Independent 7,704 by Nestor (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 25/06/11)
Posted by Simon Harris on July 2nd, 2011
I must admit that this seemed to be about the toughest Nestor puzzle I’ve ever come across. As a result, I was picking away at it all week. One final entry, 17dn, remained blank until I could check it online today. Nevertheless, there is some very inventive and pleasing clueing in there.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LIEUTENANTSHIP – ((U + TENANT) in LIES) + HIP. The “let contractor” definition for TENANT was well-hidden, I thought. |
| 9 | UPLIFT – (FLIP [o]UT)*. |
| 10 | PALOMINO – from DOMINO, with PAL (“china plate” = “mate”) ousting the leading D. |
| 11 | GREAT APE – [o]GRE AT A PE[nitentiary]. |
| 12 | ENGULF – ENG + FLU<. ENG was certainly new to me. |
| 13 | GANDHI – G[oing] AND HI. |
| 14 | SEMESTER – (M + EST) in SEER. |
| 16 | AMUNDSEN – (US MANNED)*. Roald Amundsen, no doubt. |
| 19 | DILUTE – DI + LUTE. |
| 21 | GARUDA – U in GARDA. It turns out to be these chaps, though I had to rely on wordplay for this one. |
| 23 | OVERSTEP – (VOTES PER)*. |
| 24 | EUPHUISM – E + UP + (IS in HUM). |
| 25 | SWIVEL – (W in LEVIS)<. |
| 26 | ETHNIC MINORITY – cd. |
| Down | |
| 2 | IMPERIAL MEASURE – (AREA MILES)* in IMPURE. |
| 3 | UNITARD – NIT in [g]UARD. |
| 4 | ESTUARIES – ES TU + ARIES. |
| 5 | APPLETS – APPLE + T[ool]S &lit. |
| 6 | TILDE – L in TIDE. |
| 7 | HOMAGES – MAG in HOES. |
| 8 | PENAL SETTLEMENT – TALENTS* in (P + ELEMENT). |
| 15 | MID-SEASON – SIDE* in Perry MASON. |
| 17 | NOUGHTH – (UGH + T) in NOH. |
| 18 | NUOC MAM – COUN[t]< + (M + A.M.). |
| 20 | LOSSIER – L + [d]OSSIER. |
| 22 | ALIBI – LIB in A.I.. |
July 2nd, 2011 at 9:01 am
I agree it was quite tough but very good as usual from Nestor. There is also reading down the left hand column LUGGAGE i.e. [Left] luggage, and down the right hand column OF REPLY i.e. [right] of reply.
July 2nd, 2011 at 9:30 am
I spend about 5 hours and only solved 8 clues. Thought that was down to my lack of ability but I see that it was tough.
Thanks for the blog
July 2nd, 2011 at 10:20 am
Yes, tough but solvable. Thanks, Nestor, for the challenge, and Simon for the blog – and jmac for spotting the nina which I missed.
21a was obviously U somewhere in GARDA but I’d never heard of the airline so it was Google to the rescue, and also to confirm 17d from the wordplay. At Oxford the week before a university term is frequently referred to as ‘noughth week’ – see http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/guide/uniterms.html
NUOC MAM was also new to me, but I got it from the wordplay and then found it in Chambers.
Favourites? ESTUARIES and TILDE.
July 2nd, 2011 at 10:32 am
Yes, well spotted jmac. I noticed that but didn’t understand it at all, and eventually forgot to even mention it. Thanks for the explanation!
The other thing I meant to mention relates to Allan_C’s comment: us programmers start counting at 0 (for example in the context of array indices), so the noughth of anything would be the initial, rather than the one preceding the initial item! That’s basically pedantry, though
July 2nd, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Yes, this was pretty tough, but totally fair. Seeing LUGGAGE and OF REPLY emerging helped me but I did not get the LEFT RIGHT idea till coming here. Quite a few words I’d never heard of but the clear wordplay led me to them in all cases. Favourite clues GANDHI and TILDE.
Thanks, Nestor, and Simon – programmers may start at 0 for convenience, Simon, giving 10 one-digit numbers, but I guess the rest of us will stick with 1 as our starting point for the foreseeable future…
July 2nd, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Thanks Simon and Nestor.
Really challenging, though perhaps I had a slight edge with GARUDA and NOUC MAM. Last one in was NOUGHTH, couldn’t think of a word ending ….H_H, until I thought east and Japanese drama. Lots of tough but fair clues as always with Nestor, favourites of which were 10A PALOMINO, got held up slightly trying to fit “China”=”Ming” porcelain, 5A APPLETS and 25A SWIVEL, though some might frown at the use of tradenames in the latter two. Thanks jmac for the explanation of the ninas, which I spotted but couldn’t connect.