Comments on: Independent 7,736 / Raich

By: Graham Pellen

Graham Pellen — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 02:05:56 +0000

RatkojaRiku, that’s “Sybil”, not “Sibyl”, at 15D.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 07:04:03 +0000

Or of course, ‘Play it again, Sam’.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:57:52 +0000

No preamble in the dead tree version either, RatkojaRiku.

An enjoyable solve. Once I got Manuel, (can’t seem to get away from football these days and, groan, the season’s nearly on us) Polly and Sibyl I was on the lookout for other themed references. And surprised not to find Basil until I looked for a nina.

Taliking of non-quotes (Wil @ 10) the most famous is probably ‘Elementary, my dear Watson!’

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:09:08 +0000

I solved all this without noticing the Nina. Very nice indeed. It seemed that all the words fitted in nicely, without strain, as you might get when there is such a Nina.

When the setter so cleverly introduces such a Nina it seems a pity that solvers can be completely oblivious to it. One feels that there should be some way of alerting the solver.

One quibble, if it is indeed a quibble: is it really ‘Don’t mention the war, Basil’ (in that highly over-rated episode that is in my opinion nothing like as good as the vast majority of the rest)? Surely it’s just ‘Don’t … war’. Rather like the non-quote from Dad’s Army ‘Don’t panic, Captain Mainwaring’. Jones never said that.

By: Raich

Raich — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:50:15 +0000

Many thanks for the blog and comments which are much appreciated. Re one or two points raised, Collins (and indeed Chambers also) gives SUN BITTERN as two words, Collins also has the SS Sunday School abbrev.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:27:22 +0000

Thanks RatkojaRiku and Raich.
Found this pretty easy going,and worked out the nina early on,which made completion a lot easier.
All good fun though,even the ubiquitous soccer reference wasn’t too difficult to work out!(8 down)

I’m not saying it is wrong,but I had never seen SUNBITTERN written as two words before.

By: Quixote

Quixote — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:15:32 +0000

Indeed Prunella did — and I had the pleasure of meeting her at Araucaria’s 90th. I also had the pleasure of meeting Raich on his home territory the other week while on holiday. A happy meeting and an enjoyable puzzle today — for both of which, many thanks!

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:58:32 +0000

And I meant to add that Sybil (Prunella Scales) is apparently a mad-keen cryptic crossword solver. She featured in the BBC4 programme on cryptics that Don Manley fronted.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:23:29 +0000

This was a lot of fun. As RatkojaRiku mentions, there were enough easyish ones to get you going, and then the grid layout suggested a Nina, which was confirmed as the outside letters went in. (For puzzled lurkers, since no-one has explicitly explained the Nina, the outside letters starting with 1dn spell out DON’T MENTION THE WAR, BASIL, a famous quote from Fawlty Towers.)

I thought BONSAI was a clever clue and also liked PRESS, BORED STIFF and SUN BITTERN. I also spent far too long at 4dn trying to persuade myself that there was a form of transport called a TAON.

Thanks to R & R.

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:43:57 +0000

Thanks Raich and RatkojaRiku. I think I might be starting to get the hang of this lark, and spotted the nina which helped with some of the other clues.

I may be reading a bit too much into 14d and 15d, but in the Fawlty Towers episode with “duck’s off” as the closing line, “she’s needed” fits very nicely when Polly stepped in to attempt to entertain the diners, and Sybil did have a tendency to ignore the oldies (the two old ladies) in the hotel. The nina also reminds me of the ever-changing anagram of Fawlty Towers that appeared on the sign at the start of each episode; how they got “Flowery Twats” past the Beeb censors is still a mystery to me.