Another very interesting year at the Indy as the new editor, Eimi, who took over early in 2006, puts his mark on the paper. The main features are a continued move towards themed puzzles and attracting many of the top UK setters to set for the paper.

This review lists the number of puzzles by each setter and my average solving time. I do not approach puzzles in ‘race the clock’ mode (my first run through the clues invariably takes about 6 mins) but I think it’s interesting to note the times in order to compare the setters and see whether a puzzle is hard or easy.

One result of the policy change for me is that it’s taking quite a lot more time to solve puzzles (average 29 mins compared with 20 mins before the change of editor). Interestingly average solving times for the four setters with a weekly slot remain about 20 mins with the rise occurring because of the other setters. In practice, themed puzzles with pre-determined words or letters appearing in the grid forces harder words into the grid.

I think some potential new solvers might become fascinated on seeing the solutions with so clearly thematically related words in the paper and there’s no doubt that a fresh challenge is being created.

This blogger believes the daily puzzle should be able to be solved - subject to a last word or two to verify - during the breaks in a working day, and without having to consult dicts. This has generally continued to be the case for the Indy - I’ve had the odd frustration with a themed puzzle (esp those associated with eg film launches with lots of thematic entries) but have always got there in the end.

It’s also good that the harder puzzles often appear on Saturday - where there is more time to solve it.

If there are lurkers here who’d like to get started on Indy puzzles, but would not have time every day, I’d recommend at first to tackle the four weekly regulars (Virgilius - generally Tues, Dac - Wed, Phi - Fri, Quixote - Sun - IoS). These have everyday vocabulary and clues, which are rigorous and straightforward, which, with practice, could be solved by all. I’d recommend a book such as Chambers Crossword Manual or the many other guides that are available to how clues are constructed and the principles involved. But it’s ultimately just entertainment and all the setters and the editor aim at this, I’d say.

My favourite puzzle of the year was BLAIR “morphing” (as Eimi put it) into BROWN on the day of the changeover (by Morph, of course).

So finally my personal solving times for 2007 in ABC order of setters.

Please note errors are my own (do not reflect on setters in any way) and, while I’m deep into all this, I’m not and never have been, nor ever will be, one of the superfast solvers but do like my ‘fix’ as the withdrawal symptoms when there was no puzzle on 29 December showed.

My fastest solve was Quixote on 4 March (7 mins) and the slowest Nimrod’s (100 mins) on Christmas Eve in the puzzle where all the setters’ names were built in. This year I’ve recorded the dates of puzzles, though I’ve not kept the puzzles themselves. If any setter would like to know the solving times for their puzzles please contact me, through this site or my own email address which some will know.

So for each setter the stats in the form (total puzzles, puzzles with errors or unfinished, average solving time in minutes - for solved puzzles only)

Bannsider (10 puzzles, 0 with errors or unfinished , 55 mins), Dac (51, 4, 21), Eimi (4, 1, 31), Glow-worm (5,0,23), Hypnos (6, 1, 21), Mass (6,0, 34), Math (10, 1, 24), Merlin (8,1,25), Monk (13, 1, 47), Mordred (8,1,28), Morph (9,0, 41), Nestor (11,1,55), Nimrod (34, 4, 51), Nimrod & Tilsit (1,0,23), Phi (52, 3, 21), Punk (12,0,36), Quixote (51,0,20), Scorpion (7,0, 62), Tees (11,4,41), Tomohiro - one of the regulars with a special puzzle (1,1,NA), Virgilius (51,2,20)

Very tough puzzle to finish the year. There is a theme, which I’ll give after the clue explanations in case anyone wants to have another look at the grid. I found it after 14 mins, but solving took 50 mins in all. I’m confident of the answers, but there are quite a few I do not fully understand. These are listed below.

* = anagram < = reversed

ACROSS

8 A CORN Oaks from acorns . Corn(wall)

10 DENTOID (note)* in did = made do

11 ALEWIFE From Mistress Quickly in Henry IV and maybe others by the Bard.

12 (T)OKAY

19 S(HE)NANDOAH he in (a hands-on)*

21 EMIT “Time is the enemy” Time<

23 AMPULLA (All up ma)<

25 ENROBES (SE borne)<

26 EARLS “What real spoilt kids ultimately become?” (real)* last letter of kids. But I don’t understand the definition. I thought an earl might perhaps be a breed of goat but it seems not.

27 STAMINODY (It’s Monday)*

DOWN

2 NOHOW “Auditor’s expertise under any conditions”(5) “Know-how” but ‘under any conditions’ seems to mean the opposite of NOHOW so I’m a little perplexed.

3 WIND Part of orchestra = only some players

4 INCA “Carmel, say, is Peruvian (4). I wrote this in straightway and it was confirmed by crossing letters but I don’t understand the reference to Carmel (thanks neildubya for explaining this - Carmel in California ie IN CA)

5 TA (K (E H) EA) RT Nestor and Kea are NZ parrots and also pseudonyms of one of the top setters who originally comes from there. Nestor in the Indy.

6 HOL (I’S)M Favourite clue. “One’s hiding in tree seeing the big picture?”

7 MAD COW DISEASE (was diocese)* = cow disease. BSE = first letters, but you could say this clue has no definition.

14 STEED For once, a TV or film reference I understand - main character in Avengers way back when.

15 THE TA An army well-known by solvers.

18 AI(M A BL)OW (lamb)* in (Iowa)*

22 ERNIE Another one I wrote in straightaway and had confirmed by crossing letters but do not understand “Wise going around Northern Ireland climbing?” It’s Ernie Wise, I think, and NI but I do not see the rest. (Thanks R Heald for this - N in EIRE (Ireland)<)

25 ELAN Hidden in both.

Theme: Top and bottom rows spell IN WITH THE NEW

Monday is usually the day the crossword editor sends down a “loosener”, such as the recent series of pleasing, humane Rufus puzzles.

This isn’t a usual mundane Monday, so he’s let loose the mighty Enigmatist upon us.

The following is the result of some fumbling, some help from Mrs. Stan, a fair amount of broadbandage <<and no little help from Commenters below>>.

ACROSS

1 T-SQUARE : Well, it is used as a rule and “as”=QUA, hooker’s heel=R, all in TSE (half of tsetse) <<thanks Foggy Web>>

5 PONTIFF : (PINTOFF)* Benedict is the current Pope

10 UNCO : What would New Year’s Eve be without Rabbie Burns. “Unco” is a very Burns way of saying “very” - ”regular” is a Crosswordish indicator to take alternating letters tUrNaCtOr

11 M(A,URITAN)IA - beheaded puritan, AIM backwards around it <<thanks to Foggy Web for the explanation>>

12 ROSTRA : plural of rostrum, and hidden in (clouded by) cirROSTRAtus

13 WINDPIPE : Air Duct that is also WINE (port) surrounding DPP (director of public prosecutions) holding I <<thanks to Croque for the explanation>>

14 Finally, a straight anagram I can leave out ‘cos we don’t do them all here

16 GNAR-L - which is L-RANG in reverse <<thanks again to Croque>>

17 OSSIA - First advantage of sleeping with a woman with a Music and English degree - Mrs. Stan knows about this - an alternative passage in a piece of music.

18 ST.AG(n)ES-HOW : Second advantage : Mrs Stan knows Keats’ “Eve of St. Agnes Day” - take the “N” out (unnamed) and the rest is WHO’s anagram. CATS is a Stage Show.

23 V-A(P(OR)I)S-E : A little vague on the word play, but you divide V-AS-E by PI. Not sure how “/2″ becomes OR

24 ONSIDE : Too easy if you know cricket and soccer, probably impossible if you don’t

25 ELEVEN-PLUS : (VENUES-PE-LL)*

26 LOIN - Can’t work out the explanation, but it is a cut. I had (S)NIP, which I still feel is a valid solution.

28 R(WAND)AN

29 PRIMULA - “marsupial” minus “as”, then anagrammed. A Primula is something from the garden, which is why I had no earthy chance of getting it <<Thanks for the rescue, Comfy Settee>>

DOWN

2 Straight anagram omitted here. Do you know the way we work here by now?

3 U-BOAT : TABU reversed around O

4 RAM-PART : very droll wordplay

6 ON-I-ON-S : Working is ON - I is first and S is second

7 TRAPPINGS : fancy clothing and the results of trapping

8 FLIP-PER : More cricket knowledge required , Shane Warne’s most feared weapon was this type of ball. A “flip” is an old-fashioned mulled drink, and “per” means “for every”

9 OUT-WITH-THE-OLD : Not sure of the origin of the term, but it’s a very New Year’s Eve thing to say

15 PRISON-VAN : Clever Cryptic Definition - the other type of “sentence”

18 SH(ALL)OW

21 OLD-BILL : Mrs. Stan strikes again. Carroll’s poem runs “You are Old, Father William” - which gets condensed here to Old Bill - slang for the police.

22 SI-ENNA : ANNE IS backwards

25 SALEM : Lot 13 would be sale m (m=13th letter), with knock-down being a reference to an auction. Salem is the State capital of Oregon (not the witch-trials town - that’s in Massachusetts).

There are comments on this following the blog of Dac 6614 (Fri 28 12 2007)

Solving time: 35 mins, three missing (14ac, 44ac, 35dn)

This Christmas special from Araucaria contained 6 works by Thomas Hardy. I started well enough, spotting the anagram at 18ac to crack the theme very early on, but slowed down towards the end. I couldn’t bring the title at 48ac to mind, and a mistake in the enumeration (in the online version, anyway) at 41dn helped to make the bottom right corner a bit of a trauma.

Any suggestions on 42ac, 44ac or 38dn would be most welcome.

Music (1ac): Hey Jude by The Beatles.

* = anagram, <– = reversal, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.