Independent 6868 by Glow-worm
Posted by NealH on October 20th, 2008
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone
A fairly straightforward puzzle with just one I didn’t entirely follow (17 down) and one I thought seemed a bit weak (19 across).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Caterpillar: Cater + pillar + ref. to the Emperor moth (my initial thought was penguin, but that didn’t get me very far). |
| 7 | Opt: Op + t. |
| 9 | Noisome: Noise around OM. |
| 10 | Cocaine: Coin E (ecstacy) around ca. |
| 11 | Rasher: (r share)*. |
| 12 | Plumbago: Plum + Bag + O[liver]. |
| 14 | Ode: OD + [laureat]e. |
| 15 | Reaganomics: Cryptic reference to former US President Ronald Reagan. |
| 16 | Green Wellie: Green + well + [pat]ie[nts]. |
| 18 | Ami: M in AI. |
| 19 | Averages: I think this is just a double definition, although averages for sporting achievements seems a bit weak. I suppose a good average in cricket can be considered a sporting achievement. |
| 20 | Mastic: (I’m cast)*. |
| 23 | Inflect: (c left in)*. I’m not entirely sure if the definition is “change the ending” or just change. Since C is the first letter of chapter and not the last, I suppose it must be the former. Looking at the possible definitions of “inflect”, I think it must refer to the grammatical meaning where the end part of a verb is varied. |
| 24 | Iron age: cryptic def. |
| 25 | Yet: Hidden. |
| 26 | Lord’s Prayer: Lord’s player (Middlesex play some of their home matches at Lord’s) with l left out and replaced by r. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Centre of gravity: Cryptic def. I think the “vee” just refers to the fact that v is the middle letter of gravity. |
| 2 | Trieste: Tries on t[errac]e. |
| 3 | Rhone: R + hone. As well as meaning “to sharpen”, hone can also be a type of rock used for such a purpose. |
| 4 | Item: Met< on 4th letter of April. |
| 5 | Local Calls: Cryptic def. |
| 6 | Recompose: Com. in repose. |
| 7 | Origami: cryptic def. |
| 8 | The Coast is Clear: (Heretical acts so)*. |
| 13 | Pacesetter: P + ace setter. |
| 15 | Ring a bell: double definition. |
| 17 | En effet: Clue is “A point is this, in point of fact”. |
| 18 | Actuary: Actually with ll replaced by r. If you were being a bit pedantic, you could argue the actuary doesn’t take the risk personally – he just works out what it is. |
| 21 | Amour: Am (first person conjugation of “to be”) + OU (Oxford University) + R (rector). |
| 22 | Pits: Double definition. One of those that was fairly obvious, but required a dictionary to confirm. A pit can refer to the stone of certain types of fruit. |
October 20th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
You don’t see them so much today perhaps but the batting and bowling averages in cricket would be achievements all right, I’d say. I agree with you re INFLECT – like you, I do not understand EN EFFET apart from the definition.
Enjoyable puzzle.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I’ve been confined to the paper edition for the past couple of weeks and so this is the first online puzzle I’ve seen for a while. Could I take this opportunity to thank Eimi for sneaking the setter and puzzle number into the online puzzle. My only worry is what happens when there is a setter with a long name? How about ’1234…Across’ and ‘Setter…Down’?
I read 24a as IRON+AGE (press+maturity) with ‘period’ as the definition.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
And, could 17 be somehow hinting at NE (point) in EFFET ?
October 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
The addition of a question mark on 24a pushed me towards thinking it was intended more to be cryptic. If it had just said “A period of press maturity”, I would agree with the straight “Iron + Age” intepretation, but the question mark implies it’s meant to be interpreted cryptically.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I’m relieved to see the setters’ names appearing – not least because someone who’s only solved the Indy online up to now might be somewhat confused by 13 down!
October 21st, 2008 at 7:56 am
Surely the question mark is simply there to qualify one of the definitions? In this case ‘A period’ would seem to be a weak definition of IRON AGE. I really can’t see how this clue can be read as a ‘definition + charade’ without the question mark, but with the question mark the wordplay somehow disappears.