i Prize Cryptic Crossword 1720 by Phi
August 20, 2016
Saturday 13th August 2016
Either this was an especially good puzzle from Phi or else I just happened to be in a particularly good mood last Saturday, but I do seem to have a generous sprinkling of ticks in the margin of 1720 – in a paper which has the GB men’s coxless fours emblazoned across the front page atop the word ‘Invincible’. Were they? I can barely remember…
But I do remember liking 7d, which gets my accolade of Clue of the Day.
7d Sensible, like Blackbeard letting one escape around Cape (9)
Now when I first visited idothei some years ago, JonofWales would have patiently listed the answers and parsing for those clues (generally about a third) which hadn’t been explained over at Fifteensquared. Nowadays however, we can safely expect that all 32 will have been detailed in full. To find out for sure, you’ll have to click here.
Oh, and yes I know – REM haven’t ‘recently’ disbanded, so 1d is hopelessly out of date.
batarde
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
Whether it was an exceptional puzzle I couldn’t say, but it was certainly an enjoyable one. Agreed on the COD, and 1d is a good enough clue for us to be indulgent, surely?
By coincidence I found myself staring at a picture of the curious beastie in 26d a couple of days later – interesting to put a face to the name as it were. Wouldn’t want to bump into one, mind.
Enjoyed this, some bad answers left me struggling with Newcastle for a while which is a shame as the clue was more than fair, for some reason I could not see Heathrow until rather late in the day…