Independent 7,134/Tees
Posted by Ali on August 27th, 2009
Nice stuff from Tees. Some excellent clues here, though there are one ot two I can’t quite piece together, so any pointers appreciated.
This looks like the kind of grid which screams Nina, but I can’t see anything.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BAG – Double def. |
| 8 | TUG-OF-WAR – Cryptic def. |
| 9/27 | OUT FOR THE COUNT – A lovely cryptic def. |
| 10 | ONE OVER THE EIGHT – (VAN GOETHE HERE + IT)* – A nice anag. &lit., ‘stotious’ doing double duty as the definition and anagrind |
| 11 | LAMBASTE – B in LAMAS + T[-empl]E |
| 13 | NOTICE – OT in NICE |
| 15 | SLENDER – S,LENDER |
| 17 | ADVANCE – Double def. |
| 20 | AT ONCE – C in ATONE |
| 22 | CISTERNA – STERN in CIA |
| 24 | LEG BEFORE WICKET – (OF BERG TWICE KEEL)* – A nice anagram and definition |
| 26 | DETAIL – ET in DAIL |
| 28 | LIE – Hidden in colLIErs |
| Down | |
| 1 | TURN TAIL – (ULTRA-T[-h]IN)* |
| 2 | POLO – I think this is PO,LO[-w] |
| 3 | SWEEPS – WEE P in SS |
| 4 | BROTHER – R in BOTHER |
| 5 | GOVERNED – (Jules) VERNE in GOD |
| 6 | STRIPTEASE – (TAPESTRIES)* – Another cracking anagram |
| 7 | GOTHIC – GOT,HIC |
| 12 | BANANA BOAT – Lovely cryptic def. |
| 14 | EVE – EVE[-n] |
| 15 | SKA – S,KA |
| 16 | EVENFALL – EVE,N,FALL |
| 18 | CANOEING – OE (ends for OncE) in CANING |
| 19 | ACCRETE – Not sure on this one – “Make bigger imbecile homeless where housing’s excellent” |
| 21 | THEBES – HEBE in T.S (Eliot) |
| 23 | SAW RED – Another one I guessed without knowing why – “Became angry with evidence linked to Texas massacre” |
| 25 | CHOW – H in COW |
August 27th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Hi Ali
19d is CRET[in] (imbecile homeless) in ACE (excellent)
23d is a reference to the film ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ where the evidence afterwards would be a red (bloody) saw.
In 10a I don’t think ‘stotious’ is doing double duty. It is the anagram indicator and the definition is ‘in his cups’, though as both mean ‘drunk’ the roles could be reversed.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Agreed – this was a delightful solve with some spectacularly good CDs; top marks for TUG OF WAR and BANANA BOAT. The subtraction anagram fodder at 1D is also top class.
Something of a rarity among cryptic puzzles, the clues were brilliantly imaginative but solving certainly wasn’t a slog. Despite being just a tad tired (solved at around 1am) I think it took around 15 minutes online.
Lovely work – thank you Tees.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Yes, this was excellent, particularly liked TUG-OF-WAR and OUT FOR THE COUNT.
Very tough, a lot more than 15 minutes and with the benefit of the paper.
August 27th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I liked this — quite tricky but still perfectly accessible. Not being a fan of CDs, I look for as few as possible and think 9/27 is not a CD but a double definition, ‘Perhaps hunting Dracula’ a rather good jokey one and ‘down permanently in fight’ the straight one.
18dn was brilliant, although I prefer [wordplay] for [def] rather than this way round, and I wondered in what sense ‘God’ is equivalent to ‘religion’ in 5dn.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:24 am
‘I’ve found God’, etc: perfectly correct about 9/27 though Wil.
Many thanks to commenters, and to Ali for an extremely well-informed blog.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:34 am
was it 6 down Igot the answer striptease but not the connection with Chippendale
unless it refers to the furniture -ie the legs if so a very sedate clue indeed.