Independent on Sunday 1,667 by Tees

11 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,667 by Tees”

1. 

   Tatrasman

   #1 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 10:43

   
   

   I couldn’t parse 5A as I never think of by = at or vv, must try harder! I thought there might be a theme today based on being the Queen’s 70th anniversary of accession, but the only reference (maybe unintentional) seems to be at 24A. Very enjoyable anyway so thanks Tees and PeeDee.

2. 

   Rabbit Dave

   #2 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 11:20

   
   

   This was good fun although I did have a couple of concerns. I am not convinced by the use of “capital” to indicate the first letter of a word that doesn’t start with a capital., and I think 2d is the American term for what we call an “extractor fan”.

   I agree with Tatrasman @1, by = at seems counterintuitive to me, but it often crops up in crosswords.

   My top three were BEDLAM, VIGNETTE and MAJOR BARBARA.

   Thanks to Tees and Pee Dee.

3. 

   WordPlodder

   #3 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 11:47

   
   

   ROOSEVELT was excellent and too good for me. Some other hard ones like OBTAIN (couldn’t parse) and MAJOR BARBARA made this tougher than your usual Sunday.

   The surface for PALATE was my favourite… sort of.

   Thanks to Tees and PeeDee

4. 

   jane

   #4 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 12:33

   
   

   As our blogger found, this was far easier in retrospect than it was at the time of solving!
   Top three for me were BEDLAM, VIGNETTE & TIRED.

   Thanks to the prolific Tees and to Pee Dee for the review.

5. 

   PeeDee

   #5 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 13:43

   
   

   Re capital – one of the meanings of capital is “placed at the head”, hence the first letter. The capital letters idea is a bit of a red herring.

6. 

   Alliacol

   #6 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 16:22

   
   

   Perfect Sunday puzzle. 1A my LOI and favourite.

7. 

   allan_c

   #7 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 16:57

   
   

   A generally straightforward and mostly satisfying solve.
   We weren’t too happy with SEA COMBAT, though. We’re not aware of it as a common expression like ‘naval warfare’ and it’s not in Chambers at any rate. And we don’t think the clue works very well, we’re not sure that ‘conduct’ as a continment indicator and if you take ‘conduct a search’ to indicate ‘comb’ as a verb it’s not obvious where the extra A comes from.
   That apart, though, there was plenty to appreciate. We particularly liked BLUNDERBUSS and MAJOR BARBARA.
   Thanks, Tees and PeeDee

8. 

   TFO

   #8 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 17:25

   
   

   Thanks both. Agree this was difficult but fair, though I feel at odds with the definition of ASSESSMENT – I am familiar with the tax sense that the amount to be paid is determined by an assessment, but can’t think of a context whereby it refers to the amount itself

9. 

   the last plantagenet

   #9 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 17:35

   
   

   I’m not sure either that SEA COMBAT is a thing that should appear in a grid, but I rather liked the ‘conduct’ idea. It was easy enough to solve at any rate, especially with an easy definition. The ASSESSMENT thing worried me too, but it is in Collins as ‘an amount determined as payable’. Other than that, smooth as ever, if a little more ‘chewy’ than he normally is when appearing on a Sunday.

10. 

    Petert

    #10 - Sun 6th Feb 22, 18:48

    
    

    I was another with doubts about “conduct” as a containment indicator, though SEA COMBAT seems ok as a phrase. My spelling sometimes goes to pieces in down clues, which meant a had ROOSVELTE for a while. It seems so obvious when you write/type it.

11. 

    Tees

    #11 - Mon 7th Feb 22, 09:57

    
    

    Looks like you went with SVELTE, which is the word I was abusing at the time.

Comments are closed.