Independent 7168/Virgilius

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Virgilius’s theme is tricky alternatives, as we see in the three different expressions in the across clues.  As always I suspect I’m not telling the whole story.

Across
9 A GREE{n}
12 yellowstonE nationaL parK
13 MINOR — not quite sure about how all this hangs together: OK you can have a minor premise, a club is a minor suit, and a youth is a minor, but it seems a bit odd to indicate ‘minor’ by ‘e.g. clubs’. [Like some premises, e.g. clubs, for youth]
14/22 SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS — s(any call)*d chary (bids)* — this myth
16 NAP.
18/10/29 BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE — Kandahar in ((peac{e} now celebrated)* — this expression
20/11/27 THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA — also = and, play is “The Deep Blue Sea” by Terence Rattigan, deuce is the devil
24 INUIT — I (unit)*
26 TUT{u}
30 turkEY IN Greece
 
Down
1 LANDS MAN
2 C RAVEN
3 DEPLORABLY — (bold player)*
4 VA(1)N
5 PORT L {tra}Y
6 SKYE — (Key’s)*
7 INTERACT — (certain)* t
8 MARK ED
14 S IT
15 LONGITUDES — long (duties)*
17 PSALTERY — t in (players)*
19 ENS — hidden in Sense and also in Sensibility
21 forEST RANGErs
22 CAT(C)HY
23 DEEJAY — here the record-player is a DJ
25 UN’S AID
27 DO PE
28 BLEW — “blue”

5 comments on “Independent 7168/Virgilius”

  1. Hello John,
    No. I don’t think you’ve missed anything.
    I just wanted to note the excellent symmetry of the themed answers, with “between” being central to them all.
    And Kandahar; brilliant.
    13ac. I suppose he had to use the e.g. as clubs are not the only minor suit…

  2. Yes, excellent as always, and impressive to fit so much in the grid without obvious strain. As it happened those long phrases came quite easily without the wordplay once I’d a few letters so this turned out to be quite a quick solve,

  3. Quick solve for me too, but no less enjoyable for that. The Kandahar one was indeed wonderful (and I can’t believe no-one’s written a clue along the lines of “Caught between rock and a hard place in Afghanistan (8)” yet!). In fact, the casual brilliance of all three long clues (and indeed short ones like ELK) was a joy to behold – why can’t all setters be as good as Virgilius?

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