Comments on: Independent 7441 by Scorpion (Saturday 21 August)

By: framptoncottrell

framptoncottrell — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:30:28 +0000

Found this one very tough! ‘Y’ in the NATO (ICAO) phonetic alphabet is Yankee (11 across)

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:33:33 +0000

abs = abdominal muscles which in a rippling body are often referred to as a six pack

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:46:47 +0000

very enjoyable puzzle . One query
Why is ABS = six pack?

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:27:19 +0000

Petero and scchua – 21a clue was ‘Atmosphere in Northern Irish city reportedly stern (8)’. As jmac says, rather cheeky!

By: scchua

scchua — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:09:52 +0000

Like Petero@7 I too have only the online version. And it’s a bit frustrating not to be able to “complete” the puzzle because of 21A: No clue. As a matter of interest could someone please repeat 21A’s clue in the dead tree version. Thanks.

Very challenging but got there in the end (except for 21A). Went astray for a while with 14D, trying to fit “clavinet” (another musical instrument), thinking that “lav” was the one synonym for “toilet”. Thanks Scorpion.

By: Petero

Petero — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:54:58 +0000

I found this tough indeed, needing more internet assistance than I like to use. On that tack, it did not help that 21A reads ‘No clue’ – not even an enumeration; it happened that ‘derriere’ was all that would fit. Evidently there was a clue in the dead tree version.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:01:51 +0000

Pretty tough puzzle, enjoyable, definition in SPRAY PAINT was very well concealed. Favourite clue, POSH.

By: petebiddlecombe

petebiddlecombe — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:22:02 +0000

instrument/player: if you’ve played in bands or orchestras this non-dictionary usage comes naturally, though probably best kept to standard instruments – musician = “contrabass clarinet” or “sousaphone” would be taking it a bit far.

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:37:07 +0000

Took me quite a while to finish this, 7/19 being where I came unstuck, I thought street artist confirmation was ST RA Y which fiited the clue and crossing letters. Got there eventually.

Clarinet had me thinking for a while, the clue says musician rather than instrument, but I suppose the first violin is the player not the violin so the same principle applies to this.

Regarding W(eak) I actually made a mistake initially in the blog for thursday by remembering this rather than the clue I was looking at!

By: jmac

jmac — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:18:38 +0000

Thought TWICER was brilliant – shows there’s a word for everything. Also liked DERRIERE, a cheeky use of the French. Thanks for the very clear blog, Pete, particularly for explaining CLARINET, which clue’s finer points had gone over my head. I was a bit slow to get TRICK OF THE TRADE which slowed me down on the right-hand side. Another very enjoyable crossword from Scorpion. I missed his last couple of ninas and if there is one here then that makes it a hat trick.