Comments on: Independent 8,034 by Tyrus (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 14/07/12)

By: Graham Pellen

Graham Pellen — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 06:45:17 +0000

26A The clue is “female alone”, sola being the Latin adjective when describing something alone that is female, as opposed to solus when the noun is masculine and solum when the noun is neuter (there are many further refinements depending on the case of the noun and whether it is singular or plural).

By: redddevil

redddevil — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:40:36 +0000

I’d like to say I enjoyed this but combo of much obscure vocab and pointless/unhelpful ‘clue relationships’ spoilt any fun I might have had.
I’m sure it is very worthy…

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:22:20 +0000

Spotted the possibily os a Nina early on and on getting LIMA the thought flashed through my mind that it’s anagram of Mali, so I probably had less problems than some even if some of the answers were never likely to come straight to mind.

Had to wait a while to start this, my other half bought me the paper but we were doing a firework display at Bleinheim Palace trying to dodge torrential rain, cannon fire, orchestras and mad horsemen – not ideal for the solving process.

Cheers Tyrus really enjoyed it and of course Simon H for unravelling a couple of anagrams I really couldn’t be bothered to do!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:41:11 +0000

Very enjoyable, tough but very satisfying. It was quite a while after solving it that I saw the significance of EIGHTSOME REEL. Can’t have been easy to fit all that material in with the Nina in top and bottom rows. Many thanks, Tyrus, and Simon.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:30:15 +0000

Just keep Etruscan out of it.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:00:46 +0000

Great puzzle. It took me a long time to see the countries but it was very satisfying when enlightenment finally dawned.

By: Tyrus

Tyrus — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:34:37 +0000

Thanks to Simon for a nice blog and to everyone else for their comments. Just sorry Meg Ryan couldn’t make an appearance.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 18:13:54 +0000

Yes, the puzzle’s based on a really nice thought. Tyrus is a cracking setter, I think.

By: Tramp

Tramp — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:21:11 +0000

Excellent puzzle

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 12:32:57 +0000

Thanks, everyone. It’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one to have a bit of a struggle.

Sidey – well spotted. I hadn’t noticed the relevance of EIGHTSOME REEL at all, but that’s actually very good indeed.