Another very challenging puzzle, I thought. Either I drew a very tough weekend to have to blog both Independent prize puzzles, or I’m losing my faculties.
There’s a couple left that I can’t explain, at 13 across and 7 down.
| Across | ||
| 11 | TAP HOUSE | Place to drink and dance accompanied by music (8) |
| TAP Dance + HOUSE Music. | ||
| 5 | AVESTA | Religious texts requiring adults to cover up undergarment (6) |
| VEST in (A + A). | ||
| 9 | ISRAELIS | Countrymen capturing king from the east in section of major river (8) |
| (King LEAR)< in ISIS. | ||
| 10 | SCRAPE | Fight to get drug fix (6) |
| SCRAP + E. | ||
| 12 | IFFY | Topless flash is dodgy (4) |
| [j]IFFY. | ||
| 13 | SKINFLINTS | Cheapskates showing way to find what might line their pockets (10) |
| The answer seemed clear here, but I cannot see how the clue works. | ||
| 15 | HALFPENNYWORTH | 50% of New York houses contain and value trifle (14) |
| (PEN in (HALF + NY)) + WORTH. | ||
| 18 | CORRESPONDENCE | Writing novel, concerned with prose (14) |
| (CONCERNED + PROSE)*. | ||
| 20 | CANIS MAJOR | Making a comeback, hero jams in a club entertaining stars (5,5) |
| [he]RO JAMS IN A C[lub]<. | ||
| 22 | WING | Part of building due to be stripped of lead (4) |
| [o]WING. | ||
| 24 | REMAIN | Stay on course (6) |
| RE MAIN. | ||
| 25 | LILLIPUT | Fantastic place to rest after one left small American revolutionary (8) |
| (I + L + LI’L)< + PUT. | ||
| 26 | HEDGES | Shields with hard sides (6) |
| H + EDGES. | ||
| 27 | STUBBORN | Strong-willed partners get in bath with bishop and soldiers (8) |
| (TUB + B + OR) in S + N). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TWILIGHT | Time of day drunk nurses finally lost resolve (8) |
| WIL[l] in TIGHT. | ||
| 2 | PORTFOLIO | Range of investments generated profit, loot withdrawn at last (9) |
| (PROFIT + LOO[t])*. | ||
| 3 | OPEN | Negative with head down and yawning (4) |
| from NOPE, with the N moved down. | ||
| 4 | SPICK AND SPAN | Rubs over cream getting face immaculate (5-3-4) |
| (PICK in SANDS) + PAN. | ||
| 6 | VOCAL CORDS | Loud trousers, breathtaking pair (5,5) |
| VOCAL + CORDS. | ||
| 7 | SPAWN | Lucky ending to get poached eggs (5) |
| I cannot explain this one either. | ||
| 8 | AVERSE | Reluctant as ever to dance (6) |
| (AS EVER)*. | ||
| 11 | ENZYMOLOGIST | Scientist ogles zit on my nuts (12) |
| (OGLES ZIT ON MY)*. | ||
| 14 | OPPRESSIVE | Ring European dignitary up about journalists being cruel (10) |
| O + (PRESS in (E + VIP)<). | ||
| 16 | TENNIS PRO | Wrong bag turns up for sportsperson (6,3) |
| (SIN + NET<) + PRO. | ||
| 17 | HEIGHTEN | Woman to be wed accepting dress size is to increase (8) |
| EIGHT in HEN. | ||
| 19 | SCORCH | Upset hot reptiles dry up (6) |
| (H + CROCS)<. | ||
| 21 | NAMED | Handled money collected by elevated churchman (5) |
| M in DEAN<. | ||
| 23 | BLAB | Black dog let out (4) |
| B + LAB. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
This was a first for me – my first ever total failure. By 11PM on Sunday I’d come nowhere close to solving a single clue so I took the coward’s way out & gave up.
Thanks Simon and eXternal,
I thought this was hard too, although I didn’t help myself by confidently entering “hophouse” @ 1 across – works perfectly, but doesn’t exist. I did eventually work that out and TWILIGHT was last-in.
7 Down is SPAWN(y) (lucky, with ending “poached”) with (frog) spawn as the definition.
I can’t parse SKINFLINTS – something to do with “lint”?
If you SKIN, strip, the pockets of these cheapskates, you will find them lined with FLINTS (rocks)???
I’m usually too busy trying to work out the answer to notice the surface of a clue, but 11dn nearly made me laugh out loud when I read it. I thought it was a fairly easy clue, too, and it was my first one in.
Apart from that, I finished it but a week later I can’t remember any details. I marked down on the paper a question mark next to 7dn meaning I couldn’t parse it and to check here. I didn’t mark 13ac, but if I could parse it last week, I’d forgotten by now.
I think I’ve just seen 13a: if you skin “flints” (i.e. remove outer covering) you get lint.
Couldn’t parse 7d, still don’t really understand 6d
Okay – ignore previous re 6d. I hadn’t realised there were only two vocal cords – how did I get this far in life and miss that???
Definitely on the trickier side for an IoS puzzle but very enjoyable. I entered SKINFLINTS unparsed but I think cumbrian@5 has got it right. I had the most trouble in the SE and BLAB was my LOI after STUBBORN.
7d SPAWN[Y] = lucky, ‘poach’ or steal the end. Apparently.
Well blogged, Simon. You’ve had two tough ones this weekend.
I did complete it, but remember thinking that I’d better come here to find out how a few worked. SKINFLINTS is surely as Cumbrian suggests – well done for parsing that one. I did understand SPAWN. SPAWNY is a dialect word which I’d say was mainly Northern: GIT is the word of choice to follow. ENZYMOLOGIST was funny.
Spawny is slang not dialect and I knew it in my southern youth too long ago to admit to.
Thanks all for skinflints just couldn’t see the parsing to that last week but didn’t find the rest otherwise as hard as some here.
That eX is rather good.
I would like to echo flashling’s famous last words.
eXternal is only around in the broadsheets (Indy, FT) for a year or so – but he has proven to be a real quality setter.
Well, whilst I might have been cursing eXternal silently earlier, he or she has managed to draw 12 (now 13) comments for an IoS puzzle which, while not a record, is a rare achievement.
I did have ‘lints’ in mind when I tried to parse ‘skinflints’ but did not quite get there as cumbrian did.
So at last it has been resolved.
“For this relief, much thanks.”