Comments on: Independent 7446/Phi

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:26:21 +0000

Thanks for the blog, John. I found this a mixture of quite easy clues, and very tricky ones which held me up esp in the SW corner. Favourites DINGO and AWN. Enjoyable puzzle as ever from Phi.

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:15:20 +0000

Must admit to having 1 downed this one up. With two checking letters, wrote in REBEL (RE + BEL[t]) for 1ac without reading the clue properly. Never having heard of a COCKATRICE, and “Man” being pretty non-deterministic, I was never going to spot the mistake. LANDMASS just beat me fair and square. Thought DINGO was very clever though.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:45:26 +0000

Stella: Chambers gives both esteemed institutions under OU so we are all on safe ground.

By: Stella

Stella — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:26:05 +0000

Hi John,

Thanks for parsing a number of answers I didn’t quite understand. I only came across the Cabal recently, in a crossword dedicated to them, and had completely forgotten about it. Also, 26d had to be ‘awn’, but I couldn’t for the life of me see why – it seems obvious now, d’oh!

The anagram indicator for 15a is ‘out’ in the phrase ‘carried out with’. Quite a clever clue, once you see it.

I did, however see the three clues in 28a. and would have pointed them out had K’s D not got there first.

I haven’t worked for any university, Colin, but have often used OUP’s excellent ELT coursebooks, so for me OU is for Oxford

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:15:36 +0000

Cheers John, I assumed Oxford university but the point is moot, last in landmass as I kept looking for ?and?aus, still an enjoyable crossword. Re 12d come up does appear/come up quite often… even if I did immediately think about emoc being in there. 15 I saw the anagram indicator to be carried out as in an operation performed on them.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:17:29 +0000

28ac I don’t think you have K’s D. I saw the anagram first and then the extra wordplay when I was trying to fathom what all those extra words were doing. I don’t have the clue to hand but it almost seemed an &lit with two wordplay sections. I think the entire clue could be read as an extended definition of a DINGO.

18ac I would also read OU as Open University (I would as I both work for and study with them) but that older place in Oxford also uses the abbreviation OU (I used to work for them but never studied with them).

I liked CHUB and LOCKE appearing as they did.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:53:39 +0000

Thank you John. I must have been in Phi’s timezone today, because I got most of this pretty easily then struggled on the last few. Lots of super clues as usual, but I especially liked PADDLE STEAMER.

I fancy there’s a bit more going on in 28ac, because as well as a charade of DIN and GO, ‘in dog’ when roaming also gives you the same answer, so Phi’s giving us two chances to arrive at the same solution. Or maybe I’ve made that up.

‘Def’ for excellent hasn’t reached rural Derbyshire yet, but I’ll keep my ears open.

By: anax

anax — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:36:57 +0000

Forgot to mention re 17d.

It offends some; The Times is very strict about “from” – there, you can only get the ANSWER ‘from’ WORDPLAY, and the reason for that is house style consistency. But if you generalise the question and ask if it’s true to say that both ANSWER can come from WORDPLAY and WORDPLAY can be found from ANSWER, then the answer would fundamentally be “Yes”. Granted, if we look hard into semantics and syntax we’ll reach the conclusion that ANSWER from WORDPLAY is the more accurate of the two, but over-emphasising that should be restricted to outside the field of crosswords.

By: anax

anax — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:02:04 +0000

Hi John

4a is a bit tricky to spot but, rather than abbreviations, we have C(anterbur)Y C(ounci)L – i.e. “limits”.
18a – both universities are OU (Open University).

This was quite a struggle but a very rewarding one. Highlight for me was the “someone’ll” anagram for 4d, a great discovery by Phi.