| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | PEN,PUS,HER – I don’t understand what “Caribbean estate” is and how it links to PEN, if at all. |
| 9 | NO,TED – “observed” is the definition, the rest of the clue is another way of saying that the death of TED Hughes resulted in Andrew Motion becoming Poet Laureate (“Poetry in Motion”). |
| 10 | hidden in “reUBEN Died” |
| 11 | THE BOWERY – an area in Manhattan. “Those people” is THEY but that leaves either EBOW or BOWE for “lady’s private room” – can anyone explain? [Edit: my mistake. As Beermagnet says in the comments, BOWER is the remaining bit] |
| 12 | DO-IT-YOURSELF KIT – a ref, I think, to Kit Carson. |
| 13 | (SPACED OUT MIND AN)* – STAND-UP COMEDIAN. |
| 16 | (ROMANIAN BY HEART)* – ERYMANTHIAN BOAR. My first thought was that this might be something to do with childbirth but the capital L in “Labour” made me think again. Eventually, the Labours of Hercules suggested themselves and Google did the rest. |
| 19 | LOOKS,MART |
| 20 | GAMIC – “magic” with the M and G swapped round. |
| 21 | N[-p]IECE – definition is tucked away in “my sister’s young [man].” |
| 22 | COT,ILL,O in OS – very tough I thought, especially “not 100%” for ILL. |
| Down | |
| 1 | A,N,GEL,IC,A |
| 2 | SUN,DRY |
| 3 | THE TRUMPET-MAJOR – a novel by Thomas Hardy. |
| 5 | EEL,LORN,E – filled this in without giving it much thought. Only just seen LORN, which is an archaic term for “lost”. |
| 7 | EDDY’S TONE ROCKS – luckily I’d heard of the EDDYSTONE ROCKS so I got this with a few checking letters filled in. “I don’t wanna dance” was a song by Eddy Grant. Here’s the full clue: “Reason why we bought I don’t wanna dance? Seeing the light would help you avoid us” – does anyone else think those two sentences don’t really belong together? |
| 8 | POUNDS STERLING – the cleverly hidden definition is “ready to exchange”. I don’t really know why “reports of the” is needed in the clue – unless it’s to help the surface reading? |
| 14 | hidden in “glaD RAGS TERrific” |
| 15 | (OILMEN OR)* – IRON-MOLE. |
| 17 | YE,OMEN |
| 18 | NOG,GIN |
8 comments on “Independent 6562/Nimrod”
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11A It is BOWER that is enclosed in THEY and a Bower is “a lady’s boudoir in a medieval castle”
8D While I agree that the clue still works if you remove the “reports of the” I liked the double-definition of “reports of the beating of hearts” indicating “pounds”, as well as “beating of Hearts by lower division side” for the whole answer.
9A I thought “What resulted in Poetry in Motion” for NO-TED was a fantastic (part) clue.
8a. Pen is an estate or plantation, in the Caribbean or the West Indies – according to which edition of Chambers you consult.
I think “reports of” is a more accurate way of indicating “pounds”.
The surface reading for EDDYSTONE ROCKS I take to be a self-deprecatory statement by a group of Eddy Grant fans, perhaps embarrassed at their guilty purchase, whose comment about “seeing the light” can mean one of two things:
a) they realise their mistake and hope that other, wiser souls will consequently give them a wide berth
b) other souls who walk in Eddy-Grant-hating darkness might one day seen the error of their ways and no longer berate them for their appalling taste. They could, of course, pester them to borrow the record, but I guess they haven’t thought of that 🙂
I haven’t seen the clue for 8D. I’m assuming it was something like
Ready to exchange reports of the beating of Hearts by a lower division side.
In which case the “reports” is needed as the answer is a homophone for “POUNDS STIRLING” Stirling Albion FC being in a lower division (Scottish First Division) than Hearts (SPL).
P.S. wouldn’t “my sister’s young [man].” be my nephew?
It would, but “man” is part of the wordplay, not the definition.
EDDYSTONE ROCKS Maybe it’s taken as read, but I thought the lights were the lights of the lighthouse helping you to avoid the rocks. The rest I did not understand tho did use Google to find the Eddy Grant connection but it only took me part of the way. Thanks for explaining NOTED. I’d now idea why, though I got it right from the definition.
Yes – I got that “light” would refer to the lighthouse. My complaint was that the two halves of the clue didn’t really seem to belong together. Clunky, if you will.