Comments on: Independent 6785/Virgilius

By: eimi

eimi — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:54:28 +0000

Re: Tryout. Collins and Oxford both have the unhyphenated version. Where there are discrepancies between the dictionaries I use the Collins version, except with Beelzebub puzzles where use of Chambers is recommended.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:08:03 +0000

Thanks. That explains the need for ‘originally’.

By: petebiddlecombe

petebiddlecombe — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:39:15 +0000

Geoff: by the 1999 edition, COD had changed to “plastic peg” - which just reflects the fact that you won’t see many golfers using sand these days.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:00:15 +0000

“17 TEES - a tee is a pile of sand and a river but I’m still not sure how the clue actually works: “Piles of sand originally found in river”. Is it just a simple double def? ”

Chambers and the on-line Collins and Oxford dictionaries define ‘tee’ as a (plastic or wooden) peg with a concave top etc. with no mention of sand. I am not a golf historian but I can imagine that the predecessor of the peg was a small pile of sand hence the ‘originally’ in the clue.

Having just consulted my 25 year old COD, I find that ’small pile of sand’ is included as part of the definition for ‘tee’. Perhaps someone could confirm that this is still in the current version. If it is then ‘originally’ is superfluous.

By: Ali

Ali — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:03:45 +0000

Classic stuff indeed. Didn’t we have a SEAS/SEIZE/SEES puzzle from Virgilius not long ago too?

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:34:07 +0000

Yes, another great themed puzzle from Virgilius - I agree with you about ATTILA.

By: rayfolwell

rayfolwell — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:14:07 +0000

Apart from the homophones of T, every answer had at least 2 T’s in it. I hadn’t spotted the T’s in the grid.

Chambers has 11A hyphenated (3-3).