Independent 7303 (Sat 13-Mar) Tyrus

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How do you refer to your Significant Other?
Tyrus reminds us of a few choice expressions with perhaps the notable omission of “She Who Must Be Obeyed”.

Across
6 SPOT-ON T[ime] inside SPOON A spoon being an old golf club (wood). First entered answer, but not the first attempted – I tried to crack the big multi-light and multi word answers first but failed.
8 EMPIRIC (PRICE I’M)* AInd: working
11 NERVOUSLY VOUS (Solver’s abroad – you (pl.) in french) inside NE[a]RLY. Needed to think a bit to understand the wordplay here. Until the Y appeared from Kenya I thought the answer was a noun, but the the def. suits an adverb too.
12 NANNY NN (news – more than one N[ew]) inside NAY (vote against)
13 E NUMBERS E (Drug) NUMBERS (book) Apart from the mild charade at the start of the clue I found this a screamingly obvious from the enumeration and lengthy def.
14/20/10 MY WIFE DOESN’T UNDERSTAND ME (WED YEARS MINDS DON’T MEET FUN)* AInd: involved. Cliché fitting the “wifely” theme. One of those long anagrams that you eventually guess from the crossing letters and then labouriously check. Definition refers to the following similar clue …
16 STATE OF THE UNION ([w]E[n]T [h]O[m]E NO FUN AT THIS)* AInd: flipping.  Another lengthy and even more convoluted anagram.   I essentially solved these together thus completing about half the puzzle.  In both cases I was unsure if “fun” was an anagrind or -grist before solving.
19 AGENDA Homophone: “A gender”
21 SMACKERS (MS)< writing to return, ACKERS Slang for money (from the Egyptian akka), leading to the answer Smackers – more slang for money, pounds this time as per the clue’s definition.  I suspect smackers means pounds because it is also a synonym for hit. I thought perhaps ackers was derived from smackers till I looked it up.
24 DODGE D[aughter] in DOG then E[arl] Def: Duck
25 HUSBANDER (BURDEN HAS)* AInd: eased. Not sure what “rarely” is doing in the clue. Surely “One economising” is definition enough?
One economising rarely – burden has eased (9)
26 ETERNAL EXTERNAL (outside) – X (without sign something’s wrong) Def: Constantly occurring.  Last I wrote in and it has taken two days for me to spot the wordplay.  I had assumed the answer from the crossing letters and definition:
Constantly recurring outside – without sign somethings wrong (7)
27 UMPIRE RIP (rent) inside EMU (one down under) all reversed. Def: Bird Ref. Dickie Bird, probably the most famous cricket umpire.
 
Down
1 APERÇU Hidden in newspAPER CUtting
3 KENYA KEN (Livingstone) [stanle]Y A[way].  I liked this for the secondary imagery of an unexpected meeting between Ken L and Stanley Johnson:
Country where Livingstone and Stanley finally meet? Away! (5)
4 OPENLY P.E. (subject at school) inside ONLY (just)
5 BRINDISI N[oon] inside BRID[e], IS I
7/2 TROUBLE AND STRIFE (ROBIN LUSTED AFTER)* AInd: doctor Def: Dutch. One cockney term for wife defining another, the classic rhyming slang version
9 CLYTEMNESTRA (MEN)* AInd: fancy. inside TEST (trial) all inside (CARLY)* AInd: uneasy. The wife of Agamemnon ‘oo done ‘im in.
15 THE MISSUS (MUST I SHE’S)* AInd: In trouble. More slangy uxorisms.
17 ABERDEEN A, DEE (river) inside BERN (European capital). Beautifully misleading clue, very satisfying to solve, thus is my pick of the puzzle:
River in a European capital city (8)
18 UNCLASP S[on] inside UN (one) CLAP (hand)
22 ENDURE END (fish) U[niversity] RE (about)
23 WHOLE Homophone “Hole”

14 comments on “Independent 7303 (Sat 13-Mar) Tyrus”

  1. Damn this was a tough puzzle.

    Once completed (still not understanding 100% of the cluing) I framed it and hung it on the wall as a trophy!

    I’ve noticed with Tyrus he uses London slang, and I didn’t realize there were so many anagrams, so thanks for the info beermagnet.

    Q: What was Tyrus’s other name? Lota, Loda, can anyone tell me?

  2. A good testing puzzle, although it did seem a little bleak. Thanks for the helpful blog, Beermaget, just a couple of queries: 11ac., why is “answers” plural? The singular would have worked just as well; in 26ac. is “recurring” just used as a synonym for “occuring”, or am I missing something?

    I thought that in 25ac, “rarely” just referred to “husbander” being a slightly archaic word.

  3. Very enjoyable fun puzzle, maybe for me the best from Tyrus in the Indy so far, easier than some from Tyrus, I found, though still hard by normal Indy standards so v suitable for a Sat.

    Re the queries raised, I agree that ‘rarely’ probably indicates the unusual word HUSBANDER. Re ‘answer’ or ‘answers’ in NERVOUSLY, I think either will do as you are taking the first letter – perhaps ‘answers’ was chosen to help the surface. Re ETERNAL I think it’s ‘constantly recurring’ not ‘occurring’ tho either would seem quite OK as a definition.

    Tyrus = Lato in the world of ‘advanced’ puzzles eg Inquisitor in Indy.

  4. Thanks nmsindy for the explanations. I agree that it wasn’t too tough – by way of comparison, I started Crucible (Radian here) in the Guardian in a pdf before going out to buy the Indie, and still finished Tyrus first. Of course it is possible that this puzzle simply held my attention better. I agree with Beermagnet about ABERDEEN being the pick of the puzzle, also enjoyed SMACKERS, UMPIRE, and THE MISSUS.

  5. > I framed it and hung it on the wall as a trophy!
    I wanted to do that when I first finished a Shed from the G a few years ago. Now I wish I’d done it the actual puzzle is lost in the mounds of kipple now.

    nmsindy answered the fully other queries and I agree with his comments. I will add for “Recurring/Occurring”: I didn’t notice till you pointed it out that I typed occurring in the blog instead of the recurring of the clue, they’re pretty synonymous.

  6. nmsindy,

    Thanks for Tyrus’s other pseudo ‘Lato’. I was nearly there.

    beermagnet,

    I felt the same with a lot of puzzles especially completed Azed’s. My flat needs painting, may-be they’d make nice wallpaper!

  7. Thanks beermagnet for the blog. Managed to finish this Saturday puzzle, which I don’t usually. Situation normal with today’s, though.

    Liked ABERDEEN and UMPIRE as well.

  10. Thought this was awful.Not as good as you guys yet.Got about 5 clues (Clytemnestra being one of them).16a might as well have been in Ancient Greek.Still don’t understand itGuesses at Brindisi and Dodge.Happy with (My wife etc…..) .Clues too convoluted for a mere novice like myself!

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