i Cryptic Crossword 1865 Poins
January 30, 2017
A pretty tough offering to start the week. I needed a few checking letters to get the long anagram, mostly because the THINE bit threw me somewhat. That well known psychoanalyst in 25ac didn’t help matters… I finished in the NE corner, stumped somewhat by ‘online’ for L which I don’t like, and another obscurity in 6d. Both answers where we had obscurities in the wordplay were fairly gettable with a little thought and a few crossing letters, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain too much. 26ac didn’t worry me, on the other hand, it’s fairly common parlance in this neck of the woods.
COD? 5d – ‘Uttered after Dutch girl is overwhelmed with grief (10)’.
August 2012 once more:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/08/26/independent-on-sunday-1174poins/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
I’m in general agreement with the fifteensquared commenters on this one: had it done by mid-to-late morning, but with a couple not quite understood, or mildly disliked. No, I wasn’t a fan of “online” for L, either.
A smidgen of mild dislike here and there, but that “online” didn’t bother me, funnily enough. Quite a decent Monday crossword in my opinion, but nothing to worry Quixote.
I get a bit sniffy about abbreviations and this puzzle seemed to have more than most, D for Dutch and D for Germany then G for Germany as well as the L for Line and a few others add in the hackneyed princess and it made for a pretty mediocre experience.
Not a desperately user friendly grid, but solid enough fare in the clueing for the most part, I thought.
Having _E_E_A_ crossing with _A_E_U_ was never going to win corner of the year contest.
Had never heard of the French philosopher before today and 25a had me baffled until he was mentioned in a question on this evening’s University Challenge!