Comments on: Guardian 25,327 / Pasquale

By: maarvarq

maarvarq — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:31:33 +0000

May is usually thought of as a Spring month but today’s paper reports summer flowers blooming weeks ahead of time this year Rubbish. This clue was wrong. Jeez, if you thought this was gentle I'd hate to see a hard one.

By: Pasquale

Pasquale — Fri, 20 May 2011 17:57:09 +0000

No extra fees for the i and I wasn’t even told. All a coincidence by the way, having so many in one day. To the shops…

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:27:26 +0000

Pasquale at no 8 and Malc at no 9: just discovered that Quixote has the Prize Cryptic in today’s Independent i! I know when John H and Jane got married Nimrod and his alter egos were spread across a few publications, but otherwise this must be some kind of record? The Don will be retiring to the Bahamas soon with all the fees …

By: tupu

tupu — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:26:39 +0000

RE 1,12,21
Andrew, Robi et al
I quite liked this clue. I see no need for a separate definition for ‘wins’. The definition of the answer is ‘achieves easy success’, and the rest of the clue is a light-hearted hint with a question mark.

It also struck me that ‘hands up!’ might as well refer to a hold-up in the old wild west, and a quick google search brought up the following powerful image:

http://www.zazzle.com/wyeths_hands_up_poster-228646561050249718

By: liz

liz — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:09:31 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Eileen, and to Pasquale for an enjoyable puzzle. Late to comment today and nothing much to add that hasn’t already been said. For what it’s worth, I also thought 1,12,21 was perhaps the weakest one out of an otherwise strong batch of clues. My favourites were 3dn, 4dn and 11dn.

I guessed PEKING from the checking letters — thanks for explaining the wordplay, which passed me by!

By: mike04

mike04 — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:15:33 +0000

Re 7ac
The Oxford Dictionary of English (Reprinted 2006) gives dilator: a vasodilatory drug.

By: Robi

Robi — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:59:23 +0000

Thanks Pasquale for a nice one that I found quite tricky.

Good blog, Eileen – once I had eventually completed this I managed to parse the answers but found it very difficult to get started. Like you, I thought of ‘stand-and-deliver,’ and 1,12,21 was the only one I thought was rather disappointing. Like Andrew @5, I couldn’t see that WINS was indicated, apart from in the definition. Didn’t know COVE=old chap, which in Chambers gives the origin as obscure. KNOW WHAT’S WAT caused a bit of a groan but I did like CANARIES and MAKE HAY, despite the wrong season.

By: walruss

walruss — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:51:18 +0000

Re clues all over grid why not, gm4hqf?

By: malc95

malc95 — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:47:57 +0000

Thanks Eileen, I thought P.E. King was B.B.’s brother.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:28:44 +0000

Hi gm4hqf

Just in case you weren’t joking – and apologies for being patronising if you were – it’s P[hysical] E[ducation] King. [We used to call P.E. 'Gym' at school.]