Comments on: Inquisitor 1144, Pairs at play by Raich

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:43:25 +0000

Re. ‘Sportophobe’
O.k if you mean ‘fear of sport’ but if you mean dislike/hatred of sport/games, I think ‘misopaignist’would be more fitting.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:30:45 +0000

I initially took 18a to be one of the clues with two consecutive extra letters to be ignored: Sandy area over by Gabon giving ERG, the wordplay being (OV)ER + G(abon). Until I realised my mistake, not only did this mess up parts of the top left grid, but also it gave me OV somewhere in the thematic surnames.

By: Raich

Raich — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:38:28 +0000

Many thanks, Hihoba, for the excellent blog and to all for their comments. Philip (Phil) Neville was the one instance among the eight where there were two versions of the first name in common use. In those circs, being cautious, I opted, after some thought, for the longer version. With the benefit of hindsight, I should perhaps have aimed for an easier clue in view of possible ambiguity tho my intention was that those four non-definition clues would be on the difficult side so the theme would not emerge too quickly.

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:26:09 +0000

Thanks for the comments. I have to say that Ba suffers from the same sportophobia – which certainly should be a word, even if it’s not in Chambers. I and Ho are sportophiles, however. It is very encouraging to find that I have solved a clue (32A) that the experts found tricky!

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:15:38 +0000

32 across foxed me at first, but the grid-entry was obviously correct, and I was able to check with Raich’s solution notes. Conclusion – dammit, I should have realised. Thanks for confirming that, Hihoba.

Liz – sorry about the temporary interruption of the moratorium on soccer themes after the World Cup. At least it wasn’t exclusively soccer. I doubt you are positively phobic about such subject matter, but like me, find its relentless encroachment on an otherwise intellectual pastime rather cloying.

By: Liz Geear

Liz Geear — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:55:35 +0000

As a sportophobe (yes I know thats not a real word) I hate crosswords that rely on knowledge of boring ball games. However, a phone call to my adult children gave me the flip side of the ‘pair’. This is why I’m useless at general knowledge crosswords. I prefer to use my tricksy mind, which may explain why I’m so unsuccessful.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:53:30 +0000

Ken – That’s you and me both as far as 32a is concerned …

By: kenmac

kenmac — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:51:06 +0000

Hi Hi,

Thanks for clearing up 32a. I had the right answer but couldn’t justify PHIL at all. I never even considered PHILIP – d’uh!

An enjoyable puzzle which I did with my 21-year-old daughter. Although she probably feels she didn’t contribute much, it served as a great (geeky) learning experience.