Comments on: Independent 7807/Punk

By: Quixote

Quixote — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:09:02 +0000

I rather enjoyed this. Overcoming the fear factor was the main thing. It took me from Oxford Coach Station to the Ridgeway cutting on the M40, so not quick! Mind you I’m not dreadfully happy about five-letter words with only second and fourth letters checked, but let’s not pursue that one.

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:01:09 +0000

@Pierre 20 replies!! A real blogger now Better than me.@ Stumped glad to help, and think back to the future, I’ll say no more. @Will apart from getting the amateurish wrong they seemed fair enough. My only real let down was the lack of saucy sexy clues we expect from punk/paul

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:27:43 +0000

This took me absolutely ages, and although I have to admit that it is all very clever I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy it very much. These clues that cross-reference other clues are irritating, particularly near the beginning when it’s all a mystery. I didn’t help myself by taking a very long time to get 6dn and 7dn, so the theme didn’t become clear and by the time I got these I was so fed up that I failed to grasp that ‘at sixes and sevens’ meant ‘at cowboys and Indians’. My fault.

Allan_C@14, I rather enjoy the Surrey town because it reminds me of Frank Muir and the Egham Literary Institute.

One or two rather unsatisfactory definitions I thought: ‘such histrionics’ for ‘melodrama’, ‘iron-rich item’ for ‘red meat’, ‘lacking any vision’ for ‘dreamless’, ‘cowboy’ for ‘amateurish’. But that’s just sour grapes.

By: stumped

stumped — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:21:25 +0000

flashling: Much to my surprise I finished Araucaria’s recent prize and his midweek. Went back to another of his prizes and did very well on that too. On the other hand, I did say “some”. I’ve seen comments on his tougher puzzles. Have almost finished Bonxie’s prize from Saturday.

I’ve only been back into the fray about a fortnight now. Recalling much of the old tricks, but must say daily puzzles were easier back when the earth was young…

Thanks for the guidance on retrieving archived puzzles from Indy. Ironically enough, their IT dept replied today to an old email claiming there’s no way to access older puzzles. Amazing, innit!

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:37:56 +0000

@16 stumped Araucaria easy?? – umm ok maybe we have rather different mindsets. I think Dac and Phi here are generally easier to get into but they can set some real killers when you aren’t expecting it.

By: stumped

stumped — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:29:35 +0000

No worries Pierre.

I recently restarted cryptics after a very long time away from them. At present Guardian’s easier daily ones (Rufus and some Araucaria) are par for course. Besides I dislike Indy’s rather clunky presentation.

Just kidding about Soho. It’s (was, late 70′s/early 80′s) a very interesting place during the day.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:16:48 +0000

Hi stumped.

If my first sentence put you off, apologies – it wasn’t meant to! And I realised almost as soon as I posted no 6 that it was open to misinterpretation. To be clear, it was an on expenses business lunch …

Funny how others have had the back-to-front solving experience that I had. But most seem to have enjoyed it, which is the main thing.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:36:33 +0000

My experience seems to have been much as everybody else’s, only getting the gateway clues near the end. Thank goodness there were a few fairly straightforward ones to get started with. It might be time though to retire Surrey town/Egham; it’s been on the crossword scene for what seems a very long time.

By: stumped

stumped — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:42:59 +0000

Didn’t even attempt this after seeing the brief preamble by Pierre on the Home Page.

Pierre: I worked for a while in Soho Square (computer company) around the time you last visited there in your “professional capacity”. We spent many a lunchtime in local pubs. Let’s just say “Lola” by The Kinks doesn’t even begin to describe some of the off-duty professionals one encountered

By: duncanshiell

duncanshiell — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:52:39 +0000

I enjoyed this puzzle very much as I slowly worked my way through it. Many of the clues were very clever with a great deal of lateral thinking required. The first two theme answers I got were SITTING BULL and CRAZY HORSE so I thought we were just looking for Indian Chiefs. Eventually I got AT SIXES AND SEVENS, sometime after I got PLAYING. Then I tried to fit INDIAN into 6d before I realised that it went at 7d. I thought 34a must be EGHAM before I got RED MEAT which confirmed it.

At 21d, although 14d is KID, I thought the 14 referred simply to the age fourteen to give TEENAGER. I think a KID these days is possibly considered to be younger than a TEENAGER or at least cover the under 13s as well as TEENAGERS.