Comments on: Independent 6967 by Tyrus http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/ Never knowingly undersolved. Sat, 25 May 2013 07:48:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Peter Biddlecombe http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-72302 Peter Biddlecombe Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:46:58 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-72302 Probably too late for anyone to see …

Did this as part of a catch-up on recent Indie puzzles I’ve not had time to solve. Extremely hard, partly because I missed the footieness and expected the two long anags to be BUSHISMS. Eventually saw ENOUGH as a possible last word of the longer, but then guessed “think you’re good enough” as the ending, which made things worse for a while. In the end, found them both but gave up a couple of other answers short.

Maybe the trick with these is not to use them from new setters until they’ve had a couple of plainer puzzles, and people have had the chance to get used to their style. Or get them to use charade or other “construction kit” wordplay some of the time – this might give you a better chance of confirming part of the answer than reducing a 40-letter anagram to say 20 possible letters.

But on football as opposed to other sporting stuff, why on earth not? I’m always pleased to see material that doesn’t come from the usual cricket, golf and a bit each of tennis & rugger. Football, snooker, darts – bring ‘em on. As they do even in the “posh people’s” Times puzzle these days.

]]> By: Tyro http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68960 Tyro Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:29:04 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68960 No, because they are fish, and if you look them up in any dictionary it says they are. And I don’t think you’ve apologised for calling Tyrus a repellent thug yet.

]]> By: Al Streatfield http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68589 Al Streatfield Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:50:15 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68589 According to Chambers (2006), a SONATA is a musical composition. And also according to Chambers, a SCORE is also a musical composition of a particular kind, i.e. written down. By the time they had sonatas they were generally written down. So a SONATA is a kind of score, in the same way that a SYMPHONY is a kind of score. You wouldn’t object to the definition of COD, BASS, CARP, EEL etc. as being FISH, would you?

]]> By: Richard http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68580 Richard Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:28:28 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68580 Although I managed to complete this, I did find it very hard. I think the problem was that there were two long anagram clues (for not very well-known expressions)which spread themselves over most of the puzzle. Like Eimi, I’m not a fan of the extra-long anagram – I find them almost impossible to solve from the given letters, and have to hope for inspiration while staring at the skeletonised expression once I’ve got a few letters. Although I’m a fan of Araucaria, who appears to delight in these, I do find them more than a bit of a pain!

]]> By: Paul B http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68573 Paul B Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:56:39 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68573 ‘Score’ is the printed form of the music rather than the thing itself, shurely?

As a rock drummer, I may well be wrong …

]]> By: Al Streatfield http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68484 Al Streatfield Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:06:55 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68484 Re. Tyro’s comment (number 7)

Did I say that we can’t have clues about football?

One of my favourite clues, out of the ones I have compiled, is:

“Out-of-form Aston Villa finally score”

Answer: SONATA

]]> By: eimi http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68380 eimi Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:15:39 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68380 Good point on the Saturday slot, Simon – I like to put the other ‘tough’ guys there. Unfortunately the layout means that the Saturday crossword (in columns) needs to be quite well-balanced in terms of clue lengths, whereas in the daily puzzle the acrosses and downs run on. This crossword would only fit on the daily template, but at least many people will have a couple of days off to recover now.

]]> By: Allan_C http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68376 Allan_C Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:54:33 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68376 Almost totally defeated by this one. Got 30/3 as it’s not confined to football circles, but 10 etc totally passed me by. Puzzled for a while on 24d as it was obviously ‘yarra’ but thinking of ‘arr’ (abbreviation used in music) for ‘arrangement’ and trying to think how ‘ay’ could equate to ‘go’. Just shows how one can miss the obvious!

]]> By: Simon Harris http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68328 Simon Harris Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:54:16 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68328 This was a really interesting one. For my part, I spent all morning languishing on 3 clues solved (this did have to compete with work for my attention, though), and eventually had to draft in Ciaran from the Guardian solving team to make any further progress.

But that said, everything seemed fair and it was all enjoyable…so no complaints, but perhaps this was more suited to a Saturday?

]]> By: Tyrus http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/13/independent-6967-by-tyrus/#comment-68315 Tyrus Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:29:51 +0000 http://fifteensquared.net/?p=5604#comment-68315 Many thanks for the blog and to all who took the trouble to comment.

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