Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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Christmas Quiz 2016

Some competitors' comments



Thanks, as ever, to players for their various comments, good and bad,
during and after the run of questions ...
(lightly reorganised for readability) 
 


Another great success and thank you to all involved for taking the time to plan and execute an excellent conundrum.
 


These annual quizzes not only add my knowledge of things around our favourite band, but also expand my vocabulary and education in general. For instance earlier I thought that ‘conundrum’ is a rare percussion instrument, ha ha.
 


I really enjoyed solving the puzzles! It must take you many hours preparing them! Great job!
 


If you make these any 'easier' I will have to block time off work between December 25 and January 04 in order to dedicate enough hours to these wonderful Christmas Conundrums. Of course this is much more fun than work.
 


Yet another fantastic Christmas challenge, albeit not quite as cunning as some previous years. Having said that, the hidden names did have me barking up the wrong tree and I spent hours searching for names that I could not find!
 


Man! You ARE a clever fellow. Thanks for a very entertaining quiz. Well done. Again!
 


Not easy to figure this one out in advance – quite a few blind alleys here. Thank you for another great achievement and best wishes for 2017!
 


Thank you for entertaining us!
 


Thanks guys, and a happy New Year to you.
 


The prizes are not the main issue in this riddle, but the solving the quiz itself is giving the biggest satisfaction.
 


What a conundrum contest!
 


You’ve outdone yourself. Oh dear! Too easy?
 


Good puzzle. Not difficult but took a little work sometimes. Interesting that the words found from song lyrics had nothing to do with the solution, other than to eliminate the ‘useful’ letters (ie the corners).
 


Very tricky quizzes! You deserve an award for creating them.
 


As every year the best prize is ... to play! Thanks a lot, ‘Beyond the Pale’! And thank you Gary, your wishes for us are one of my favourite gifts I received in this Christmas Time. For next year I ask to Santa Claus ... a dream in every home, and in every home I hope there will be a new Procol Harum studio album ... and, who knows?, to win as a beautiful prize in the next edition of Christmas Conundrums.
 


I couldn’t quite figure out what was important but encircled all the song words and that was a great help to get the corner letters quickly… It was good fun!
 


I enjoyed the challenge of the Christmas conundrum, especially going through the lyrics of familiar songs and testing my memory of them. And the BtP website proved very helpful in filling in any gaps.
 


Thanks so much! I was finally on to the clues this year. I had the shamrock (or 4-leaf clover) and the word 'luck'. But I was thinking of Alpha’s 'lousy luck', not 'the lucky one', so that slowed me down a bit. Anyway, great puzzle, as always!
 


Very nice greeting to the Palers from Gary!
 


When the wife asked what on earth I was doing again and after I had explained it to her, she got hooked on this even more seriously than me. She also was very clever to find the hidden words and probably solved most of them. But because at the time the last question was published she was sleeping – and who sane person wouldn’t – I had a possibility to write my name for the quiz solver!
 


Best Red Herring Department: every day’s grid contained the first name of a band member (former or current), and Days 9, 11 and 12 had two each – Day 9 had 2 Geoffs (!), Day 11 had another Robin and Graham and Day 12 had Josh and John/Kellogs.
 


As for the band members’ names, were they all there? There are about seven I cannot find.
 


It was funny that I found so many first names of Procol Harum members, current (Gary, GeoffD, GeoffW, Matt, Josh) and past ones (Barrie, Henry, Alan, Dave, David, Ray, Chris, Mick, Maf, Robin, Pete, Tim, Mark, Graham, Kellogs) – and other words that weren’t part of the lyrics of the song in question – before I found anything else!
 


I don’t know what to do with John, John and Paul (unless they were writing credits for Eight Days a Week.)
 


I found Ringo and John (twice!) but no other Beatle, my guess is that George was missing. I have to do another search, for Ian, too! Maf probably does not count, as he is part of 'famine' (31 December).
 


I have taken part in this quiz only in two latest years. Both times it has been kind of a sad and empty feeling after the last riddle. I would have hoped that it had lasted forever. But luckily all the previous Christmas Puzzles seem to be still available in BtP pages. Great! I will try to solve them all and tackle the twists hidden in them ...
 


Roland, you old rogue, you did it again. I had the entire family working on this, and still you foxed me. I even had blocked off the words we were meant to find and had the beginnings of a message using leftover words including ‘Zonophone’ in squiggly form and ‘nephew’. Words cannot describe my feelings for you at this moment. Great entertainment as always.
 


The very important thing is to have always a next edition!
 

Thanks, all!


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