Comments on: ST 2510

By: petebiddlecombe

petebiddlecombe — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:49:06 +0000

And what makes people read the blog? – A difficult clue which they can’t answer, a really good puzzle that they want to praise or to see what other people thought of, a bad puzzle for the same two reasons, or … you get the idea …

By: Big Dave

Big Dave — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:38:23 +0000

Funnily enough the latest circulation figures that I can find give the DT at 836,410 and the ST at 619,182 copies. Perhaps it’s the prominent position of the Daily puzzle that makes the difference. Or is it that the Saturday puzzle is easier? I’m glad I don’t work in market research.

By: petebiddlecombe

petebiddlecombe — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:23:18 +0000

I see your and the former xwd ed’s point, but there’s no reason for me why a paper’s Sunday puzzle shouldn’t be a good one. On my recent holiday, the tour guide was keen to have a chat about xwds when he found out about my Times championship wins. He told me that he and his wife did the Telegraph cryptic and GK puzzles at the weekend – the Fri, Sat and Sun cryptics if I remember right – so unless SunSetter became SatSetter, he’d lose a good puzzle if it was moved.

I don’t know how the ST and DT readership compare – this might be a factor in the numbers. So might the long history of ST crosswords in a rather different style – I wouldn’t have tackled the previous puzzle unless a free ST happened to be around, and then only for long enough to conclude that nothing had changed. If others voted with their feet in the same way, it could take years to get them back.

By: Big Dave

Big Dave — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:09:12 +0000

It seems such a shame that these excellent puzzles get hidden away in the Sunday paper. I spoke to a former crossword editor the other day who, on being told the identity of the “new” Sunday setter, said that these puzzles should be in the daily paper. Maybe one day.

To illustrate what I am saying, at the time of writing there have been 1445 hits on my Saturday Hints post against 310 for Sunday – not far short of a ratio of 5 – 1.

Thanks again Peter for your clear and comprehensive review.