Comments on: Independent 7938 Tyrus (Sat 24-Mar-2012)

By: eimi

eimi — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:44:34 +0000

I’ll see what I can do, jolly swagman @5. There’s another on its way on which I have written ‘lovely’ twice and ‘brilliant’ once. Like a parent, one can’t admit to favourite children, but it’s fair to say that none of the Indy setters makes me laugh out loud as much as Tyrus.

By: Tyrus

Tyrus — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:08:15 +0000

Many thanks for the blog and comments.

Credit where it’s due. A friend of mine, Paul, first suggested the FC anagram – I only had to add the ‘Harry’.

By: Conrad Cork

Conrad Cork — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:58:08 +0000

13 across. Genius, absolute genius. Tyrus is up there with the greats.

By: JollySwagman

JollySwagman — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:47:13 +0000

Late in as usual – thanks for the excellent blog BM, but I think the comments in your header understate what a fantastic puzzle this was.

I didn’t find it easy at all but the difficulty was never devilish, nor caused by overstretched synonyms etc, so for me it unfolded gradually and with enormous fun along the way.

13A and 14D absolute gems.

Despite my sporting ignorance I got all the references except Evert/Norman and her goodself know that from the “human interest” angle.

Wish we could see more of Tyrus – more for the wit than the difficulty.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:25:25 +0000

At least we did not have to know any referees’ names. But we were expected to know that Greg Norman was married to Chris Evert. I know so little about football that I had to cross off the letters of the anagram to get Capello’s first name. Golden Generation was also a new phrase to me. Ultimately everything was accessible though.

I thought “End up with her” was a palindrome indicator so I put in Ada so it took me a long time to sort out my error and get my LOI Maintain.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:04:19 +0000

Thanks Tyrus and beermagnet (I won’t ask you what team you support…). This was very amusing esp the anagram at the heart of it. I find Tyrus one of the hardest Indy setters and this was hard all right tho not quite as hard for me as some Tyrus puzzles of the past. I guess Tyrus being hard is why it was scheduled for a Saturday. BTW, I’d associate the Golden Generation with those going to Germany in 2006 where, it was said for quite a few years ahead, they would really have a good chance of winning given the fairly close location and the players that were there.

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:33:13 +0000

A bit of a toughie from Tyrus and, oh dear, we’re back to footie. But it was solvable without too much specialist knowledge.

I guessed GOLDEN GENERATION referred to a group of footballers without knowing which ones.

Re 5d, surely to NET the ball is to score.

Thanks, Tyrus and beermagnet

By: Tramp

Tramp — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:38:10 +0000

I loved this puzzle. I loved the PENALTIES clue — I thought the LOSING to GERMANY part was superb. The ‘Golden Generation’ is what the crop of players that went to the last World Cup were dubbed. They failed miserably and, as ever, were home before the postcards. This explains the excellent surface for that clue. The FABIO CAPELLO surface paints an evocative picture of Capello’s reign being a flop and the call for Harry (Redknapp) to take over.

Super stuff.