Never knowingly undersolved
John I am usually trying to write a clue in some clue-writing competition or other; and it is nearly always tortuous. In Dac’s case none of his clues are tortuous: they all seem to be perfectly natural, and they always have a simple and strong surface. Why it should be that the words Dac clues are so different from those that I try to clue is beyond me. Actually they’re not: it’s just that he is rather better at it than I am.
Definitions underlined.
In a way (but only a way) my heart sank when I saw what I was going to have to blog: Azed’s specials are always excellent but take ages and are often very complicated. I was unsure that I’d be able to cope, but it’s all done now and any mistakes have now been made, I’m afraid.
It’s a long preamble, which I won’t repeat, except to say that there are two types of clue, occurring in more or less equal numbers. In half of them (and in these clues I’ve put (D) by the answer) you have to define the answer by finding a spoonerism in the clue. In the other half, which I found more difficult, certainly at the start — I had about ten of the first type before I got any of this type — the clue leads to a spoonerism of the answer, which is always a word in Chambers. So in these cases the answer isn’t actually defined and perhaps that’s what makes it so difficult to get started on them. In the first case the subsidiary indication is normal and in the second it leads to the actual word in the answer, not the spoonerism of it.
Really good. Definitions underlined.
It wasn’t difficult to guess what we would be meeting today.
As usual an enjoyable and sound crossword from Dac Phi (my apologies for calling Phi Dac — I have a suspicion that this isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Well they do both have three letters in their name. I must cure my Dac-obsession.). I found it a bit tricky in places, but once a clue had been solved, there seemed to be no reason for the difficulty. Many of these answers are so neat that they can be explained in a single short expression.
What has caused Phi to move from his customary Friday slot? No doubt on Friday it will be the anniversary of something. But what? the Iranian US Embassy Hostage crisis (1980)? Probably not. The launch of the Hubble Space telescope (1990)? More likely, but Phi himself would have been very suitable for that. Lots more possibilities, but no doubt it will be something that Google isn’t pointing us towards, like the anniversary of some pop singer doing something.
Whatever the reason, we have the usual Friday excellence here. Nothing dodgy (or even untrustworthy) here.
The usual thing: every clue has a silky-smooth surface that never compromises the parsing. I thought this was on the hard side for a Dac and it took me some while to understand one or two, particularly 23ac, which I almost gave up on, but my parsing is I think what he intended, although perhaps it is on the edge compared with Dac’s usual.
A very nice Radian puzzle of I think a nice level of difficulty. I say ‘I think’ because I only have an impression, my actual time not meaning much. At the moment I have a strange pain in my right thumb when I try to write, which forces me to write left-handed, which is wonderful, like being a small child again, but incredibly slow, and when I have to write the letters down to get an anagram it takes ages.
Every Friday we have the same thing, a very satisfactory and pleasant crossword from Phi, with few if any points of controversy. Initially, when I saw the answer ‘raindrop’ I thought Phi was balancing out all those rock music Ninas we so often have, by having nicknames of pieces of music, possibly just by Chopin, but either he is, and I am ignorant, or this was a false lead.
As usual with Phi for some reason, I was slow to start but then made steady progress.
My apologies: I had intended to do this blog today, using the nice software that gives you the clues, but when I came to do so I found that this week’s puzzle was already … Read more >>
A medium-difficulty puzzle from Hob today; indeed for a Tuesday this was perhaps a quite easy one. Apart from my very minor quibble in 23dn the clues are good, particularly 16ac, 6dn, 11dn and 14dn. Basil Fawlty told the American in ‘Waldorf Salad’ that he was always talking about bottoms; in the same vein I might say that there is rather a lot of sex here.
There is never anything new to say about Dac. As usual this is a thoroughly neat and satisfactory crossword. I found it a little harder than Dac usually is, although when I look back at the clues there seems to be no reason for this.
Definitions underlined.
What has Donk inflicted on us? This was probably the most difficult crossword I’ve ever done, although many of the clues were very neat. It was completely filled in eventually but I got four answers wrong, and the fact that four of the clues begin “One left” and five of them begin “One right” didn’t help the solving.
The usual from Phi: a very pleasant and sound crossword that maintains the high standard. And as usual I am a bit lost on one or two, but these will I’m sure be explained.
As I say below, I had thought there might be an astronomical theme, but failing that, and this theory does I think fail, I can’t see anything else.
Definitions underlined.
Knut made his debut only the other day. Now he appears again, and much of this continues the good start he made. There is a lot I don’t understand; my temptation is to say that some of the clues are a bit weak or unsound, but I don’t dare to because it’s far more likely that I’m missing things.
It’s a very strange grid — perfectly OK and no solecisms with the checking. Was this, together with the large number of clues, done in order to fit in some theme? If it was then I can’t see it.
Definitions underlined.
What new is there to say about Dac? Every clue tells a little story. I have misgivings about ‘provided’ as an anagram indicator in 4dn, and I suspect that there might be a typo in 12dn, since my suggestion is so simple that I can’t see why Dac didn’t do it that way (although now that I look more closely he may be right all along, the two words necessitating a verb without s; not sure about this — perhaps someone who knows about these things could drop in and tell us); but a small price to pay for a day of Dac.
Definitions underlined.