Christmas quizzes 2009

The crowd called out for ... the solution

As the repetition in the rubric of  'the crowd called out for ...' might suggest, the solution to this year's puzzle was the word 'More', being the last word of All This and More, being the title of the Procol Harum Box Set anthology (which was the most sought-after prize from this year's roster).

The twelve different letters of All This and More occurred in key positions in the album-titles (the sources for the odd-tracks out) that competitors came up with each evening ... the twelfth letter of the first answer, the eleventh letter of the second answer, and so on in sequence right down to the second letter of the eleventh answer and the first letter of the last answer.

Coincidentally – as some pointed out – these twelve letters constitute the name of cryptographer Ronald E Smith, whose mp3 excerpts sometimes yielded a single solution, and sometimes a multiple one; only with the last clue, whose answer was unequivocally Secrets of the Hive, were competitors then able to 'cancel out' the multiples and find the unique solution to each day's question.

This process also acquainted competitors with the fine contents of this Procol Harum Reissue / Remaster series ... thanks to Salvo for contributing so many of the prizes.

Despite the opinion of one respected ex-member of Procol Harum that one question was 'sneaky enough to be compiled by a Guardian crossword setter', there were in fact no incorrect answers submitted this year, for the first time: though some competitors disqualified themselves by not specifying what prizes they wanted.

In ascending order of popularity the prizes were Home + Grand Hotel | Shine on Brightly + Procol's Ninth | A Salty Dog + Exotic Birds and Fruit | Procol tee-shirt signed on the front | Procol Harum + Something Magic | Broken Barricades + Live at Edmonton | Procol tee-shirt signed on the back | No Stiletto Boot signed | All This and More.

It was good to read some competitors' comments, like ' ... my weary and befuddled brain looks forward with masochistic fervour to this mind-torture every year ... ' or ' ... as every year it was great fun and I always learn a lot from the quizzes ...' or ' ... it was more challenging than first anticipated ... ' or '... it was a blast!' or ' ... rare tracks and nice merging of songs!'

Thanks, Ronald!