Independent 8225 by Bannsider (Saturday Prize Puzzle 23 February 2013)
Posted by mc_rapper67 on March 2nd, 2013
The usual high-quality clueing from Bannsider, with a varied mix of the old and the new – and no particular theme or nina (that I could see).
The old/classic? References to Levi, Hosea, Eucharist, Coeur de Lion, Russian dissenters and Lilliputians. The new? A recent Manchester United goalkeeper, some hi-tech scanning equipment and a Spielberg film. And a bit in the middle – stamp collectors and a pop star’s daughter.
A bit of a curious mix, and once the long answers round the outside and the four relatively quick-get 3-letter answers were in place, it all fell together maybe a bit too quickly for a Saturday prize puzzle? With a few Xs, Vs and a Z I did wonder if it might be a pangram – but it is at least a Q and a J short of that.
As ever, on closer inspection of the clues for blogging, there are some gems that I glossed over first time round. 1A – suggesting that SCHINDLER’S LIST may be a little overlong?! (I have to admit I have never watched it in full.) 10A with a NEWSSTAND as a ‘Sun’-seeker’s objective. And 11A with Cockney Rebels and The Sweet scoring number ones with their chart music. Sublime! And that is just 3 of the first 4 clues…
My favourite was probably ‘One minute…’ for LILLIPUTIAN at 13D – which was educational as it took a little Wiki-oogling to work out that the setter was not ennobling himself – there really is a Lord Bannside – any relation?! Probably closely followed by Lisa Marie Presley as ‘The King’s daughter’.
One minor quibble (or minsinterpretation by me) would be the homophone(?) of ROWS/ROSE at 5D – which needs a bit of visualisation as well, as ROWS meaning arguments/scraps would sound more like ROUSE than ROSE?
Anyway, in a busy week I was grateful for a relatively uncomplicated solve/blog – either that or I was in too much of a hurry to spot anything fiendishly clever hidden here…
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1A | SCHINDLER’S LIST | Hours into shifting stills, discern picture (10,4) | Picture (Steven Spielberg film) / anag (i.e. shifting) of STILLS DISCERN plus H (hours) |
| 9A | AFFIX | Glue maybe sounds like something addict must have (5) | Glue / sounds like ‘a fix’, which is something an addict (drugs, coffee, crosswords?!) may need |
| 10A | NEWSSTAND | Sun-seekers’ objective perhaps is fresh place to bask, without stone (9) | Sun-seeker’s objective, perhaps (where one might buy the Sun newspaper/comic) / NEW (fresh) + SAND (place to bask, ‘in the sun’), around (without) ST (stone) |
| 11A | PEAR DROP | Listened to Cockney Rebel’s number one, chart music covers and The Sweet (4,4) | (the) sweet / POP (chart music) around (covering) EARD (heard, dropping the ‘h’, as a Cockney might do) plus R (first letter of Rebel) |
| 12A | AMALFI | Earlier Hitchcock, familiarly one showing Italian location (6) | Italian location / AM (morning, earlier) + ALF (familiar form of Alfred – Hitchcock) + I (one) |
| 15A | OLD BELIEVER | Dissenting Russian using daggers to keep lord still (3,8) | Dissenting Russian (vs. the Orthodox church) / OBELI (daggers – symbol used in printing, to indicate a footnote) around (keeping) LD (lord), plus EVER (still) |
| 17A | LEV | Priest almost ready for trip to Sofia? (3) | Ready (money, cash) for trip to Sofia (Bulgaria) / LEV (Bulgarian currency) = LEV(I) (priest, almost) |
| 18A | LOU | Male or female watch that comes with centrepiece for hours or minutes (3) | Male or female (name) / LO (interjection – ‘behold!’ or ‘watch!’) + U (middle letter of either hoUrs or minUtes) |
| 19A | COEUR DE LION | For Richard I talked of separate energy supplier (5,2,4) | (Nickname) for Richard I / French (talked of, in another language) for Lionheart – Richard I’s nickname, and a lion’s heart could be a separate ‘energy supplier’ (?) |
| 20A | CAFTAN | Shirt worn at FA Cup needs returning (6) | Shirt / reversed and hidden word in ‘worN AT FA Cup” |
| 21A | ART HOUSE | Type of cinema seat that engulfs you (3,5) | Type of cinema / ARSE (seat, behind) around (engulfing) THOU (you) |
| 24A | OUT WITH IT | Demand for comment from fool meeting success (3,4,2) | Demand for comment / OUTWIT (fool someone) + HIT (success) |
| 26A | SWISS | Tell, say, Westminster tale Tory overlooked twice (5) | (William) Tell, say / SW1 (Westminster postcode) + S(TORY) twice (tale, without Tory) |
| 27A | FLATBED SCANNER | Dull county person taking stick bringing in new image-maker (7,7) | image-maker / FLAT (dull) + BEDS (Bedfordshire, county) + CANER (one using a stick, or cane) around N (new) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | STAMP COLLECTOR | Rock act promotes fifties clubs: one makes albums (5,9) | one makes albums / anag (i.e. rock) of ACT PROMOTES + LL (Roman numerals, 50s) + C (clubs) |
| 2D | HUFF AND PUFF | Remove from board with great publicity and fuss (4,3,4) | fuss / HUFF (remove e.g. draughts piece, from game board) AND (with) PUFF (great publicity) |
| 3D | NIXED | Team in retreat after lift gets cancelled (5) | cancelled / DEN (retreat, or lair) around XI (eleven, or team) – all lifted up |
| 4D | LONDONIZED | Scrawled on old note one last letter resembling capital? (10) | resembling capital (of England) / anag (i.e. scrawled) of ON OLD, plus N (note) + I (one) + ZED (last letter) |
| 5D | ROWS | Scraps were revolting when picked up (4) | scraps / visual homophone(?) – ROWS (scraps, fights), when pronounced as in rowing a boat, sounds like ROSE (rebelled, revolted) |
| 6D | LISA MARIE | The King’s daughter in fairy story stuff, as one recalled (4,5) | The ‘king’ (Elvis Presley)’s daughter / LIE (fairy story) around ISA MAR – RAM (stuff) + AS + I (one) – all recalled |
| 7D | SPA | First-placer from Aintree’s odds on for Cheltenham? (3) | Cheltenham (spa town) / SP (starting prices, bookies’ odds) on A (first letter of Aintree) |
| 8D | EDWIN VAN DER SAR | Dutch goalkeeper, having arrived, swanned about (5,3,3,3) | Dutch (and former Manchester United) goalkeeper / anag (i.e. about) of ARRIVED SWANNED |
| 13D | LILLIPUTIAN | One minute left, after which I’m going to one place Lord Bannside goes (11) | One minute (as in ‘someone tiny’) / L (left) + ILL (I’ll, I am going to) + I (one) + PUT (place) + IAN (Ian Paisley, aka Lord Bannside) |
| 14D | OVERWRITES | Finished with liturgies, replaces with something new? (10) | replaces with something new / OVER (finished) + W (with) + RITES (liturgies) |
| 16D | EUCHARIST | Bread and wine and tea is breaking the day up (9) | Bread and wine / EUT (Tue, day, up), broken by CHAR (tea) + IS |
| 22D | HOSEA | Good book – one taken to bed to counteract dry article (5) | Good book (of the Bible) / HOSE (something used on a (flower) bed to counteract dryness) + A (indefinite article) |
| 23D | SHOE | Trainer maybe has run out of support (4) | Trainer, maybe / SHO(R)E – support, shore up, without R (run) |
| 25D | TEL | Scaled down fellow’s steeple regularly (3) | Scaled down (diminutive) fellow’s (name) – i.e. short for Terry, which, in turn, can be short for Terence) / regular letters of sTeEpLe |
March 2nd, 2013 at 1:26 am
A hugely entertaining challenge as usual from Bannsider, with lots of imaginative and misleading definitions.
Must say I share mc_rapper67′s unease about 5Dn – to me it seems unfair and illogical that the homophonous wordplay fails to match the definition.
19Ac I took to be a homophone of CURDLE (to separate) + E.ON (German-based energy provider), although I’m not entirely convinced that ‘curdle’ and ‘separate’ mean the same thing.
March 2nd, 2013 at 10:48 am
Thanks for the blog. 19a as per @Richard Heald’s comment.
March 2nd, 2013 at 12:37 pm
This was the second ‘who are you and what have you done with Bannsider puzzle’ for me in a row. Either that or I am finally achieving my aim of getting on his wavelength. I solved this in a couple of sessions but all on the same day which is a first. The final penny drop moment being the splendid ‘king’s daughter’ D’oh indeed.
Thanks to Bannsider for an extremely enjoyable challenge. Thanks for the blog too.
March 2nd, 2013 at 1:46 pm
5dn was an error for which I sincerely apologise. In future I must read my homophone clues aloud!
Lord Bannside is no relation. He featured in January’s puzzle also so I thought I’d echo that with a further reference …