Comments on: Independent 7,822 / Nestor

By: RatkojaRiku

RatkojaRiku — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:01:36 +0000

@ Lenny: I would agree with you about Ivor Cutler not (no longer?) being a household name, but I suppose Nestor compensates for that by setting a simpler clue.

@ Richard: what a lovely way to spend a lunch break! I really am quite envious.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:25:03 +0000

Thanks RR. I found this a very entertaining and not too difficult effort from Nestor. Like others, I sometimes ignored the convoluted wordplay and went straight for the definition. Rope is a case in point, which I guessed might be an anagram of the external letters of outer place although I am sure RR’s explanation is the correct one. I thought Eniac and Ivor were a bit obscure for a daily crossword. I loved Ivor Cutler’s contributions to the John Peel programme but, unfortunately, I don’t think that he was ever a household name.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:01:52 +0000

No, that would have resulted in an adjectival phrase defining the noun. Naughty! The wise one has been most diligent here, as in all his mighty works.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:07:42 +0000

Paul B @5. Thanks for the ROC explanation. I still don’t see how an air bag is a “SITE of sudden inflation”. The word ‘site’ seems rather inappropriate in this context. I suppose the more obvious “Designed for sudden inflation” would have made the clue too easy, though.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:00:44 +0000

ROC = huge bird (of Arabian myth); SITE needs to be there to complete the (cryptic) definition.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:13:20 +0000

This is the third day running that I’ve sat at the bar of the pub next door to the office with a colleague and attempted to do the Indie cryptic whilst having a pint and some lunch for 35 mins or so. The last do days we got within two or three clues of completing it. Today we only solved ten clues.
The only good part of it was 14, which made me laugh out loud.
Now that I’ve seen the blog, please can somebody explain why ROC = ‘jumbo flier’ and what the word ‘site’ is doing in 6 dn?

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:55:19 +0000

Thanks Nestor for a nice puzzle and RatkojaRiku for the blog. I started with 13ac while eating an appropriate item, and the puzzle unfolded nicely from there.

I did not get the parsing of either 7dn or 18dn, so thanks for those.

Following Paul B’s comment yesterday, I should like to 16dn formally for raising the subject of pangrammatic clue sets without realising just how unremarkable they are. This is the third one in four days, and none of them looks to have been intentional. I shall now drop this subject until we get one that really does seem worthy of comment.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:23:52 +0000

One of those crosswords where complicated wordplay in some clues is at first off-putting but can later be virtually ignored when a few checking letters suggest the answer. In this case the four perimeter clues fell into that category for me, so thanks, RatkojaRiku, for explaining them.

On the other hand there were some that really appealed – e.g. ANNE BOLEYN, HOOKAH and GRITS.

By: Richard Palmer

Richard Palmer — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:33:03 +0000

Excellent stuff as always from Nestor.

On my first pass I thought 19 had to be ADGE but couldn’t make it fit the wordplay!