Comments on: Independent 7776 by Bannsider (Saturday Prize Puzzle 17 September 2011)

By: Bannsider

Bannsider — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:02:30 +0000

Thanks for the comments and especially to mc_rapper67 for the blog. Helpful and fascinating as always. I can confirm that there was no theme lurking in the puzzle.

By: mc_rapper67

mc_rapper67 — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:32:29 +0000

Thanks for all the feedback – general consensus seems to be that it was a much-appreciated toughie…

I haven’t got started on today’s Nimrod yet…fingers crossed…

By: jmac

jmac — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:54:52 +0000

Great to have Bannsider back -lets hope we don’t have to wait so long for his next one. Wondered if there was a music theme going on with 12, 20, 26ac and elsewhere, but maybe just imagining things.

Your lucky fortnight Flashling, Nimrod today!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:45:17 +0000

Yes, this was very good and one of the toughest of the year. Esp liked LED ZEPPELIN, WANTONLY, RUMOUR HAS IT, TUB, ONSIDE, BASLE. Had never heard of 1 across but (eventually) the wordplay confirmed it pretty clearly. Only one I did not understand till coming here was SPENDER. Thanks, Bannsider and mc_rapper67.

By: ele

ele — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 08:47:07 +0000

Feel quite proud to have completed about half of this – and got caught in the taxi trap as well.

By: MikeC

MikeC — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 07:45:29 +0000

Thanks to both setter and blogger. Hard but do-able – except that I fell into the TAX(i) trap and never got out of it. I had initially thought that we were heading towards a pangram (1a initially looked as though it might be SQU…), so I never seriously questioned the X. We live and learn!

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 06:43:35 +0000

Sorry, that link hasn’t come out properly – probably because of the space between stupid and o’clock – which is there in the original – but it’ll take you to the right area.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 06:38:09 +0000

Tough but solvable, with several “oh, of course” moments. Last in was 1a, worked out from the wordplay and confirmed by googling, which gave this reference – http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stupid o’clock – and a vague idea I had heard the expression before.

By: Ali

Ali — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:59:04 +0000

Ouch. I never even saw this one, but don’t doubt that I would have struggled to get even halfway, if indeed I’d managed break into it anywhere.

That being said, I’m not disheartened. Even with all checking letters, I can’t think how I (or others) would ever be able to look at the wordplay ‘poet with drug for male’ and think “ah, that must be A.E Housman with E replacing man”.

Brilliantly hard stuff though. The crossworld is all the better for puzzles like this.

By: flashling

flashling — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:58:24 +0000

Cor blimey it were tough, didn’t finish, so thanks for the blog, dunno why I find Nimrod and Bannman so hard to get. What makes a setter tough to impossible compared to say Dac/Phi?