Independent 7646 by Radian

16 comments on “Independent 7646 by Radian”

1. Thanks, flashling.

   I too have struggled in the past with some of Radian’s puzzles, but I just about got there today. It all fell pretty steadily, with the SW corner being the hardest for me. I put in REPEATED without really understanding it, so thanks for the explanation of that one. (In the online version the enumeration is given as (8) but the grid shows it as (2,6). I thought I was in Another Place for a minute.)

   I smiled at REACTOR and also liked NEUROSIS today. I agree with you about UNEDITED, btw – I can’t really see how that works.

   Good puzzle, nice theme (which I didn’t spot, natch).

2. Thanks, flashling.

   I always look forward to a Radian puzzle and this was no disappointment. Yet again, I failed to look for a nina, which was quite brilliant, as it went round the edge.

   Along with the other clues already mentioned, I particularly liked 6dn, with its reference to William McGonagle’s egregious poem, ‘The Tay Bridge Disaster’, which begins:

   “Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
   Alas! I am very sorry to say
   That ninety lives have been taken away
   On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
   Which will be remember’d for a very long time.”

   [You can read the whole poem here:

   http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/poems/pgdisaster.htm ]

   I agree that UNEDITED is rather puzzling. ERRATA usually applies to items that have, in fact, been edited, but the word actually means ‘mistakes’, which therefore need editing. I was always rather puzzled at school that, in other subjects, we headed our revised attempt ‘Corrections’ – and in French, ‘Corrigé’ – whereas in Latin, we wrote ‘Errata’.

3. Having crossed the Silvery Tay less than an hour ago I very much enjoyed the reference here and the whole puzzle. TIA MARIA went unfilled-in as I pencilled in TEA and failed to think of anything other than weird teas before arriving in Dundee. Missed the Nina completely despite being convince there must be something on the perimeter – if I had seen it I might have corrected 7ac.

4. My belated apologies to Mr McGonagall for misspelling his name.

5. Tho the grid cried out Nina from the start, I did not spot it, even tho I read around the perimeter. Quite tough, esp SW corner, my favourite clues were CROUPIER (I’d not share flashling’s reservation, though here the homophone does not involve any spelling change just the word split in two) and DEGRADE.
   Thought UNEDITED was OK with the adjective clearly indicated, but it was a pretty tough clue – in fact the last I got. Thanks, Radian, and flashling.

6. Hi flashling, you will know I hope that my comments yesterday were not at all meant as a criticism of the other members of the Indy blogging team! I know how time-consuming putting the blog together can be, especially when you have other commitments like earning a living … and anyway, there are always plenty of people who will be more than happy to help to explain a clue if newer solvers need some extra help.

7. I think the 11 in the clue for UNEDITED just refers to a football team rather than the answer to 11 across.

8. Not sure about that, Joins at #7. The clue was “Like 11, team takes heed rejecting odds”. 11 in the puzzle was ERRATA. If the wordplay is ED (heed rejecting odds = HEED ignoring letters in odd-numbered positions) in UNITED (team), “Like 11” looks as if it has to be the definition.

   It made be think of books, not fully edited, in which it was necessary to give a slip with ERRATA.

9. Thanks flashling.
   Nice puzzle to round off a very good crossword day.
   A bit easier than the other 2 but still a good challenge.
   The surface to 5 down was very clever ,if unpleasant!
   The grid cried out ‘Nina’ which I had to Google to find,I suppose the inscription on UK pound coins runs anti clockwise as well.I can’t check as we still use paper Pound notes here in Guernsey.

10. The inscription runs both ways, it depends whether you look at the coin from the obverse or reverse! From the obverse it runs clockwise and the letters are the right way up. From the reverse the letters are upside down. So if I had to plump for one then I’d say it runs clockwise. However, this is based on a sample of one.

11. Colin @10 and 3
    The inscription can run either way; probably something to do with the minting process. Not that I spotted the nina.
    And I too spent ages trying to make 4a some sort of tea – until I got ‘mighty’ for 3dn and got all the crossing letters.

12. A bit late to chime in, but how on earth could you write something on the milled edge of a coin from left to right and NOT have it going anticlockwise?!

13. Thanks all,for your help.
    Thomas99 – A very good point and obvious now you mention it.
    3 dimensional thinking is not my strong point!

14. Clockwise or anticlockwise? The point being made is that if you hold a coin edge-on to read the inscription, the coin may be obverse up or obverse down – i.e.coins are not minted with the orientation of the inscription fixed relative to the obverse and reverse. (Actually most of the pounds in my pocket today have got the inscription ‘Pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad’)

15. I don’t think Thomass99’s point is obvious at all. The inscription on the coins edge is neither clockwise nor anticlockwise if you look at the edge. If you look at the coin from above you could say it is anticlockwise, if you look at the coin from below you could say it is clockwise. The direction depends entirely on which way you view the coin. To put it another way: If you look edge-on you need to rotate the coin to read the text letter by letter. If you rotate the coin from above you would rotate it clockwise. If you rotate the coin from below you would rotate it anticlockwise. The direction of rotation is relative to the frame of viewing.

16. To bring this back to crosswords the same problem does not exist since they are two-dimensional objects. Certain Listener puzzles may break this!

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