Comments on: Guardian Cryptic N° 25,679 by Arachne

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 01:10:05 +0000

I’m feeling your pain Derek, don’t worry.

By: rhotician

rhotician — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 23:00:45 +0000

Derek Lazenby @24: re tally-ho

I’ve noticed that ? at the end of a clue sometimes indicates, let’s say, a bit of a joke. This one certainly made me smile.

By: Martin P

Martin P — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:03:02 +0000

All jolly good for me except “lair” (odd definition layout but bald) and “coiffing” (ugly latin/germanic and too many possibilities for fairness).

Anyway, please come again

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 18:53:04 +0000

Splendid puzzle, one of two halves for me.
I found the left hand side much easier than its counterpart, even if I couldn’t explain some of my entries (like Euphoria).

I particularly liked: 19ac, 24ac, 26ac, 4d, 7d, 21d and 22d.
Whoa, that’s a lot!
Not so keen on LAIR (10ac), just a bit too obvious.
And GYMNAST wasn’t on my radar either, because cryptic definitions are usually not on my radar anyway.

Kathryn’s Dad @9: “Disappointingly, no smut today; Arachne must have been going through one of her white as the driven snow periods when she set this one”.
Don’t worry, only last week she told me something [containing the word 'rude'] that will make you look forward to future puzzles!

Thank you, dear Arachne, for a great puzzle and 27ac in particular!

And many thanks to you PeterO for a magnificent blog

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:33:54 +0000

Derek
Thanks,how silly of me to forget that.
To forget that men and women can dress up in fancy dress, jump onto expensive horses (and risk injury to both),chase a pack of dogs (also expensive) and hope to catch a ………piece of rag.
All the while, quite legally shouting tally-ho, or practically anything they wish as long as it’s not foxist.
Hey-ho.

By: gm4hqf

gm4hqf — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:32:36 +0000

Thanks PeterO and Arachne

I never quite manage to complete puzzles by the Spider Lady.

CHANGELING and CRISP beat me and I wasn’t very happy with COIFFING

Roll on next time!

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:50:40 +0000

Maybe, but that’s only half of it.

By: William

William — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:41:34 +0000

Derek @24 Did you possibly miss the meaning of sinister as = left?

By: Derek Lazenby

Derek Lazenby — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:26:48 +0000

Tough puzzle and with the comments just goes to show how ignorant people are. Tally Ho is not illegal and never will be, and is still used by Drag Hunts and people in general when setting off on some expedition or other. Neither is it of itself sinister, only one particular usage might be considered that by squeamish folk. (Note, what I think of that usage is not stated, before the usual idiots jump to conclusions)

By: William

William — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:23:16 +0000

Thanks to all (Eileen, MonkeyPuzzler, PeterO, and RCW) for the embarrassingly obvious ‘criminal’ reference to hunting. How could I miss that?

RCW @21/22 exactly my last 3 in also. Nice reference to Crispa – much missed. Your comment prompted me to look her up and I didn’t realise that she was the first compiler to set for all 5 national broadsheets (as they were then). Quite an achievement.