Comments on: Independent 8,086 / Nestor

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:10:48 +0000

Well….. had to give up last night and finished the puzzle this morning. We did need the blog though to parse 19ac, 26ac and 21d – all is now clear so thanks RR. We obviously needed to wake up a bit more as the clues were very fair.

Thanks Nestor for the fun!

By: flashling

flashling — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:53:31 +0000

Looking back RR you’ve had all the thursday Nestors for months, not as hard for me as Nestor usually is, nut I guess hardness comes down to seeing the long answers early on.

Thanks RR and Nestor who is clearly a master setter, hopefully hatchets are now buried Flash

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:11:07 +0000

Very inventive and innovative clueing. Hard but not fiendishly so and all adding up in the end. Thanks Nestor and RR.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:03:15 +0000

Just couldn’t see 21dn, maybe because I’m more mathematically inclined than biologically. Also, I managed to get “brow” for 13ac, having got the wordplay reversed, and then was wondering why that was an explosive report.

Couldn’t see the wordplay for 23ac, but it’s obvious now that you’ve pointed it out.

By: Cumbrian

Cumbrian — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:46:32 +0000

I found this hard going, but enjoyable and rewarding, and it all came together after much chipping away. Some convoluted clues, but all fair; I made a couple of parsing errors, so thanks to RR for the blog. Filed away for future use is the Japanese NO drama – I was convinced it was only spelt NOH, but not so!

Favourite clue was probably 18d and/or 14d, with much respect to the lengthy reversal in 28a.

Many thanks to Nestor for hitting the spot.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:22:43 +0000

Tricky but enjoyable which is exactly what you look for in a puzzle. ACID HOUSE sublime – SHERWOOD FOREST a shoe in which can be a problem with longer &lits. Also not 100% au fait with the definition. Many of the other clues were memorable. COLONIST for inventiveness (had IST immediately and took about 15 mins to click with the rest… HOLLOW-EYED for definition, etc. etc.

Thanks both!

Jon

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:37:46 +0000

Thanks for the blog. Mainly a bit easier than I expected – Nestor can be really tough. One or two oddities: I was worried about 22a with “La Boheme” indicating Mimi and I thought he’d forgotten the last word (“…La Boheme soprano” or whatever). But in fact I see that “Boheme” in French can be translated as “Bohemian” as well as “Bohemia” (which is what the title of the opera means). So it’s a better clue than I realised, with the Frenchness nicely indicated by “la”. I also wondered about the indicator in 8d – surely the “laying waste” of Sherwood Forest wasn’t really at issue for Robin Hood so it doesn’t really help define it. Why not “Hood’s resort few found out?” or “rumbled” or something? Still, 9d (Acid house music) is brilliant, as Rowland says.

By: rowland

rowland — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:16:14 +0000

Thanks both. I used the cheat button here, but only through unfamiliarity. When the clues unfolded I saw the simplicity, as was kicking myself, as I sometimes do with the ‘tougher’ compilers. Really good stuff though, from this fellow who must stand alongside Nimrod and Bannsider as a hard taskmaster. Today I liked the ACID HOUSE clue best.

Cheers
Rowly.

By: MikeC

MikeC — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:29:32 +0000

Thanks RR and Nestor. Quite a challenge, with some very ingenious clueing. SPEARMINT and VECTOR were last in for me – both very cunning!