Comments on: Independent 7684 by Tyrus

By: Tyrus

Tyrus — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:04:47 +0000

Many thanks for the blog and comments. Thomas’s explanation of 20a was of course correct.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:27:24 +0000

Well what can I say other than thanks thomas, my brain was getting fried by the end. Actually this was my second Tyrus – it’s been a while since I got hit by him.

This was a fantastic crossword, vanilla? well as NMS said. word play and surface and grins were great. Thanks all

By: ele

ele — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:25:16 +0000

Glad others found this difficult, as I did about a quarter and then had to give up. But seeing the explanations it’s all very fair if rather tortuous. Thanks to flashling and thomas for all the explanations. Had never come across Tyrus before and after actually completing Anax on Tuesday with no cheating was feeling very chuffed. Pride comes before a fall.

By: caretman

caretman — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:29:33 +0000

Oh, and now that I’ve found the definition of DO BIRD (surprisingly more difficult to do than I had expected), I can now understand 27a! And with Thomas99′s parsing @2, it’s a very good clue.

By: caretman

caretman — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:24:41 +0000

Thanks, flashling, and especially thanks to Tyrus for the workout! It definitely was at the upper end of my ability to work out but eventually I did. My first time through I got none of the across clues and thought, “uh oh.” But then got 4, 5, 18, and 8 down and had finally broken into it. My last in was 27a which was an expression I had never heard of before. I parsed 20a the same as Thomass99 @4, after spending a long time trying to find an anagram of (t)ARGE(t) + RA. A lot of excellent clues; my favorites were 13a, 14d, and 16d. Great puzzle!

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:31:36 +0000

Thanks flashling and Tyrus. Too hard for me today – got about half of it but couldn’t get any further. One for those who like a tough challenge, I’d say.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:03:43 +0000

Thanks to flashling for your explanations, to Thomas99 for further elucidation, and to Tyrus for a stupendously difficult crossword. Alas this was beyond my limited abilities, I got 10 clues before I realised I could go no further. Now that I see it explained, I can appreciate how fair it all is.

The bonuses are: 1) I can set myself a new target — “on the day I complete my first Tyrus, I will be happy”; and 2) today I discovered the “reveal letter” function on the Indy website! When I have to cheat, it’s good to know I can cheat letter by letter rather than reveal the whole word.

Thanks all round.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:48:27 +0000

I agree with the praise for this puzzle, perhaps among the best from Tyrus in the Indy. Harder than normal Indy puzzles for sure but not quite as difficult as some by Tyrus in past. I marked quite a few clues, SCANDAL SHEET, THIN BLUE LINE, SUN BLOCK, ELATED, ANIMATION, HITHER. I agree with the Thomas99 explanations with the definition in prison being the whole clue so a partial &lit with wrong not part of the wordplay, I think. Thanks Tyrus and flashling, tho not sure if ‘vanilla’ conveys what this excellent puzzle is, I understand what you mean of course (no theme or Nina).

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:26:46 +0000

Sorry to bore on but I also had 20a differently:
I had Easy target= SITTER, with both Ts (times) removed and RA (Royal Artillery; gunners) added on.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:24:22 +0000

PS. I think I got the significance of wrong in 26 slightly, er, wrong, but I hope you get the idea. PRONE is indeed on the outside, so it reads as a straight instruction with “wrong” simply referring to the prisoner being inside not outside. Phew – like a lot of clues here, it almost gets more complicated the more you think about it!

And wasn’t Adam’s Ale a humdinger too!