Comments on: Independent 8026/Rorschach

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:20:15 +0000

@15 Paul B

It’s an attempted &lit so definition = “Is one close in Qatar?” – Qatar being one of the few remaining countries with an official Amir. And then “is one” = “AM I” and the “close to Qatar” is read as “the end of Qatar” which is R

Hope that clears things up!

By: JollySwagman

JollySwagman — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:01:17 +0000

Great stuff R (I’m not going to look around for how to spell your nom-de-puzzle and I’m damned if I can pronounce it). I would say that on the usual Big Dave scale you’d have got 4 for difficulty 5 for enjoyment. I’d certainly give you the latter for this one.

The feel is to mind contemporary and in some ways similar to some of the newer but less frequent Guardian setters. That’s what I like so hope to see you around again soon – maybe over there too.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:14:22 +0000

25D is simply ‘am I r(ight)’, with R a standard abbrev for same.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:29:24 +0000

Been out all evening. Got about half of it done at lunchtime (including the theme) but struggled a bit to complete it. Needed help to get 9ac but once I got it, 5dn was obvious. However, I couldn’t see how 25dn worked, not helped by guessing the alternative spelling of “emir”.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:41:32 +0000

Welcome Rorschach – we solved this in two stages. First stage in Greece waiting for flight to be called on the ipad so we didn’t know who the setter was. It wasn’t until we were home and completed it using the dead tree version that we realised it was your debut puzzle. Congratulations.

An enjoyable solve, a few tricky ones. We needed John to explain the Flanders connection and despite having taught Maths Joyce missed 6d – DOH!

Thanks to Rorschach and John.

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:20:46 +0000

Welcome as a setter Rorschach a rather tricky debut to me, probably explains the Thursday slot. Definitely a test this one.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:50:03 +0000

Being a ‘slow’ solver at the best of times, I found this one ridiculously easy, finishing around the 3 minute mark. I don’t know why? Just seemed to be on the same wavelength as the setter

Jokes aside – thanks to John for a brilliantly lucid overview. I suppose I think of London as “the City” betraying my anglo-centric roots but I couldn’t point you to a precedence for this? The OX of OXFORD DON comes from OXO cut short (cut stock).

And thanks to all of you who commented for making what is a surprisingly nerve-jangling experience into an enjoyable experience. Special thanks to Anax, Klingsor and the indomitable Arachne who have all helped me in their own ways. And major props to Eimi – the ‘sine qua non’ of the Indy cryptic world!

Many thanks – Rorschach

PS. Kathryn’s Dad – no offense intended – I suppose the point was misdirection rather than poor taste. Apologies.

By: Arachne

Arachne — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:58:57 +0000

A flying visit to say how much I enjoyed this debut by Rorschach. Fab new talent, great originality, enormous potential. More please! TTFN. Love & hugs, Arachne x

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:31:30 +0000

Yes, a sound and enjoyable first puzzle, but certainly a challenging one. Some nice inventiveness around the grid: I thought ORDINAL was cleverly done and liked BRANDO too. I could handle some more like this – well done to eimi for introducing a new setter to the Indy stable.

(On a slightly negative note, in 3dn, many people find the use of the word ‘retard’ in the way it’s used here offensive.)

Thanks to John for the blog and congratulations to Rorschach on a fine début.

By: Newton

Newton — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:56:25 +0000

Sorry, missed Q’s post too