Dalibor gave us a different kind of cryptic, one more closely related to barred puzzles. Anyone still wanting to tackle this puzzle can find it here: Dalibor @ York. So don’t read any further if this is the case.
The instructions were there to help solvers to find some crossing letters. It turned out to be that any of the yellow rectangles contained the same two letters. The blue ones showed S & B. On top of that there was a nina, not announced: the middle row and the middle column give us FOX AND ROMAN YORK, the location of the crossword do.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and or appropriate.
| Clues | ||
| 1 | SUSTAINABLE | Green redevelopment of Constantinople, finally, as Istanbul (11) |
| Anagram (‘redevelopment’) of: [constantinopl]E + AS ISTANBUL | ||
| 2 | BLEAK HOUSE | Black hole’s part of the skies, which is novel (5,5) |
| B (black) + LEAK (hole) + HOUSE (part of the skies, think astrology) | ||
| 3 | SEA SNAILS | Time of year in which lack of oxygen sickens slimy creatures (3,6) |
| SEAS[o]N (time of year, minus O (oxygen)) + AILS (sickens) | ||
| 4 | SCUFFLER | One struggling with two favourites among cryptic clues, right? (8) |
| {FF (two favourites) inside an anagram (‘cryptic’) of CLUES} + R (right) | ||
| F as in (horse) racing results. | ||
| 5 | ROSINANTE | Sun King, in France, surrounds city almost completely to find horse (9) |
| {S (sun) with ROI (king, in France) surrounding} + NANTE[s] ((French) city, almost completely) | ||
| 6 | TEAROOM | Mammal inside restaurant (7) |
| ROO (mammal) in TEAM (side) | ||
| Guardianism: in/side. | ||
| 7 | MALARIA | Recalling hit song Fever? (7) |
| MAL (reversal (‘recalling’) of LAM (hit)) + ARIA (song) | ||
| 8 | AUTOPEN | In an ideal world one American must become European, ratified by this? (7) |
| Inside AN: UTOPIA (ideal world) with I A (one American) replaced by E (European) | ||
| 9 | ENODAL | Land with roses regularly cultivated, with no lumps visible (6) |
| Anagram (‘cultivated’) of: LAND + [r]O[s]E[s] | ||
| The definition means: (of plants) having no lumps or nodes from which leaves emerge. | ||
| 10 | LOOKER | Beauty queen chasing up leader of the Gang (6) |
| ER (queen) coming after LOOK (reversal (‘up’) of KOOL (leader of the Gang, think Kool & the Gang – Celebrate Good Times, Come On) | ||
| 11 | ERMINE | Animal destroyed first third of tunnel (6) |
| UND/ERMINE (tunnel) minus the first three letters | ||
| 12 | NEXT | Ten scored, this the eleventh? (4) |
| X (ten) in NET, so ‘ten scored’ | ||
| 13 | TART | US working girl is role model for Prince (4) |
| PART (role) with T (model) replacing P (Prince) | ||
| 14 | TYPO | Literal pronunciation of Asian writer (4) |
| Homophone (‘pronunciation’) of: THAI (Asian) + POE (writer) | ||
| 15 | POD | River Dee in Hull? (3) |
| PO (river) + D (dee) | ||
I tackled this on the train back to King’s Cross and failed to complete it in the two hour journey. I did actually get TEAROOM despite my abhorrence of the device, but failed on NEXT, ROSINANTE, ERMINE and LOOKER. I also failed to spot the Nina which would probably have helped me complete the grid, as it would have improved the undergenerous checking. A tough grid with some tortuous, although inventive, clues. On balance, I’d give a Dalibor another go. Thanks for the puzzle.
Thanks (Artexlen)* for keeping your promise – much appreciated.
Now don’t think I dedicated the blue squares to you …. 🙂
Isn’t it funny how such a tiny little puzzle can cause so much trouble?
My test solver got only three solutions on her first pass.
I just wanted to do something different this time but, of course, it’s only a one-off thing.
It would have been helpful to tell the solver what was actually happening in the yellow rectangles but I decided not to, given the above average skills of the ones present in York.
Yes, a nina is often there to help a solver who might be stuck.
Again, I didn’t want to announce it as it is much nicer, as a solver, to experience the aha moment.
I still think the clueing as such was all right, which is ultimately the most important thing to me.
One table in the Fox & Roman joined forces and managed to finish the puzzle (without spotting the nina).
So there you are, in the end it was possible to solve my little brainteaser.
At least for some, I lost gracefully.
I have given up trying to finish this, defeated by AUTOPEN and ENODAL, but it was an interesting and entertaining challenge – I spotted the yellow repetitions quite early but the nina took a lot longer to become apparent. TART should have been straightforward but I didn’t understand the US since it is a familiar British usage too – only wrote that it once I had the crosser from the nina.
Thanks to Dalibor and Sil