Comments on: Independent 6971/Dac

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:14:06 +0000

A very nice puzzle. Some gentle head-scratching though nothing that didn’t become clear very quickly. But see my post in General Crossword Discussion prompted by 14d.

By: Al Streatfield

Al Streatfield — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:35:19 +0000

I think “has” in the MILLINER clue is a clever idea.

“Has” can mean “is characterised by”…

By: NealH

NealH — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:44:40 +0000

I wasn’t sure about the “making” in 11 across but decided that the way to read the clue was that “lots shortly after the start of decision” is making doodle. I don’t think it was just that the d was the first letter of decision-making.

I enjoyed this one. Dac’s rapidly becoming one of my favourite compilers. I find the puzzles about the right level for me – I can generally finish them without having to take a day off work !

By: petero

petero — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:48:43 +0000

On the subject of making difficulties for oneself, I started with ‘TEES’ for 25D. I think 19A would read better simply as “Hatmaker’s factory largely idle”. Not a complete sentence, of course, but if that were a requirement a goodly proportion of clues would go up in smoke.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:03:57 +0000

I messed up 13dn (which affected my efforts to get 29ac) by putting in CARRIED OFF.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:57:02 +0000

Excellent from Dac as always. I thought the links in both 12 and 19 across were OK and worked logically in the cryptic reading – while ‘needs’ would ideally be better in 19 down the surface forced the past tense but I think it still works. 25 down WEAR was tricky enough.