Comments on: Independent 7,562/Tees

By: Tees

Tees — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:08:13 +0000

Thanks to Ali for a great blog, and to everyone else for the nice comments.

Just to confirm, the SLING was indeed clued as ‘(a) swung weapon’. And thanks to Anax for spotting the pangram.

Thanks too for the Buster Crabb link – I just love that image of him ‘avin’ a fag before his next dive, just to give those British Naval lungs a bit of a pre-warm. Who needs air anyway? He’s alleged to have died in an underwater fight with a Russian frogman after being caught attaching mines to the underside of the Ordzhonikidze, a cruiser that had brought Khrushchev and one Nikolai Bulganin over for a round of ‘diplomatic’ talks. Unlucky, old man.

Last but not least, a word of sympathy for our 225 friends down under, who appear to be having a spot of weather. Hope you all get through it okay.

Cheers
PB

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:09:40 +0000

Hmm was going to post when there were no comments about my Crabb thoughts but was otherwise engaged. Fantastic puzzle Tees, tricky to get going with all the 21 references but some outstanding anagrams, pangram and a kick at the government in one go. Did wonder about the Tarzan actor Buster Crabbe for a while.

By: NealH

NealH — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:16:19 +0000

I also fell into the save camp and I don’t have the online version available to check. With the political cuts theme, save seemed a more appropriate answer. I had a bit of a struggle to get “whipper in” – never having heard the expression, the hounds theme lead me to thinking of things like whippet on. I think Crabb is possibly a bit obscure now, although I daresay he was well-known at the time. The “swung” made it even harder, because I thought that was a reversal indicator. I liked the “Anglian Water” in 3 down.

By: walruss

walruss — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:52:25 +0000

I cannot find it either. But then I had the right answer anyway!! An excellent puzzle by Tees, really good stuff as other have said. Lots of good clues, but 1 22 21 seemed to jump out as great.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:16:05 +0000

Sorry, Ali [and scchua]. Believe it or not, I just couldn’t see AVE = ‘way’ – too hung up on ST and RD and I could only see AVE = ‘Hail’!

SAVE does make sense, too, then, so long as Secretary can be S – but I can’t find it.

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:03:57 +0000

5D SAVE Like Ali, I too saw it as S(ecretary) “on” AVE(nue) (=”way”), with the definition being “to make 21 (ie. cuts)”. (Never bother to check the online version for answers – instead I depend on the blogs.)

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:01:36 +0000

Thanks, Eileen, I see that now.

By: eimi

eimi — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:59:47 +0000

@7, to quote myself from a recent blog:

Chambers is a good guide here, listing Mick as offensive, Paddy as often derogatory and Pat as simply a nickname. Collins has similar definitions. As a Michael of Irish descent I would object very much to being called a Mick … I certainly wouldn’t let it appear in the Indy.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:56:05 +0000

Hi K’s D

Re PARE: see my comment 5: the definition is ‘way to make cuts’.

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:52:23 +0000

Thanks Ali for the blog, and Tees for a puzzle that was enjoyable on the whole, with the reservation that a lot depended on getting that single light.

Must confess, I knew where the anagram fodder was, and got as far as DEATH BY A before regrettably succumbing to the lazy way out to get 1D,22D,21A via referencing instead of sorting the remaining letters. After that it was easy to get all the related clues. Favourites were the nice &lit 11A,9A AUSTERITY MEASURES, the wordplay in 28A WHIPPER IN, and the seldom seen YANG =“positive force” in 7D KENYAN.