Comments on: Independent 6680/Phi

By: Jill and Tamzin

Jill and Tamzin — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:06:52 +0000

That was a weird word. We pressed the cheat button a couple of times in this.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:41:36 +0000

I also made the Assam mistake, as well as carelessly putting in DIANA at 16, as well as being only able to think of guava as a fruit, so the unusually fast start juddered to a halt. Never heard of viognier -thought it might be vnonneel, which seemed almost as likely.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:10:13 +0000

I loved that Spoonerism clue too, especially as a lack of pies to anyone English is potentially so serious a problem. And with wine also prevalent, can anyone doubt the motives of this fine, upstanding (most of the time?) compiler?

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:01:41 +0000

Ahhhhhh, now I know why I couldn’t get 1D, 2D and 3D! I too had ASSAM at 11A. With KABUL there, all the other answers fall into place.

I thought this was a bit trickier than the average Phi, but it was an appropriately good challenge for a hungover bus journey. I loved the Spoonerism clue!

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:59:24 +0000

You and me both, Testy. I also wrote in ASSAM assuming Assam might be the capital of Assam (it isn’t and had it been I’m sure Phi would have been more precise.) I then compounded this by putting in BATS rather than STAB at 2. It took me a while to unlock that top corner.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:46:45 +0000

I surprised myself by doing well with this, given what I thought was a pretty poor knowledge of 28a. Evidently, the Friday night bottle of wine has left some sort of impression beyond the Saturday morning hangover! A lot of words here that were straightforward enough to guess without fully understanding the wordplay helped, too (10ac, 12ac, 3d…)

11ac defeated me, so thanks for explaining that one.

By: Testy

Testy — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:16:01 +0000

I struggled with the theme (even though all but one of the grapes were known to me).

I have to admit I went for ASSAM for 11A ( “a mass” with the first two letters cycled to the end) but Assam is just an Indian state and not a capital.

GEOMETRIC is G for Government CIE (short for compagnie, the French version of Co.) reversed around METRO*.

I liked the “spoonerism” clue as I’ve been waiting for the day it would turn up as an answer rather than an indicator (but despite this it still took me a while and made me chuckle when I got it).

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:09:51 +0000

GEOMETRIC Cie is abbrev for Compagnie in French (a bit tricky for a daily puzzle) G = Government (metro)*