Comments on: Independent 7752 by Nestor (Saturday prize puzzle 20th August 2011)

By: Zoila Galindo

Zoila Galindo — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:31:58 +0000

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By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:45:24 +0000

I forgot to mention twencelas’ query about Daughters. I think many abbreviations embrace the plural, particularly currencies: L can be pound or pounds, and measures: M can be mile or miles. In genealogies you see 1s2d for 1 son 2 daughters. I think setters use the plural option in abbreviations to improve the clue surface or, possibly in Nestor’s case, to obfuscate it

By: superkiwigirl

superkiwigirl — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:20:44 +0000

Many thanks, twenceslas, for your excellent blog (hope you are enjoying your time in Chamonix) and NESTOR for a very entertaining puzzle.

I found this difficult, spending a lot of time head scratching, and it wasn’t until I read the blog that I could understand the parsing of clues like KERCHIEF and ONE LINER. Yet, when I look back, all of the clues are very fair, there are no solutions that aren’t words or phrases in common usage, and I think that the difficulties that I encountered stemmed from the clever misdirection that twenceslas has referred to.

There were some really lovely surfaces here, and favorites included LICKSPITTLE, POINT OF NO RETURN, ONCE OR TWICE, and KREMLINOLOGIST. I also had a good laugh over MASSAGE PARLOUR.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:50:16 +0000

Thanks twencelas. This was quite a chewy offering from Nestor and I stared at a blank grid for some time until I got Kremlinologist with its straightforward definition and anagram. Then, like twencelas, I just picked away at it until I had finished. I enjoyed the naughty Massage Parlour. I also thought the clue for Fowles was quite original. I thought the clue for Presoak was a bit indirect because it involved getting an abbreviation and then including it in the anagram fodder. That was my penultimate, followed by Bedivere who I had never heard of but guessed from the wordplay.