Independent 6390 by Virgilius – hidden theme
Posted by nmsindy on April 10th, 2007
Another great themed puzzle from Virgilius . 15 gave HIDDEN AGENDAS and every across row had the word AGENDA in order with every across answer contributing something.
Solving time: 18 mins
* = anagram
ACROSS
10 C(OPEN)HAGEN Open = available in change with N moving (to end of word)
11 DANE “Deign”
15 Mount ARARAT Where Noah’s Ark ended up, according to 22.
22 GEN Gen. abbreviation for Genesis, opening Book of the Bible.
25 DART Trad reversed (Traditional jazz)
27 END ANGERED Excellent football context
30 A (P E) MEN
DOWN
1 GOMORRAH More from 22 This was the second city of the plain, the first being Sodom, so the centre and the destroyed are literal not cryptic references, if I’ve understood it.
2 BAD EGG Reference the curate’s egg – good and bad in parts.
3 MASH IE Old golf club.
4 A GO G (repeating first letter of go)
6 HANDMAID “Handmade”
14 NUN “None”
18 ETAGERES (steerage)* Display stands with shelves for ornaments (from French)
19 GEE G (gee) is first letter of gelding (a horse) in the cryptic element.
20 SCREENED Clever double definition, sounding paradoxical
24 NON-FAT
25 DIET ER
26 DADA
April 10th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Great puzzle. Discovering the theme not as helpful as it appeared if, as in my case, you unaccountably decide that what are hidden in the puzzle are “agendas” (rather than several examples of “agenda”) and that 25 across is “dash” rather than “dart”…
One slight quibble: In the clue to 1 across is “musical performance” a legitimate definition of “sonata”? To me, a sonata is an example of the musical form “sonatas”. You can have a performance of a sonata…
April 11th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Tuesday’s puzzle is repeated in Wednesday’s paper (in my Oxford edition anyway!). A unique chance to improve solving speed?
April 11th, 2007 at 9:27 am
I thought it was a brilliant puzzle, but not worthy of printing two days running. Hmm. It should be a Dac, as usual on a Wednesday.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Help! I’ve just posted another comment on this puzzle, but it hasn’t appeared. When I tried to resubmit it, I was told that I had just said that.
April 14th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
In case the Indy decides to publish this puzzle yet again (!), I’ve come up with an alternative to the clue to SONATA that I was mildly critical of.
Shaky Aston Villa finally score