Independent 7382 by Morph
Posted by NealH on June 14th, 2010
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | Ragwort: Grow* in rat. |
| 10 | Leads to: (Old seats)* – using the answer to 26 as an anagram indicator. |
| 11 | Persevere: Last letters of “up the khyber” + severe (what matrons were legendarily supposed to be). |
| 12 | Above: A bov[in]e. |
| 13 | Insubordinately: (Labour destiny in)*. |
| 15 | Sultry: Lust* + yr<. |
| 16 | Skewer: Don’t follow this apart from the definition = “Run through”. |
| 21 | Strait of Messina: (into streams as if)*. |
| 23 | Twang: Gnat< around w (both the first and last letters of window being w). |
| 24 | Canvasses: DD. |
| 26 | Redrawn: Red raw + n[appy]. |
| 27 | Seafood: (A dose of)*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Trophies: Op h(ard) in tries. |
| 2 | Ygdrasil: (Dry slag)* around I[celand]. A reference to the giant ash tree of Norse mythology. |
| 3 | Gone: go N(orth) E(ast) – the direction you would have to travel to go from London to Norwich. |
| 4 | At heart: He in a tart. |
| 5 | Sleep in: Eels< + nip<. |
| 6 | Balalaikas: I think this is BA+ [E]l-Al +AS (three airlines) around I[ran], K[azakhstan], A[zerbaijan]. The def is “Russians pull the strings of these” (i.e. musical instruments). I wasn’t entirely sure about AS as an airline, although there is an Alaska Airlines which has IATA code AS. |
| 7 | Ashore: Ash (volcano’s output) + ore. |
| 8 | Lonely: &lit – [a]lly around one. |
| 14 | Barking mad: I think this is Barking + mad[e]. Barking was the seat that Nick Griffin of the BNP was hoping to win, but didn’t do very well in. |
| 17 | Wainscot: Hom of Wayne (Rooney) + scot. |
| 18 | Rhapsody: Deceptively hidden in “Perhaps Odysseus. |
| 19 | Volcano: I think this is an &lit of lov[e]< + can (=may)+ o[utpouring] (leading letter). |
| 20 | Amongst: M[aking] o in angst. Def = “in the middle of”. |
| 21 | Suture: Hom of suitor. |
| 22 | Rwanda: The 3 Rs are reading, writing and arithmetic, so would correctly be R, W and A. |
| 25 | Anal: An[I'm]al. |
June 14th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Nice blog, NeilH and good puzzle on the ash cloud theme. Fortunately I knew YGDRASIL which obviously helped a lot. The clue for this was superb. Nevertheless VOLCANO took me a while. I think the AS in 6down is simply AS as written in the clue.
June 14th, 2010 at 10:57 am
skewer is Wesker with the We moved.
I think there are only two airlines in 6d, the ‘as’ is in the wording.
Not fun.
June 14th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Many thanks, Neal.
This was very enjoyable indeed, with lots of clever clues. I particularly liked 11ac and 2, 7, 14, 17, 18 and 22dn. I vaguely remembered having met 2dn [but couldn't remember quite how to spell it!] in a crossword before and find it was in Guardian Araucaria 24,451, in August 2008.
I had 21 dn as a homophone of ‘suit you’re’.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:46 am
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Quite difficult with some cleverly concealed definitions. Esp liked RAGWORT, REDRAWN, AT HEART, RHAPSODY (v well concealed ‘hidden’ that was my last answer), ANAL. Had come across YGDRASIL before and the anagram made it easy enough to work out when I’d some crossing letters.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Thanks for a helpful blog, Neal – and I did need help today, not being able to finish in the NE corner (on which point, Morph, let’s at least have Black Cats instead of Canaries in the clue if you’re going to reference the NE, please).
Unlike sidey, I enjoyed the bits I did manage; I thought there were some lovely clues, especially RAGWORT, WAINSCOT, PERSEVERE and REDRAWN. 2dn, on the other hand …
As for the theme, I think it was Derrick recently that said that what solvers see and what setters intend can be two completely different things. With the clues and answers including ECSTACY, LUST, PASSION, MAKING LOVE, SLAG, TART, LOOSE WOMAN and DOSE OF CRABS, I thought we were heading off somewhere completely different …
June 14th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
It’s all in the mind, KD, but well spotted!
June 14th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
At my age, Derrick, it is all in the mind, trust me …
June 14th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Yes I thought this one was pretty good too, and nice to see Odin’s Horse trotted out. In eight of the Nine Worlds around the giant ash, there isn’t any football, thank goodness.
June 14th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Didn’t help knowing 2dn but entering it wrong and not spotting for ages…
@KD #5 I suspect 25dn could be included in that list. I thought balalaika strings were plucked rather than pulled. Found it tough going but that could have been down to the mad Scotsman next to me shouting non sequitors and generally being a mutter nutter. Love train travel at times.
June 14th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Scorpion included Eyjafjallajokull as a nina in a Saturday puzzle a few weeks ago.
June 14th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Surprised not to see more praise for the RWANDA clue – a tremendous piece of lateral thinking from Morph!
June 14th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Thanks for the blog, Neal, and all your comments. As jmac observes at 10, Scorpion beat me to the Eyjafjallajökull nina a few weeks ago, but having discovered that Ygdrasil was a Nordic ash whose branches spread around the world I had to use it while memories were fresh.
June 14th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Some fantastic clues in this – RWANDA, SEAFOOD and RHAPSODY were my favourites.
June 14th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Would agree with comments on RWANDA, SEAFOOD and RHAPSODY! Late night tonight though as it was tough but enjoyable.
Can anyone explain 16A SKEWER please? NealH couldn’t see it either.
Thanks Morph – it was worth a late night! We never start the Indie until at least 10:00pm!
June 15th, 2010 at 12:17 am
Apparently, it is the playwright Arnold Wesker with the WE (points) at the front moved further down. I’m not a fan of using first names to identify people and I’d barely heard of him, so not much chance of following the clue.
June 15th, 2010 at 12:34 am
Agree about using first names, but skewer was obvious from the locking letters and the clue then unravelled even to this badly read solver.
Liked Rwanda but it came to me instantly, we seem to have had a few ?and? type answers/clues like this recently.