Posted by Gaufrid on 24th October 2008
It doesn’t look as if Smiffy is going to be able to join us today. He must be otherwise occupied, or his pc has crashed, so here is a brief analysis of today’s puzzle. In the interest of saving time (I want to get on with the Listener) there is no elaboration but if anything is unclear raise it in a comment and I will respond.
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Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Octofem on 24th October 2008
A day late (Blame the uploaders!) Quite a pleasant puzzle but I personally would prefer fewer Proper nouns.
Late in the morning – blame me. I typed it all and then managed to lose it, and had to re-type!
Posted in FT | 9 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 24th October 2008
I think this puzzle was my fastest Indy solve of the year so far, a little less than 10 mins. Word after word went in from the definitions and crossing letters – the only one holding me up was 7 down where all the crossing letters were vowels but I got it in the end.
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 24th October 2008
An interesting grid, dominated by four long Down clues. I managed most of it ok but came unstuck on 6D due to mis-marking it as 6,9 instead of 5,10. A lot of the answers didn’t quite click for me but must be right, I’m sure the commenters will be as eager as ever to set me right on them!
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 24th October 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | COG,CAN< – I think I would have got this quicker if the definition was just “French liquor” as the word “production” made me think there was something more going on. |
| 4 | WEE in (PEATS)* – SWEETPEA |
| 10 | PE,I in EDICTS< – PESTICIDE |
| 11 | TRAM,P |
| 12 | MOOD (reversed) |
| 13 | T(ASK,M)ASTER |
| 15 | T(RACE)RY |
| 16 | R,H,O,MB,I |
| 19 | S,EXI(S)T – I thought this was very good. Great wording and surface reading. |
| 21 | DUG,I in LEG (all reversed) – John GIELGUD |
| 23 | POST,HUMOU[-r]S – “Pole” is often N,E,S or W, but not here. |
| 25 | ST[-a]IR |
| 27 | I,CI[-d]ER |
| 28 | LOG TABLES – double definition. |
| 29 | TO(POLO,G)Y |
| 30 | HERE’S,Y |
| Down | |
| 1 | CUP,I’D,IT,Y |
| 2 | GAS,(ONE CAD)* – GASCONADE. One of a couple of clues that held me up for a while. A new word to me but a fairly easy one to guess. |
| 3 | [-d]AVID |
| 5 | (CREW)*,KER[-b] – WRECKER. |
| 6 | EXTRA COVER – a fielding position in cricket. |
| 7 | PLAN,T – T is the twentieth letter of the alphabet. |
| 8 | A,S(P)IRE |
| 9 | BIG,A,MY |
| 14 | (HELP REPAIR)* – PERIPHERAL |
| 17 | BA(GATE)LLE[-t] |
| 18 | (IS READY)* – I DARE SAY. |
| 20 | TIM,GALE (going up) |
| 21 | G,RUDGE – the Dickensian hero is Barnaby RUDGE. |
| 22 | U,P(L,IF)T |
| 24 | SKI(M)P – I thought this was cleverly worded as my initial parsing of the clue was “bit of material” as the def with a word for “avoid” with “a” inside as the wordplay. |
| 26 | VALE[-t] – this was the other clue that held me up although I’m not really sure why as it looks easy enough now. |
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 24th October 2008
We were told that there were twenty-one special clues, seven with wordplay leading to the answer plus an extra letter, seven with wordplay leading to the answer with one letter missing and seven with a misprint in the definition. Using the corrected letters in the misprints, these twenty-one letters in clue order would spell out two examples of a genre. Finally, we were told that a third example and the genre itself would appear in the grid and should be highlighted.
Posted in Inquisitor | 5 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 24th October 2008
We are told that eight seven-letter terms radiate outwards from the central square which contains the initial of one whose outlook was 34 and whose name is spelled out in the shaded squares. We are also told that the definitions for these eight words are contained in eight clues in place of the correct definitions to which the wordplay (subsidiary indication in EV speak) leads. In a further eight clues the wordplay leads to the answer minus one or two letters which appropriately relate to the radiating words mentioned initially.
Posted in Enigmatic Variations | 7 Comments »