Independent 6806/Radian
Posted by neildubya on August 8th, 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | NS in (PETRA)*,T – “Troy” is a reference to the system of weights rather than the city, which is why it can be abbreviated to T. |
| 5 | BOATER – sounds like “Botha”. |
| 9 | I in (AN ACTOR)* – RAINCOAT. |
| 10 | ER in LOTS (all reversed) |
| 13 | PODCASTING – I was surprised to find this in the COED; I guess it’s been around longer than I thought. |
| 18 | (HAS)*,KO – SHAKO was new to me but easily gettable from the wordplay. |
| 20 | H(EIGHT)ENS – I hope I wasn’t the only one wondering how the answer at 8d would be connected to this clue |
| 22 | T,R in (AIR FRAME)* – TERRA FIRMA. A well-worked clue I thought. |
| 27 | W,EIGHT – a reference to the postcode in that part of London: W8. |
| 28 | INCH,A in (TOE)* – INCHOATE. “Part of foot” does a nice job of misleading here, especially as “toe” appears a couple of words on in the clue. |
| 30 | VEN(O,MO)US |
| Down | |
| 1 | (THE LOW HITTER WON)* – THROW IN THE TOWEL. Nice clue, with a boxing-related surface reading and answer. |
| 4 | PE(A SOU)P |
| 6 | O?T?S – couldn’t get this one: “Popish plotter? Sounds like it”. |
| 7 | T(E[R]MIN,ATE) |
| 11 | S(CU)T – this was also new to me but, again, easy enough to guess. |
| 16 | (VERGING ON)* – GOVERNING. |
| 18 | initial letters in “Sex Outlets Have Obscure” |
| 21 | MEN in (SEMI)* |
| 26 | (SOHO)* – SHOO |
August 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
6 Titus Oates – Popish Plot 1678. But I don’t get the “sounds like it” part of the clue…..
August 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am
6d ‘it’ as in sexual intercourse and ‘get ones oats’
August 8th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Radian wouldn’t let the start of the Olympics go unnoticed, would he?
August 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I thought 8 down might just be a CD but looking at it now I can see it’s an &literal and an anagram of “rel rigorous side”. The shortening of relatively to rel threw me off the scent to start with.
August 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
The only clue I don’t understand was not mentioned:
3. Sparkling wine announced for exclusive group (4)
sect?? This probably a homophone, but of what?
August 8th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Barbara: Sekt, I think
August 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Re: sect and sekt
Thanks Duggie. In my ignorance, I have never heard of sekt.
Maybe it’s because I don’t particularly like champagne.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Readers of the paper are probably very confused now. Looks like I failed to change the online version of 3 Down, changed in the printed version during editing.
There is a very subtle nina in this – I’m not sure I would have seen it if it wasn’t pointed out, but it relates to the date and requires looking around corners in some places.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Schmect, schmekt. I’m surprised and a little disappointed no one’s spotted the timely inserts, some direct, some angular, all of them necessarily homophonic. Someone in Beijing would see them as quite auspicious, right down to the second. I’ll have to learn to put out more flags.
August 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Can anyone tell me the “nina”?
August 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
After what Radian said above about “Beijing”, “auspicious” and “down to the second” I looked for 8s, as the chinese treat 8 as a particularly lucky number and the Olympics started on 2008-08-08 at 08:08:08.
There are 2 clear 8s in hEIGHTens and wEIGHT.
I can see 5 other 8s as homophones ATE and AIT in boATEr, wAIT, inchoATE, oATEs and terminATE.
Seven 8s doesn’t seem right, so I think I’m still missing something and I don’t understand Eimi’s mention about “looking around corners”.
August 9th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I think Radian intended us to look for 08-08-08 (twice). They’re not easy to spot, as they are not all in horizontal or vertical lines, e.g. the first O of THROW IN THE TOWEL and WAIT, and OWE plus the IGHT of HEIGHTENS, the second O of THROW IN THE TOWEL and WEIGHT, in addition to the ones in bOATEr, OATEs and inchOATE.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Thanks Eimi – indeed, even with all the hints not easy to spot.
I’m just about to start on your offering in today’s paper!
I see there is a “Puzzle special” in today’s Independent which includes 4 cryptic crosswords that are unattributed. Do you know if these are by some of the Indy regulars?
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 am
I am puzzled by response 5.
3. Sparkling wine announced for exclusive group (4)
My 3D clue was: Conservative’s in group, exclusive group (4)
Obviously SE(C)T.
Also puzzled by response 3 (Radian wouldn’t let the start of the Olympics go unnoticed, would he?)
Can’t find any reference to this in puzzle 6806.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 am
See comment 8 for an explanation about your first point.
See comment 11 for an explanation about the Olympics reference.