Independent 9025 / Nestor

8 comments on “Independent 9025 / Nestor”

1. I solved this puzzle online, using Mozilla, and the clue for 16d. reads simply “(8)”.
   I bunged in SCREENED, and even managed to justify it to myself!
   The clue for HOOKAH is brilliant, and it’s by no means the only cracker.
   Thanks to Nestor, and to B&J (HB to B)

2. I also was bemused by the wordless clue for 16d. I tried screened, then shrieked (a bit localised that one, but pretty close to what was going on), before realising that the SORCERER had made the clue (and half the morning) disappear. Of course! Very clever…

3. The clue to 16dn is complete on Crossword Solver.

   Found this quite easy for a Thursday/Nestor, although I needed a word finder for SORCERER. But TUNBRIDGE WELLS was a write-in (would one enter it in green ink in the dead tree version?)

   If I may go off-topic; if eimi reads this and is responsible for selecting the recycled puzzle for the i, some of the topical references from 2010 in the clues need updating/editing – e.g. ‘current government’ in yesterday’s offering.

   But back on topic: thanks to Nestor and B&J.

4. There were indeed many smiles at witty clues! Perhaps 13a needs more explanation to younger players who did not listen to ‘Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh’ where the ‘blimpish’ author of angry letters to the local newspaper (voiced by Sam Costa) signed himself (Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells). perhaps also non-doglovers might not know the usage ‘to whelp’ when a batch produces puppies. Thanks to both for a fine morning treat!

5. Sorry! bitch

6. A batch of puppies, perhaps, Heather?

7. I don’t actually remember any reference to ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ from that particular radio programme, and Wiki is curious on the subject, saying that the phrase ‘is sometimes said’ to have originated there. The recordings survive – I’m not quite old enough to have heard them the first time round – so you’d think one could be definitive on the subject. Another origin is given at http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southeast/series8/week5.shtml, with no mention of Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh.

8. Like others, I spent a long time trying to work out the extremely cryptic (8) for 16. I think Disgusted of TW is used often enough as a clichéd description of the sort of person who writes rabid letters to the Daily Torygraph that most people would have heard of it, even without knowing the origins.

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