Comments on: Independent 7,688 / Raich

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:32:51 +0000

Yesterday was my Hash day so I did this today and what a pleasure to revisit my childhood days of Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey and Cilla Black (how I love her accent during her solo TV show in the 70′s) Thank you, Raich for the blast from the past.

By: Raich

Raich — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:05:00 +0000

Many thanks, RatkojaRiku, for the excellent blog and to everyone for their comments.

By: RatkojaRiku

RatkojaRiku — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:02:58 +0000

@ superkiwigirl – yes, I googled Billy Bragg too! I didn’t want to admit my ignorance publicly, but what the hell!

@ Kathryn’s Dad – 23 was my favourite clue too! Like Bamberger, however, I wasted time trying to work out an anagram of “celebrity”.

By: caretman

caretman — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:09:41 +0000

Although I may be of the right age, with the exception of 19a the best I could say about the theme answers was that I know I had heard of them before. Oh, except for 23a, which I was proud to have deciphered from the wordplay and could then confirm online. But although the theme wasn’t much help to me, I thought it was a splendid puzzle with a lot of solid clues. 12a and 13a took me some time to work out, and I didn’t understand 19d until coming here. Thanks, RatkojaRiku, for the explanations, and thanks to Raich for the puzzle.

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:49:10 +0000

All day on and off yielded about half the answers-sadly the only themed clue I got was Gerry which didn’t help at all. Indeed my comment to myself was that 1/4 was unfair because I couldn’t get 6.

Spend ages trying to make an anagram out of celebrity’s for 23a.

I’ve managed an unaided solve of a Sunday Indie but never a weekday one-the Indie unlike the Grauniad, FT or Times never ever seems to have a weekday one for the less able.

By: flashling

flashling — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:38:23 +0000

I got 6d straight away which gave up 1/4 so off to a flier and a quick (ish) solve.

Thanks to RatkojaRiku – I know what it’s like when work gets in the way of a blog… and Raich for a nice tuesday puzzle.

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:42:24 +0000

Always nice to see a Raich – and I thought this was good fun. Was just about starting to struggle when 1ac fell in and the penny dropped, giving me enough of a hint to complete the rest.

Thanks RatkojaRiku and Raich.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:00:07 +0000

I’ve managed most of Raich’s recent puzzles in the Indy, but this one nearly had me 4ac. Unlike superkiwigirl, MERSEY BEAT was pretty much my last one in, which wasn’t ideal in getting help with the themed clues. Raich is always very precise with his clueing, so it was just me not seeing a few things. When I finally saw CILLA BLACK – my favourite clue – the SW corner opened up a bit and I was able to complete it.

Fine puzzle. And we’re now being treated to themed completion messages. We want for nothing with the Indy cryptic. Thanks for the blog, RatkojaRiku.

By: NealH

NealH — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:57:37 +0000

I found this fairly straightforward, except that I convinced myself that the answer to 10 must be aeroscape. Well, it seemed reasonable that if you have seascapes and landscapes, you might have an aeroscape as well. It was the presence of the word “work” in the definition that pushed me in that direction.

By: RatkojaRiku

RatkojaRiku — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:49:22 +0000

Yes, Eileen, I take your point – I had read the clue as a single sentence, defining “package holiday” in a whimsical manner, a fact hinted at by the question mark at the end.

However, I suppose it could have been parsed as a double definition, with the break coming after “wrap up” and the question mark simply being discounted.