Comments on: Independent 7,947 / Dac

By: Graham Pellen

Graham Pellen — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:16:15 +0000

12D In the descriptions of horses’ colouring in form guides, abbreviations are b=bay; bl=black; br=brown; ch=chestnut; g=grey.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:42:10 +0000

Yes, Rorschach, in Chambers ……
But that’s most certainly not what your question was all about.
The ODE makes clear that it refers to the chestnutty colour of a horse [so, indeed, PB].
Knowing that CH can be justified by ‘chestnut’, it raises the question why I (and you, Rorschach) have never seen it in crosswords. An alternative to the Church? Why not?

As to the crossword itself, I thought it was relatively easy on the Scale of Dac. Which suited me well.
Even so, more than just one Clue of the Day: 1ac, 18ac, 21ac, 12d …

Many thanks, RR.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:28:18 +0000

Good fun.

Has anyone seen CH = Chestnut anywhere else?

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:38:18 +0000

Certainly took me longer than the past few days, but I did complete it without either having to look through a dictionary or doing a word search, which pleased me. MOLDAVIA was first in but I got stuck thinking 5d must begin A MAN WITH…, and then not finding anything that fitted the remaining letters.

Bottom left took me a long time to complete. Kept thinking the engineer ought to be Brunel, especially with Brunel University being in Uxbridge. 16ac was the last in, it being such an obscure word.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:10:44 +0000

Thanks, RatkojaRiku, and to Dac. Been a bit frantic today, so late on parade, but just to say it was another excellent puzzle and that I too carelessly entered CLOSE RELATION for 22ac. SOMERSAULTING was excellent.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:34:05 +0000

@NealH #6 my problem with 1ac was starting with TAKE = R which held me up a bit there.

By: NealH

NealH — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:02:06 +0000

I found this distinctly harder than the last couple of days and took a while to get going. A few preconceptions held me back – like assuming that 1 across had to start with MI and that 6 down must have an Eli inside some abbreviation for church. Wallis was also my last as I couldn’t think of a word for well-informed off the top of my head – not sure wise is the same thing, although you can be “wise to something”, I suppose.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:54:14 +0000

All in all a fine DAC as ever (do you ever see complaints about a DAC?) made a bit of a mess of my DTV on 11ac seeing span and university and tried to enter cambridge without thinking and then halfway through realising it doesn’t fit…

Last in was WALLIS I had _A_L_S and knew it was double L but took me a while to get the name in my head.

Thanks RR for doing the blog, some of us appreciate the effort, and DAC for the entertainment.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:48:51 +0000

Thanks, RR and Dac. Excellent puzzle – pleased to be able to get from clear wordplay, the answers that I was not familiar with – DUMPS ON, WALLIS and the MOLDAVIA form. Esp liked the clues for LITTLE, HATREDS, EXITING, FEAST. Agree with PB’s point at #3 ie the A L (from Liberal) is first and separate from the anagram.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:05:18 +0000

Thanks Dac for a pleasant solve and RR for the blog.

5dn: Nothing wrong with RR’s parsing, but whenever the wording allows it, I prefer to parse keeping abbreviations out of the anagram, so I parsed this as the alternative A + L + *(WHO FULMINATES)

12dn: Very nice clue. I think the abbreviation “ch” for “chestnut” might be used in a list of horses when space is at a premium, although I failed to find such a list in a few minutes’ web surfing.