Independent No 6832 by Mordred
Posted by NealH on September 8th, 2008
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed
An excellent puzzle with very smooth surface readings and not too much trickery, although the precise meaning of one or two did escape me.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sleep out: Spout about lee. I don’t quite follow the definition – “bedroom space down under”. It’s either an Australian phrase or it’s referring in some way to the down that’s used in bedding. |
| 5 | Jangle: Jingle with i replaced by a. |
| 9 | Prepared: Paper* + red. |
| 10 | Edging: [h]edging. |
| 12 | Impromptu: imp + hom. of (romped you). |
| 13 | Elite: hidden. |
| 14 | Success story: Not sure if this is wholly cryptic or not. Clue is “tale about achievement, beginning to end”. |
| 18 | Caribbean Sea: e in (Bianca’s bare)*. |
| 21 | Mel on |
| 22 | Louisiana: Louisa around Ian. |
| 24 | Trivia: last letter of pedant + leading letters of the other words + &lit. |
| 25 | Encomium: Once* + mum around i. |
| 26 | Renege: Renee around g. |
| 27 | Graceful: Grace + ful[l]. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sepsis: Pisses*. |
| 2 | Exempt: Ex + ET around mp. I assume ET stands for something like Employment Training. |
| 3 | Piano: (on + AI + P)<. |
| 4 | Unexpectedly: (Len eyed up XTC)*. |
| 6 | Addressee: Don’t quite see where the R comes from in this. The clue is “Recipient of writing, perhaps in total five points”. I assume it’s add=total and 5 points=ESSEE. |
| 7 | Gridiron: (Crossword) grid + iron. But a bit tricky if you’re not familiar with US sports. |
| 8 | Eagle eye: “Brood of pheasants oppressed by raptor’s close observation”. The obvious explanation would be “brood of pheasants” with raptor (=eagle) on top of it. However, I can’t find eye as a collective noun for pheasants. Wikipedia does give “a nye of pheasants”, which sounds similar. |
| 11 | Bunsen burner: Didn’t entirely get this either. “Heating apparatus such as Alfred the Great’s keeping oven half out of commission”. Heating apparatus = bunsen burner and “bun burner” = Alfred (story about him buring cakes). But I’m struggling to work out the “sen”. |
| 15 | Unbendable: Unendable around b. |
| 16 | Scimitar: Scar around I’m + it + &lit. |
| 17 | Trillion: I think this is final letters of lost and over + IL + LI (1 pound each way) + on. Very good clue, but I was unconvinced by “on = bet”. |
| 18 | Tariff: TA + riff. |
| 20 | Mammal: Mamma + l. |
| 23 | Stoic: Sic around t[a]o. |
September 8th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
1a Chambers confirms ‘sleep-out’ as a partitioned off sleeping area on a veranda (AUS & NZ)
6d the ‘R’ is ‘writing’ (one of the three Rs)
8d eye = brood of pheasants is in Chambers
11d EN (half of ‘oven’) in BUNS BURNER
September 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Re 8d, I guess it’s a case of an eye for a nye!
September 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
2d ET = Employment Training confirmed in Collins (but not in Chambers or COED)
Mick, you’ve been reading Chambers!
September 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
17D I wasn’t convinced by bet=ON either
14A Can anyone enlighten me?
7D I always thought that the GRIDIRON was the field that the game was played on rather than the game itself
20D I wasn’t quite happy with the definition
2D Although I’m happy to see an alternative to “alien” or “film” for ET I wouldn’t have thought that the abbreviation for Employment Training would be known sufficiently widely to merit its use(certainly not by me anyway)
September 8th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
14A I reckon the “achievement beginning to end” part is SUCCESS being turned into UCCESSS then the whole lot inside STORY (“tale about”) and the def. being the first half. But the profusion of S makes this look weird.
20D I wasn’t happy with this at all – Mammals aren’t the only animals to have babies are they?
September 9th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Philosopher thus maintaining extremes of Confucianism’s right way. STOIC.I can see SIC = thus,but how does TO equate with the rest of the clue?
September 9th, 2008 at 10:14 am
T(a)o, the tao being the right way in confucianism – though we know it to be the pursuit of the perfect +lit, of course.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I think Beermagnet is right about 14ac. I wasn’t convinced by this clue at all. All it seems to be doing is “encrypting” SUCCESS STORY by using SUCCESS STORY with two of the esses in different positions.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
6d: Is “R” OK for writing? Isn’t it only used in the phrase “The three Rs”?
September 9th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Al
‘R’ for ‘writing’ (one of the three Rs) has appeared is several crosswords this year. Certainly in one of the FTs and I have a vague recollection that it may even have been in the Times (though my memory could be playing tricks).
Whether it is OK is another matter!
September 9th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I think R for ‘writing’ as one of the three Rs is quite acceptable, as the phrase is well-known and given in all dicts.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
But is it OK for ‘rithmetic?
September 10th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I thought they stood for reading, riting and spelling