Independent 6440/Nimrod
Posted by neildubya on June 7th, 2007
Spot the Nina time – take a peek down the left- and right-hand sides of the grid.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | VEND – I hope I’ve understand this correctly: SALSA appears in the completed grid at 7D or “seVEN Down”. |
| 4 | (IS TACITURN)* |
| 9 | AVANT-GARDE – a fairly complex clue to parse this one and I’m not confident I’ve got it right. Here goes: “No 1 for Arsenal” = A, (GRANTED A)*, “playing up front” = V(ersus), before the anagram fodder. |
| 10 | LEGO – which is a toy but “I left in van” is lost on me. |
| 11 | ME in ROO |
| 12 | PEN,DRAGON – is “playing TV role” a reference to Dragon’s Den?. Uther PENDRAGON is this person. |
| 14 | IS,IS – Isis is the reserve boat racing crew of Oxford University (Goldie is Cambridge’s) |
| 15 | DENT in WOO,OPS – A bit before my time but I had heard of the TV series – didn’t know about the dog though so this was a bit of a guess. |
| 21 | BILLY LIAR – Spooner’s way of saying “lilly buyer”. |
| 23 | hidden in “booZE BRAndy” – very nice hidden clue as the definition is well disguised. |
| 27 | GG in (PERMEATE)* – the surface reading for this is very creaky: “What child’s up on getting admitted to permeate unusual medium?”. Also, why does GG (Gee-Gee = horse) have to be something only a child would ride? I’ve heard plenty of grown-ups using the term. |
| Down | |
| 2 | VI in (NO USE)* |
| 3 | N,ERSE in DINT – can DINT mean “force”? |
| 5 | AGREE TO DISAGREE – 13D and 6D are TWEEDLEDUM and TWEEDLEDEE, who agreed to have a battle but never had one. Not sure about “imitate “Starboard” and “Port” here?” thought – it might be reference to the far left- and right-hand side of the grid which spells out the words VARIABLE and CONSTANT in the unchecked letters. |
| 6 | TWEED,LED,EE – “cummings” is a reference to e.e.cummings – the typographically-challenged poet. |
| 13 | TWEE,(MUDDLE)* |
| 16 | BLEW in (EAT IN)* |
| 20 | THREE R’S – this must be right as nothing else fits but I don’t understand the clue – any offers? |
| 22 | LEAST – 28A is EAST |
| 24 | hidden in “onLY RAda” |
June 7th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
LEGO ego = I left in van put L first. Thanks for VEND.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
PENDRAGON DRAG ON TV cross-dressing
You’re right about AVANT-GARDE , I think, that’s how I read it.
Don’t get THREE RS either thought there might be three rs in the text but there ain’t
June 7th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Liked that LEGO clue, but phew! Some really complicated stuff here.
Clever to get the ‘nina’ in.
June 7th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
PORT and STARBOARD
June 7th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
PORT AND STARBOARD – Apologies for above mistype. See it now. T and T are placed in those positions in the grid compared to AGREE TO DISAGREE.
June 7th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
15A was nostalgic – my Dad made us at least one ‘woodentop’ doll. Just scraped under 20 minuts for this one, so pretty tough.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
All references to the great e e cummings gratefully received by an editor who took his pseudonym from a(n unreadable) book by the crossword setter’s poet (he does extraordinary and often beautiful things with words) – though probably an Araucarian rather than a Ximenean. Have returned from pub where this puzzle was described by a would-be solver in expletives. As a general rule the Thursday Indy crossword is almost as hard as the Saturday prize puzzle, but this was super tough, I will concede.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:06 am
When I was an overly-earnest Eng. Lit student I thought e.e.cummings was the business; reading lines like:
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
I discover that my opinion hasn’t changed at all.
Back to the puzzle: thanks for all the explanations and corrections. Definitely a super-tough puzzle but not as tough as Merlin’s “Saints (not)Alive” I think.
June 10th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I solved this at 4am after a night out as a pre-emptive hangover cure (it works, when coupled with Raisin Wheats and tea – honestly). Somehow I completed it correctly in 12:35. I am sure that this is much faster than I could have solved it clean and sober. Can anyone explain this?