Independent 6651/Nestor

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I found this very tough but a thoroughly enjoyable solve. Lots of great clues (my personal favourite is 12a), and a very clever touch at 19 and 20d. I’m still unsure about 17a, 21a and 18d though.

Across
5 L,I in FROC[-k] – I should have got this quicker but I spent some time pondering the significance of “observed”, a mistake I know I’ve made more than once.
10 (NAVAL)* in ACHE,D
12 TB in UREA in OK – what a fantastic clue: “Disease spread by bacteria in body waste, needing satisfactory containment”.
14 NUTMEG – “trap dummy” could be NET MUG.
15 (BIT PLAYER ID CGI)* – CREDIBILITY GAP. The enumeration is a big help here as you just need to look at what 3 letter words are possible and that might fit with the definition.
17 FORTUNE TELLING – I’m not sure if this right but I also can’t see what else might fit. Full clue is: “Loud, badly echoed, no good” – that wraps up song prediction”. “Loud” could be F or FORTE and “song” is TUNE but I can’t work out the rest.
21 NEVADA – not sure about this one either: “Roue can hold this state back in two ways”.
23 CEP in SAUNA (with N and A switched)
24 ASHY – this one is very devilish: “Like the Grateful Dead in appearance?” A full grate would be ASHY, which is what a dead person might look like (or indeed the manager of Neasden FC, Private Eye fans). Yes, the capital G shouldn’t be there in the cryptic reading but who could resist using “Grateful Dead” like that?
25 ELIOT,R in HOPE
 
Down
2 V in BI,OU,AC – another great clue but this was a real toughie to unravel.
3/1 A,BALL<,OAR,D
4 AND in [-u]NOILED (going up) – the toughest one of the puzzle for me as I knew nothing about DANDELION clocks (from the Wikipedia page: “The flower matures into a globe of fine filaments that are usually distributed by wind, carrying away the seed-containing achenes. This globe (receptacle) is called the “clock”).
6 D in (IRON)* – mercifully, a nice easy clue.
8 CHIMER,A
9 SHAK[-e],TI[-e]
13 (BY ALES HEART)* – BREATHALYSE. Another comparatively easy one.
18 OVERSEW – there’s nothing else that will fit here but I can’t work out the clue: “Stitch edges of front surface, cutting book width”. I also can’t decide where the definition ends: is it just “stitch” or “stitch edges of front”?
19 initial letters of “Get Richelieu As”,PP,LE
20 last letters of “geT RichelieU aS pressureS,LE – exactly the same clue as 19d: “Tips to get Richelieu as pressures put on the French struggle”. Very cleverly done.
22 AD HOC[-k]

10 comments on “Independent 6651/Nestor”

  1. FORTUNE TELLING is FORTE + ILL rev + NG about TUNE
    OVERSEW I’ve only just seen a week on, and it’s O(B)VERSE + W
    NEVADA I remin baffled by, assuming it’s the answer

    I can’t believe you never “told the time” with a dandelion clock tho 🙂 If you took say five blows to blow the fluff off it was 5 o’clock 6 and it was 6 o’clock and so on. Far more thrilling than a playstation …

  2. 21ac I went for KERALA, an Indian state…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

    I thought for a long time about putting NEVADA in, but couldn’t crack the wordplay.

    So plumped for KERA from ‘rake’ = ‘roue’, and LA as in ‘AL’ (Alabama) back…

    We’ll see if I’m wrong tomorrow…

    Thought 19+20d was a very nice touch!

  3. Still doesn’t look right though does it? I mean, there’s nothing telling us to turn “rake” into KERA. That said I can’t do a thing with NEVADA so KERALA seems more likely at the moment.

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