Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Boy, is my face 🥵......it appears I was guilty of that age old sin - confirmation bias! That, coupled with a cryptic solver's mind, and this is what you get - or maybe Ifor was actually doing it on a subconscious level.....jeez Bren, stop clutching:-)

Morning, Brendan. I don't think you need to sit on the naughty step! Your theorising (about the men) was interesting and could have been spot on. Ifor's puzzles often have little hidden bits, not essential for solving, so it was an avenue worth exploring.

Good morning Malone,

You have to admire the honesty of Ifor, he could easily have seen the posts and then tried claim credit after the event, as it were. Decent and honest of him not to - even if he did make me look like a complete idiot in the process 🤪 I jest of course:-)

Brendan Malone

I still think Brendan's theory was brilliant and was it an incredible coincidence? Probably Malone's idea of the sub-conscious is valid. Why did ifor not pick Kevin, David, Peter etc. Common names rather than Henry Tudor, Gilbert?

Thank you Jigjag, I really appreciate that:-)

Well, I can give you a much quicker answer this time, jigjag - because (p)ETER and (k)EVIN are not proper words until they've got their heads on [you got lucky with (d)AVID, though).

I'm sorry, brendan - highlighting words that aren't even the subjects of the sentences containing them tends to place a false emphasis on them.
Normally, I'm more guilty than most solvers when it comes to looking for extra depth in a puzzle, but in this case Ifor's beautiful puzzle would be marred by it (in my opinion). The 'everyman' nature of 'If' is adhered to scrupulously here.

...Sorry, jigjag - I got mixed up replying to you (please ignore it, I don't know what I was thinking!) but I'll stick by my answer to brendan.

jigjag - Ifor probably avoided common names to disguise the theme and make the conclusion more satisfying.