Guardian 24436 – placeholder

14 comments on “Guardian 24436 – placeholder”

1. Mostly pretty easy, I thought, but I was puzzled by 5ac:

   Indirect strike only half completed (5-2)

   to which the answer must be KNOCK-ON, but “strike” seems to be doing double duty in the definition (“Indirect strike”) and the wordplay (“strike” = KNOCK, plus half of ONly). or am I missing something.

   Also in 29ac:
   Different girl, one in Italy, to approve of (7)

2. Oops, finger trouble there. Was going to say, in 29ac “girl” and “one in Italy” both define UNA in the wordplay, which is a bit unusual.

3. If KNOCK-ON is an adjective, then ‘indirect’ is a good definition on its own.

4. 5 across. ‘Indirect strike’ could be a way of describing a knock-on effect.

5. Fairly straightforward puzzle.

   29ac has duplicate indciations, ‘girl’ and ‘one in Italy’, for UNA.

6. Gosh. 4 comments came in while I was typing mine!

   5ac: KNOCK-ON means indirect as in ‘knock-on effect’; strike=KNOCK + ON(ly)

7. I think the girl reference in 29a is to specify una rather than uno both are one in Italy

8. Can anyone explain 7d to me? I have corkboard as the answer but don’t get the ‘C’ the rest is perhaps OR K(ING) and BOARD is food as in board and lodging, but really don’t see it yet!

9. Rich: CARDBOARD – with kings and queens being playing cards

10. 7dn: I had CARDBOARD

11. 7D I have CARDBOARD as “(food) without substance” from “Maybe king or queen” giving CARD then “food” for BOARD, though as you see it relies on “food” doing a linky kind of double duty.

12. Rich, it’s actually CARDBOARD
    Def: “Without substance”
    CARD (King or Queen) + BOARD as in Board & Lodging

13. Sorry, Manehi, you just beat me to it. we seem to be all falling over each other today!

    So 29ac would work perfectly well without ‘one in Italy’, though a bit weak.

14. Thanks All, feel pretty daft not seeing that!

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