Comments on: Independent 7572 by Nestor (Saturday Prize Puzzle 22 January 2011)

By: Polly

Polly — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:46:08 +0000

Welcome to the fold, twencelas, and thank you for the blog. My parsing of 26 across differs a little from #2: ‘name – Eco’s first’ = N UMBERTO, containing W(ife), to fit the definition ‘helper’.

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:49:34 +0000

My take on 4d was a blood vessel (route) from the heart – with heart often a source of inspiration. Still otherwise a nice solvable puzzle on a saturday for a change. Hope the S&B attendees had fun.

By: rodders

rodders — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:10:25 +0000

I thought three down was the trickiest – does sang really equate to grassed ?
And need some USA knowledge to know about ” L ” in Chicago.

By: scchua

scchua — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:49:20 +0000

Hi twencelas. Your #6, re 4D ARTERY. My interpretation is same as yours: “place set aside for creative endeavour (ie. art)” with the question mark (indicating a somewhat loose origin) = ART + ERY, as in words like “eatery”, “creamery”, “cattery”, “colliery” which are all places for ie. “eats”, “cream”, “cats”, “coal”.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:22:35 +0000

Welcome, twencelas, and congratulations on your first blog.

I couldn’t parse 4dn properly either. Thought ‘endeavour’ might have something to do with E as in E Morse (Colin Dexter’s crossword-solving detective) and/or ‘ry’ might represent ‘railway’ as a major(?) route but couldn’t reconcile either of those ideas with the construction of the clue. So I think your idea is the best.

By: twencelas

twencelas — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 10:16:16 +0000

Sidley – Thanks for pointing out my error in 26ac.

By: twencelas

twencelas — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 10:09:07 +0000

Jmac – I agree with you doubts on my explanation of 4dn. Any suggestions welcome?

By: jmac

jmac — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 08:57:43 +0000

Thanks for the blog Twencelas. Agree with other comments that this was a very good puzzle. Re 4 down, though, I feel that your explanation seems slightly whimsical for Nestor. I can’t explain it but felt that it had possibly something to do with “arty” for “creative endeavour”.

By: scchua

scchua — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:22:17 +0000

Thanks twencelas for the blog, and Nestor, for an easier than usual puzzle (ie. a Nestor I could complete in a relatively good time).

Favourites were 28A TINSELTOWN, a nice &lit, 8D SHETLAND PONIES, another &lit with “strains” cleverly standing for the anagrind as well as part of the definition (as in “animal breeds”), and 16D LADIES MAN, with a less common equivalence for “priest”.

By: sidey

sidey — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 06:00:45 +0000

I did preview that, honest.

Thanks twencelas.