Independent 6687/Virgilius (22-03-08)
Posted by neildubya on March 28th, 2008
4/14 provided the theme for this enjoyable puzzle, which I found a bit tougher than usual for this setter. What’s a bit strange though is that I count 13 men’s names in the grid: LUKE, JOHN, EDDIE, NICHOLAS, BASIL, ANDREW, JAMES, GEORGE, DAVID, PAUL, PETER, LAWRENCE and MARK. Which makes me wonder if I’ve got one of them wrong…? [Edit: as eimi points out below, Eddie is not a thematic answer as the other twelve are all saints]
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | NUBI,A – I think this is NUBI = “newbie”. |
| 10 | END,GAME – this took me much longer than it should have because I read “moves finally” as indicating S. |
| 11 | (SEDUCER)* – RECUSED, “to reject or challenge (a judge or juror) as disqualified to act, esp. because of interest or bias.” (from Dictionary.com) |
| 13 | COLL,IE – this would have filled in very quickly but I had to check that COLL was indeed an island in the Hebrides. |
| 16 | E in (ALGEBRA)*,Y – AGREEABLY. |
| 20 | PARA,(A COIN)* – I started to fill in PARANOIC and then realised that left an A unaccounted for so had to check the dictionary for PARANOIAC. |
| 26 | HES in A DIVE |
| 30 | hidden in “balancED DIEt” – I really like the hidden indicator here: “nearly at the end of…”. Cryptically fair and perfect for the surface reading. |
| 32 | alternate letter in “cOnGeR eEl” |
| Down | |
| 1 | DEED POLL – nice cryptic def which takes a small liberty with “recalled” (should really be “renamed”) but to good effect. |
| 2 | (A KID BRUCE)* – RUDBECKIA was new to me so had to wait until all the checking letters were in before sorting this out. |
| 4/14 | TWELVE GOOD MEN AND TRUE – the theme of the puzzle and reference to trial by jury, hence “in a box, in most cases”. |
| 6 | (LIN[-e],CHAOS)* – NICHOLAS. This took me far too long to unravel and was the last answer I filled. |
| 8 | ANDREW – I think this must be right but there’s a bit in the clue I don’t get: “in novel way”, which must be the indicator for AN W as D,RE is accounted for by “Duke,Queen”. |
| 17 | hidden in “battaLION IS IN Germany” – I thought this was very well done. |
| 18 | WREN in LACE – a reference to DH LAWRENCE, who wrote “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”. The definition gives the game away a bit too much I think as even people who don’t read classic novels will surely get the gamekeeper reference. |
| 19 | (LIE GIVEN)* – INVEIGLE. |
| 27 | U in PAL – apparently U is the Burmese equivalent of Mr. |
March 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I think Virgilius intended that the good men might be saints, whereas Eddie is just an ordinary man.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Thanks for the 13 men explanation. St Lawrence should of course be the patron saint of xwd solvers (martyred on a gridiron).
March 28th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
St Eddie should be the patron saint of Jack Russells. Fans of the TV show “Frasier” will know what I mean; everyone else can assume it was a very witty comment and laugh along anyway.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
This was another excellent themed puzzle from Virgilius. I got the Saints idea all right and it was Easter Saturday. ANDREW is D R in ANEW, I think. A fairly quick solve, too.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I failed to spot the Saints theme as well, even though I did pick up fairly early that quite a few were biblical. But very enjoyable, around average solving time for Virgilius for me.