Comments on: Independent 7612 / Morph

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:00:20 +0000

I think you have a case there under the Human Rights Act, Morph. Cruel and unusual punishment and all that.

By: Morph

Morph — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:36:40 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid, and all your comments. Sorry about VITALNESS, an ugly word I agree. But it is in my Collins, or I wouldn’t have included it. Perhaps it’s been dropped from more recent editions.
Kathryn’s dad correctly divines my footballing allegiance (and yes, it has been a rough couple of weeks). Our esteemed editor let my 8ac through, but sneakily scheduled the puzzle so that it appeared (in the paper at least) alongside reports of the wrong team’s victory in Europe. Grr!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:27:49 +0000

I’m with those who found this quite easy – a little bit slow at times but I finished it in one session – the first time for quite a while. As others have said, spotting the nina helped; one could say that after getting ‘heigh ho heigh ho’ it was off to work on the rest of the grid!
Didn’t like ‘vitalness’, it not being in Chambers, Collins, etc. Perhaps that was the reason for the ? in the clue.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:08:56 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.
As you say a very good day for puzzles.
I was another that got help for the NE corner from spotting the Nina.
I also share your dislike of ‘the beautiful(???)game’so wasn’t too keen on 7 down and had my doubts over VITALNESS.It is given on WordWeb and as an alternative form in the American Heritage Dictionary.
Top clue for me,the wonderful 26 across.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:13:47 +0000

Superb puzzle from beginning to end.

A marvellously constructed and themed grid.

This, the Araucaria in the Guardian and the Obtrox in the i made for a trio of top class puzzles.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:16:42 +0000

Personally found this harder than of late and needed the return journey to finish it, as remarked the def at 26 was worthy of Anax himself. Getting the Nina certainly helped to finish the top half for me.

Thanks G for the blog for confirming my thought on nonce and Morph for a very pleasant solve

Off to do battle with Anax’s evil twin…

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:45:23 +0000

Although scchua@4 says the puzzle is easier than usual, I thought it was extremely hard. Not helped by various things: ‘central idea’ for de at 14ac just seemed wrong to me (the centre of idea, or idea centrally, but surely not central idea; although perhaps it’s OK: central London is the centre of London); great difficulty with justification of 20dn and 25dn. And in 3dn does ‘in mounting’ = ‘mounting’?

And I never noticed those unches, which didn’t help.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:32:28 +0000

I found this very tough, with a lot of thought, I’d say, having gone into the clue construction. Seeing the possibility of the two HEIGH-HOs was the major breakthrough, tho I’d seen the dwarf theme from the start. In 27, I guess ‘you can eat all of it’ refers to ‘mangetout’ from the French. Clues I esp marked, many already mentioned above, SUB, AEROSOL (best of all), ISRAEL, OUTBID, NEARSIDE, ON OATH.

Hey, Anax at #4, should you be talking about answers in future puzzles?…

Thanks, Morph, and Gaufrid.

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:55:39 +0000

I was glad of the NINA in this one or I don’t think I’d have got 6 down. The rest of the puzzle wasn’t too bad, but I was completely stumped on that one until I remembered to look for the NINA and realized it must start with an H. I hadn’t come across “hemline theory” before, so maybe that would have helped me get it sooner. I’d have to concur with everyone that 26 was a brilliant clue.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:04:24 +0000

Hi Richard @1
Your explanation of 7dn makes sense. As I indicated in the preamble, I have no interest whatsoever in football (wrong shaped ball and not 15v15) and so was unaware of the financial strength of the club in question.

Hi K’s D @2
“I think you like the beautiful game more than you’re letting on, …”.

Sorry but I don’t!

Hi scchua @5
One of the definitions for ‘ogre’ in Chambers is “a bad-tempered person” so I don’t have any problem with grumpy=ogrish.