No spoilers for Wednesday 2nd June 2010

[Ben Hunter]

Sorry everyone.

[Oliver Garner]

GUANACO

[Ray Folwell]

Neater 2nd numbers : (100-1) x 2

[Josh Hurst]

TOADLETS in round 1, unless DC said it and I missed it. Sorry if they did, alright? Also NEUTRINO as an equaller in round 6.

[Michael Wallace]

CF got REMORAS in round 13 - were the letters really there?

[Ray Folwell]

CF got REMORAS in round 13 - were the letters really there?

Yes - I got ROAMERS which is an anagram of that.

[Mark Kudlowski]

Yes - I got ROAMERS as well, and a far easier last numbers of (100 -1) x 2.

[Michael Wallace]

CF got REMORAS in round 13 - were the letters really there?

Yes - I got ROAMERS which is an anagram of that.

Sweet, thanks.

[Ray Folwell]

All three numbers games could be solved with just 3 numbers
9x50 + 1
(100-1) x 2
(9+7) x 8

Is this a record?

[Douglas Wilson]

Think HOARSER was there in the last letters round as well.

Isn't Scott Gillies on tomorrow?

[Ben Hunter]

Think HOARSER was there in the last letters round as well.

Isn't Scott Gillies on tomorrow?

Yep.

Yeah.

[Gavin Chipper]

In the NODE, QIBLA is listed as a variant spelling of KIBLAH which has [in sing.] after it - so should QIBLAS really be allowed?

[James Robinson]

SNAFUED in round 4 and BUNGLED in round 7. Thought I had SALKOS in round 11, as in triple SALKO in ice skating, but apparently that's not OK.

[Martin Smith]

I wondered about QIBLAS too - the definition made it sound like something there's only one of? I'm not clued up enough about Arabic or Islam to be sure though.

[Bob De Caux]

SNAFUED in round 4 and BUNGLED in round 7. Thought I had SALKOS in round 11, as in triple SALKO in ice skating, but apparently that's not OK.

It's SALCHOW, named after the guy who first did it. Surprisingly (to me anyway) it is valid.

[Ryan Taylor]

TOTEMIC for beater in round 12.

[Ben Hunter]

I wondered about QIBLAS too - the definition made it sound like something there's only one of? I'm not clued up enough about Arabic or Islam to be sure though.

There are quite a few senses in which 'qibla' can be plural. The first is historical: when Mohammed first started authoring the Quran in Mecca, the instructions were to pray toward Jerusalem (from their location in Mecca in Saudi Arabia). Then when the Jews lolled at his Quran, he wrote the hardcore verses in Medina and changed the 'qibla' to Mecca. So there are historically two qiblas.

In the technical sense, the direction you pray toward Mecca is different for people who aren't lying on the same line going through Mecca, so most people have different qiblas. From most points on the world there will be different directions of prayer toward Mecca i.e. different qiblas. On a side note, I own a little qibla compass which comes with a list of cities across the world, each numbered, and then you point the arrow of the compass toward the relevant number (they're marked around the circle of the compass). Another arrow which is painted onto the compass is now pointing to your own personal qibla.

In the NODE, QIBLA is listed as a variant spelling of KIBLAH which has [in sing.] after it - so should QIBLAS really be allowed?

Got the OED2 here and KIBLAH is just listed as a noun and variant of QIBLA, which in turn is just listed as a noun.