i Cryptic Crossword 1985 Raich
June 19, 2017
Raich’s puzzles are always a pleasure to solve, and generally on the easyish side. Today was no exception, though I did find the SE corner a bit of a struggle, but looking back now I can’t see why. Some discussion over on the other side about whether 1ac is a county or not, but, well, it is, isn’t it? Pleased to get 9ac from the cryptic part, despite the answer looking more unlikely the more letters went in, starting from the 12ac.
COD? 17d – ‘Men under authority finally liberated here? (9)’.
To January 2013:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/01/28/independent-8202raich/
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batarde
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
Yes, an enjoyable puzzle just a little more challenging than usual for a Monday and with some amusing misdirections. 1ac is clearly a county, and anyway the required solution could hardly have been more obvious. A pointless quibble, in my opinion.
I was more concerned about whether ‘sago’ is a cereal (surely cereals are grain-based?)…
Now, that’s a proper quibble. Clean bowled, I’d say. 🙂
I think Chambers might be to blame – they define sago as ‘a cereal substance’ – doubtless thinking of sago porridge made from sago pearls. They’ve been wrong before, and are happy to correct themselves if they believe a correspondent to be correct. I just might send them another one of my letters…
If the original solvers found this tough in January 2013 imagine how hard they would find it in this heat! Took me ages to get into this and then several return visits to complete. Agree with dtw42 regarding sago. Was pleased to get 14ac from the cryptic as I’ve never seen it and didn’t really know it was a school.
Why are the short words the hardest. Last ones in 26a and 25d. Just couldn’t see ’em!
Thanks for blog and comments. SAGO: Not an expert on this at all, but Collins dictionary says “a starchy cereal…”
Hi Raich, I work with sago palms at the Eden Project in Cornwall and it seems wrong to me to call it cereal. However, I suppose our language is littered with examples of everyday usage trumping cool logic!
Interesting to learn these things, Cornick, thanks.