Independent 7,076 by Nestor (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 20/06/09)
Posted by Simon Harris on June 26th, 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Nestor’s puzzles are always good, and I doubt that this was an exception, but for some reason I couldn’t really get any momentum going here. Having completed it in dribs and drabs I don’t feel well-equipped to comment on how easy or hard it was.
There’s a couple where I’m not 100% convinced of my answers.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MASSIF – [sugarloa]F IS SAM[e]<. |
| 5 | STEP UP – PUP[p]ETS. |
| 10 | INERTIA SELLING – cd. |
| 11 | COMPULSION – C + POLONIUMS*. |
| 12 | SCAM – MACS<. |
| 13 | SCULPT – (S + CUT) “keeps” LP. |
| 15 | COOLIDGE – COOL + [fr]IDGE. Calvin Coolidge, former POTUS. |
| 17 | IDEOGRAM – (OR IMAGED)*. |
| 19 | TITLED – TIT + LED. |
| 20 | SPIT – SPIT[e]. |
| 22 | CONVERSANT – (COVERS “about” N) + ANT. |
| 24 | FROM TIME TO TIME – in 4dn, the letters RAC are between two Ts. |
| 25 | SARONG – SA[u]RON + G. A quick Google suggests this is a Tolkien reference. I spent some time trying to make STRUNG work. |
| 26 | DEPUTY – DUTY “involving” EP. |
| Down | |
| 2 | AMINO ACID – AM I NO[t] A CID, I think. |
| 3 | SHEEP – S + HEEP, as in Uriah Heep. |
| 4 | FATAL ATTRACTION – (A CANAL TIT FOR TAT)*. Ref. Glenn Close, one of the film’s stars. |
| 6 | THE END OF THE ROAD – (HE “held by” TEND) + OFT + HERO + AD. |
| 7 | POLO SHIRT – (LO + SHIR) in TOP<. |
| 8 | PANDA – PA “keeping” AND. |
| 9 | MANIAC – MA + CAIN<. |
| 14 | LION TAMER – (TRAIN MOLE)*. |
| 16 | GREEN BELT – dd. |
| 18 | MINUET – [euphoniu]M + I + TUNE*. Something along those lines, although I can’t quite convince myself. |
| 21 | PARIS – a famously gay city, but “Who stole away with beauty?”. |
| 23 | SKIM – SKIM + P. |
June 26th, 2009 at 10:33 am
This should help explain 21D:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_(mythology)
A nice puzzle, though I struggled to get going. Loved the devious definition in 4D!
June 26th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Hi Simon
For 18dn I had MONKEY [as in 'monkey around' = 'fiddle': [euphoniu]M ON KEY [in tune]
June 26th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Ohh, that Paris, thanks Ali. And thanks Eileen, your answer for 18 is far more convincing than mine.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:47 am
I enjoyed this puzzle, as I always do with Nestor, who has a very original style. I also failed with 18. Thanks, Eileen, for explaining it.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Enjoyable as always, though this wasn’t quite Nestor firing on all cylinders. The cryptic def at 10Ac (“The logical response to sales resistance?”) hardly seems cryptic at all. And re 18Dn, isn’t the correct term ‘in key’ rather than ‘on key’?
I kicked myself for not spotting the ‘Close feature’ def immediately – I’ve trained myself to watch out for this sort of trickery from Nestor ever since his ‘Ferry group’ def for ROXY MUSIC a couple of years ago.
July 4th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
The idea in 10A is the connection between inertia and resistance in a physics sense. In 18D, “on key” is propounded as the opposite of “off key”. And it was “Ferry creW”.