Comments on: Independent 7,794 by Mordred (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 8/10/11)

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 21:39:39 +0000

I must have been a bit thick as I never spotted the theme. Not helped, perhaps, in thst all I could think of for 5d was ‘bans’, having a vague idea I’d come across the word in the context of humour. Actually what I was thinking of was ‘bams’ – Sir Walter Scott refers to “the Laird, whose humble efforts at jocularity
were chiefly confined to what were then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes” (Guy Mannering, ch 3)
But a satisfying puzzle, all the same.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:50:36 +0000

Thanks Simon and Mordred.

I read 23 as a partial anagram. So ‘to feel passionate’ = BURN and ‘things that gang agley” = THINGS* = SNIGHT. Does this make it an &lit?

Enjoyable puzzle.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:30:27 +0000

If Lenny’s “standing up before court” in 28a it could be Lenny Bruce, couldn’t it? He was beset by dreadful (and unfair) legal problems.

By: sidey

sidey — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:10:28 +0000

If Love in the Time of Cholera was intended it is a spectacular coincidence with last Saturday’s Paul in the Graun.

By: Polly

Polly — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:03:20 +0000

10ac: the whole clue supplies the definition, surely (but GO is part of the anagrind, not of the anagram itself). 15ac could be Benny, though the same reservation might apply as in the case of Russell Brand. 23ac: passion is often linked to the idea of burning.

I wonder whether the echoes in 2dn of Chesney Allen and Buster Keaton were intended, and – moving away from comedy – liked the suggestion of Love in the Time of Cholera in 6ac.

A very satisfying puzzle.

By: sidey

sidey — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 09:10:23 +0000

Interesting puzzle. I can’t see the definition in 10 across.

Walter Sparrow https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Walter_Sparrow possibly, or either of the comic characters Simon or Jack.

Cook is surely Peter. Brand is possibly Jo.

Beyond could be Beyond the Fringe or Our Ken.

And choler was one of the four humours.

Thanks Mordred and Simon.