Comments on: Independent 7,271 by Morph

By: Mick H

Mick H — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:13:11 +0000

Er, yes, well, you know the way they’re meant to put tiny imperfections in Arabian carpets because only God’s perfect… think of it like that. Cheers, Richard!
Thanks for all the comments – interesting you mention the Kosovan Liberation Army Neal, I was going to use them first but wasn’t sure how firmly lodged they were in the national consciousness, so I plumped for the pointy-hooded racists instead.

By: anax

anax — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:32:22 +0000

Yes indeed – very well spotted indeed. Crikey Morph; that’s some grid fill you’ve managed there.

By: Richard Heald

Richard Heald — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:23:30 +0000

Well spotted, rightback – and a very nice touch from Morph. However, it seems the R of TRAWL has jumped over the STALAG wall into the wrong half!

By: rightback

rightback — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:15:15 +0000

Agreed that 18dn doesn’t quite work (maybe “What’s” would have worked better, meaning “What [answer word] is [constructed of]…”), but I loved ‘Loth to go in’ at 8dn.

I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned that 1ac and 27ac hint that the left-hand side of the grid contains a lot of Ls but no Rs, and vice versa on the right.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:45:53 +0000

Agreed with everyone — the general view is that this is good. My only ever so slight criticism of Morph’s crosswords is that some of the clues are a bit long.

In this one, I felt that 18dn didn’t quite work: Certainly ‘Infected one after lift in vehicle?’ would give BACILLI, and with the addition of ‘What’ we have the definition. But how does ‘What’ fit into the wordplay? It seems that Morph is trying to produce an &lit. (and almost succeeding) but the two versions fit uncomfortably together. To my mind anyway. Perhaps I’m missing something.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:43:15 +0000

I enjoyed this and found it fairly easy. Favourite, OLD MASTER.

By: NealH

NealH — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:02:49 +0000

It probably took me slightly longer to understand some of the clues than it did to complete the puzzle. Ras as an Ethiopian prince was new to me, although I suppose I should have known it from Ras Tafari. I didn’t think of Klan for 17 across – I thought it was referring to the Kosovo Liberation Army (didn’t pay enough attention to the unnamed bit). Also, the slightly unusual spellings of agly and rösti slowed me up a bit. 20 across was my favourite clue as well.

By: Derrick Knight

Derrick Knight — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:15:55 +0000

I agree. Thanks, Morph. I particularly liked 20 across. 23 down was an interesting subtractive anagram.

By: jetdoc

jetdoc — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:20:56 +0000

Lovely puzzle today — I didn’t find it difficult but I did find it amusing and entertaining. I particularly like 8d — brilliant definition, even if it is strictly for those who know their cricket. Thanks, Morph.

By: anax

anax — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:20:11 +0000

Seemed a bit easier, eh?

Well, to be fair I made a rapid start, but ground to a halt after about 10 minutes with half a dozen empty slots, so many thanks for the early blog Simon!

Nice to see another outing for Morph, and a puzzle with several fine moments. Big ticks for 11a (yes, OK, “tie” used twice but it’s a super image), 22a is a lovely spot, 6d made me grin as I was thinking – surreally perhaps – “slip” as in pillow slip, and 19d felt unexpectedly new (some may grumble about “for” but I think the clue is worth it).