Independent 6548 by Mordred
Posted by nmsindy on October 11th, 2007
An excellent puzzle from one the Indy’s occasional setters, with a background in the world of advanced puzzles. A mixture of very easy and very hard clues, I found. Excellently crafted with some cunning seamless divisions between definition and wordplay. As with some recent Mordred Indys there’s a theme (or, at least an element of dedication). In case readers want to look themselves first, I will give this info after the clue explanations.
Solving time: 27 mins
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
11 CLEAR (net) AC (N – Henman’s ultimate ie last) E
12 DAIRYMAID R (right) for L (Liberal) in daily maid
13 Starsky and HUTCH cf Lord Sutch h = hard for s = is = ‘s eg the clue’s understood
15 ETH(n)ICAL Yes, there is a word ‘ethnical’ meaning the same as ethnic
18 SHE BANG “Girl on girl affair?” Hmmm!
25 IR ISH STEW s and s in (white)* Very strange one, this – when I saw the enumeration I thought of Irish stew but said it could not be with ‘from Ireland’ in the clue, but it is! There’s a &lit element too of course.
26 IN CUR (RUC NI)< Replaced in recent times by the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland)
27 LATENT cf talent.
DOWN
2 FORT ITUDE Maybe keep = fort (dutie)*
3 EVERY NOW AND THEN h (hard) in (even a down entry)*. Great clue, with excellent surface.
4 CO (CK AD) E Calvin Klein Seb Coe
6 EARTHSHATTERING (heart)*
7 IN N IT The last I solved. Tag = common expression it = the guy who chases others in children’s game. Think that’s it anyway.
9 MED (pad)DLE The best of the many seamless joins in/sea
16 CRUST ACEA retracted means, I think, take away the odd letters of hAd ChElAe
21 CYPRUS All based on first or last letters with three separate indications. Definition is island and it also has an &lit touch.
23 EXI (S) T Another one using an initial letter.
Dedication: Look at central row and column – two boy’s names of six letters.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Agree with Nmsindy – a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with some nice topical touches.
October 11th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Nice puzzle. 18A is a bit saucy and I didn’t really get 7D so thanks for explaining that. Was also surprised by IRISH STEW. For 12A, I went for DAILYMAID (“Farm worker right for Liberal domestic servant”), which surely is just as valid as DAIRYMAID, depending on how you read the clue. Or am I missing something super-subtle? To me, it makes more sense for the substitution instruction (“right for Liberal”) to come after the word in which you are doing the substituting.
October 11th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
DAIRYMAID yes, the substitution works either way, but dailymaid ain’t a word.
October 11th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Ah. Good point. I assumed that “domestic servant” was DAILYMAID but, as you say in your blog, it’s “daily maid”.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
7D definition was a bit cheeky – in fact the ? is part of the definition. INNIT is a tag? innit?
October 11th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
More on DAIRYMAID. Looking at it again, I think the substitution works only one way. “right for Liberal” can only mean R for L, not the other way round.