Comments on: Inquisitor 126 – Fatal Attraction by Ikela

By: Anne Bushell

Anne Bushell — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:13:16 +0000

It’s definitely Kirkby-in-Furness! I live there.

By: Terry Kirk

Terry Kirk — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:19:14 +0000

Hi Duncan,
Thanks for taking the time to reply. It does seem very odd. Googling brings back results for both Kirkby and Kirby, often both spellings within the same website. Wikipedia has Kirkby-in-Furness. I went to my local Waterstones, but they didn’t have the particular OS map I needed. I did however look at 3 road atlases (Michelin, AA and Collins) and all had Kirkby-in-Furness rather than Kirby-in-Furness. Curiouser and curiouser.
Best Regards
Terry

By: Duncan Shiell

Duncan Shiell — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:18:44 +0000

Terry

I suspect you are thinking of Kirkby Lonsdale which is on the borders of the Lake Distruct and the Yorkshire Dales.

I had a good trawl through Memory Map and my Ordnance Survey maps before I completed the blog. Kirby-in-Furness definitely exists and is a town\village near Ulverston in the Lake District.

By: Terry Kirk

Terry Kirk — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:45:12 +0000

It seems to me there is an error in one of the thematic place name entries. Shouldn’t it be KIRKBY-in-Furness?
If it is so, that makes the third error this year for Inquisitor puzzles (after MOOL/MOOI in 107 and REINDEER/S in 112). Are the puzzles proof-read in advance? Sorry to sound like an old grouch, but avoidable errors of this kind spoil the enjoyment for me.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:57:39 +0000

I forgot to say that I thought the title was really good, as Duncan has explained.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:52:13 +0000

16 across: “Postponed start of address, being hard to please (5, two words)” – O+NICE. Chambers gives “hard to please” as one definition of “nice”.

“Ikela” goes back to 1992, when the series was called “Crossword” in the “Independent Saturday Magazine” and referred to as the ISM.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:21:44 +0000

It is Mike Laws.

Very enjoyable puzzle, on the easy side, and one which solvers of the normal cryptic would have found quite accessible – the gap between the puzzle types is not as great as some think. The only essential extra requirement is the Chambers Dictionary. The theme came quickly with the ‘in Furness’ part taking a little longer to tease out.

Incredible blog as always from Duncan.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:44:50 +0000

Ikela also set three puzzles for the Weekend series that preceded the Inquisitor. Crossword Database search I'd guess it is Mike Laws.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:33:25 +0000

Ikela set Inquisitor 45 (The Archers) from November 2007 …
I’ll dig out the clue for ON ICE at the weekend.

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:46:38 +0000

I’ve been just about brave enough to tackle Inquisitor recently, and enjoyed this one a lot. It’s also made me appreciate what a significant amount of work must go into these posts, so many thanks for that.

I did wonder if Ikela was [m]IKE LA[ws] himself, but that could just be coincidence.