Comments on: Independent 7743/Dac

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:19:13 +0000

Re #18, reddevil, I think ‘very little’ means you take only ‘very little’ of ‘little interest’ ie just the 3 letters indicated by John in his blog to get the (hidden) answer.

By: redddevil

redddevil — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:47:23 +0000

Can someone explain why 4 D has the “(very little)” bit in the clue which seems superfluous to me (and incidentally had me inserting IVY to begin with which fitted the whole clue quite well I thought).

By: John

John — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:56:28 +0000

Yes of course TE Lawrence was his real name and he enlisted under the name Ross. Had forgotten.

Sorry about 26 and 27ac. I’ve just recently had a change in my computer and everything is rather big on the screen (probably very simple to alter but I haven’t found out how to yet) and these two were inadvertently omitted because they were off the screen. No excuse. 26ac is AFFECTED — 2 defs and 27ac is DO(PIN)G.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:47:42 +0000

Great stuff as usual from Dac, have to agree with Sil about 11ac. Cheers John the blog and Dac as ever for the puzzle.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:30:18 +0000

Another fine puzzle by Dac, with indeed, John (and others), PLAYGROUND (16ac) as one of the many highlights.

In the blog 26ac (AFFECTED) and 27ac (DOPING) are missing, at least on my screen.
And I think in 11ac it is: FREE (liberal)+ STANDING (seeking election) giving ‘independent’ as the definition.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:50:50 +0000

This was great as always from Dac and thanks for the blog, John. I must say though that I read SELF as having nothing to do with Will ie that it was writer = self = setter = Dac with Independent referring just to the i being removed but that maybe was not what was intended.

By: sidey

sidey — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:40:54 +0000

“It’s true about Lawrence leading the army out”

By: Radian

Radian — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:16:44 +0000

Re Lawrence/Aircraftsman Ross: could someone remind me of the clue of all clues? Something along the lines of “Lawrence’s cryptic clue?” but much more elegant.

By: scchua

scchua — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:44:05 +0000

Thanks John, and Dac for the usual.

Favourites were 11A FREESTANDING, 9A ASTONISH, by coincidence, the same definition appeared in yesterday’s FT, and 5D ASHANTI.

BTW, you’ve inadvertently missed out 26A and 27A.

I was with Cumbrian and superkiwigirl on 22D SELF. My little doubt is whether Dac intended to double up “Independent”, which would be required to parse it as Will Self, rather than “meself, the setter”

By: Tokyocolin

Tokyocolin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:19:49 +0000

Thanks John, especially for explaining Ross. I had assumed Lawrence Ross was a soccer player or perhaps a TV host.

Apart from that I got through this very quickly, all done on an interrupted 20 min train commute (did the other daily on the bus.). Not too easy, things just fell into place and popped into mind. It isn’t always so. But it is a good feeling when it happens so I enjoyed this immensely.