by 6. The result was not affected.

    I made the correlation coefficient 0.025, probably having occurred an error from the non-use of Pearson’s product moment (eh? – ed.). But the point is well-made, I did look over the spread of voting over the year.

  3. Congratulations, Pointer.

    I’d like to give my thanks for all who voted for my puzzles. I am delighted with second place. The Inquisitor is very special to me {definitely in my top 3 barred grid series), as the first ever puzzle I had published was an Inquisitor, which appeared in the 2013 series. I particularly enjoy reading Nimrod’s editorials and hope that these will continue, the ones about how entrants try to make their entries more likely to be chosen were amusing. Well done to Nimrod on doing such a great job with the editorship.

    Hopefully we will see more debuts this year, as the ed suggests. I enjoyed the puzzle from ‘Eck, not only because I could actually complete it, but also because of the splendiferous maxim on which the puzzle is based. From the clues, I would have said it was the product of a compiler who had been writing puzzles for some time. There are lots of good novice setters around, I look forward to seeing new talent emerging in this series. There are also a couple more from me in Nimrod’s Inquisitorial onion bag which I hope will appear in 2015.

    Finally, thanks also to the bloggers. I enjoy reading each and every blog. It is also a great way for setters to see what solvers like and try to sharpen their pencils for future puzzles.

  4. @2 “A Certain Other Blogger” indeed – I was just so impressed by Soprano that I could have given it 6, which would have been cut down to 3 anyway 😉

    That said, however, I am absolutely delighted that two of my (most impressive) blogs (1335 & 1331) made the top three – as was the case in 2013 (1267 & 1287.)

    @3 Thanks for the thanks. Quite often the blog takes much longer than the actual solve, especially with the added (self imposed) pressure of producing an animated grid – totally unnecessary, I know – but I enjoy doing them and (I hope that) solvers and setters enjoy seeing them as it can bring a puzzle to life.

  5. Thanks, eXternal, for your kind comments. And thanks also to all those who voted to say they appreciated Soprano.
    Almost a couple of years ago I started to think of creating a puzzle based on the three generations of the du Maurier family (George, Gerald, Daphne); lots of connections could be made with books, plays and films and well-known people (eg. J M Barrie, Alfred Hitchcock), so there was rich material for a theme. When considering George’s Trilby, for some reason I began to wonder about other books that perhaps had a hat as a title. So my line of inquiry suddenly switched and I soon abandoned all the stuff I’d found out about the du M’s. I couldn’t believe the coincidences that started to emerge: TRILBY, FEDORA both 6 letters; SVENGALI, LAZINSKI both 8 letters; two sopranos, etc. A setter doesn’t meet this sort of thing every day!
    It wouldn’t take much get a red herring to run through the puzzle, I thought. However, I do wonder about red herrings in crosswords. Are they fair? Is it right to mislead solvers at the final stage after they have worked so hard with the clues. I know what it is like to fall victim to a trap laid by the setter. You need time to get over it. But surely, in the main, solvers don’t mind falling into a trap; we solve the puzzle with a completed grid, evaluate the clues and then kick ourselves for missing the last bit. I think a lot did this with Soprano, but then they reflected on the theme and smiled (“We’ve been had!” one solver exclaimed.) Inquisitor solvers are such a great bunch of people.
    I’m just glad that a number of you enjoyed it. As for the ones who escaped from the trap (there weren’t too many, says John H) a real pat on the back – I know I would have been there trying to wriggle free until the solution appeared in the paper.

    Ed Vaughan (Pointer)

  6. Well, just looking at that list brings home to me what an absolutely vintage year 2014 was.

    I often think that in ‘awards’ it’s a shame that there are some who don’t make it.
    Every IQ setter over the last 12 months should be acknowledged as a winner, there were no duds.
    (Yes, I know it’s only for fun)

    So congratulations and warm thanks to every setter for hours- sometimes days – of challenging entertainment.
    And the same to every blogger – without whom we would often fill in the grid, but not really understand why our guesses were right.

    And, finally, to the people in online forums who help to make it all a shared thing. I know this is slightly driven by vanity. One wants to be the first to crack the puzzle in order to help others. But there is also a sense of being in the pub together solving together. (Other venues are available.)

    Nimrod, bring on 2015.

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