Royce Ferguson author page
3 puzzles by Royce Ferguson
with Constructor comments
| A | T | W | A | R | H | A | L | S | T | E | C | H | ||
| W | H | A | T | A | B | E | A | S | T | A | C | A | I | |
| R | O | S | E | P | A | R | A | D | E | K | O | R | N | |
| Y | U | P | G | O | B | S | P | R | E | S | E | T | ||
| S | O | B | S | S | O | O | T | H | E | |||||
| A | G | E | N | D | A | D | O | N | O | H | A | R | M | |
| M | I | S | O | B | A | L | D | T | E | M | P | O | ||
| U | N | C | O | N | S | C | I | O | U | S | B | I | A | S |
| S | M | A | Z | E | I | N | I | T | A | N | T | E | ||
| T | A | P | E | N | A | D | E | T | H | I | G | H | S | |
| R | E | F | E | R | S | M | E | E | T | |||||
| A | T | R | E | S | T | N | A | R | Y | S | K | A | ||
| B | I | O | S | S | H | A | R | E | N | T | I | N | G | |
| I | N | O | T | E | A | S | Y | D | O | E | S | I | T | |
| T | I | M | S | T | H | A | I | W | A | I | T | S |
| V | I | C | T | O | R | I | A | S | S | E | C | R | E | T |
| A | L | L | A | L | O | N | G | T | H | E | L | I | N | E |
| S | E | A | L | E | D | E | N | V | E | L | O | P | E | S |
| T | A | N | K | X | I | I | S | A | S | S | ||||
| S | A | R | I | T | O | K | E | |||||||
| C | A | P | I | T | O | L | U | N | E | D | G | E | D | |
| O | P | E | N | T | O | E | S | E | A | B | L | U | E | |
| A | L | T | A | I | T | O | I | L | E | |||||
| T | I | E | W | R | A | P | B | R | O | O | D | E | D | |
| I | T | S | H | E | R | E | O | I | N | K | E | R | S | |
| I | D | Y | L | N | A | S | T | |||||||
| A | V | I | S | I | P | S | E | C | H | O | ||||
| W | I | N | P | L | A | C | E | A | N | D | S | H | O | W |
| O | N | C | E | I | N | A | L | I | F | E | T | I | M | E |
| L | E | A | R | N | O | N | E | S | L | E | S | S | O | N |
On the first iteration of this puzzle I received feedback that the editorial team liked the top half, but not the bottom. Sadly, this meant redoing the entire puzzle, as any three of the eight interlocking 15 letter entries lock in a good chunk of the remaining five.
These low-word count, unusual grid designs seem to often get mixed reviews. I personally enjoy them from a solver's perspective, as I find the odds of a rough cross decrease — the less desirable bits of crossword glue holding these grids together tend to cross the long spanners that are (hopefully!) known to most.
In this case, I'm not proud of ARY, ILEA or ENES — but happy with the crosses on all three. AGNI and ST VITUS are tough, but I think both fair and worth knowing.
This was my first puzzle to be accepted by the NYT mid last year. Looking back, I would have swapped RIPA for RIPE (and TESS to TESH) to reduce the proper name count in the north east, and insisted that at least 1 of the long 15s was an obviously modern phrase/term. And, being picky, the fact that IN A appears twice in the spanners is also a bit of a detractor.
That all said, I enjoyed making it in the wonderful company of Yvo and Marzena, and am quite pleased with how it came out. Hope everyone enjoys!
| S | W | E | E | T | O | A | R | E | X | P | O | P | O | N | E | |||||
| H | A | S | B | R | O | F | E | E | X | M | A | N | M | O | T | E | S | |||
| A | S | S | E | E | N | O | N | T | V | M | A | K | E | S | A | L | I | S | T | |
| H | A | I | R | S | A | L | O | N | S | A | S | U | A | S | K | S | T | O | ||
| S | T | E | T | R | I | T | A | P | R | E | L | I | M | S | ||||||
| B | A | N | E | P | A | I | S | A | N | A | F | I | R | E | ||||||
| P | R | A | I | R | I | E | R | E | I | N | T | A | C | O | B | A | R | |||
| T | U | N | N | E | L | F | E | E | D | E | R | H | E | R | E | I | G | O | ||
| A | N | N | U | M | S | L | U | R | R | E | N | E | G | E | Z | E | D | |||
| S | T | E | R | E | O | T | Y | P | I | C | T | A | K | E | A | D | E | |||
| E | N | L | A | I | N | A | G | T | N | U | T | S | ||||||||
| A | L | A | D | I | N | G | R | A | D | I | O | S | H | A | C | K | S | |||
| M | I | C | B | A | D | G | E | S | Y | E | O | W | E | L | R | O | Y | |||
| I | R | E | S | I | G | N | T | U | N | E | I | N | V | I | S | I | O | N | ||
| G | A | L | I | L | E | E | P | E | T | S | C | U | R | A | B | L | E | |||
| A | S | A | D | O | S | C | R | E | W | Y | P | O | L | S | ||||||
| X | L | S | H | I | R | T | D | O | U | G | F | A | H | D | ||||||
| A | R | A | B | I | A | I | C | U | R | O | L | L | A | C | I | G | A | R | ||
| T | O | T | E | M | P | O | L | E | S | A | C | I | D | T | O | N | G | U | E | |
| O | B | I | T | S | S | I | R | E | M | K | T | E | M | A | I | L | S | |||
| M | E | T | A | U | S | S | R | P | S | Y | E | L | E | S | S |
Excited to share my first puzzle with you all!
Will and team contributed significantly: 46% of the clues were completely reworked, 41% left alone or minor edits, 13% were tweaked significantly but retained original gist. Not sure if that's a reflection of relatively good or bad cluing on my part … but it's given me an appreciation for just how much work goes on behind the scenes. Great changes overall, in my opinion.
Was sad to see my clue for ROLL A CIGAR go: "do like one making the money gesture, perhaps". Admittedly clunky. I found this one tough to clue well. However, I'd never heard of a torcedor … likely just my general lack of cigar knowledge!
Will and team opted to overlay arrows on the tunnels. Probably the right call as it makes the puzzle more accessible, but I worry that the a-ha moment went down a bit as a result.
One of my grid constraints was that no two black squares should touch (aside from on the grid border or diagonally). This was to avoid any confusion over what constitutes a tunnel, but it added difficulty, as half the construction battle is using the black squares to spread out the fill constraints equally.
Finally, the 26th of April happens to be my partner's name day — she tolerates me doing far more crosswords then I should, so everyone, please join me in wishing a happy name day to the Marzenas of this world.
Hope everyone enjoys.