Comments on: Independent 8146/Radian

By: Raich

Raich — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:54:06 +0000

It is perhaps implicit to the introduction to the blog and to the comments, but, just in case anyone did not notice, five “non-cat-related” answers included the letters CAT in their correct order. This aided solving.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:44:09 +0000

More about Ulster. Collins gives two meanings – “(1) a province and former kingdom of N Ireland … partitioned in 1921, six counties forming Northern Ireland and three counties joining the Republic of Ireland. (2) an informal name for Northern Ireland.”

By: BertandJoyce

BertandJoyce — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:47:27 +0000

We enjoyed the theme and happy with ERUPT especially given the theme.

We also had an incorrect spelling for 24ac!

Thanks to Radian and John!

By: Kathryn's Dad

Kathryn's Dad — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:34:25 +0000

A lovely puzzle. I’m sure I’ve seen the CATS AND DOGS theme done before, but this was nonetheless most enjoyable.

I was happy enough with ERUPT; in fact I thought is was a nice piece of misdirection given the theme. CATALYSIS was my other favourite clue.

And indeed, NI and Ulster are not the same, except in a colloquial sense, I suppose; but as Thomas says, the setter lives in Northern Ireland, so if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:13:35 +0000

Correction to 4: Yet again, I have missed out the second I in “definition” – and almost did it again typing the correction.

While I am back in, I was happy with 3dn as an incomplete “& lit” – the wordplay genuinely uses the whole clue even if the definition does not.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:10:56 +0000

Thanks Radian for a puzzle with much to enjoy – and a highly topical theme given current UK weather – and John for the blog. I did not get 4dn and got the spelling wrong at 24ac.

12ac: An obscure word to me, but very precisely clued so that the answer could not be anything else once the checked letters were in place.

1dn: Lovely defintion.

14dn: I would prefer “including” to “include” in this clue. This is a point I have made on previous occasions: the cryptic indication is perfectly all right in itself as a complete clause, but does not sit comfortably after the linking word “of”, which (in my view) needs to be followed by a noun phrase.

15dn: I share the concerns about the lower-case “bolt”.

20dn: This clue succeeds where 15dn fails in getting a natural capital on the word “Hardy”.

21dn: Maybe “start” in the singular only indicates the first letter, but it works all right in the plural for one or more letters of the two words.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:52:17 +0000

Re 7d – for the record, Radian lives in Northern Ireland…

By: Paul A

Paul A — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:38:59 +0000

Signal failure on the commute this morning – for an hour. So 5d raised a wry smile….. Gave me a chance to finish it though

By: allan_c

allan_c — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:35:04 +0000

“Are Ulster and Northern Ireland the same?” Strictly speaking, no – but the terms are commonly interchangeable, and not only in Crosswordland.

And I agree with you about 15dn – we had the same point raised the other day over jaguar/Jaguar.

But a well-crafted crossword and a satisfying workout. Despite the quibble my CoD has to be NIMBUS.

Thanks, Radian and John.