Comments on: Independent 7,505/Phi

By: flashling

flashling — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:43:08 +0000

Ali I can see your point re idol/icon, how well phi picks up political uk stuff though is debatable as he doesn’t live here. But I would have prefered your cynical answer if the word play had been marginally different.

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:51:33 +0000

Thanks all for the corrections. I clearly got my egos and elitisms confused for 6D and did wonder whether there was some sly dig at Clegg and co. going on in 12A. IDOL is of course the much more sensible (and correct) answer!

By: pennes

pennes — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:02:02 +0000

I enjoyed this , nothing too convoluted. I liked cassette player and fun run and eyewear too

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:30:50 +0000

Super crossword as always with Phi. Most of it was straightforward, with a pretty generous grid helping the solve; but the last few held me up before it finally fell. Last one in was SENIOR WRANGLER when the crossing and remaining letters couldn’t be anything else. Can’t say I’ve heard of it before, but a flirt with Wiki confirmed it. I wasn’t mad keen on the clueing for ETIOLOGIES – it’s fair, but a bit convoluted. Small niggle though.

I too put ICON at first for 12ac, smiled at the conflation of Lib and Con in the light of the current coalition, then inserted the correct answer.

Phi’s version of 1/4 would be AURORA AUSTRALIS, The Southern Lights, I think.

Thanks for blogging, Ali. I’d be putting my money on fireworks from Eimi tomorrow as well.

By: walruss

walruss — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:41:37 +0000

Very nice indeed. A couple of obscure entries for me, but the clueing, if a little predictable, is fair enough. Well done Phi.

By: Handel

Handel — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:10:14 +0000

Another lovely puzzle from Phi. Only etiologies proved problematic, but got there in the end. The very clean grid coupled with perfectly fair cluing made this an absolute joy to solve.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:08:23 +0000

Unlike Jake at #2, I found this quite tough for a Phi puzzle. I thought it was excellent and worked everything out in the end. Esp liked EYEWEAR, TETRAD and FUN RUN and clues for the long answers were v good too. In OVERSLEEPS I think there a bit of a wordplay element ie OVER (as a consequence of) SLEEPS but maybe that is just semantics. Thanks for the blog, Ali, and Phi for the puzzle.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:04:40 +0000

I’ve got IDOL for 12 as well and the same reasoning as Ben SS on 6dn.

Didn’t quite get to be a Senior Wrangler in my studies alas.

I notice 1/4 is the Southern hemisphere’s version but I believe Phi lives in NZ and can see them.

Thanks Phi and Ali.

By: scchua

scchua — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:17:12 +0000

Thanks Ali for the blog and Phi for another enjoyable puzzle.

Absolutely no quibbles with the clueing, and a nice touch by Phi to make those 2 word answers follow-on naturally as eg. round the perimeter.

Ali, I think 6A ETIOLOGIES is (ELITIS(m) + EGO + O)*, the last “O” from “nothing more”.

Favourites were the abovementioned 2 word answers especially the &lit 29,30 CASSETTE PLAYER. I also liked 21A EYEWEAR and 9D FUN RUN.

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:14:53 +0000

thanks for the blog Ali. I found this particularly easy. Did anyone else? Still top quality though, I very much needed a more relaxed puzzle to wake my brain this morning.

Nice one Phi.