i Cryptic Crossword 1005 Dac
April 30, 2014
Quite a bit harder than we’re used to with Dac, I found, nothing solved until 17ac. Last in the hidden place name at 13ac!
COD? 14d – Turn blue, then hot, later getting unwell? (2,8)’.
The 2009 blog is complete.
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/05/20/independent-7049-by-dac/
i Cryptic Crossword 1004 Virgilius
April 29, 2014
Another nicely themed puzzle from Virgilius, quite subtle in places I thought. Last in the combination of 10ac / 5d, though overall finished in fairly easy time.
COD? With honours to the nice bit of misdirection in 6d, I’m nominating 9d – ‘Composer who mainly gets held up by bad singer (8)’.
The 2009 blog is complete.
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/05/19/independent-7048virgilius/
i Cryptic Crossword 1003 Quixote
April 28, 2014
Some unfamiliar words in both the answers and wordplay held me up at 3d / 10ac, but the rest was mostly our usual gentle start to the week.
COD? 4d – “‘Oink’ is what you’d get from good little pig? (5)’.
The 2009 blog is complete.
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/06/18/independent-on-sunday-1009-by-quixote-14-june-2009/
i Crossword 996 Phi
April 26, 2014
April 19th, 2014
A whole week has gone by and I’ve completely failed to work either ‘aleatoric’ or ‘stenotic’ into a conversation; I must be slipping. Of course Phi knows these words will be new to all but a few solvers, so helpfully provides us with well signposted anagrams – ‘bubbling’ and ‘flapping’ pointing the way to these two. No, the one I struggled with was 12d, not knowing beforehand that ‘yellow material’ could be synonymous with ‘gutter press’. And who says that crosswords aren’t educational?
COD 5d: A long letter (5)
Original blog (as they tend to be nowadays) is complete here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/04/10/independent-7015-by-phi/
i Crossword 1001 Quaiteaux
April 25, 2014
Quaiteaux’s very first puzzle for the Independent here and, if there are any aspiring setters out there, it shows just how good you have to be. I found it a lot of fun to do, with all of the clues duly yielding when given a bit of careful thought. The only one that held me up was 16ac, because I kept thinking of West Germany as FDR , but of course it was also known as the FRG. Oh, and there’s no such jumping animal as a fdor!
That was my LOI and my FOI was the long 22a, which opened up the grid nicely.
COD 18ac: Open with a high card, moving into the lead (10)
Original blog is complete here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/06/09/independent-7066-by-quaiteaux/
i Crossword 1000 Dac
April 24, 2014
I had really been expecting something to mark the i crossword’s 1000th birthday today. Never mind, happy birthday anyway!
Dac gave us a relatively comfortable ride today, I thought – just lots of classic good clues, amongst which my favourite was the following:
2d Feeling angry and unusually energised (6,3)
The 2009 blog is complete here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/06/10/independent-7067dac/
Actually, I do have a quibble – with 13across. Although I’m just as guilty because I guessed Joe Orton from the definition ‘infamous playwright’ alone, I don’t think it’s fair to label him so. That’s all!
i Crossword 999 Quixote
April 23, 2014
So fixated was I on wondering what we might get for tomorrow’s puzzle number 1000, that I completely overlooked today’s being puzzle 999 – hence the answer for 10/11ac with 12, 13 and 14 giving us a mini theme.
Pretty straightforward in the main, with a couple of new words including the answer to 23ac which, thanks to its colourful and apposite surface reading, gets my nomination for COD:
Hostile characters chucked bits of stone (7)
The original IOS blog is complete: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/04/09/independent-on-sunday-999-by-quixote-5-apr-2009/
i Crptic 998 by Morph
April 22, 2014
I like to see Morph as a setter and this, although admittedly challenging, was also brilliantly intricate and lots of fun.
As soon as I saw ‘eight answers here’ in 17ac it was frankly obvious there was a theme (whatever the 2009 bloggers thought) and that helped enormously. The eight French towns which eventually emerged were all also English words – Orange, Nice, Tours, Condom, Lens, Ales, Nancy and Dole. ‘Cross them off’ and you’ve ‘de-villed’ the puzzle, so to speak. Brilliant!
Loads of ticks by the clues. COD has to be 17ac. Here it is in full: Seasoned fellow went first – crossed off eight answers here? (8)
The 2009 blog is complete here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/04/13/independent-7017-by-morph/
i Crossword 997 Quixote
April 21, 2014
Very enjoyable start to the week from the ever-reliable Quixote.
When published in 2009 1 across started with a clever reference to this being the 1001st IOS puzzle “Number of Sunday crosswords done…” = MI . Same answer today, but the clue has been changed to “Busy motorway leads to anxiety for lover!” = M1 STRESS
I liked that a lot, but it would be churlish not to give my COD nomination to 4d:
Segregate out yesterday’s sweet item (6,3)
Here’s the original blog: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/04/23/independent-on-sunday-1001-by-quixote-19-apr-2009/
Which I must thank for putting me right on my old testament prophets in 6ac. Job was patient, Lot had a wife who turned into a pillar of salt. Oops. I remember now.
i Crossword 990 Dac
April 19, 2014
12th April 2014
Dac on good form again with last weekend’s puzzle. Certainly not as hard as some of the Thursday/ Friday offerings we get from the i (I really struggled with yesterday’s admittedly brilliant Mass). No, last Saturday’s was right down the middle of the fairway. I really liked the punning in clues like 19ac ‘nix on’ for Nixon and even better in my nomination for COD 5d:
Assume position prior to drinking (10)
All the answers are present and correct on the 2009 blog here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/05/13/independent-7043dac/