Comments on: Independent 7475/Morph

By: Morph

Morph — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:47:27 +0000

Thanks for the blog and numerous comments – looks like I left some food for thought (or possibly bones of contention) to chew on.
5ac, I intended ‘is out’ to be the opposite of ‘is in’, in cricket (as per scchua @20), but I accept this was more informed by those humorous ‘rules of cricket’ tea towels than an in-depth knowledge of the game. So apologies to those such as Jetdoc who do have such knowledge!
12ac is (as per Gaufrid @6) using a homonym in the clue, ‘over’ for ‘ova’ rather than in the answer – so not ‘ex’ for ‘eggs’.
16ac, the reference was to the song lyric ‘I found my thrill/On Blueberry Hill’ (as per Schhua @4), rather than to Damon.
18dn was a cryptic definition, as explained by John in the blog – no hydrants or hosepipes. I don’t use CDs much, and if I do usually add wordplay, which perhaps I should have done here for clarity – and since many of you were looking for some anyway!
20dn, I meant the two defs to be ‘make more than’ and ‘evident’, in the sense of ‘he clears 50 grand’, but I may have been misusing the word, so perhaps I can hide behind Derrick’s parsing @2 instead!
Anyway, once you’ve picked out the pips, I hope it wasn’t a razzie!

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:40:03 +0000

Found this tricky but got there. Whilst having a few birthday drinks, I met a couple trying to finish the Guardian. Having helped them do so they picked up my completed Indy, she exclaimed Morph! that’s my nephew, I can’t do his crosswords… anyway thanks john/morph.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:37:08 +0000

Thanks for the blog, John. This was very good, esp all the thematic references around BERRY. As it happened, I knew all the songs referred to very well and that would have helped me. Quite hard, but this is a Thursday, isn’t it? Favourites GOOGLY, GINGERLY, SCATTERBRAINS, RASP.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:14:59 +0000

Hi jetdoc @17
See my comment #6. In 12a, it is a homophone of ‘over’, ie ova or EGGS.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:12:31 +0000

jetdoc@17, re 5A I think your quibble might be resolved by not looking at “out” as having batted all out, but rather as the opposite of “in”. Thus if you’re not in (batting) then you must be fielding, regardless of whether your side is batting first or not.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:54:45 +0000

Re my@16 (I presume it’s 16, since it takes a long time before the post appears).
Before I’m taken to task again (justifiably so, I might add, and I take my lumps as well as the next person), I used the word “&lit” loosely, since I don’t know of another word for when a surface reading reference includes part of the wordplay.

By: John

John — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:44:32 +0000

As usual everyone’s been very helpful, but perhaps I didn’t make myself clear enough: I cannot explain 18dn. Or perhaps it’s just a cryptic definition and all that stuff about h and hydrant was irrelevant. Morph was at the Azed lunch and Azed doesn’t approve of them. I agree. But they are I have to admit widespread. Should have found a better link to Wind in The Willows — I missed the messing around bit.

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:41:02 +0000

Lovely puzzle.

My only quibbles:

5a: ‘Is out’ is a bit loose for FIELDS. A cricket side that batted first would field once it was all out; but it might field first.

12a: “EX” = over, heard by some. I don’t think EX and EGGS are homophones.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:23:11 +0000

Stella@13 and Eileen@14, I get it, had missed the fact that it was an &lit as well.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:34:36 +0000

Sorry, Stella – I spent so long choosing my words that I missed yours!