Comments on: Independent 7279 (Sat 13 Feb) by Anax

By: allan_c

allan_c — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:41:28 +0000

Almost got there, with help from the olympic-themed ‘get the picture’ in the Indy magazine, the sport pages and Radio Times. Only failed on 1ac; worked out ‘savvy’ but never heard of ‘cum-savvy’ and guessed ‘com-savvy’ (thought it might refer to commercial know-how). Challenging but satisfying. Off to make a start on today’s offering now.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:07:51 +0000

‘Twas tough, worth every bead of perspiration, and another Anax-ellent piece from this bright young fellow. The difficulty? Appropriate shurely for a Saturday puzzle.

Finished in 102 minutes, two Paracetamol (500mg), seven coffees and a fried-egg sandwich. Favourite clue: 2dn. Wait for some of these, owned by someone crucial, to snap with that brittle, sickening sound about three weeks afore yon World Cup.

Favourite result of the day (apart from Everton’s): Norwich 0 So’ton 2.

By: NeilW

NeilW — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:18:07 +0000

Must admit I struggled on most of the same ones as everyone else!

Anax, if you are back in the open again, please explain how CARDIOVASCULAR is defined by “increasing heart rate”? (“Affecting”, maybe at a pinch but “cardiovascular” just means “of the circulatory system.” Thanks

By: duncan shiell

duncan shiell — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:08:14 +0000

Another fun and challenging puzzle from Anax. It took me a while but I got there in the end. The theme clues fell fairly easily aster WINTER OLYMPICS appeared.

The difficult area for me was the NW corner with the crossing CUM SAVVY, CHADWICK and ALTOS, but the word play was fair in all cases.

Where would crosswords be without footballers’ METATARSI these days?

By: sidey

sidey — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:28:37 +0000

Good grief! I got 2 (two) of this lot. Much kudos to anyone who managed it.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:28:53 +0000

And to finally get Anax out from his hiding place, it is called TIG round here, but I think there will be regional variations, beermagnet. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe … where does that all come from?

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:15:29 +0000

Thanks for the CUM explanation, nms – Magna cum Laude and all that. Should have twigged, having studied Latin at school for five years.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:59:56 +0000

I thought this was an excellent puzzle, actually a little easier than some in the Indy by Anax. It helped that I found WINTER OLYMPICS quite early on. I did manage to understand all the wordplays (eventually!).

By: Richard Heald

Richard Heald — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:53:39 +0000

I thought this was an excellent puzzle, admittedly rather tough but then it was a Saturday after all. Much of the wordplay (esp. CARDIOVASCULAR and METATARSI) and many of the defns (particularly ASCENDER) were terrifically inventive. CUM-SAVVY I solved immediately only because it appeared in a recent Azed, coincidentally enough at 1 Ac! The one that held me up for a while was 6 Dn, whose answer I initially had as GWANGJU (with GW = gigawatts), which appears to be the preferred spelling on Wikipedia and indeed the only spelling given by Chambers Word Wizard.

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:49:01 +0000

Come, come Anax. It’s not you but me who is in the stocks.

Excuses:
CUM-SAVVY!? Never heard of it! Looks like a useful word for know-how solidly sitting in Chambers.
Googling I find it was recently used in an Azed (which I don’t attempt) Azed 1966. If I’d read that blog I might’ve got it. Main excuse is that I was totally convinced 55=LV and never looked beyond that. There’s no such word as Cam-valve is there.
ALT (SO)< Really should’ve seen this
RUT Glad that it was at least the right answer. Again, I should’ve seen this wordplay which is very good.
CARDIOVASCULAR Another I should’ve presevered decrypting
TIG ER TIG=Game ? Oh. It’s what I call Tag http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(game)
ASCENDER I’m not unhappy this wordplay defeated me. It is extremely sneaky.
T(HEB.)ELL How did I make the elementary error of removing TELL from THEBELL to leave HEBE. If I looked at HEB=Book I’d've understood. (I must take more water with it.)
MARQUIS I did realise “QUIS”/Key=legend later but didn’t get around to tweaking the blog. I hear numerous pronunciations of Marquis down the Marquis of Granby (pub).

I’m not going to update the body of the blog but leave it all as a monument to failure.