Daily Telegraph GK.

[Aquagility]

lector has raised an interesting question about the increasing difficulty of the Kate Mepham crossword, and whether it is now too tough.

Would it not be interesting to sample the views of regular ABers? I invite answers, A B or C, to these propositions, as they apply to you personally.

A. It has now become too difficult.

B. It is now about right.

C. It is still too easy.

[Valkell]

Sorry should have voted for A

[Aquagility]

The poll is now closed, Valkell having snuck in at the very last minute to give us 40 opinions altogether.

The raw figures are A - 20, B - 15, Undecided - 5.

I should say right away that the survey questions were badly framed. We had no votes at all for option C, and many of you were either uncertain or could not be entirely happy with either A or B. Clearly I should have offered more options to choose from.

My conclusions, based on your comments, is that most of you would like a slightly easier puzzle, but only slightly. Of course, we must accept that Kate cannot please us all.

Thank you all for taking part. I hope that you have read the comments posted, and that you found it interesting.

[bridgenut]

Thanks for the info. Aquagility . Think the simplicity of the question made it easier for people to vote , rather than ask their opinion , like me a lot put that after their vote . Regards

[shaneystar2]

Very interesting Aquagility . I still maintain that KM is doing a grand job in view of the fact that it is not long since MM passed away . I wonder how we would cope under these circumstances ..in the public eye so to speak . At the end of the day it's just a crossword ....an ephemeral thing that gives us all a bit of enjoyment ..It's just brain fodder ..worse things happen at sea. We can either choose to do it or not .....there are plenty of crosswords out there ! And I like the Telegraph anyway ....love the daily cryptic which I have been doing for years. Good luck to KM ..I hope she carries on and becomes as famous amongst us cruciverbalists as her Dad.

[Valkell]

OK. We would like it a bit easier but so what if it takes a bit longer. It is still the best thing about the weekend!

It makes it worth getting up early on a Saturday, about the only thing I can think of that does.

[delilahw]

I've been too busy to do xwords for a while but now I'm back I am finding the Saturday Telegraph more difficult. I think the enjoyment of a general knowledge crossword is that one dredges up a percentage of the answers from ones own experience and knowledge. Others require some thought, - delving into books and dictionaries etc, and some will have to be googled. For my money , the Google answers should constitute no more than about 10-15% of the crossword. KM seems to be a bit of a scientist - not my area of expertise - and I find myself having to google half the answers. So - yes I think the ST xword is now too difficult! A definite A!

[buffy2]

A I found that there were very few that i could do without reference books and the internet.i did nearly complete it , but there were too many i needed to research a lot.

[erictheelf]

I'll go for A. Providing it doesn't get too easy.

[Aquagility]

You're a bit late, erictheelf. This poll closed nearly two years ago!