Comments on: Independent 7983/Dac

By: Allan_C

Allan_C — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:53:36 +0000

If I may answer John’s question @12, a gateway clue is the one, in a crossword with several linked clues, which when solved provides a starting point for solving the rest of the linked clues. Incidentally it may not be the same one for all solvers; for instance in Tuesday’s crossword the gateway clue was said to be ‘elementary’ but for me it was ‘large Hadron collider’ which I somehow spotted from a few crossing letters.

By: John

John — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:53:21 +0000

What are ‘gateway’ clues, Paul B?

By: eimi

eimi — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:45:37 +0000

Those who enjoy a variety of crosswords should perhaps let the people at the i know that the letter-writer doesn’t speak for everyone – otherwise we may have vanilla puzzles imposed.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:16:45 +0000

Not rare in the sense “in full fig”. Well, I use it all the time.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:10:50 +0000

@Dormouse Figurine rare no, but FIG=DRESS I’d suggest is a tad unusual…

@PB please don’t give up the themes, not all of us want typhoo Tees;-)

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:03:17 +0000

Definitely a bit hard but I did complete it with some e-help. Knew 27ac was an anagram, but I couldn’t see it so I did an anagram search. And curiously I needed a word search for 22d, which was obvious once I saw it. A word search on 24ac failed to find an answer, and then I saw it. Not a tree I’d heard of, but I guessed it ended in “ash” and was able to work it out from there.

Is “figurine” a rare word? I knew it, which is more than I can say for “phototaxis” and “derris”.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:47:45 +0000

Please don’t blame Glueball K’sD! Yesterday’s was a fantastic crossword, we want more like it!
As far as Dac’s puzzle is concerned, we weren’t that convinced at first by 27ac as Chambers only listed ‘derry’ as a plant related to peas and beans. When we checked on-line we found that it was a woody plant and we were then happy about the anagrind ‘trampled by’.
No real quibbles really, a few obscure words but the cryptic parts were clear so you couldn’t really complain. After yesterday’s tour de force though it just made today’s offering a little less challenging.
Thanks Dac and John!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:21:50 +0000

Glueball getting it in the neck from Jean twice in as many days. Note to self: stay off the themes for a while.

Re 27 (Woody plant trampled by riders) this is not a construction entirely strange to me I must say, with its inverted logic ‘answer is bashed version of something else’ thingy. It would have worked with ‘Riders trampled woody plant’ just as well, but in The Independent we are dealing with artistes, it should be remembered, who are used to a free mode of expression and poetic licence. And entitlement to ‘gateway’ clues.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:13:23 +0000

I’m definitely in the ‘harder than usual’ camp, and only just managed to get over the line. NEAREST is fair, but perhaps not Dac’s best ever clue, and I still don’t understand PHOTOTAXIS, since the definition is clearly ‘movement in the light’; but how do we get PHOTO from ‘take picture of’? Dac’s invariably precise with his clueing, (although I wasn’t mad keen on DERRIS either) so I’m missing something, no doubt.

A letter in the Indy i today critical of the crossword! (And no, it wasn’t me under a pseudonym.) I blame Glueball.

Thanks for blogging, John.

By: Jean

Jean — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:47:13 +0000

Good one. Not too easy but far more accessible than yesterday’s!