Comments on: Independent 8070 / Anax (Saturday Prize Crossword 25/08/2012)

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 21:48:30 +0000

Excellent as we have come to expect. What some people are missing because they don’t do the Independent. Agree with B&J — 3d was magnificent.

I had qualms over Hans being regarded as a German, but they were groundless — my Dutch brother-in-law was called Hans and I’ve always regarded it as a Dutch name, but obviously it’s Johannes, which is German. The old edition of Chambers, which I kept because of its section of names, doesn’t to my surprise have either Hans or Johannes.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:09:11 +0000

Yes, I too thought it was on the easy side for an Anax, but that’s not to say there weren’t a few challenges along the way. Never heard of a RUM SHRUB, and couldn’t figure out 14d, simply because I never thought of ‘ferry’ as a verb. On the other hand, with about three crossing letters HALL OF RESIDENCE was a write-in.

So thanks, B&J for the explanations – and of course Anax for the challenge.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 17:22:52 +0000

Thanks to everyone, especially Tim Phillips for the first comment and Anax for dropping by.

Wi-fi now possible for at least a week so should be able to contribute without too many problems.

flashing – no Turin supporters in sight but there is a festival tonight (and tomorrow!) in the very small town where we are staying so you never know ……..

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 16:21:23 +0000

As ever was excellent fun from Anax, even though I failed to get see why Mermaid Theatre was right, loved the devious definition in 22ac.

Thanks B&J hope you had a good trip, I only had one night in Italy, somewhat unfortunately I was in Turin the night that Liverpool fans killed a load of Juventus fans back in 1985…

By: anax

anax — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:50:22 +0000

Hello friends. Super blog bertandjoyce, and thanks to all for adding your comments.

Yes, as Lenny says the 8/9 combo is a corruption of the recognised form, but I was attracted to it after remembering the joke that goes something like:

“I’m not saying she’s fat, but when she sings… it’s over”

Always made me giggle.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:37:04 +0000

Thanks B&J. I enjoyed this. Seeing that it was an Anax, I started early expecting it to last me all day. It fell out quite easily though, perhaps helped by the friendly grid. Unknowns for me were Shereefs, Burn Rates and Rum Shrub but the wordplay was clear.

As Tim P says, the fat lady answer is not quite the usual version of the quotation but I carefully ticked off the letters of the anagram and found that I had WHEN left over.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 12:30:53 +0000

Ditto what Tramp said.

By: Tramp

Tramp — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 08:15:26 +0000

Thanks Anax and bertandjoyce.

Superb puzzle with too many excellent clues to list. I loved the ‘over time?’ definition — genius.

By: Tim Phillips

Tim Phillips — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 07:56:48 +0000

Pretty chuffed that I got almost all of this – I’m a mere amateur amongst most of the bloggers on this site – so a word of advice to others who are not as dedicated as them (cue stream of abuse…!):

Always check the EXACT parsing of the clue. For 5a I had TILL, which we checked as the correct quote (having questioned TILL -v- [un]‘TIL) but this doesn’t fit the anagram or, indeed, the syntax of the clue.

Therefore no hope of getting 6d or 7d, hence missing a great laugh-out-loud solution at the latter.

Similarly, I just couldn’t see how 22a worked even though the solution was obvious from all the crossing letters. But it is all there if you look hard enough, and would have opened the door to BURN RATES if only I had spent another 30 seconds before giving up.

Always remember this is supposed to be an enjoyable pastime!