Comments on: Independent 7618/Anax

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:24:53 +0000

Well a late reply due to a work do, in a pub naturally. I didn’t have any issue with 2d or the rest of it. Great stuff Anax, not one of your hardest, but still the nice dubious definitions and tricky wordplay we’ve come to expect. Easier than your last one on your home page to me. Thanks for the effort required for such a grand puzzle, you must have spent most of your holiday on it.

By: gnomethang

gnomethang — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:15:48 +0000

I thought this was great and thanks to anax for fessing up on 2d – the only head scratching moment I had.

By: 4across

4across — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:28:07 +0000

John, thanks for the blog to explain a point or two, but finished ok
and by the way Anax, I thought 2d clue was clear as it was printed…

By: walruss

walruss — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:24:22 +0000

I agree this was quite hard, but that is Anax. Nice to have a theme close to my heart, and a good Indy puzzle I think. I didn’t like SCRUTABLE and I wouldn’t like GRUNTLED, but there we go.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:21:34 +0000

Strange that this puzzle should appear in the week when we heard the sad news about the passing of the setter, Mass. Because he had many puzzles like this in the Indy ie where every clue referred to some similar item. Like everyone else, I found this very hard, as one of course expects from Anax and from the Indy on a Thursday. As you say, John (tks for the blog), every clue has something to offer, quite an achievement. My favourites were DIALOGUES, BREAKER and OPENING. Thanks, Anax, for the puzzle. And the ‘keeper’, John, in 3 down “one saves” is definitely, as K’s D says, a footballer, I would think.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:05:16 +0000

I think this is only the second Anax that I have ever managed to complete so I am glad that no-one (so far) has said that it is not up to his usual level of difficulty. Thanks John for explaining some of the trickier wordplay: eg Haiti, Rock Group and Oversaw. Anax puzzles often have obscure vocabulary a tricky theme and fiendish wordplay so I found this one more accessible with no obscure words and a straightforward theme. I was able to devote all my energy to disentangling (most of) the wordplay and I enjoyed it immensely.

I too thought that scrutable was a facetious back-formation like gruntled but, as Rishi points out, it is in Chambers and Collins too, apparently as a word in its own right.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:00:31 +0000

Another brilliant puzzle. I’m exhausted! I particularly enjoyed being tortured by 18a. For a long time I had “sport” for 19d – and I was still seeing it as an &lit! A somewhat 1930s attitude to sport, which I should probably do something about…

By: Mick H

Mick H — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:33:35 +0000

13d is ‘gets’= LANDS, ‘intoxicated’= HIGH, ‘seeing’ as a link and ‘area round Inverness’ is the definition. As for 20, I read it as ‘get very drunk’ = punning definition, ‘it’s crude’ (it has crude) as straight one.
Thirsty work solving this, but rewarding. I liked ‘secret agent’ as a definition for UNKNOWN QUANTITY, and bull for BS was nice. Only one I’m not sure about is the pub in 18, surely it should be the Rover’s Return if we’re talking Corrie?
Cheers Anax!

By: anax

anax — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:47:24 +0000

Oh dear. Apologies are in order here.

2d is a clue which Eimi highlighted as needing amendment, and I honestly thought it had been done (well, I’m correct in that I do remember re-writing it). I’ve just opened the revised Word doc (with amends highlighted) and Crossword Compiler files I submitted and discovered to my horror that 2d was never changed even though I highlighted it as an amended one.

This is entirely my error. Sorry chaps.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:10:23 +0000

Thank goodness for 225 bloggers – needed your help today, John, to understand probably half a dozen of the clues. I found it hard, but managed it, so was pleased.

I like themes like this, where there’s a fun element to the clueing but it’s not just a tick-box of related people or things. And yes, there were a few liberties, but none of them diabolical (except perhaps 2dn …)

HOBBS made me laugh, partly because it reminded me of Anax’s definition a few months ago of ‘shit happens’ for THAT’S THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES.

In 3dn, a keeper is of course also someone who saves – it wouldn’t be right to have an Indy crossword without a footie reference, would it?

On a personal note, it was slightly spooky to have a pub-related theme and the Electric Light Orchestra in the same puzzle. One of the founder members of ELO bought our empty village pub about fifteen years ago and converted it into a private residence. His contribution to village life in that time has been to open the village fete. Once.

Great puzzle, thank you Anax.