Dean Mayer

[ROJOHABANERO]

Is it just me or is Dean Mayer progressively beswamping us with ever more obscure esoterica and self-satisfied gibberish with his clue-making? It's just getting sillier. I'm contemplating swapping papers after almost 50 years of the ST purely because of his need to somehow elevate a puzzle form to a level that only he seems to think he can justify or validate. You could argue that this is an evolutionary process, but it's sometimes just plain stupid and arrogant at best. I even suspect he's having a hand in the 'concise' xword in the culture mag lately....lots of disturbingly 'new' and 'street' argot etc., that most folk will not have ever heard of. Worse still, some of the clues/answers do not match: they are sometimes blatantly incorrect and/or misinterpreted by the setter(s). It's nice to learn something from crosswords but not when the actual data/knowledge-stream is incorrect. Does anyone concur or am I guilty of trivia-luddite-ism? (try clue-ing THAT one up ).

[frugalfred]

I agree completely. Pity we can't resurrect Mike Laws.

[Neveracrossword]

I don't mind Dean Mayer's puzzles - I have to work harder at them, but get a huge sense of satisfaction (and relief) when I've finished. He is slightly devious at times, but that doesn't bother me too much.

[kayakamina]

I don't enjoy Dean Mayer's puzzles as I don't believe he adheres to
established conventions for setting - he should study Tim Moorey's
work where every word in the clue is important.
Of course it is up to the new editor which compiler gets published.

[Svejk]

Funnily enough I was going to put up a similar thread, earlier.
As I've said before, you'd have to be border-line autistic to 'do' this weeks crossword. Either that or I'm a right thicko.

[frameshift]

I agree! This Sunday's was not very satisfying or enjoyable. Tim Moorey always has good crosswords even if they are sometimes more difficult, they are clear. He does the mephisto, too, but I don't always finish it. DM always seems to want to put a clue that doesn't seem to belong in the Times crossword, such as 19d this week which answers as URINATE. His last had a clue which parsed using ARSE for fool around 'O' for AROSE and I think he used PEE for number 1 in the parsing some time back. Bit schoolboyish, really.

[RocW]

No, it is not just you as can be seen from the comments below. I certainly agree with comments about Tim Moorey. His clues in "The Week" while slightly gentler than the Sunday Times, are clever and well thought out. Sometimes when I am completing Dean Mayer's puzzles I feel that I have somehow picked up Private Eye by mistake. (Having said that, I quite enjoy Private Eye puzzles; some of today's clues were quite amusing).

[maxymax]

I totally agree about Dean Mayer and his crosswords. I like to think that I am pretty good and indeed this month I completed the Saga crossword in less than 90 mins. However ST4557 on Sunday 29th Sept was the hardest ever and I could only do half of it without referring to these pages.Some of the clues/answers do not match and are simply inaccurate.Time he was put out to grass - the other ST compilers are excellent.

[leo9]

I totally agree. I don't even bother to waste my time when Dean Mayer is the setter. I have felt like swapping papers for at least 2 years now. Even complained to the ST crossword editor.

[Spotland]

Perhaps the ST crossword editor might sit up and notice the increasing number of comments about Dean Mayer's offerings driving customers to buy alternative newspapers. I can just about live with the use of a slang verb "to off" meaning to murder someone but then to turn the slang verb into a noun as in an "offer" meaning a hitman indicates to me that DM has his head stuck in a dark place very near his pelvis