Comments on: Independent on Sunday 1,117 by Hypnos

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 22:24:33 +0000

Hypnos — thanks for responding — tantalising with the possibility of a pangram was not offputting at all! Just another layer of cleverness which mugged this mug into thinking “aha, I know what’s going on here” when of course I didn’t… thanks again for a hugely enjoyable solve.

By: Hypnos

Hypnos — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:53:54 +0000

Thanks to Uncle Yap for his excellent blog and all for their comments.

Didn’t realise WARHORSE and ECHO would prove most difficult – kettledrum @3 is of course right in his reading of 23d.

Hope tantalising with the possibility of a pangram was not too offputting.

Finally, although the IOS blog may attract relatively few comments, I can assure Uncle Yap that his observations are always
read with interest!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:21:26 +0000

Maybe Hypnos left out the Y as the set would be completed by the blogger…

Good puzzle, tricky in places, Wellington’s horse was new to me too.

By: bertandjoyce

bertandjoyce — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:14:19 +0000

Thanks Uncle Yap for the blog!

We don’t normally have to visit the site to check on the Prize Crossword as we tend to complete it before the solution appears. If we haven’t for any reason, we can usually work backwards from the solution. Not today!!

We were flummoxed by 26a Warhorse and 23d Echo so were very pleased to find that others had been similarly challenged!!

We also wondered about the pangram!

Thanks again Uncle Yap and also Hypnos.

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:05:14 +0000

International Alphabet
A Alpha B Bravo C Charlie D Delta E Echo F Foxtrot G Golf H Hotel I India J Juliet K Kilo L Lima M Mike N November O Oscar P Papa Q Quebec R Romeo S Sierra T Tango U Uniform V Victor W Whisky X X-ray Y Yankee Z Zulu

(Please note that there may well be other similar lists)

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:25:10 +0000

I found this hard going, and even getting 9d didn’t open it up as much as I’d hoped, so a good workout.
Quip for sally was new to me, and I also struggled with ECHO and WARHORSE. I recalled Wellington’s horse being called Copenhagen, but the musical link completely eluded me – thanks caretman. kettledrum’s explanation for ECHO seems plausible, although far from being the best clue in the grid.

I liked WONGA for its use of a slang term for another slang term, IYSWIM.

Thanks Hypnos and Uncle Yap

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 11:45:45 +0000

Thanks Hypnos and Uncle Yap — I found this harder than you did! Like others here, my last in were WARHORSE and ECHO, neither of which I understood but kettledrum’s parsing of ECO is convincing.

I complicated things for myself by deciding that Hypnos had gone for a pangram: by the time I got to the final pair, I had seen every letter in the alphabet except Y, so I was convinced that the W_R_O_S_ solution had a Y in it somewhere… no such luck!

By: kettledrum

kettledrum — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:47:24 +0000

23a I think it is E … middle of for E sts … NATO phonetic alphabet

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:38:37 +0000

Thanks, Uncle Yap. I found this one tricky to finish off, ECHO and WARHORSE similarly being my last in, and essentially guesses. It’s reassuring to know others found those ones tough too!

By: caretman

caretman — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:13:46 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap. I’ll miss you on Sundays, since you always do such a good job explaining those clues I can’t get.

With 26a, I find from googling that Copenhagen was Wellington’s warhorse, and I know that some often-played music numbers are metaphorically called ‘warhorses.’ But that was definitely a challenging clue and one I could only enter with confidence after confirming my suspicion that Copenhagen was indeed the name of someone’s mount. I also didn’t understand 23a; ECHO was certainly a nymph but I don’t see the wordplay (but I’m sure others will come in and clarify things). I found this a bit more challenging than it sounded that you did. WONGA was new to me, so was OXFORD CIRCUS, and in the US 9d would be spelled with an S between the R and N (although that didn’t prevent me from getting them given the straightforward wordplay). In the end I thought it was of moderate difficulty for me.

Thanks, Hypnos, for the challenge.