Comments on: Guardian 24191/Gordius

By: radchenko

radchenko — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:32:55 +0000

Thanks, Simply_Simon, for “iver”. Did not know that either.

Solution in the paper today says 6dn was indeed Gromwell. When did flower ever really mean flower and not river!!!

On which, to what extent is this clue ambiguous? If flower does mean river then the deconstruction given by Simon seems OK to me.

And a very minor quibble — shoudn’t 9ac have been “fables” not “fable”?

By: davey b

davey b — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:49:24 +0000

Thanks Beermagnet

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:04:55 +0000

Davey, ROM is the “memory” and ANTIC is the “trick”.

By: davey b

davey b — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:47:07 +0000

what about 2 down Romantic Iknow it means of love.But “Trick of memory” Why?

By: Simply_simon

Simply_simon — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:55:08 +0000

Conrad, I think you’re right. Well my penance will have to be to leave it there for all to see. Thanks for the correction.

By: conradcork

conradcork — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:27:18 +0000

I think 6 down is Gromwell, where g (good) replaces head of Cromwell. Gromwell is a relative of borage.

By: Simply_simon

Simply_simon — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:14:39 +0000

22ac – River without an r(iver) is IVER, which is a place in Bucks.

By: radchenko

radchenko — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:11:48 +0000

Kudos for solving it all: thanks for the explanations. Lots going on even after unpicking the wordplay.

I was miles off: odd herbs, french swindlers, obscure rivers (4, 5 and 6 dn), I guessed the “it in writing” but could only think of ‘get’ not ‘have’. All the same ‘it’ in ‘s-crawl’ — I’m not surprised I didn’t get any of these.

I thought of Emperor Selassie, and buttons from cinderella, and pot, but couldn’t finish any of these off either.

You also missed the other one I didn’t get, 22ac. What was that, please?

Sheesh, 8 clues short before I gave up. Coming after Monday’s tough Arachne, someone not a happy bunny at the guardian.