Ev 1065

[Christiana]

No, I haven't finished it (some chance!) and won't, in fact, be able to look properly at it until this afternoon. But a quick glance over breakfast showed a bad typo in the example Playfair codesquare and misled me for a moment in my attempts to understand the preamble.
There should be only one of each letter in the codesquare but, in the on-line copy at least, there are two P's, the latter of which should be a U.
It's a bit off-putting when the first letter of their example word (paradise) begins with a P

[DocHH]

Hello Christiana,
Thanks for the warning, the hard copy has the same mistake. I have populated all the grid, with the exception of the encoded unchecked lights, just about to start on the clues that need encoding. Never have enjoyed these Playfair squares, mainly because I don't think they play fair!

[Twit-Who]

I hate Playfair puzzles too and seem to muddle through them. I have in fact finished this one albeit with a Playfair codebreaker. Interestingly The Times Listener crossword has a Playfair theme this week but although I have a full grid I've not managed to complete that one. Thankfully they are rarer nowadays perhaps due to their lack of popularity.

2 editing errors - 1d and 8d have wrong numbers in brackets.

[dr b]

After all the fuss on the Listener thread about the "Playfair but not a Playfair" theme, I actually laughed when I opened up this one. Easier clues led to a fast gridfill, and as the codebreaking part holds no interest for me I also used an online aid (Quinapalus). A good site to encode/decode once you have the keyword is:

http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/playfair.php

[jim360]

Well has to be said even despite the three typos it was useful to me to do this one. My first-ever playfair crossword. I ended up using dr b's tool, but was pleased even so that I managed to get two parts of the final grid correctly by hand. Makes you wonder why anyone ever bothered using Playfair encryption.

[devadolly]

I've managed most of the grid, but like everyone else I can't cope with PF code-squares, smacks of maths to me! have two of the asterisked clues but that's about as much good as a bucket of sand in the Sahara. Can't even get to grips with drb's link so will have a stare for a bit and then ask a maths mate of mine for a bit of help.
Been a lovely day here and have managed to knock the top off the lawns before the rain that is forecasted.

[jim360]

It depends with two you have got. I solved one of the asterisked clues backwards. I reckon that you can get a handle on the grid with the two "lower" asterisked clues in the grid, and then a third to really clear up what the theme is and sort out the grid remainder.

the quinapalus link that may be helpful is www.quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/playfair

[Christiana]

Almost there, though a bit of a stretch even using the helpful links. Just have the unclued lights to go - haven't worked out how to use the link to decode so will now attempt to work backwards.

[Christiana]

Success!

[devadolly]

You are getting too damned clever by half Christina! n I'm obviously the only resident dunce! Have tried the site Jim360 but am weak and failing and it all looks too complicated to contemplate!
Have just had the joy of buying a new lawn-mower (I know, excessive excitement) as the old one was 20 years old and the clutch had gone. Homebase has excellent offers on for some of their big machines, but of course I had to get involved with a dreadful gramatically incorrect notice................I do so hate tautology! ......"if your machine is clean, we will refund you your deposit back".................aaaaggggghhhhhh! The manager didn't even understand the word grammar! I am such a grumpy old woman......... fun though!

[Christiana]

You wouldn't say that, devadolly, if you knew how perplexed I was by that site. I had to experiment several times with it. It's actually quite easy when you know how (like so much!). Anyway, put the gobbledegook puzzle title in the cipher box and press search - don't worry about the empty plain text box. Look down the list of words until you find one that has some bearing on the answers to the asterisked clues. Then try that as the start of the Playfair Square, follow on with the rest of the alphabet and then use that to do the encoding of the answers to the asterisked clues. You can see if you're on the right track, as you will already have some of the encoded letters in the grid.
I found decoding the unclued lights (so that I could work out what the original words should be) a little trickier

[AndrewG-S]

Have been a bit busy at work and so had to drop ev for a while but came back to it this week. Really enjoyed the playfair part, the moment where it suddenly all falls into place is a very rewarding Pdm. Either I have got slower or ev has got more tricky as this took me a little while to crack. All very enjoyable.

[ringer]

Hi all
Been playing catch up yet again with the EVs. Managed to crack this one with the help of the two Playfair sites - many thanks to dr b and jim360. However still grid staring at last week's and absolutely nothing coming, although I have a potential 6 letter word in the final column if I alter the clash to a third letter. Maybe it's because I have broken a contact lens and am struggling to focus, even with glasses - well that's my excuse this time!

[kayakamina]

I'm with those who don't like Playfair puzzles. Fortunately they don't crop up too often on EV so I mustn't complain.

Ringer - last week's grid.
Look at two diagonals each passing through an X and shade in the top half.
Together with the final column, which is a synonym, then you should find a symbol which will put it all in context.

[ringer]

Many thanks k. It would have helped if I had the correct letter starting 28D! A minor alteration (those of you who know a little about bellringing will get the pun) and all is sorted.

[devadolly]

I finally pulled myself together and worked out the PS thanks to the site drb so kindly offered. I have to ask, how on earth would anyone have got that code word without the Q site? No, definitely don't like Ps's!
Andrew G-S, think we were both heading down the same blind alley last week!

[Shoni70]

Arrived back late this afternoon after North Wales holiday. Completed solutions to clues and also the asterisked ones ,
all avian, tried quinapalus as Dr B suggested but couldnt get anything out of it . I am completely stuck and i would be very very grateful if somene can direct me to the correct keyword,,. Help please

[Christiana]

Hi Shoni,
Did you try the directions for Quinapalus in my earlier post? You should get a list of words up, one of which is also avian.

[Shoni70]

Thank you so much Christiana for your prompt reply.
I tried the quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/playfair hint and entered the puzzle title in the cyphertext. Unfortunately I could not find any relevant word in the list suggesting a link for my avian asterisked answers. I assume that the linkword should be 8 letters long, but i have no idea where to proceed from above hint. I tried to create the PLAYFAIR CODE SQUARE FROM OTHER PART ANSWERS BUT NO LUCK . This is so frustrating and time-wasting.
i WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE A VERY BROAD HINT PLEASE . YOU'RE MY ONLY SAVIOUR !!!!!

[Christiana]

Hi again Shoni. Okay. First the link is www.quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/playfair . Once you have the title in cyphertext it should bring up two columns of words - one is the keyword list and one plaintext. If you look down the plaintext you will find an avian word beginning with 'f' and to the left of it the obscure keyword. The plaintext is 8 letters but the keyword is 10 which is why you may be struggling with it. It is the keyword that you need to find the first few letters of the playfair square. From that it is easy to work out the missing letters from the encoded asterisked clues. It's a little more awkward working out the non-clued lights

[jim360]

If you are still struggling to use the site and crack the code I wrote up a full "by-hand" cracking of this EV that may prove useful - emails to [email protected] if you want a copy.