Independent 7852 by Anarche

by

Arachne yesterday in the Guardian transforms to Anarche in the Indy today.

Can’t see any themes as such (I missed the Nina by Phi last week) and I had to look up 13a who I’d never come across before. I could do with help on 15d

Across:

1 Heaven Heads away from (t)HE (r)AVE (i)N
4 Cheaters Hom CHEETAHS
9 Licks (f)LICKS
10 Peasantry No L in P(l)EASANTRY
11 True north [TURN TO HER]*
12 After A(risotle) + ‘F + ThEoRy
13 Merleau-Ponty Hidden in sumMER LEA UP ON TYneside.
17 Chastity belt Amusing cryptic definition
20 (Kofi) Annan NANNA rev. Predecessor of BAN KI MOON
21 Onslaught L.A. in SHOTGUN*
23 Wagnerian Cryptic def
24 Ditto (O.T.T. + I.D.) reversed
25 Sparsity S(mall) + PAR + hom CITY
26 Doings DO IN + G.S.
Down:    
1 Half-time Half of (ti)ME
2 Accoutre [COAT ECRU]*
3 Essen Homs of S + N
5 Heath-Robinson (A-THROB +1) in (Gavin) HENSON
6 Adamantly ADA + (bough)T in MANLY
7 Entity Hidden in efficiENT I TYped
8 Sayers People who SAY
10 Percussionist [PIE CRUSTS SO]*
14 Enhancers [SCANNER HE]* and &lit ish
15 Heighten Hmmm not sure here. H(earts) + half time = ME = I (the setter) according to say-ers – so hom of I + TEN. Ugh must be a better solution to this.
16 Stations TATI in SONS
18 Fatwas FAT + W(ith) +A(r)Senic
19 Enigma (i)MAGINE* very nice.
22 Addio Alternate letters of pAiD aDvIsOr.

 

13 comments on “Independent 7852 by Anarche”

  1. 15d is, I think, H, then EIGHt with “one down” (one letter missing), then TEN.

    13 must be some kind of record and 20 is brilliant. Many thanks.

  2. Thanks, flashling, especially for 20ac, which I missed – very clever! And ENIGMA is, inded, very nice.

    I agree with Thomas re 15dn – but it took me a while to see the ‘1 down’!

    8dn is a double definition, referring to Dorothy L Sayers, who wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.

    Many thanks again, Anarche. I laughed when I wrote in ADAMANTLY – no problem parsing today!

  3. Thank you, flashling and Anarche.

    After a tough but pleasing puzzle in Another Place yesterday, this was pretty much more of the same, but that’s not a complaint. I liked HEATH ROBINSON, and CHASTITY BELT was obvious but funny. When I finally realised that MERLEAU-PONTY was a hidden answer, I said a bad word, but it had taken me so long to solve the puzzle that luckily the kids had already left for school.

    I have a problem with 20ac, though: for me it’s completely ambiguous which way round the reversal is. I opted for NANNA as the solution and that made life difficult in the SW corner.

  4. K’s Dad-
    Re 20a, I hadn’t noticed that, probably because I solved it fairly late and must have had the crossers. I still think it’s a great clue, but I know some people don’t like that kind of ambiguity.

  5. Hi Thomas, the other problem (which I meant to mention in my original comment) is that if you only have the N in the middle from ENIGMA, which I did, both answers are still possible.

  6. Wonderful. A great treat to get Anarche a day after Arachne. Last two were WAGNERIAN, where I was looking for a double definition, and FATWAS, which I took as a brilliant &lit. I think one can surely read the whole clue as the definition! Hiding MERLEAU-PONTY is quite an achievement. I liked the definition of PERCUSSIONIST. I was misled by banger into thinking “sausage” and when I wrote the letters down I was convinced I was looking for a word along the lines of PROSCIUTTO or some such Italian delicacy which I couldn’t find….

    Many thanks to flashling and Anarche.

  8. Another excellent puzzle, and blog. Thanks Anarche and flashling. I agree with K’s D re 20 – I was lucky that I had already got ENIGMA and “guessed” ENHANCERS. Otherwise, a variety of interesting clues and answers. After yesterday’s science theme by Arachne, 14 was the most technical yet – new to me in this sense.

  10. Thanks, Anarche, and flashling. V imaginative and inventive puzzle, quite hard with a great flow to the surfaces all through. My favourite was ENIGMA. In 20A, the comma I think pushes it towards ANNAN – I never thought of looking at it the other way, until I came here. Hiding (never was the word more appropriate!) that French philosopher was very impressive too.

  11. Evening all! Thank you , flashling, for your excellent blog, and to everyone for comments.

    Whoops, she did it again: sorry, K’s D and everyone who was discomfited, for the ambiguity at 20ac. I don’t know why I still do this: I agree it’s unfair, and annoying, and I don’t like it when I come across it as a solver, so – D’oh!

    15dn is correctly parsed by thomas99 and Eileen above – thanks.

    Just in case I don’t manage to drop in again in the next week or two, I’d like to wish all at 15 Squared a peaceful, happy, cosy Christmas, and a spectacularly wonderful 2012 😀

    Love and hugs,
    Anarche/Arachne

  12. Later than usual start due to stuffing Christmas cards and other such festive nonsense!
    Suddenly realised that it was a Thursday. However, we started out rapidly and then ground to a halt with 13a and 20a. Can’t believe that we didn’t spot the hidden answer at 13 and thought it was annan but had no idea why. Now all is explained, it’s a clever Thursday clue! Was convinced at one point that a ring lover was someone who liked Tolkien but it wouldn’t fit! COD was either 19d or 26a.

    Thanks flashling and Anarche.

  13. Thanks to Thomas99 for clearing up HEIGHTEN spent ages on that but Anarche had me beat by a similar trick she played on my last blog of hers. Anyway thank you Anarche/Arachne, I know punctuation is generally to be ignored, but the comma in 20 implies the right way as Niall said.

    Getting a hidden clue out of 13 was truly astonishing.

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