Comments on: Independent 7714/Bannsider

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:10:08 +0000

In most weeks, this would have been the toughest puzzle, but Anax’s from Monday I found harder. I failed on LOSE which I would have got if I’d spotted the v clever perimeter pangram. I’d spotted the pangram in the puzzle as a whole but not that there was one in the perimeter. Thanks, Bannsider, and John.

By: Bannsider

Bannsider — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:39:06 +0000

Not sure you can reasonably get “REPEATER” out of “Watch salesman scoff sandwiches whole”. It works as far as “watch salesman” but then…??
However, sorry you were misled. I really will try to ease things up a bit for next time
But then I always say that.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:01:03 +0000

I too failed with this, having entered “repeater” for 22ac (which does seem to fit the clue at least as well as is the case in relation to several other answers in this crossword!) I consequently got nowhere with 23d. Managed the rest, but after a lot of deliberation in some cases.

By: Quixote

Quixote — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:14:32 +0000

Too hard for me in the end to finish, but I dare say I’m in the lower ability range for modern Indy solvers. NOT a day for Mr or Ms Average to become a regular reader on account of the crossword!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:56:15 +0000

Yes, I struggled for too long with the idea that 22a was ‘repeater’, though I couldn’t make the wordplay fit and 23d seemed to be obviously ‘loco’. But I almost got there in the end; only failed on 25d. Pity I didn’t spot the pangrammatic nature of the perimeter – I realised we had a pangram but didn’t associate it with the edges.

By: 4across

4across — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:39:30 +0000

I was thrown a bit by my first answer 22A being REP EATER, as a watch …..
then downhill from there. after a long struggle got there, but what a struggle.

By: Paul A

Paul A — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:09:53 +0000

Re 25 dn, cf this week’s Cyclops in Private Eye… “Being non-Conservative, nearer what David was to brother Ed?” (5)
If I’d finished P.E last night this might have rung a bell

By: Bannsider

Bannsider — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:05:41 +0000

Yet another attempt to set an easier puzzle fails – ah well.
I am surprised people didn’t mention the really dodgy clue: that to OBERON. Fairy’s head? Rather unconvincing.
Normally I am a stickler for not defining by example, but I think often it depends how closely one associates the general in the clue with the particular answer. So I hope I’d never clue “city” as “London” for example, whereas at the opposite extreme, “Engelbert” is probably ok to clue “Humperdinck”.
As for 25d, I knew that was a bit of a swine, but with all the other easy clues …
It reminds me of a clue I once saw in an ancient book of (I think) Daily Telegraph puzzles:

“An athlete’s first part of this can worry his this beheaded (8)”

Answer: STRAINER (they didn’t always mess around with stuff like definitions in those days)

By: ele

ele — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:10:03 +0000

Oops, I think that should have been sterling – before anyone elses corrects it.

By: ele

ele — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:09:12 +0000

I gave up on this about half done. Very difficult (possibly because I was distracted by wonderful news about NoW closing down – Yay) and thanks to John for stirling work explaining the answers. I did not like 14ac at all. I don’t usually complain about footballing refs as they are usually gettable from wordplay, but this one was completely impossible – the relation of Race = Roy is obscure beyond anything. I got Kapil Dev from the wordplay, for example, as I’d at least heard of him, even though I know just about as little about cricket.