Comments on: Guardian Cryptic No 25,329 by Rufus

By: Carrots

Carrots — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:39:55 +0000

Nice to be back from a diet of sardines and clams for the past couple of weeks.

Rufus is, I think, made of sterner stuff these days and he very nearly had me with RESERVE, which I had to “go through the alphabet” in order to get.

Trust everyone is well and enjoying the decent start to the summer. Good to hear (courtesy of K`s Dad) of the Birmingham “do”. Roll on!

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:38:16 +0000

Finished quite quickly, but had drainage for 2d which I thought was a fairly good fit. Rats!

By: malc95

malc95 — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:10:31 +0000

Sorry, I’m posting on the wrong crossie – blush, blush.

By: malc95

malc95 — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:05:46 +0000

There is a nina down the sides.

By: Stella Heath

Stella Heath — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:27:51 +0000

Hi Peter, it would have surprised me that you hadn’t seen it as I did; I was just pointing out the blogging error. They occur all too easily, especially if you have to do two in one day. Well done, and thanks again.

By: PeterO

PeterO — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:40:01 +0000

K's D @1- a quick trawl through online dictionaries left me confused as to what difference (if any) there is between stuttering and stammering, and, if there is a difference, which is which; so I cling to a couple of references which address the matter directly - http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/data/d0082836.html and http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/64082-stammer-stutter.html. Stella @3 - I am not sure how, between solving and blogging, the obvious anagram in 12A became a double definition. I plead insanity. RCWhiting @8 - like Stella, it is a very long while since I had any contact with cricket; thanks to Robi @10 for the reference giving bumper as a less common term for bouncer, a ball bowled short to bounce up high in front of the batsman, which is basically legal, if intimidating. A beamer gets to a similar area without bouncing, and in not legal. I agree that adding an 'of' to 6D would make a good &lit. Chas @9 - I had not come across Beaver Scouts before. It seems that the branch started in countries other than the UK, but is now accepted there also. Robi @10 - in 14A, I took 'pound' as in dog pound, but perhaps it is a closer fit in the verbal sense of enclose or confine.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:32:11 +0000

….and beavers here:
http://scouts.org.uk/supportresources/search?cat=11

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:12:04 +0000

Enjoyable puzzle with the usual nice surfaces. I particularly liked ANTHILL. Thanks PeterO for your good blog; as I've said before it's good to have the clues above for cross-referencing. I'm not sure I quite understand pound=RESERVE (last in.) Is it in the sense of a reserve currency or as Mystogre @6 in the sense of dog pound, or am I missing something? BUMPER/bouncer is referenced here.

By: chas

chas — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:02:06 +0000

Thanks to PeterO for the blog.

I was another who saw 12a as (SET DAY)*.
I have never heard of beavers as being very young scouts – the youngest I’m aware of are cubs.

Also in the state of learning new things: I had heard of chenille as a sort of cloth but did not know that is also the name of the cord used to make the cloth.

General observation about this crossword: it was a bit disappointing.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:32:09 +0000

Thanks all
Very (too) straightforward.
I was slightly held up by ‘bumper’ and ‘airmailed’ largely because the former was only vaguely known to me (‘beamer’ is more common and quite different to ‘bouncer’).
Wouldn’t 6d need to be “Offer of support….” to be &lit.
Like Martin I dallied with ‘dead’ in 15d before settling on the too obvious ‘late’.