Comments on: Independent 6793 by Morph

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:19:09 +0000

Many thanks to those who explained the points I missed. Re the Cockney homophone the clue was so short that initially either could have been the definition, but I was fairly confident after I thought about it. I guess for solvers not living in London such references can be a bit tricky esp if they go beyond the removal of an initial h (e.g ‘arry).

Re the nounal anagram indicators, the AZED book contains an explanation on this (why they should not be used) which many of the top setters have found really useful. It does require detailed thought on grammar/syntax (which is not my background) to appreciate it but, if they were to be OK, ‘arrangement’ would seem a good candidate. I just put it in as a casual comment knowing this was a contentious issue, and as there was one in this puzzle (which you do not see too often).

The idea behind the puzzle was very imaginative, and, as noted in the blog, not spotted till the very end, which is good.

By: Michod

Michod — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:28:29 +0000

Thanks for all the nice comments. With hindsight I should have avoided ‘leader’ in 1ac.
6a is, as Geoff says, a dodgy French homophone. The dodgy Cockney homophone at 5d only works one way round, I’d argue, because while ’sandpaper’ may become ’sandpiper’ in Cockney (or Australian, I suppose), the same’s not true in reverse.
As for 21ac, I used ‘Milosevic’s ending’ for -IC on the grounds that it’s not just the last letters, but the suffix of the name (and many other S/cerbs, e.g. Mladic, Karadzic to pick two at random!)
Don’t know why no one wants to talk nounal indicators. I agree with Testy - ‘arrangement’ used thus is surely better than lots of weak adjectives that see regular use as anagrinds.
Michod/Morph

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:31:34 +0000

SANDPOIPER: Unusually for me for a homophone, I didn’t have any doubt about this - but you see, earlier I’d tackled today’s Guardian’s “My Fair Lady” offering and had cockneyisms on the brain. I actually thought that it was more Dick van Dyke than Eliza Doolittle before I realised I was doing a different crossword.

LEADERLESS: I was really put off by the word “leader” appearing in the clue.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:23:55 +0000

I thought this was great. My only problem was with the ambiguity at 5D where the checking letters unfortunately did not help.

Otherwise really excellent stuff. I agree with comments 1 and 2 above.

Regarding 1D I could understand Nmsindy’s first niggle (although I’m happy with that sort of thing) but don’t get the second. Given that “far” is part of the anagram fodder and “off” is the anagrind, the definition is just “country (self-styled)” so it doesn’t matter how near or far it is (unless he was going for an &lit which I don’t think is the case).

24A (at the risk of picking at the scab) I don’t have problems with nounal indicators in general anyway but I think that “arrangement” ought to be the least offensive of all of them even to the strictest of Ximeneans.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:56:52 +0000

6a Could AD ZE be a homophone for ‘had the’ in a broken French accent?

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:55:35 +0000

18A NOC is definitely a well-used abbreviation for No Overall Control (in the lists of local elections results)