Comments on: Independent 7733/Phi

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 07:13:46 +0000

If anyone’s still reading blogs two days later (I didn’t start this puzzle till last night)…

Interestingly for 16a “country no longer” immediately suggested the name of a state that had ceased to exist and only “Czechoslovakia” looked long enough to fit. A quick look at 14d came up with “neckcloth” so the first letter would be C and I pencilled 16a in as “Czechoslovakia” and sure enough that’s what it was. Interestingly i don’t ever recall hearing the old chestnut about Oslo.

It was the NW corner that held me up – until I worked out where the definitions were in the clues to 1a and 2d.

By: caretman

caretman — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:42:52 +0000

Quite an enjoyable puzzle. The long lights were clearly the key in opening this up and they didn’t yield to me easily but eventually they did so. ANAGRAMMATICAL was excellent (as I was first trying to parse it I thought the articles might be on the tail end (due to the ‘following’ in the wordplay) and spent a long while searching for a word that ended in -THEAN). GRAPPELLI I entered and then confirmed, while NEOCON is a common word here in the States. My last in was POSTLUDE which took me longer than I care to reveal to suddenly see as obvious. Thanks, John, for blogging it all.

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:47:13 +0000

A slow start for me, took maybe 5 mins to see any, then it was like a runaway train and the whole thing fell apart in the next 10 or so with the sudden realisation I’d finished. A bit quicker than yesterday certainly… Thanks John & Phi for the fun.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:29:25 +0000

I like Phi’s Friday puzzles because normally if you hold his hand quite tightly he’ll lead you over the finishing line eventually. Today it was more like being dragged kicking and screaming towards the tape – I couldn’t see any of the long answers for love nor money, and it was only when they finally yielded that I got there. As Neal says, though, a good all round puzzle.

By: NealH

NealH — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:11:48 +0000

I was probably a bit more with Lenny than nmsindy on this one. It took me about 40 minutes after a very slow start. I got anagrammatical from the an-a-grammatical wordplay and it didn’t register with me to start with that it was the adjectival form of anagram. I even went to look it up in the dictionary and of course saw straight away that it was derived from anagram. That was my favourite clue in a very good puzzle all round.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:32:00 +0000

I found this to be quite a tricky effort from Phi. The four long answers did not yield their secrets easily. I have been doing crosswords long enough to know that the word Ready nearly always refers to money but it still catches me out. Likewise anagrammatical clues that usually lead to the word anagram but, today, led to anagrammatical. Capital of Czechoslovakia may be an old chestnut but it bemused me. Thanks for explaining it John. Last in was Neocon, not in my dictionary but clear enough.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:00:40 +0000

Enjoyable puzzle, which I found on the gentle side in terms of difficulty, favourite clue ANAGRAMMATICAL. Thanks, John and Phi.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:24:34 +0000

I think that’s the first time I’ve ever been the crossee, not the crosser! And Eileen has the clue wording right (John and I both had “convention” for “rules”).

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:17:57 +0000

Oops! – sorry, Thomas99.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:16:57 +0000

Thanks for the blog, John.

I read 13ac the other way round. Definition: ‘it’s clear from such articles’: AN + A [articles] + GRAMMATICAL [following linguistic rules].