Comments on: Independent 7791/Dac

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:49:41 +0000

Nice one, Dac. Finished in just two passes; last in was ARABISM. Too many appealing answers to nominate a favourite.
Re 7d, it could quite easily have been ‘Cassie’ – except no-one’s made a biopic of her yet.
And well done, Bamberger!

By: sidey

sidey — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:26:00 +0000

Belated congratulations Bamberger, it seems a very short time ago that you started any crossword.

and would a setter use Paki? Azed has more than once.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:44:33 +0000

Bravo Bamberger!
And Flashling, I am not on your side re 7d. Actually, I liked the device very much.
As ever, a lot of praise for the Great Setter known by the name of Dac. Rightly so.
Among many fine clues, I particularly liked ORANGE FREE STATE (13ac).
Only letdown for me: LEEDS (12ac). I am not happy with the definition (Football team). Just not clean enough – the team’s called Leeds United. ‘Leeds’ as such is a bit meagre.

But it couldn’t spoil another one of Dac’s “Light Masterpieces”.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:20:40 +0000

Can’t find the link to NMS, do the English get upset at being called Ros Bifs, Poms, Limeys or Sassenachs – I don’t. I think “thick Mick” is another matter and would a setter use Paki?

@Pelham you’re also assuming the setter meant the word classified and not a word meaning that… (I’ve thrown the paper away and the on-line doesn’t work on my computer for some reason so I can’t double check the clue)

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:21:23 +0000

nmsindy@15: Really I meant that the letters removed could not all be consecutive, rather than that no two of them could be consecutive. I think the use of “here and there” in the clue precludes removal of a single set of consecutive letters.

My calculations were based on the interpretation as I have (I hope) clarified here.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:03:40 +0000

Re Pelham’s point, I don’t think the clue confines the reduction to non-consecutive letters, and, depending on which ‘I’ you left in, it could be 4 non-consecutive letters, or using the ‘fi’ as John did in the blog. An unusual construction but quite fair for the reasons Pelham gives.

Re flashling at #9, I must admit I do not recall saying that to be honest. It would really not be for me to say if it would offend some people or not. The query would have to be more generally put. I suspect it might upset some people however which I guess is something to seek to avoid where possible.

Also not sure if it’s quite on the same level as ‘Jock’ but I’d even less authority to comment on that. I hope tho that K’s D is not communicating with his Scottish neighbour by email only…

By: ele

ele — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:57:11 +0000

Congratulations Bamberger @5. You beat me on this one as I fell at the last post and failed to see Arabism. Spoiled the three in a row I was aiming at this week. Could only think of atavism which was obviously wrong. Thanks to Dac as usual for a lovely puzzle and thanks to John for the blog

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:00:14 +0000

I’ll take your word for it, Pelham!

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:51:28 +0000

Correction to 11:

“203 ways of removing four non-consecutive letters from ten” and “word or phrase” (not “of”).

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:32:57 +0000

Bamberger @5: It is always a nice feeling the first time you complete a particular type of crossword. Well done.

7dn: I quite liked this clue type, which we might call a “pruning”. The requirement to drop a number of non-consecutive letters from a word in the clue was clearly signalled, and the free choice of letters to drop may be compared with the free choice of rearrangement of the letters in an anagram.

I do regard it as an essential feature of this clue type that the “pruning fodder” is a word (or phrase) actually contained in the clue. I would regard an “indirect pruning” as equally objectionable to an indirect anagram, for much the same reasons.

For the mathematically minded, I reckon there are 203 ways of removing four letters from ten, reducing to 131 when proper account is made of the double S and the two Is. This might compare with 118 possible anagrams of a five-letter word, or 362,878 of a nine-letter word of phrase (20ac or 6dn), reducing to 181,438 allowing for the one duplicated letter in each case.

Notes:

1. I am not counting an exact reversal as an anagram.

2. If suitably provoked, I will show my working for the above calculations.