Independent 6962/Nimrod (Prize puzzle 07-02-09)

by
Across
6 hidden reversed in “lIETh”
7 ROB in SINS in NORM< – MRS ROBINSON. Credit where it’s due – Mrs Dubya got this one.
10 A in RODS in BIDE – BROADSIDE. Last one in, and took a bit of thinking about to work out what was going on.
11 hidden in “idylliC AROMa” – which is a shot in billiards, or a form of billiards played on a table with no pockets.
12 FA THE RING – FA is the fourth note of the major scale and THE RING is the cycle of operas by Wagner.
14 “thE QUiz”,US – EQUUS. The play by Peter Shaffer now famous as the one where Harry Potter gets his kit off.
15 R,UR – I thought this was a variant spelling of Ruhr but apparently not. It’s a tributary of the Meuse and runs through Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
18 K in IS< – not sure why K is “best man”. Something to do with chess perhaps, as K is an abbreviation for King.
19 PACER – “recap” reversed.
20/2 down (TO PUT NORTH THREE)* – THE HUTTON REPORT. “N3 in full” is NORTH THREE and “to the sword” is the anagram indicator.
23 NY,A,LA – a large antelope.
24 FRIED,RIC[-e],H – excellent clue, loved the surface reading.
26 (I SEAL ID CARD)* – RADICALISED.
27 KEY – a double def I think. A KEY is a way into something, and tonal music is that which is in a certain key.
 
Down
1 STAB – “go” is the definition, “mad, getting strung up” the wordplay.
3/17 across COME WHAT MAY – another way of saying “attend in the spring of which year”.
4 B(ITCHER)Y
5 ON(AMISS)ION
7 MI(D)G,E
8 (SOD IT IS AN)* – SOI-DISANT.
12 FOR OPENERS – not really sure how this one works: “more than one 27 [key]” could be OPENERS but is “reason” FOR? And why “is cut?”
13 (GENIUS MRS)* – GUM RESINS
16/9 RI(CHAR)D,ART< in SUSS – RICHARD STRAUSS. Not really sure how SUSS can mean “arrest”.
17 WAR DANCE – cryptic def.
21 UND,ID – I think “German joiner” is UND because it’s the German word for “and”.
22 T,RICKY – cleverly done. “East Ender” is T (the end of east) and RICKY Butcher was (maybe still is) a character in Eastenders.
24 [-o]F,OLD
25 H,I[-n],Y,A

6 comments on “Independent 6962/Nimrod (Prize puzzle 07-02-09)”

  1. SKI Yes, I read it as K = King, best piece in chess. Re FOR OPENERS, not sure but maybe you cut more than one key FOR OPENERS i.e. to get more than one key.

  2. 2 small queries: why the ? in 4D; and why two anagrinds in 13D (eccentric and dodgy)? ‘Stab’ and ‘broadside’ were my last two, but very satisfying when the penny dropped, especially the clever wordplay for ‘broadside’, when Nimrod must have been tempted to use the ‘B road side’ variant.

  5. If you look carefully, you will see that 12d gives you the theme — if I remember rightly, Robinson, Broad, Amis, Strauss, Richard (the South African), Ward, Hutton, Edrich, Butcher… and there may be more.

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