Comments on: Independent 7857/Dac

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:22:41 +0000

3dn. A SPA RAGUS
It’s a + spa (spring)
inside (swallowed, haven eated) ragus
ragus is reverse (laid up) of business tycoon, Lord Alan SUGAR

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:34:20 +0000

Wil @9 re 8dn: I took “to top of” as meaning “before” in a down clue.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:11:52 +0000

Thanks for the cover today Pierre. Apologies all round. @Wil #9 just makes the surface read better for me.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:53:30 +0000

Well done Pierre producing the blog so quickly. Agree with you about how Dac goes on producing these excellent crosswords week after week.

One small quibble though, something that’s very rare for me with a Dac crossword: it seems to me that ‘top of’ is redundant in 8dn. The clue is ‘Unfamiliar way to top of Himalayas, perhaps’, giving STRANGE, but it seems to me that the clue could perfectly well have read ‘Unfamiliar way to Himalayas, perhaps’. Or is ‘to top of’ another way of saying ‘atop’? Presumably it is, because the range is the Himalayas, not the top of the Himalayas.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:52:08 +0000

Thanks for explaining 2d. We were afraid there might have been a misprint at first and then came up.with a very convoluted explanation with ‘n o’ for name of. Must be later than we thought.
Thanks to Pierre and Dac.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:46:58 +0000

Pelham, I like your version of PLEASANT better. I was a bit uncertain about my way, because you have to take two letters off the first and only one off the second, which the Good Reverend would get away with in Another Place, but is not common among the Indy setters.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:11:46 +0000

Thanks Dac for the puzzle and Pierre for the blog.

1ac: I took it as PLEA + SANT(a), but Pierre’s version also works.

14ac: I think this is TERM + IN + (SET A) reversed, where Set A is the top class.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:08:53 +0000

Thanks all. Should have seen LANG, obvious now that Allan’s pointed it out; TERMINATES a bit more tricky, though, as I was looking for a simple insertion as indicated by ‘the reverse’. And touch typing is a skill I have never regretted learning at the age of 18, Gaufrid …

Now the panic’s over, I thought this was another excellent puzzle from Dac – week in, week out, he produces some lovely surfaces and a range of clever cluing.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:45:37 +0000

Pierre
Many thanks for offering your services at such short notice. I certainly didn’t expect you to have something published within 36 minutes!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:35:30 +0000

There are “Dedlock” characters in Bleak House.