Comments on: Independent 7573 by Nitsy

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:52:29 +0000

Thanks NealH.
A very good puzzle which I didn’t find easy.Didn’t help myself by reading ‘rioting’ as ‘noting’ in 25 across(must get stronger glasses).
I thought the long anagrams at 10,24 and 8 were excellent,but I wasn’t that keen on the 2 CDs at 3 and 5,not my favourite type of clue so I’m probably biased.
‘Ea’and ‘Eau’ are regulary used by setters of barred puzzles but I think this is the first time I have come
across them in a normal daily puzzle.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:23:02 +0000

Really, even.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:22:14 +0000

I thought there were some realy nice clues here — particularly for SEDITION (25ac) and for MATCHLESS (21ac). But I thought the clue involving ea/eau was strained by using this word, which doesn’t usually appear in an (easy) daily cryptic.

When Jo Brand was on Countdown she called some word that I forget a “rubbish word”. This is how I feel about “self-complacent”, which seems to me to be rather tautological, like talking about safe havens. But it’s in the dictionary, so …

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:51:21 +0000

Glad others found this easy I got there in the end but was a struggle for me. Thanks Neal for confirming some of my solving thoughts. Didn’t help myself mispelling 24a though.

By: sidey

sidey — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:56:33 +0000

This is a rather fine effort. PERPETUAL MOTION is fine if you think about it. And a foopball (teh beautiful GAME) supporter moaning about a game that requires individual skill, well really…

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:53:32 +0000

Yes, this was good, not too difficult, favourite clues SHEATH and WHOOPEE CUSHION. Not 100% sure about it but I read SOFA differently ie that it united the three words STATES OF AMERICA by being hidden within them ie stateS OF America.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:28:43 +0000

Thanks, Neal. Not sure what to make of this. I struggled with quite a bit of it, and normally I’d be saying that’s down to me. But I didn’t warm to ROULEAU either and the definition in PERPETUAL MOTION doesn’t really work for me. There were some good clues elsewhere, though, which I enjoyed.

But SEVE for golfer? I’ve said before, golf isn’t even a sport, so why do setters insist on having golfing references? I’m with Mark Twain. FREDDIE for cricketer is fine, obviously, as is blind prejudice.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:39:35 +0000

For 19ac you need to look in Chambers under ‘ea’ which gives “a drainage channel in the Fens, sometimes eau, as if taken from French”.

By: scchua

scchua — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:32:09 +0000

Thanks NealH for the blog, and Nitsy for a puzzle which, on the whole, was enjoyable.

Favourites were 24A PALAEONTOLOGIST, a nice &lit, 10A PERPETUAL MOTION, and 8D SELF COMPLACENT, all anagrams one can really get one’s teeth into.

Some niggly doubts: 19A ROULEAU, like you, not sure of “drainage channel”=”eau”; 10A “..make it work” indicates, say, a “perpetual motion machine” or similar device itself, not just the principle on which the machine is based; and 17A SLAP-UP which I think of as “first class”, “super”, and not necessarily “expensive”.