Independent 6,763/Mordred
Posted by Ali on June 19th, 2008
I found this tough going for a mid-week puzzle. I’ve never come across a few of the answers before and some clues are still a bit baffling.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | ZULU – As in the phonetic alaphabet X-Ray, Yankee, Zulu |
| 9 | INTERFERON – INTER,FE,RON – A nice clue, though ‘footballers’ for INTER is fairly vague, especially when the word itself isn’t exactly commonplace |
| 10 | ?P?O?E – Not sure on this one. Clue is “End of allegiance after mates do this?”. Am guessing it’s &lit, but that’s about as far as I’ve got! |
| 11 | ACCURSED - R in ACCUSED – Again, not a hugely common word |
| 12 | NEPALESE – PALES in NEE |
| 14 | LENGTH – L is the third letter of ZULU in 8A (and short for LENGTH) |
| 16 | ISLE – [-a]ISLE |
| 17 | SHEAR – A in (Sir Antony) SHER. Had never heard of him! |
| 19 | DRIVEL – Driver, with R swapped for L |
| 21 | TEA TOWEL – Nice defnition here (‘Drink dry’) |
| 22 | ECLECTIC – C in ELECT,IC – Not very often you see this word used as a noun |
| 26 | CRESOL – (CLOSER)* – Another fairly obscure word |
| 28 | TINY - TI[-n]NY |
| Down | |
| 1 | SUPPRESSOR – SUP,PRESS,OR |
| 2 | AUTOMATE - AUTO,MATE |
| 3 | MISERE – MISER,E – An easy word no doubt if you play cards, but it took me a while to spot it |
| 4 | STOA – Not sure on this one. STOA is a covered collonade, but can’t work out the wordplay |
| 5 | ORACULAR – RA in OCULAR – Again, hardly a word I use every day |
| 6 | NEURON – (O’ER NUN)* |
| 15 | TORPEDOING – (POINTER DOG)* – Good clue, though quite tricky to work out the anagram |
| 17 | SPLIT PEA – SP (starting price),LIT,PE,A |
| 18 | AMORETTO – MORE in [-t]ATTO[-o] |
| 19 | VIEWER – VIEW,RE rev. |
| 22 | ALCOTT – C in (TOTAL)* – Louisa May |
| 24 | CARR – CARR[-ot] – A new word for me |
| 25 | CRAM – Double definition of “The Jarrow Arrow” |
June 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
10A is OPPOS(mates)+E
4D is TO in SA
I had to look at 7D on the web. I’ve never seen A-ONE written out and I can’t work out the word play.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
OPPOS E and S(TO)A, I think. Some very inventive clueing – hard, but I was helped by the dedication such as often appears in Mordred puzzles.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
ANYONE less NY, I think
June 19th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
7d I think is A(ny)one, i.e. without New York.
Doesn’t 16a break the cardinal rule regarding capitalisation?
June 19th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I think inch is a general name for an island so I’d say 16ac is OK if that’s the point being made.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Thanks NMS, I should’ve checked. Mordred’s been around too long to be breaking rules!
June 19th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Who are Samson and Dolly, and why did they choose Oz to get hitched?
June 19th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Or Holly even!
June 19th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
It looks like another personal message in the grid. I don’t think I would have spotted it, but 7 down looked so odd (_O_E generates an awful lot of other possibilities) that I figured there must be a Nina – which then helped with that and the other remaining clues. Whoever they are, their union is truly blessed now!
June 19th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Sorry, yes, Holly. When I do the puzzle on the web (saves me a trip to the newsagent) it’s easy to forget what I’ve just seen – or am I stupid? Is there a way of keeping both 15squared and the puzzle pages up at the same time?
June 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Last Friday (13th) someone commenting on my Nimrod blog explained how it could be printed out.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Samson is my eldest son. Holly is Australian. I had to overcome my fear of flying to get there so I was determined to celebrate in print. Thanks for all the comments. Mordred
June 19th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Dammit! I shouldn’t put comments on so late. Sam is my youngest son. Mordred
June 20th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
It’s a hell of a long row otherwise, mate.