Comments on: Guardian 24,448 (Puck)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:16:39 +0000

I took it to mean that Saints (which M, M, L & J are) aren’t responsible for any MISDEEDS. To answer Diagacht’s comment - they aren’t all the Saints, but they are all saints. Hmm: not one of the best clues, I thought.

By: davey b

davey b — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:49:28 +0000

3 down Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in such a girlie group? No 19 for them!
Can anyone please explain the reference to No 19?

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:14:55 +0000

I’ve just looked at the placeholder blog, and Andrew’s suggestion (Comment 16) makes perfect sense of 4d’s ‘on the contrary’: i.e. not UNDIES* during F but F during UNDIES.

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:03:41 +0000

I don’t understand the explanation for 21ac: surely it’s an anagram of FUN FOR + S (half of US)?
16d: ‘Parleyvoo’ can informally (colloquially/in slang) mean ’speak French’, ‘the French language’ and ‘a Frenchman’.
10d: I agree with Barry that the clue makes more sense as indicating an anagram of CAN A MOLE + (E)XIST (i.e. EXIST headless).
5d: I took the final C to be short for ‘cent’ (sounds like ["radio report"] ’sent’).
I still don’t fully grasp 4d: why ‘on the contrary’?
Quite a tricky puzzle; I have to admit I didn’t get half a dozen of these (though some of the other clues where quite straigtforward.

By: David

David — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:30:51 +0000

Diagacht: I’m not sure about C=Charlie in 5 down. I’ve offered a different explanation in the placeholder blog. What do you think?

By: David

David — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:26:06 +0000

Shed: to dog is to follow, and leg refers to the ‘on’ side in cricket. (As opposed to the ‘off’.)

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:13:59 +0000

I was rather disappointed with 26ac. Presumably it’s “VIRGO” but I thought “ill-tempered woman” for “virago” was a bit of a stretch.

By: Shed

Shed — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:04:50 +0000

12 ac: the wordplay is surely TRIPLE/X (for XXX). I don’t understand 9ac, which must be FOLLOW ON, but what’s it got to do with dog-leg? Otherwise I enjoyed this.

By: Barry

Barry — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:01:24 +0000

Ref 10d I think the “with head cut off” refers to the e in exist rather than the e in mole. It seems more logical to me.
Ref 16d Parleyvoo. Why is this informal Frenchman? The only memory I have of that word was in a rather vulgar WW1 troop song which I think was titled “Mademoiselle from Armentieres”
Apologies if I have broken any comment courtesy rules, this is my first attempt.