| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | O,A,FISH,NESS – “o” is a short form of “of”. Good clue to get us going. | |
| 10 | (ACTIONS IN A LAB IN)* – CANNIBALISATION has a few meanings, apart from the obvious grisly one. | |
| 12/13 | SC,(JONATHAN ROSS LET)* – Excellent clue and a really good anagram. That said, I filled the answer in without really understanding why, apart from vaguely thinking that the letters of “Jonathan Ross” plus a few others could make SCARLETT JOHANSSON. Even after I worked out the anagram that still left SC to be accounted for which Chambers online says is a shortened form of “scilicet” (Latin for “namely” – or, in this clue, “to wit”). | |
| 15 | AGOG,O – I don’t really get the definition for this one: “Name often found in nightclub“. | |
| 17 | hidden in “awfUL TRAgedy” | |
| 18 | LSE,A in ALTER – only just worked this one out: “not with standing [room]” = ALL-SEATER. | |
| 19 | NOT,E BOOK | |
| 26 | (APART EXIT)*,E – nice idea and I think it mostly works although the surface reading (“Who’s moving apart, exit to Spain?“) is a bit creaky. | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | hidden in “dOC CAMe” – a ref to William of Occam (or Ockham). | |
| 2 | T in FANCY HAT. | |
| 3 | (BRILLIANT GOALS NIL -ALL)* – STIRLING ALBION, behomoths of the Scottish League. I liked “not exactly” as an anagram indicator. Also, “not exactly brilliant” seems like a precise description of the team (apologies to any fans out there). | |
| 4 | NO,AH(oy) | |
| 7 | FINK<,E | |
| 8 | (NO PORT IN I)* – PINOT NOIR. Good clue, nice surface reading. | |
| 13 | JO,URN,EYED | |
| 16 | (A DOCTORS)*,A – OSTRACODA. Got this one wrong. It was the last one I filled in so I had O?T?A?O?A and I knew it had to be an anagram of A DOCTORS with an A at the end. I think I went for OCTRASODA (it’s hard to tell as I filled on the correct answer over the top of my incorrect one) – anyway, I wasn’t convinced so I checked the other most likely combinations of letters until I found the right one. I have to say I was amazed to find the word in the Concise OED. | |
| 22 | EG,DOH< – a Hodge is a “typical agricultural English labourer” according to the Concise OED. I think I’ve got the wordplay right – I’ve assumed that “D’oh” would be Homer Simpson’s form of “Oh dear”. | |
7 comments on “Independent 6473/Merlin”
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Some pleasing, clever, material here. Not a habitué myself, but Chambers says A GOGO appears in titles of night clubs. NOTE BOOK was good too because it gave the idea of not e-book. Re ALL-SEATER, that was excellent – not with standing (“being split up”). I’ve seen the idea before, but not as well done as this.
never heard of whisky a go go? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_a_Go_Go maybe it’s just an american thing…
Nope – never heard of that. I didn’t really make this clear in my blog but what I didn’t understand was why Merlin refers to it as a “name” – why is A GO-GO a name? Or is he using that more to make the clue read a bit better?
The def part of clue is “Name often found in night club”. Chambers full entry is – in abundance, to one’s heart’s content; used in names of nightclubs etc.
All of this I learned for the first time today, but it does seem to add up.
It’s not mentioned in Concise OED, the other dict I have now.
You’re right – seems fair enough. Really must get a copy of Chambers for the office…
Lovely puzzle, containing at least two contenders for ‘Clue of the week’ in the shape of the SCARLETT JOHANSSON one and the terrific YELLOW BRICK ROAD ‘& lit.’.
I agree – Yellow Brick Road was wizard!