Independent 7168/Virgilius
Posted by John on October 6th, 2009
Virgilius’s theme is tricky alternatives, as we see in the three different expressions in the across clues. As always I suspect I’m not telling the whole story.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | A GREE{n} |
| 12 | yellowstonE nationaL parK |
| 13 | MINOR — not quite sure about how all this hangs together: OK you can have a minor premise, a club is a minor suit, and a youth is a minor, but it seems a bit odd to indicate ‘minor’ by ‘e.g. clubs’. [Like some premises, e.g. clubs, for youth] |
| 14/22 | SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS — s(any call)*d chary (bids)* — this myth |
| 16 | NAP. |
| 18/10/29 | BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE — Kandahar in ((peac{e} now celebrated)* — this expression |
| 20/11/27 | THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA — also = and, play is “The Deep Blue Sea” by Terence Rattigan, deuce is the devil |
| 24 | INUIT — I (unit)* |
| 26 | TUT{u} |
| 30 | turkEY IN Greece |
| Down | |
| 1 | LANDS MAN |
| 2 | C RAVEN |
| 3 | DEPLORABLY — (bold player)* |
| 4 | VA(1)N |
| 5 | PORT L {tra}Y |
| 6 | SKYE — (Key’s)* |
| 7 | INTERACT — (certain)* t |
| 8 | MARK ED |
| 14 | S IT |
| 15 | LONGITUDES — long (duties)* |
| 17 | PSALTERY — t in (players)* |
| 19 | ENS — hidden in Sense and also in Sensibility |
| 21 | forEST RANGErs |
| 22 | CAT(C)HY |
| 23 | DEEJAY — here the record-player is a DJ |
| 25 | UN’S AID |
| 27 | DO PE |
| 28 | BLEW — “blue” |
October 6th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Hello John,
No. I don’t think you’ve missed anything.
I just wanted to note the excellent symmetry of the themed answers, with “between” being central to them all.
And Kandahar; brilliant.
13ac. I suppose he had to use the e.g. as clubs are not the only minor suit…
October 6th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Yes, excellent as always, and impressive to fit so much in the grid without obvious strain. As it happened those long phrases came quite easily without the wordplay once I’d a few letters so this turned out to be quite a quick solve,
October 6th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Quick solve for me too, but no less enjoyable for that. The Kandahar one was indeed wonderful (and I can’t believe no-one’s written a clue along the lines of “Caught between rock and a hard place in Afghanistan (8)” yet!). In fact, the casual brilliance of all three long clues (and indeed short ones like ELK) was a joy to behold – why can’t all setters be as good as Virgilius?
October 6th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I think another v distinguished setter used that KANDAHAR idea in the Indy before, a few years back perhaps.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Looks like it was Nestor a couple of years back:
http://fifteensquared.net/2007/05/10/independent-6416-by-nestor-very-tough-very-original/
It was the first time I’d seen it used though and, like all above, thought it was fantastic.
This was a fairly quick solve once the longer answers had gone in, but brilliant stuff as ever from Virgilius.