Comments on: Independent 7365/Mordred

By: John

John — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:41:46 +0000

Thanks everyone for the help where it was possible (not always I fear, but quite often).

One pedant’s corner point NealH: Peter Roebuck was a very English cricketer (and a very good one, close to test class) who played for Somerset at the same time as did Ian Botham. He now lives and writes in Australia. I always had a soft spot for him because he found it hard to conceal his dislike of the great Sir Ian.

By: Derrick Knight

Derrick Knight — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:15:06 +0000

Just one response from Mordred – re Lola. I have to say that the Barry Manilow reference was giving me too much credit – I didn’t know it; but Paul A has hit the nail on the head with his understanding of my intention. A bit like a painting, perhaps – the artist may have something in mind, yet observers see other things.

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:08:10 +0000

Hmm tough, guessed leap year but frankly it’s not a great clue is it and had several answers I found hard to justify or frankly anything beyond a “well it could be” thought.

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:53:56 +0000

I enjoyed this very much indeed. Although I accept that some of the clues were at the extreme Libertarian end of the spectrum and that a few were pretty difficult (I failed on “alouette”, but managed the rest without recourse to the web or reference books), the puzzle presented a fair challenge and it’s good to have something out of the ordinary like this now and again to refresh the palate. Thanks very much, Mordred, and keep up the good work!

By: anax

anax — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:06:06 +0000

Very tough indeed, but got there eventually despite scant literary knowledge. I didn’t think the clueing spectacular but was very impressed to see this comprehensive literary theme carried through every clue.

21a Perhaps just the use of ROY as a male name; could be man or boy, of course.
26a The girl in Lolita was called Dolores – also referred to as Dolly, Lolita, Lola, Lo and L.
31a I’m with Gaufrid. Wiki describes Ember Days as the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday set aside for fasting.

I haven’t tackled many Morded puzzles but I’ll certainly be back for more.

By: BC

BC — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:02:26 +0000

While I agree this was an unsatisfactory puzzle I can’t see the problem with Lola – Lolita minus “it” where it=sex appeal.

By: Paul A

Paul A — Tue, 25 May 2010 12:24:18 +0000

26ac – Could Lola be a grown-up Lolita? Hence less appealing, maybe

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:56:36 +0000

I agree that this was a very hard puzzle, but I guess the Indy does have a policy of varying the standard. The setter took on a formidable constraint with all the italicised titles, this I think may have forced some slightly unfamiliar words into the grid and some answers with less than 50 per cent checking. I got there in the end tho apart from ALOUETTE which I should have thought of really, did not understand some fully before coming here.

Clues I esp liked were DISPRAISE (well concealed anagram), NOT UNUSUAL (I was thinking of Fielding till the very end when light dawned), REDRAW, and SCAM.

Great blog, John.

By: walruss

walruss — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:10:44 +0000

This one did seem a bit hard for the sake of itself, with some really obscure parts to the solutions. I thought at first it would be an antidote to the Guardian’s tame offering, but soon realised it had gone too far in the opposite direction. Cheat button used liberally. Now for lunch and the FT, and we’ll see how that goes!

By: NealH

NealH — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:57:21 +0000

The Kinks’ song was my interpretation of Lola. As I recall, it concerns a transvestite, so I suppose that might account for “her” losing her appeal, but it’s a bit unconvincing.

I largely gave up on this and starting using word searches to finish it when I got Roebuck and found it pertained to some book by an Australian cricketer. There was too much that was hopelessly obscure for me – I’ve not religious, so don’t know anything about “Ember” days. I found 9 underwhelming as a clue when I realized it was just the name of an essay by Virginia Woolf. I’m not bad on films, but even I thought requiring you to know that De Niro appeared as a priest in Sleepers was a bit much. I’d never have got Alouette because I don’t go around singing French songs about skylarks.

I could go on, but that’ll do.