Comments on: Independent 7032 by Nimrod

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:13:02 +0000

Because of my lack of familiarity with the feeding habits of polar bears, I decided not to venture any further after I’d noticed the possible end deletion of THE IC(e)…

By: Mick h

Mick h — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:12:01 +0000

I think the ‘e’ calved away from the ic shelf!
9ac was particularly devious as ‘lunch’ and ‘punch’ could each have been either definition or part of anagram fodder. I got SANDWICH so assumed it must be a kind of lunch, but that left me with KNUCKPE.

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:04:22 +0000

Something along the lines of the ic(e) has been reduced, so polar bears can’t get as much food and are therefore thinner. Bit of a Nimrod special, that one, I think.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:57:11 +0000

That reminds me. I still don’t properly understand 17a.

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:49:24 +0000

Well I’m glad I wasn’t down to blog this one! Took me a good 5 minutes to crack a single clue and then made very slow progress, sticking in quite a few answers without being 100% sure on the wordplay. I always struggle with Nimrod’s cryptic definition clues.

Very glad to have discovered the word THEIC though, which I’ve never come across before.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:44:18 +0000

9a I read THE ROWING as being indicated by just “Boat Race” and hence wondered how “day” was supposed to indicate e and g.

12a I didn’t think that “divers” (meaning several) was justified as an anagram indicator. I’d be happy with “diverse” (meaning different, varied, multiform) but clearly that would destroy the surface. However, I now notice that an archaic meaning of “divers” means the same as “diverse” so I guess it’s perhaps OK. But to me, using something so archaic just succeeded in making it arcane.

8d I couldn’t fathom at all, not being able to make the chicken connection. This seems to me to be an extreme version of an indirect anagram. Indicating the anagram fodder indirectly by “Runaway” would be one thing but indicating via an oblique reference to another clue is a bit much. In fact it’s an indirect indirect anagram.

14d does “stoned” fairly indicate “inside a stone”?

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:25:20 +0000

I started well on this, but got a hung up on the idea that 7 down and 8 down were anagrams of each other as kitchen and chicken seemed to be so close.

I thought 6 down was a bit weak. The interpretation involving invalid as sick seemed too obvious, so I decided it must be the name of some test or tribunal that involved assessing the authenticity of something.