Independent 7156 by Virgilius
Posted by nmsindy on September 22nd, 2009
Themed as usual by the master. Familiar with both books, so it was quite a quick solve, 17 mins. Great clues as always.
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 CH (from chess) ARLES ref Charles Dickens with 28
5 GEORGE George = automatic pilot (aircraft) and character in ‘Three Men in a Boat’ by Jerome K Jerome is, I think, what is referred to here ref George Orwell with 27 so top and bottom row give the theme.
9 MARK TWAIN
11 DAMN ALL “Dam awl”!
12 DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON KO’d = down and out 25 = two cities (the same two as in Dickens’ book)
13 STEALTH (the last)* BO (MB) ERS Boers = our enemies once
21 A TALE OF TWO CITIES
24 NUM BEST
26 Sir Francis D RAKE
27 OR WELL It’s also the name of a river
28 DICKENS (Snicked)* dickens = the devil
DOWN
1 CLOUD (could with L moving) bankruptcY
2 AL (TIME) TER ie time in alter not alter (change) in time (tempo)
3 LANTANA Hidden
4 SIMPL (ET) ON Simplon pass in the Alps et = and (too) in French
5 Al GORE D
6 OUT SWAM(p)
7 GHANA Hidden
10 NUDISM (dim sun)*
14 BULL-NOSED (bell sound)*
15 EXONERATE (no tree axe)*
16 UP CAST
18 STERIL (Lister)* theatrE
19 NO (MAD) IC(e)
20 A (THEN) S as = Roman copper coin
22 A M(O)UR Rum “written up” ie reversed in a down clue
23 Fish RILL
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Great stuff, as always.
I was a bit confused by 12/8/7 until I saw the blog.
The online version has “2″ instead of “25″.
Very unlike the Indy…
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
25 makes a lot more sense, although I did convince myself the 2 was referring to the fact that he was down and out in two places. It was a very neat idea to get the two books to clue each other. I didn’t follow 5 across, but it was obvious once the theme had been established.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Excellent stuff as always from Virgilius, but two questions:
a) Why, in 26ac, is Drake a pirate captain?
b) Why has Virgilius introduced Mark Twain? The name suggests the twos of both Dickens’s and Orwell’s titles, but is there something more going on?
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 am
a) Drake was a privateer, which is a sort of state-sponsored pirate. He certainly hijacked Spanish ships and the Spanish considered him a notorious pirate (even putting a price on his head).
b) Not that I noticed.