Comments on: Independent 7551/Dac

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:22:16 +0000

Another struggler here to get going, 1ac/1dn being words not in my regular vocabulary didn’t help and worked from the bottom up, but got there – give or take the guess I put in for 1ac (which turned out to be correct when I got back here – perhaps doing dead tree without references I am hampering myself). Thought 19d was hom of Cheat + A H but that’s just being picky. Agree with sidey@2 re Marxist, it’s wot I wrote (see yesterday!) Anyway thanks John for the blog at least you’re done for this year and I appreciate the work needed to do this, and to DAC – keep it up for next year.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:31:16 +0000

Thanks for the blog, John, and Dac for another excellent puzzle, not too difficult. Favourite clues, OPINION, WHOOPS, PRECIOUS STONES, INIGO. HAMMAM was my last answer, finally vaguely recalling it, but it was the wordplay that confirmed it really.

By: Tokyo Colin

Tokyo Colin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:54:42 +0000

Thanks John.

Coming here helped me fully understand this. Although not specifically explained, just being in this forum reminded me that “ay” can mean always. And thanks scchua@1 for explaining 20A. I couldn’t understand what the West Indies had to do with Calendar Girls…

But let’s not talk about cricket, OK?

By: scchua

scchua — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:58:25 +0000

Thanks, sidey. As you can see, my Latin is a little(?) weak. With apologies to Dac and John.

By: sidey

sidey — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:41:18 +0000

scchua, v is vide = see.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:41:10 +0000

Thank you, John.

A Dac puzzle and retention of the Ashes in the same 24 hours. Life is good. But don’t mention football.

Like you, I was slow to get going, but everything came together in the end apart from HAMMAM, which I didn’t know and couldn’t see. I was pleased to get MALAGASY from the wordplay but had to have a butcher’s online to find HERODOTUS. Quality crossword as always from Dac, although I share your reservations about MARXIST. Dac’s consistently precise with his clueing, so maybe we’re missing something.

By: sidey

sidey — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:39:59 +0000

Six; six Cubs or Brownies, six musicians, six horses, the six original members of the common market, the six Parisian composers etc.

Take your pick, seems fair enough to me. Ta for the blog.

By: scchua

scchua — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:37:08 +0000

Thanks John for the blog. Agreed that Dac has given us another enjoyable puzzle (thanks, Dac), and yes, a small niggle.

Re 6D MARXIST I think the “group” does refer to SIX.
23D VITRINE: Can’t see where the V comes from, unless it’s for “case” (as in so-and-so v. so-and-so in court), in which case, “case” is doubling up as part of the definition also? Or is V for “view”?, which I couldn’t find in the references. Or is there a bug in the online version?

Favourite was 20A GONE WITH THE WIND, a nice anagram fodder, with WI being indirectly given instead of the usual “Women’s Institute”.