Independent 8069/Phi
Posted by John on August 24th, 2012
The usual pleasant solve from Phi today. I found it all fairly straightforward and have no major questions, except that the unchecked letters round the sides suggest that there is a Nina here, which I cannot see.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | LOCO — 2 defs |
| 8 | HEAR T(BR)EAK — def simply ‘a sad state’ |
| 10 | TALLI{{piec}e}S — Thomas Tallis — play this at full volume |
| 11 | PYRENEES — pyre (seen)rev. |
| 12 | CHAR(IS)M A |
| 14 | ON(TIM)E |
| 15 | PASS THE PARCEL — (search applets)* |
| 18 | S TANZ{an I}A |
| 20 | TH(U MB)ING |
| 22 | BE (AU) LIE U |
| 23 | T(1)RADE |
| 25 | TIN SOLDIER — (solid inert)* |
| 26 | {t}OUCH |
| Down | |
| 1 | S(OD)A — it = SA (sex appeal) lives on in crossword land, even though it may have just about died out in real life |
| 2 | PO(P{ine})LAR |
| 3 | CHESS SET — a CD I think, although perhaps there is something more going on — I can’t really explain ‘immediate’ or ‘your’ except that if there is a checkmate one is not going to continue the game; but one might start another one immediately? [Its immediate use is curtailed by your mate] |
| 4 | STEREO — (R Tees)* o — an ‘o’ is a round |
| 5 | FRE(N)E TIC |
| 6 | W(A TERM)E L ON — where term = closing — term = termination or end, not something that immediately occurs but it is often used successfully in Azed clue-setting competitions and one can’t object: the first sense given in Chambers is ‘an end’ |
| 9 | ALPHA CENTAURI — (l{eap} in a parachute)* |
| 13 | HYPOTHESIS — (pish theory’s – r)* |
| 16 | SUN BU({lawye}R)ST |
| 17 | ADUL{t} T({marriag}E)RY |
| 19 | A V IDLY |
| 21 | BAR DOT — a bit aged now, but she was a sex symbol in her time |
| 24 | DUCK — 2 defs, one of them referring to cricket |
August 24th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
No obvious nina that I can see, John. Nothing too obscure in the puzzle, either, although one or two answers took a while to figure out. As you say, it’s some time since BARDOT was a sex symbol; I guess it’s also some time since many of us played PASS THE PARCEL or played with TIN SOLDIERs.
Thanks, Phi and John.
August 24th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Pleasing puzzle with NW the trickiest part. Thanks, Phi and John.
August 24th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Very nicely written I think. Thank you Phi for a lovelt set of clues, and to John for the blog.
Cheers to all, and a good Bank Holiday,
Rowly.
August 24th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Yes, fine set of clues, with the almost obligatory astronomy and music references (I thought ALPHA CENTAURI was very clever).
Thanks to Phi and John.
August 24th, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Thanks Phi for the puzzle, John for the blog and (in particular) for your Tallis link which introduced me to Spem in Alium. Stunning.
August 24th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
Started this on the train from Birmingham this morning (I was at a performance of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch yesterday) and didn’t do too badly but had three or four clues left so I put it to one side for the rest of the journey.
Looked at again when I got home and it took me ages to get anything more. Then I suddenly “saw” 3dn (although I can’t work out all the word play, either) and the rest fell into place.
So, nothing too obscure or difficult after 6 hours of Stockhausen. Thanks to all.
August 25th, 2012 at 12:30 am
Nice stuff, but I can’t see any reason for the grid or themes either.Got misled by Stanza thinking ZA was South Africa and then missing the rest.
The iTees in the i was remarkably easy today for me.