Independent 6669/Bannsider
Posted by neildubya on March 7th, 2008
Another fantastic puzzle from Bannsider with a crop of great clues. My favourite was 21d but there are probably half a dozen others equally as good. I don’t understand 1d though and I couldn’t get 25d.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | (MOURN MARMITE BAN)* – MR TAMBOURINE MAN, a Bob Dylan song from the album Bringing it all back home. A tough anagram but given the enumeration the answer could not be an actual number written out in words so I thought fairly quickly that it might be a song title. Even so, I had to wait until I got the first R from 1d, which meant that the first word had to be either DR or MR, before I got the actual title. |
| 10 | hidden in “InternationALE C” – “11″ being the answer at 11a and “bottles” is the hidden indicator, which must have been irresistable given the Guiness reference. |
| 11 | INTERNATIONAL,E – another “number”, this time the famous socialist/communist/leftist anthem, hence “not the right one”. |
| 14 | KNIGHTS – a bit subtle this. “Scheherazade” is of course the storyteller of “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights” and K NIGHTS is only a thousand nights! “Pieces” is the definition and refers to chessmen. |
| 17 | SHAW in P,ED – “Miliband defending GB” is a neat touch as one of the Miliband brothers (David) is the Foreign Secretary so defending GB is probably in his job description. |
| 24 | [-h]ATTERS in TALL - |
| 26 | (ROADWAYS MOMENTS)* – MOTORWAY MADNESS. Reasonably easy &lit. |
| Down | |
| 1 | hidden in “absURDUm” – but I don’t understand what the hidden indicator is: “Language that’s gone beyond reduction ad absurdum”. |
| 2 | LO in SAME – quite a tough definition: “head demanding stripper”, which is a reference to the fact that SALOME asked for the head of John the Baptist, for some reason or other (the full story is here) |
| 3 | SOB in NOW (going up) – another toughie. A W BOSON is a term from particle physics. |
| 5 | SPOTS,TIP (going up) – this is a great clue: “GP halts, recalling rash advice”. The definition being “GP [Grand Prix] halts” or PIT STOPS. |
| 6 | (TAKEN)*,AWA – Kiri TE KANAWA, the soprano from New Zealand. |
| 7 | A KEN in LEN,EVA – I wondered why the definition was “Evian water” until I found out that the town of Evian is on the South Bank of LAKE GENEVA. |
| 12 | N,INCOM[-e],POOP |
| 15 | G,(OF THIS)*,P – GIFT SHOP. |
| 16 | T,(IN TWO)*,WN – this took a lot of untangling as the surface reading is very natural sounding, making it hard to see where the definition ended. |
| 19 | (Y USE THE)* – SHUTEYE. I think I would have got this much quicker had I spotted that Y is also a “tip for Hendry” as well as H. |
| 21 | I,PE,C,AC – another fantastic clue, especially the definition: “One exercises with college athletic club that encourages throwing events”. IPECAC or IPECACUANHA is a shrub that made into a purgative or emetic, hence: “encourages throwing [up] events”. |
| 25 | L?S? – couldn’t get this one: “It may turn mountain road into path”. Something to do with turning “pass” into “path”? |
March 7th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Thank you for your kind comments.
The idea behind 1dn is that URDU has been “reductio”-ed beyond absURDUm
25dn – I suspect the fabled self-kicking boots might get an outing here: someone with a particular type of speech defect might turn a “pass” into “path”. Not easy, tho, I admit!
March 7th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
This puzzle appeared online (along with the ability to “Reveal” the answers”) somewhat prematurely (i.e. on the same Saturday as the print version). For prize crosswords like this either the onine one should lag the print version by a week (which I think is the intention) or the reveal function should be disabled.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
kicks self
March 7th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Tough puzzle, with some excellent clues. LISP was my last entry. Wondered if 21 dn had come to mind because of a recent family event…
March 7th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Very tough – defeated me in the end with 19d, 21d and 10ac left blank. 25d I got in a rare moment of inspiration very quickly…
March 7th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Yes I spotted that as well testy, thought it most odd you could cheat online with a prize puzzle.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
“Wondered if 21 dn had come to mind because of a recent family event…”
Young Bannsider tends to send things to the opposite end, if you get my meaning
Actually, I originally clued 21dn with this in mind, but after an editorial query I decided to go for the throwing rather than the running idea(!)
March 9th, 2008 at 10:41 am
The same thing’s happened today btw, yesterday’s Nestor Prize has gone online with the reveal facility enabled.