Comments on: Guardian Cryptic N° 25,661 by Arachne

By: brucew_aus

brucew_aus — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 06:05:48 +0000

Thanks all

Started off very quickly with this one and was heading for unusual disappointment from Arachne … but then came the sting in the tail !!! The contest went on until early this morning – having to go back and fix MECCA to MACAU, ENGINEER to ENGENDER and IMBASE to IMPURE.

15A was last in and it was a severe struggle – was absolutely dependent on internet help – thought that it may have been HEWS / HUGHES for a while but eventually settled with HEWN without being able to find Mr HUHNE.

Was disappointed to see that my TORN APART – TO RN(navy men) APA[CHE] (curtailed American) RT (right) – was not correct. The TEA PARTY based answer is of course much better – but means the setter wins this one !!

Well done Arachne for the challenge and look forward to the next one.

By: Freddie

Freddie — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:02:58 +0000

PeterO @14

Yoopered refers to the *upper* peninsula of Michigan (U.P), probably a reference to the fact that men are driven to drink due to the very low ratio of women to men (most likely historical). Yoopers are the butt of jokes in same way that Irish, Polish and Newfies (Newfoundlanders)

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:42:55 +0000

@PeterJohnN well allow me to disagree, although I rarely have the time to post the clue these days it’s a good reminder when you check the following day to find what you missed. Anyway enough, bed for me.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:36:03 +0000

@PJN #40 Check out the Independent blogs, they are a work of art.

By: PeterJohnN

PeterJohnN — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:34:31 +0000

…and I should have said, one doesn’t need to copy out the whole clue, only the definition part.

By: PeterJohnN

PeterJohnN — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:30:27 +0000

Duncan S? Who he?!

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:25:55 +0000

Underline definitions … actually I started that back in the day when I had time but Scchua has carried on the practice and improved upon it, the biggest problem is the copying of clues, underlininging etc takes a long time, much more than most readers suspect.

As for Duncan S’s blogs, well they are something else.

By: PeterJohnN

PeterJohnN — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:47:01 +0000

Thanks Arachne for another great puzzle, and PeterO for another great blog, underlining the definitions!

First in was 10a TIMESIGNAL, from which I was able to complete the whole puzzle fairly quickly without making a second start, except that I failed to get 15a HEWN, or 23d MACAU.

Like someone else, I had entered HUMERUS in 18d, until I got 24a BIPARTISAN.
I am of the school who think that in 7d STATION, STA = Santa, as in Santa Maria. ST alone does not imply a female.

When I read the clue to 17a, I was reminded of Picaroon’s “answers to clues” on yesterday’s blog, which were posted at 10.51pm! The latest posting on that blog, as I write, was at 6.35pm today!

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:33:29 +0000

I took 9d as STA being female saint having been burnt that way before, lots of lovely stuff – hope you got to the pub before closing Arachne, and many thanks, was a fine run around.

By: PeterO

PeterO — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:15:31 +0000

iz @33

Welcome. In 9D, sta makes for a perfectly reasonable parsing of the clue. I chose to parse it as I did because 1) Arachne is well known for choosing the female gender (and why not?) where many would go for a default male, and 2) there is a spare ‘a’ in the clue, which could be there just for the surface, but is better treated as part of the wordplay.