Independent 6875 by Eimi

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A puzzle in Eimi’s very individual style, which I found quite easy – solving time, 15 mins.   Quite a few references in clues that I was not personally familiar with, but these did not prevent solving and I was able to verify most of them afterwards.

* = anagram    < = reversed

ACROSS

1 FRANK    Pepin being one from history

4 TURNER   Double definition

9 RIOT GUN   (touring)*

10 BAR C  ODE   “barque”

11 VI (TAL SIGN) S    (lasting)*

13 UGLI   hidden reversal

14 REAL   Double definition

15 BETTER HALF   bet is half of better

17 F ATHERS DAY    (death rays)*

19 EDDO  Hidden

22 RAIN   “Play, or what may stop it”   The second part refers to cricket, I think “Rain stopped play” – not sure about the first – a play called “Rain” maybe?

23 SUBSTIT (UT) E    (best suit)*  ut = do (musical note)

26 AC (HIE) VE   (cave)*

27 OCTOBER   (RE BOT CO)<

28 WISDOM TEETH   (the most wide)*   cut wisdom teeth = age of discretion (double figures, I guess)

DOWN

1 F (OR) EVER

2 ABOUT LAST NIGHT   (ban at lights out)*   Very weak on films so very pleased to work it out from the anagram once I’d a few crossing letters and verify later that it’s correct (a film made in 1986)

3 K (I GAL) I     “One posh girl in a kayak? Capital!”    It’s the capital of Rwanda, but I don’t understand ki = kayak apparently

4 T (ANGIN) ESS    (h)ANGIN(g)    Tess of the d’Urbervilles

5 ROBIN(g)    Robin of Batman and Robin

6 EUR O   Rue<  o = of (abbrev), I think

7 ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE    (rumbled on  a thug)*

8 B (ELI) EF     British Expeditionary Force

12 SHE    By Rider Haggard  – hidden

16 TRA (NS FOR) M

17 FOR BAD

18 RAS(h)

20 ON EARTH  (not hear)*    Liked this

21 D (1 KT) AT     From KT Tunstall

24 U (PEN) D

25 DELI  “Delhi”

12 comments on “Independent 6875 by Eimi”

  1. Thanks for explaining 4down, Neil – I was scratching my head thinking “I’m sure it wasn’t angina that did for Tess, was it?”.
    28ac, I think, refers to the fact that you don’t get your wisdom teeth until after adolescence, i.e. once you’re into double figures.

  2. Kayaks and canoes have codes depending on the type and number of paddlers.

    So it’s K1, K-ONE is a kayak for one person.

  3. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, particularly a few guessable references that turned out to be educational 🙂 e.g. “Old Contemptibles” = BEF and Pepin the Short, etc.

    After a bit of Googling, I guess that the play “Rain” might the one that this film was based on?

  5. Mick H: thank you so much for your interpretation of 4dn – it made my day! [Come to think of it, I suppose it was a sickness of the heart that really did for Tess.]

  6. I’m afraid I was undone through my lack of knowledge of kayaks, Old Contemptibles, UT, EDDO, Peppin the Short and RAIN (the play that is, I’m all to familiar with the other meaning).

    I’m not sure I’ve seen “balls” as an angrind before. Is it the “forms a ball” sense or the “he talks a lot of …” sense that implies the anagram?

  7. Testy

    You obviously don’t do the Private Eye crossword! 🙂

    One definition for ‘ball’ in Chambers is ‘to entangle’.

  8. I just noticed “Frank Turner” across the top and a bit of Googling shows that he’s a Folk singer whose songs include:

    VITAL SIGNS
    FATHER’S DAY
    WISDOM TEETH
    SUBSTITUTE
    BETTER HALF

  9. I’m amazed, Testy. I was convinced that no one would get the ghost theme.

    He is indeed a folk singer of sorts, but he doesn’t put his finger in his ear or wear Aran sweaters. He opened this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival, but his debut EP was entitled Campfire Punkrock and that gives you some idea of his style.

    You can listen to some of his songs for free at http://www.myspace.com/frankturner
    , including his latest single, Long Live the Queen, which is in aid of Breast Cancer Campaign.

  10. Testy wasn’t alone in googling Frank Turner and I nearly posted a comment at lunchtime querying whether this was an indication of one of your preferred music genre.

    However, I didn’t follow it through as far as he did to come up with the track titles.

  11. Several little points that have now been answered. Merely an observation: in 6dn ‘o = of, and surely that’s out of place in a daily cryptic. All those things like ‘ve = have and t’ = the are for crosswords like The Listener, I should have thought.

  12. It’s a fair cop, Wil. I don’t usually take kindly to Chambersisms in the daily puzzle, but I thought o’ was well enough known in phrases such as eleven o’clock, cock o’ the north or John O’Gaunt to be easily guessed.

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