Independent 10,620 by Tees

15 comments on “Independent 10,620 by Tees”

1. Thanks tees and Q. I found this rather difficult and spent quite a while with a largely empty grid. 8d def certainly a tricky one.

2. I don’t mind having Tees crosswords on an increasingly regular basis as they are always very enjoyable

   My last one in was the anagram at 1d and I did as Quirister says, think how true it was in her day

   Thanks to Tees and Quirister

3. I liked Glasnost and Austin.

4. I’m with crypticsue regarding the frequency of Tees’ puzzles  – but I didn’t enjoy this one quite so much as usual (probably sour grapes, as I didn’t manage to work out 8dn, although I did get the answer).

   I did like OBESE, ASPIDISTRA and, of course, LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.

   Thanks to Tees and Quirister.

5. I’m happy to see Tees again and am getting to enjoy the style.  OVERSTEER as a noun is something I’d associate with a vehicle but, as a verb, I think it applies to the driver so I’m OK with that.  But I share our blogger’s slight niggle about ‘fan’ as an anagrind in 11ac which ended up as a bung and shrug from the crossers.  I liked the anagram for ATTORNEY GENERAL, BLEW is lovely and tight, ASPIDISTRA was fun to assemble, both INSTILLED and RESOLUTE were very clever.  And I share copmus’s pleasure in AUSTIN and GLASNOST.  Clue of the day, though – and I’m no physicist – was RED SHIFT which is beautiful.

   I never got within a country mile of parsing CENTRAL LOWLANDS and totally missed the ‘ana’ element of CHARLES AND DIANA.  Whilst it’s totally fair and not ludicrously obscure GK, I thought it was harsh on our overseas solvers to allude to Leadenhall Market.  Doubt I could name any markets at all in Sydney, New York or Rome.

   Thanks Tees and Quirister

6. Self @5: correct ‘harsh on’ to ‘tough for’ in my penultimate sentence.  The first sounds like a criticism and I just wanted it to be an observation.

7. I had no hope with the parsing of 8d, though saw it was one of those ‘reverse’ clues, and missed 2d, for which I had ‘red shirt’, with ‘Socialist’ as the wrong def. The not easy anagram for the clever ‘Author, female’ at 1d and GLASNOST were my my picks for the day.

   Harder than usual in two ways – for both a Tees and a Monday puzzle – but a good warm-up for the week ahead.

   Thanks to Tees and Quirister

8. Thought the definition at 2D was tenuous and 8D was ridiculously obscure / over-complicated but loved the rest.

   1D was actually my 1st one in though how my brain came up with it I’m not really sure.

   Thanks to Tees and Quinster

9. 1d gets my vote also as clue of the puzzle. But I am another one who entered 8 down unparsed.
   The GK required was far too obscure for me though once explained, the use of LA defined by Central lowLAnds is very clever.

10. Thanks Quirister and everyone who chimed in.

    So. Right. I must defend the verb version of OVERSTEER as it can imply driver error. In Collins it does anyway. The noun is the one where your car is rubbish. And imperative FAN too I am sticking up for, as it can mean to stir up, excite or provoke. However I totally sympathise regarding the Central Lowlands, though, och, I thought people might have a good few crossers before going for that one. Should I be setting for an international audience? I never normally do, except in the FT, whereof people in financial centres across the globe read avidly of the unfolding events as the world descends into fiscal chaos. Or something. Because in me there is this real urge not to be too pan-European, or pan-Galactic, as I am a scion of the House of Parochial. Noted though. They complain about UK-ness on Times for the Times as well.

    Cheers
    Tees

11. Thanks Tees for looking in. I’ll concede you’re right about FAN (I just didn’t check enough dictionaries for that one), and though I didn’t see your verb form of OVERSTEER in Collins online I think many people would use it in that way.  And yes, I did need a lot of crossers for CENTRAL LOWLANDS, but I’m happy with crosswords being UK-based; it’s the geology rather than the region name that I wasn’t familiar with.

12. You’re right, it was cruel. In the sense of Dinsdale Piranha though, I hope.

    Thanks for your ace blog.

13. Tees @10: per Quirister, can I thank you for looking in.  Always a pleasure for us posters.  I was the only one to make the ‘international’ observation; please do note I came back to modify my post as criticism wasn’t the intent.  I’m often on the Guardian blogs where a sizeable international audience often comment on GK – again, rarely critically as they recognise the UK origin of the paper.  Covent Garden and Billingsgate should score highly on the recognition count in the Uk so some overseas solvers will have heard of them; Smithfield less obvious; Leadenhall right out there.

14. I found this a bit of a slog and many I couldn’t parse.  Found I couldn’t spell ASPIDISTRA but the wordplay (and Chambers) sorted me out.

    I entered RED SHIRT for 2dn.  Obviously wrong but I’d just read a reference to Garibaldi in a book I’m reading and that must have clouded my thinking.  And me with a degree in physics!

15. Not much to add to what others have said.  A fairly straightforward solve, although there were a few clues that we looked at for ages before the penny dropped.  We were with the setter on the use of ‘fan’, and we’re always on the lookout for ‘reverse engineered’ clues such as 8dn so we cracked that fairly easily.

    Favourite was INSTRUMENTALIST.

    Thanks, Tees and Quirister.

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