Joe’s communication duties allowed Stuart a moment to reflect, although consciously not dwell, on the latest numerical indicators. He supposed the ‘Challenge 15’ heading really didn’t make the numbering issue any more indecipherable than it had already become, but this month’s limit of 2,500 successful solutions sounded shockingly small and jolted him back into action. At least the reappearance of a crossword sounding slant was more reassuring, and his first instincts were already suggesting a possible clue structure. That was usually half the battle.
Wow, Stuart and family really whizzed through this challenge !
The structure was more obvious and it was a lot more "guessable" than some (or all?) of the previous ones. I guessed it after getting 4 correct letters and a couple of wrong letters (!) then went on to fill in the rest with the benefit of that and the calendar ordering. In retrospect an astute solver might have guessed it straight away by just treating "hidden reptiles (10)" as a sort of crossword clue, but then they would of course have missed out on the labyrinthine workings of Tim's mind ....
Even after having all the letters I still did not understand parts of some of the clues and that is still the case for the clues omitted from this Track - where I know the cities and the letters but not what some of the clues mean.
And now the meaning if any of the challenge numbering, the way the answers fit together etc has been floated for anyone with spare time on their hands .. interesting !
Some recognisable little bits of offspring behaviour in this track in addition to the challenge parts ...
Thanks Brendan, as I've said before it's remarkably easy to solve a problem that you've set yourself!
I did hope this one was a bit more 'solvable' however, after last times nightmare, with a fair chance of working out the solution after solving 6 or 7 clues.
I've just taken a sneak look forward at 'Track 7' to remind myself of the next 'challenge'. That one takes a bit of a different turn, on the face of it it's easy to solve, but then a new element of 'jeopardy' is built in once you have!
Wow, Stuart and family really whizzed through this challenge !
The structure was more obvious and it was a lot more "guessable" than some (or all?) of the previous ones. I guessed it after getting 4 correct letters and a couple of wrong letters (!) then went on to fill in the rest with the benefit of that and the calendar ordering. In retrospect an astute solver might have guessed it straight away by just treating "hidden reptiles (10)" as a sort of crossword clue, but then they would of course have missed out on the labyrinthine workings of Tim's mind ....
Even after having all the letters I still did not understand parts of some of the clues and that is still the case for the clues omitted from this Track - where I know the cities and the letters but not what some of the clues mean.
And now the meaning if any of the challenge numbering, the way the answers fit together etc has been floated for anyone with spare time on their hands .. interesting !
Some recognisable little bits of offspring behaviour in this track in addition to the challenge parts ...
Thanks Brendan, as I've said before it's remarkably easy to solve a problem that you've set yourself!
I did hope this one was a bit more 'solvable' however, after last times nightmare, with a fair chance of working out the solution after solving 6 or 7 clues.
I've just taken a sneak look forward at 'Track 7' to remind myself of the next 'challenge'. That one takes a bit of a different turn, on the face of it it's easy to solve, but then a new element of 'jeopardy' is built in once you have!