Independent 7693 by Tees

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A Tuesday Teeser… well it’s theme day but I struggled to spot it for a while. Lots of NW corner clues seem to refer to Gods but this proved a wild goose chase…

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I’d just about given up the ghost when I saw it. Thematic pairings I’ve seen so far are 4-1, 19-8, 27-10, 28-29 and 33-16 – there may well be others. A few OO ghostly noises around the grid too…

I did this dead tree so don’t know if there was a special online message.

I found this rather hard going and 8ac has me beat for all of it.

Across

1 FATHER God as in Our Father who art… etc FAT + HER(o) a priestess
4 HAMLETS Aspen meaning trembling so (ASH ELM + (quie)T)*
8 HORSEMAN H(awk) head + OR + NAMES rev A god called RO or OR?
10 MARLEY 29=lady so LE(g) in MARY
11 (harry) LIME EMIL rev
12 RESONANCES (AS ON SCREEN)* why full though? Hints of ghost theme..
14 ITHICA (w)ITH A CA(r)
16 DUTCHMAN DUTCH (wife) + MAN(e)
19 HEADLESS Well it was where heads got chopped off + See Gaufrid @No 1
23 ACCORD A + C (2 notes) + CORD
26 ODD-JOBBERS They don’t do even ones…
29 LADY D(uke) in LAY (to bed)
30 GAUCHO A in COUGH*
31 EGOISTIC E + GO + IST (first) + 1 + C (speed of light)
32 HENBANE (se)EN  in BEHAN* [edited due to typo thanks]
33 FLYING Y(ankee) in FLING
Down    
1 FLORIST LORIS (slow moving primate) in FT
2 TESSSERA ARES (war) + SET (Egyptian of darkness) rev
3 EMMERDALE  E + MM + DEALER* [edited tahnks]
5 ADMEN M(otorway) in ADEN
6 LOREN Nero + L reversed.
7 THERESA THE + EARS*
9 NOSED N(avy) + DOES*
13 ARC (l)ARC(h)
15 HOA Usually Whoa surely – hidden
17 TOADSTOOL TOADS + TOO + L
18 MOO Gibbous is half to full for example ¾ oF MOO(n)
20 ENDGAME GAM in NEED*
21 LOO L + OO (loves)
22 STEVE V in TEES*
24 COLOSSI C + IS SOLO rev
25 REDWING EDWIN in edges of R(esistin)G
27 JACOB J(uliet) + A + COB
28 BROWN B.R. + OWN, supposed lover of Victoria

 

17 comments on “Independent 7693 by Tees”

  1. Thanks flashling
    8ac is HOR[us] (shunning all people hawk-headed god) NAMES (calls) reversed.

    There is some wordplay in 19ac, HEAD (go) LESS (under).

  2. Re 32 – You mean EN (not SE) in BEHAN*. I actually thought EN was clued by “half-” – an “en” is a space half the width of a dash. Am I missing the wood for the trees?

    And the definition, probably not particularly familiar nowadays, is to do with Chaucer – Pertelote is a hen in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.

  3. Still pondering this one. But full sounds are resonant, and EMMERDALE is e/mm/anagram. Oustanding wordplay throughout this puzzle, CODs MOO and BROWN. 6 down was hard, ho ho ho.

  4. Many thanks, flashling. I was dead chuffed to finish this, because I found it really hard. No hugely obscure words, but the range of references and the clueing made it tricky, for me at least. There were at least half-a-dozen clues where I needed to come here to understand the parsing, which is usually a good indication that the puzzle’s at the outer limits of your competence. LOREN made me laugh; MOO was very good; and ITHACA was cleverly seen. A nod to Tees’ day-job in ADMEN, perhaps? And 22dn as art imitating life, no doubt.

    My only slight niggle is FLORIST at 1dn. LORIS as ‘being in no hurry’ is a bit of a stretch; and ‘trader’ for florist is correct, but butchers, bakers and candlestick makers are traders too … But that’s a tiny reservation about an otherwise most enjoyable and challenging crossword. Did I spot the theme? No. Did it matter? Not at all.

    Thanks to Tees.

  5. The online message today is ‘Woo-hoo you have completed the puzzle’. Hard but enjoyable would be my verdict on this one. THanks to Tees and flashling too.

  7. Thanks, flashling, for the blog and explaining the theme which pretty much eluded me. As with K’s D @4, I was proud to have worked it out since it really stretched my capabilities. I really liked the clues for ITHACA (an aha moment when I saw how it worked), HORSEMAN, and FLORIST (I liked ‘being in no hurry’). And thanks for explaining 15d; it was clear that that sequence of letters was what was looked for but I struggled to find some context in which HOA = ‘stop’. All in all an excellent puzzle. Thanks Tees!

  8. “Hoa” is given in Chambers as alternative spelling to “ho”, one definition of which is ‘cessation’

    Most unsatisfactory. Bought the independent by mistake today, thinking it was Wednesday.

  9. Penny has dropped, I think. Is this Tees puzzle poking fun at ghost or unstated themes? Five ghosts in the puzzle, also ‘Woo-hoo you have completed the puzzle’, so a ghost theme about ghosts is my guess.

  10. This was much harder than yesterday and I was relieved to be able to finish it. Has taken me on and off since this morning. Only saw the ghost theme towards the end (thought the names might be characters out of Emmerdale at first, but on second thoughts – unlikely) but it did help with 27d.

    I think loris for being in no hurry is acceptable as it’s often called the ‘slow loris’.

    If ‘headless horseman’ is the ghost, has anyone found anything spectral that could go with ‘lady’ – I couldn’t. Thanks to flashling for the blog and to Tees for a very hard but in the end very satisfying puzzle.

  12. It’s famous photo of a ghost apparently descending the stairs – it’s sepia photo hence brown lady

  13. While I missed the theme, I thought this was a cracking puzzle, v difficult and challenging and v satisfying to finish. Esp liked DUTCHMAN, ODD-JOBBERS, LADY, LOREN, COLOSSI. Thanks to Tees and flashling.

  14. Many thanks to all for comments, and Flash for the bloggerie. I was particularly glad to hear that NMS found it a good ‘un despite not twigging the themed event (not everyone can see ’em, you know).

    So yes, as you have surmised this is another ghost-themed job from Indyville, but one in which I thought it might be fun to see some actual ghosts appearing all over the place. You’ve got them all I think, but here’s the list:

    HAMLET’S FATHER (Shakespeare)
    HEADLESS HORSEMAN (Washington Irving)
    FLYING DUTCHMAN (nautical folklore)
    JACOB MARLEY (Dickens)
    BROWN LADY (Raynham Hall Norfolk)

    All the best,
    Tees.

  15. Thanks for that Tees I only got the theme after solving… Sorry Mustyx didn’t like it but headless horses for courses. Be funnier if (h)orseman was clueable. 🙂 As an atheist I found all the god clues bloody hard!

  16. Like your ‘orseman idea, but … ghost theme! Can’t show my hand.

    As an atheist, I have to admit my total devotion to Cosmogony, Southampton FC, and Butterkist Toffee Popcorn.

    ‘Ay is fer ‘orses,

    Tees

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