Comments on: Independent on Sunday 1122: Poins

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 13:46:49 +0000

Come to think of it, I kind of expected my Google search to reveal someone like Evelyn Waugh, but the Pratchett reference came up in the first few hits.

Thanks for clarification on 26d — I wasn’t thinking hard enough!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 13:25:13 +0000

Maybe it’s an age thing but the “Men at Arms” I thought the clue referred was the book in Evelyn Waugh’s trilogy – a great read BTW. I enjoyed the puzzle which was not too difficult.

By: superkiwigirl

superkiwigirl — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 09:00:46 +0000

Thanks for the blog, jetdoc, and for an entertaining puzzle, Poins.

This was a nice gentle start to the day I thought. Favourite was PERSEVERE. I hadn’t previously realised that the letter “D” can be used as an abbreviation for Dutch, but it obvious in the context of the clue (and later helped with Malta).

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:24:35 +0000

Thanks for the comprehensive blog jetdoc; I’d forgotten that Men At Arms was one of Terry Pratchett’s.
I had the same parsing as caretman for 26d.

This puzzle was nicely within my capabilities, even in a bleary Sunday morning state, although I did get held up on the NW corner for a while. I liked 25ac for the misdirection; I spent quite a while trying to start the solution with various abbreviations for soldier, convinced that the answer would mean hard, until I got the initial P from 20d

By: caretman

caretman — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:37:45 +0000

Hi Rishi.

I think the wordplay in 26d is ‘them almost’ = THE, a grand = ’1 G’, giving E(1G)HT.

As jetdoc mentioned, this was mostly quite easy, perhaps befitting of a Sunday puzzle. Thanks, jetdoc, for the solving.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:00:58 +0000

Apologies to jetdoc.

I addressed the above mail wrongly to another regular blogger.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 02:43:20 +0000

Eileen

I didn’t solve this crossword but I have a query on 26d.

If the wordplay is G contained in most of THEI[r] raised, wouldn’t we get IEHT having G somewhere in?

It does not seem to lead one to the answer EIGHT.

Am I missing something?