Comments on: Independent 6895 by Nimrod

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:14:51 +0000

I only managed to finish this once I’d spotted the Nina, and doubt I’d have filled more than 50% of the left side of the grid if I hadn’t. I enjoyed it too, which means it probably was a bit easier than usual as I often end up falling short and cursing the man!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:47:03 +0000

Re these points, I think the Nina forced harder words in, but, once it was spotted, solving gets easier e.g 3 checked letters in a four-letter answer. Also, I think the Indy does not lay down absolute standards with Nimrod seen as a setter who clues somewhat more loosely. Your examples illustrate that, I think. He’s also very hard, tho not the hardest, looking at solving times as a guide.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:25:32 +0000

I’m not in a good mood and thoroughly deserve my name today. It may be that this has meant that I’m misunderstanding things, but here goes…
10A the wordplay seems woolly. “the Guardian” presumably does not indicate WARD so I guess it’s either “with the Guardian” that gives us ward (an adjectival phrase to define a noun) or perhaps it’s that “[one] travelling to London with the Guardian” might be an UP WARD????
11A “that are left” another adjectival phrase to define a noun
14A aren’t the RA just part of the army?
17A “condition, after a flap?” is a rubbish definition even with the question mark (“condition of one getting in a flap” may have been better although the surface would have been marginally more nonsensical). “flourished” for FL is something I haven’t come across before (is it me or are the sorts of abbreviations and techniques normally reserved for the advanced cryptics creeping more and more into the dailies?). BU for “drunk French” requires a little too much foreign language knowledge for my taste.
20A I had the same query re LEND = “Borrow” or perhaps it’s “Borrow entails” but that doesn’t seem much better!
22A “in slapstick” as an anagrind?
27A Does “go” = “leak”? Does he mean “go” in the urinate sense? I’ve only ever heard it used as to take/have/go for “a leak” rather than just “leak”
6D “TENT” in the medical sense seems pretty obscure to me. Also the grammar seems wrong “Keep open medics’” should presumably be read as “Medics’ ‘keep open’”
8D A weak cryptic definition that can only be pinned down once you’ve got checking letters.
18D “the Independent for example” would have been better (or is that question mark doing the work here?)
25D “Izzard” see comment above regarding advanced cryptics.
}:-(

By: Mick h

Mick h — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:33:10 +0000

Thanks Eileen – I guess I was guilty of overparsing!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:21:26 +0000

Mick: Everyone says sorry = all atone

By: Mick h

Mick h — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:53:15 +0000

I don’t know whether this is recognised as part of any dialect in dictionaries or is just plain wrong, but ‘borrow’ and ‘lend’ are often used interchangeably – when I was growing up in north London a lot of people would say ‘can you borrow me 50p’ or ‘can I lend ten pence off of you’.
Thanks for explaining Izzard – the other one I had a query against was 15dn: ‘says sorry’ seems to lead to ‘atones’ rather than ‘atone’ – is it a typo or have I misread something?
I saw the Nina right at the end, just in time to guess CATENA correctly! Good puzzle anyway, not quite as tough as some recent Nimrods, perhaps.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:06:07 +0000

6d ‘to tent’ is a medical term for ‘to dilate or keep open with a tent’.

A ‘tent’ is a ‘plug or roll of soft material for dilating a wound or keeping open an orifice’.