Independent 7864 / Tees
Posted by Ali on December 29th, 2011
This was very good stuff from the Tees-er, but far from easy. Experience of solving IQs and the odd Listener definitely helped me piece together a few of these, though I’m struggling with one or two!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1/13 | MAGNETIC NORTH – (TONIGHT CARMEN)* |
| 6 | DIVIDE – DI[-d] + VIDE (see) |
| 9 | MOSQUE – Q(uart) in (MOUSE)* |
| 10 | INFRARED – IN + F(ellow) + RARE + D(ied) |
| 11 | TOMAHAWK – TOM + A HAWK |
| 12 | ANONYM – AN + ON + MY re3v. |
| 14 | UNDERWEAR – Cryptic def. |
| 17 | MAURITIAN – ([-s]ANITARIUM)* |
| 19/24 | SOUTH CHINA SEA – (THIS OCEAN HAS + U[-nusual])* |
| 22 | RYOKAN – YOK[-o] in RAN |
| 23 | YELLOWER – YELL + OWER – ‘or more’ is a very clever definition here |
| 25 | REVEAL – V[-alu]E in REAL |
| 26 | LILIAN – LIL’ IAN! |
| 27 | DETERRED – TERR[-y] in DEED |
| Down | |
| 2 | AMOROSO – A MORO SO |
| 3 | NO QUARTER – NO (stylised dram) + QUARTER (4th part) |
| 4 | THEBAN – THEN embracing BA |
| 5 | CHICKEN MARYLAND – Not 100% sure on this one – ‘Girl hardly daring to deliver meal’ |
| 6 | DEFEATED – FED rev. + [-sw]E[-et] + (DATE)* |
| 7 | IN RANGE – N(ewton) in IN RAGE |
| 8 | ENDOMORPH – This must be END (death) + MORPH (one of our compilers), but not sure where the O comes in with ‘to’ |
| 13 | NUMERICAL – N.U.M + ERIC + [-co]AL |
| 15 | WHOSOEVER – (SOHO V[-1]EWER)* |
| 16 | STANDS IN – S(ain)T AND SIN |
| 18 | UXORIAL – U (posh) + XO (executive officer) + RIAL (cash) |
| 20 | TEENAGE – (GENE TEA)* |
| 21 | CLARET – (L(eft) CRATE)* |
December 29th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Thanks Tees for the crossword and Ali for the blog.
5dn: I read it as “Girl hardly daring” = CHICKEN MARY and “deliver” = LAND
8dn: One could get O from “one [first letter] of our”, but this seems to require those three words to do double duty. In the singular, “compiler” would be enough for MORPH, but that does not work in the plural.
25ac: I think this clue would be better without “the”: after all there is more than one team in Madrid, even sticking to Association Football.
December 29th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Thanks for the blog, Ali, and Tees for an enjoyable puzzle.
I read 8dn as ‘End o’ Morph’! [and 5dn as PB did.]
December 29th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Eileen @2 re 8dn: Yes that works for me without requiring any words in the clue to do double duty. Thanks.
December 29th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Thanks everyone. Quite a tough one! I was pleased to have a solution but the details of several escaped me until now. Now that I’ve seen Ali’s explanation, I think my COD is probably 23 – must be one of the best disguised definitions.
December 29th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Thank you Ali.
Found this hard but enjoyed it and was pleased to finish it. I’m still not understanding three things, if someone could oblige: how do we get the BA in THEBAN? How does YELLOWER work? (I see it’s YELL + OWER). And where does the NO in NO QUARTER come from?
And I know I’ve chuntered on about this before, but I continue to think that referencing other setters (ENDOMORPH) is unfair for the average solver who probably doesn’t even look, or care, who the setter is before attempting the puzzle. But a small niggle in what was a well-constructed crossword, thank you also to Tees.
December 29th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Re K’s D at #6, Or = gold (yellow) so ‘or more’ = yellower. Ba = soul (from Egypt) and No (or Noh) = drama from Japan. These are two or three-word things that tend to be used in puzzles that one gets to know over time.
Thanks, Tees and Ali/
December 29th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
K’s Dad @5 and using Chambers 2011:
23ac: or² (heraldry) n the tincture gold or yellow, so “or more?” indicates a comparative yellower – the dodgy nature of this indicated by a question mark.
3dn: no[4] n the traditional Japanese style of drama developed out of a religious dance.
4dn: ba n in ancient Egyptian religion, the soul, represented as a bird wirh a human head.
OR and NO are almost crossword cliches – I did not know BA, but it had to be that to fit the rest of the clue.
December 29th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Maybe even two or three-letter things…
December 29th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
… and in my comment @7 crossing nms @6, “with” not “wirh”.
December 29th, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Thanks, both. I’ve seen OR for the gold bit in previous puzzles, and that’s a clever clue now you’ve explained it; but can’t say I’ve come across any of those other two babies before …
December 29th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Got it all, though without fully understanding some of the clues, so thanks to Ali for the blog. RYOKAN was a new word to me but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_%28Japanese_inn%29 explained it.
December 29th, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Thank you all very much indeed for the comments, and to Ali for the excellent blog.
14A is meant to parse as a fairly jocular charade using UNDER plus WEAR, but I agree it has its CD characteristics! The only other item I have is that the U in UXORIAL is clued ‘acceptable to posh’: one for good old Nancy Mitford, that is.