This was my first attempt at completing an Independent prize crossword (I’m substituting for Neil, who’s on holiday). With one or two exceptions I didn’t find it too difficult, finishing all but one or two clues in the course of a day (22 across came to me in the small hours of the morning, when the penny finally dropped). I thought that on the whole it was a fair puzzle with one or two excellent clues, but I did feel that 11 and 19 across were more suited to a general knowledge crossword than to a cryptic one. If there was a Nina, or hidden theme, then I’m afraid that I failed to detect it.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PACIFIC | *IF + ICE CA(p) | |
| 5 | IN BRIEF | BRIE in 1 NF | |
| 9 | NONPAREIL | *PAREN(t) in LION (rev.) | One definition of “nonpareil” is “matchless” |
| 10 | HEART | HEART(s) | The reference is to the card suit |
| 11 | THE ICEMAN COMETH | A play by Eugene O’Neill, with a leading character called Hope: if you haven’t heard of it, you will have found this a tough clue to solve | |
| 12 | END USER | *ENDURES | The dreaded indirect anagram; first you have to deduce that “tolerates” means “endures” and then find an anagram. Definitely non-Ximenean! |
| 13 | SCORPIO | SCORPIO(n) | |
| 16 | STRAFED | FE in STRAD | |
| 18 | CABARET | BARE in CAT | |
| 19 | BOATSWAIN’S CHAIR | Another test of general knowledge; either you know this or you don’t, but there’s nothing in the clue to help you work it out | |
| 21 | TARSI | TARS + 1 | |
| 22 | HARMONICA | The best clue in the puzzle, once you realise that “trap” = “mouth” (which took me a long time!) | |
| 23 | YESHIVA | *HAS IVY (leagu)E | |
| 24 | ORKNEYS | *R(iver) ON SKYE | |
| Down | |||
| 1 | PINE TREES | *PINTER + SEE (rev.) | |
| 2 | CONTENDER | CON + TENDER | |
| 3 | FRANCIS OF ASSISI | FRANC + IS (three times) round SOFAS | A clever piece of wordplay, with a misleading reference to the compiler |
| 4 | CREAMER | CREAM (the best) + ER | A pedant (like me) might moan that a monogram really means a figure involving several initials woven into one, which in the case of the present Queen would involve the number II as well as the initials ER, but I don’t suppose anyone was misled. Many compilers would simply refer to the Queen and leave it at that |
| 5 | ISLANDS | IS + LANDS | A clever clue; Christmas and Easter (islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans) are the definition here |
| 6 | BY HOOK OR BY CROOK | Not sure if I fully understand the wordplay here. A hook is an attacking stroke in cricket, and Captain Cook with an r (short for runs) is a CRook, but I can’t make “clearing over short extra” mean “OR BY”. Any suggestions? | |
| 7 | INANE | In a “ne” | I.e. “asinine” ends with the letters n, e |
| 8 | FETCH | F + ETCH | |
| 14 | PURGATIVE | I found this very hard, mainly because I was looking for an occupation, rather than a medicine. However, “purgative” is a noun as well as an adjective, so grammatically the clue seems sound. More the sort of thing you might find in a Cyclops clue in Private Eye, though? | |
| 15 | OUTBREAKS | *BRUTE in OAKS | |
| 17 | DRACHMA | D + RACHMA(n) | The reference is to the notorious extortionate landlord of slum properties in London, Peter Rachman. Some would say that “dodgy” is putting it mildly |
| 18 | CON BRIO | The reference to “bars” is nicely misleading: it’s a musical term | |
| 19 | BOTHY | TH(e) in BOY | |
| 20 | ARRAS | Hidden and reversed in “disarray” | |
I think the short extra is BY(e) – cricket. Thought clue for PACIFIC was a classic – “If most of ice-cap melts, it would be raised”
Biographical trivia: Monk is a very good 22 Across player.
Nmsindy – thanks for your comment; I agree that by(e) makes sense. I also see that I wrongly annotated 1 across, it should of course read *IF + IC(e) CAP