Comments on: Independent 8083 by Nimrod

By: JollySwagman

JollySwagman — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 02:27:27 +0000

Enjoyable solve – the Nimrod pleasure without the Nimrod pain. I wondered whether he had consciously watered it down a bit but there was still plenty to chew on and savour.

Thanks for the blog Neal but I don’t think it’s fair to use the word unfair lightly.

If you have a personal dislike for a setter’s style, fine – say so – that’s another matter – but I don’t thing it’s fair to make a broadside criticism of a setter without justifying it with specific examples. Nimrod clues are often tough but rarely if ever unfair – in fact one (only one) of his trademarks is the clue that appears at first sight to be chatty and overwordy but on later inspection turns out to be 100% watertight and free of redundancy.

Here I found 8th for August fairly obvious – NASA from Curiosity less so, not being a space-probe geek, but I presumed my guess to be correct.

Anyway – many thanks to both – it was fun and didn’t take too long (for once).

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:17:27 +0000

Definitely not my day for crossword solving. After several attempts and only getting a couple of clues, finally seemed to make a start late in the day – end then dried up again. Thought I’d be better employed reading a book at that point.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:49:56 +0000

The mysterious non-blogging continues.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:02:43 +0000

I doubt if rowland’s comment (#4) was meant as a direct criticism of today’s blog, but whilst it is nice to have the clues repeated in the blog I don’t think it’s something we can expect as of right. The bloggers are a varied bunch of people, some of them obviously with jobs to hold down, and the amount of time they have to devote to blogging varies accordingly. And they don’t get paid for it either. If there’s a need to check back to the clues there’s little problem if you do the dead tree version, and online there’s always crossword solver.
Btw I’m not a blogger commenting under another name.

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:41:48 +0000

Thanks Eileen.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:27:51 +0000

Hi flashling

The Anax birthday puzzle is here: http://bigdave44.com/crosswords/ntspp-135/ – a tad harder than this one, you might say, and well worth a go!

Many thanks to Neal – and to Nimrod for another great puzzle.

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:19:38 +0000

I found the quiptic in the Guardian tougher to complete than this, seeing Nimrod as a monday setter was a bit of a shock and wondered if it was the Anax celebratory puzzle, if it is it’s too subtle for me!

Thanks Neal, Nimrods are never easy to solve or blog.

By: Gervase

Gervase — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:00:13 +0000

Thanks, Neal.

I’m not a regular Indy solver, but today’s Guardian blog has not appeared and I thought I would try the Nimrod, as comments had already appeared. And I know this setter as Enigmatist in the Grauniad; his puzzles are never a walk in the park, but a rewarding challenge.

This was typically good fun, with some complex and amusing wordplay. The ingenious cryptic definitions are characteristic (‘mess about by the sea’ – the crossing letters made ‘the 8th’ perfectly acceptable for me, though I needed the G and the O to solve the clue). USE-BY DATE is splendid.

By: Donk

Donk — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:35:53 +0000

Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, many thanks to Nimrod and also to NealH for explaining a few that I couldn’t quite fathom myself. A solid challenge for me, but very rewarding with many excellent clues – absolute favourites being 13a, 1d and 22d.

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:23:50 +0000

Many thanks, Neal.

On discovering who the setter was, my version of ‘urrgh’ and ‘oh heck’ was ‘chuffing nora’; but the solving experience was the same. I wouldn’t exactly say it was Nimrod-lite, but with a bit of perseverance it was gettable, and fun. I liked GUANO and USE-BY DATE especially; and although TASSELLY was a bit left-field, I thought that was a good one too.

Thanks to Dr H for the entertainment this morning.