Comments on: Inquisitor 72 — Neighbours by Lato

By: Lato

Lato — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:49:10 +0000

And apologies for the error in the apology.

By: Lato

Lato — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:47:46 +0000

Thanks for the blog and all the comments. I tried to give as many hints to the theme as
possible.
Apologies fot the clue numering error

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:12:15 +0000

RABY This was crucial for me. I’d four of the ten words with an idea what two others might be (one of which turned out to be wrong). Was wondering what could give a misprint to NEWTON. Neston (which I’d never heard of) seemed a possibility, but Internet searching did not yield a place near it that would fit.
I pulled out a motoring atlas and there RABY was – it then gave me RHINO and everything fell into place. I think I remember in the very early days of the Indy Weekend puzzle, something similar where the puzzle referred to a cartoon strip on the page.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Sat, 24 May 2008 08:50:49 +0000

Unfortunately I didn’t post my entry! The only puzzles I ever submit are the Listener and Azed. I really should post off the odd other.

By: Hihoba

Hihoba — Sat, 24 May 2008 07:48:01 +0000

I must admit that we fell into the category of non-penny-droppers! Did all the clues, but never found the theme! Not surprised, having read your explanation. I would expect a relatively sparse entry for this one, so good luck with the prizes!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:14:14 +0000

PS – the preamble did make it clear liberties were being taken with punctuation e.g. Chris = crease

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:07:40 +0000

I thought this puzzle had a great penny-dropping moment. Like others, I did find the last stage tough and came close to giving up but was really glad I stuck with it, when I did get that PDM. The word ‘local’ tantalised all along – even thought of the three Lake Poets. I think it was a very good way of putting it. The six words were needed just for confirmation, perhaps, so I did not spend too long at that. I came to the same conclusions as Duncan, except I thought the Man and Hill might refer to the Hillman cars of a while back.

A very satisfying puzzle and a clever idea.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:27:04 +0000

Thanks Duncan. You are spot on. Why I didn’t consider Harry as the anagrind I don’t know—maybe I was distracted by HARRY HILL!. I felt that the extra words being in clue order was important and I guess only a running nut would associate Ron with Hill. Not being a Harry Potter fan I knew vaguely that Weasely was a character but I didn’t know he was a Ron.

By: duncanshiell

duncanshiell — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:22:43 +0000

Like you I nearly gave up on this one, but persevered until the penny dropped.

I think the extra word in 33d is Weasley rather than Harry. I felt that Harry was the anagrind. This then led to ‘Hello Weasley’ and thus to Hi! Ron (Weasley).

The first definition of man in Chambers has the following hidden deep in the middle of all its alternatives-

a cairn or rock pillar; a hill with such a man;