Independent 11921 / Moriarty

by

It’s the day before Christmas and we have a puzzle by Moriarty

 

 

 

When writing the blog, I wondered whether ANTITYPE [9 across] is a contronym or Janus word that has two meanings which are opposite to each other?  We have it meaning ‘contrary type’ at 8 across but dictionaries tell me that it also means ‘that which corresponds to the type’.

There were two themes running through this puzzle, both of which were fairly clear.   Firstly there is the SHERLOCK HOLMES theme with the name of the detective, the name of his author [Sir] ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, his most recognisable words, ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON and his addiction, COCAINE.

The only other entry I could link to SHERLOCK was NEPOTISM as the world wide web has a number of stories about Amanda Abbington [born 1974] who said she only got the role of Mary in the TV series SHERLOCK because of her relationship at the time with Martin Freeman who played Dr WATSON.

Secondly, there is the ‘name’ theme referenced by NAMEDROP at 16 down.  All the entries referenced in the clue at 16d were forenames or surnames – FINN, MORRIS, OWEN, ARTHUR, GIOTTO, HOLMES, CONAN DOYLE, CNUT and CALE.

The setter’s name MORIARTY appears to be a one-off to go with this puzzle.  Professor MORIARTY is portrayed as a formidable enemy of SHERLOCK HOLMES in CONAN DOYLE‘s stories.  I can’t find any other puzzles set by MORIARTY on fifteensquared.

Finally, may I wish all solvers a very Merry Christmas!

No Detail
Across  
8 Worn-out horse in some gym for Mary after Eve? (8) 

ANTITYPE (a contrary or opposite type.  In the Bible, Mary and Eve display very different characteristics)

(TIT [nag; worn out horse] contained in (in) ANY [some]) + PE (physical education; gym in a school timetable)

AN (TIT) Y PE
9 See 11

WATSON
10 War poet at work we must interrupt (4) 

OWEN (reference Wilfred OWEN [1893 – 1918], war poet who described the horrors of the First World War)  OWEN died in action just 7 days before the war ended.  Much of his poetry was published posthumously

WE contained in (must interrupt) ON (at work)

O (WE) N
11/3/9 Getting creative with ‘lemon entry’ and a wee dram! stay for words ascribed to 22A? (10,2,4,6) 

ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON (words attributed to [Sherlock] HOLMES [entry at 22a] when he explained how simple it was to solve the current case)

Anagram of (getting creative with) LEMON ENTRY and A WEE DRAM STAY

ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON*
12/23 Duncan or ‘The Royal Novel Writer‘ (6,5,5) 

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (reference Sir ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE [1859 – 1930], author [writer] of the Sherlock Holmes novels)

Anagram of (novel) DUNCAN OR THE ROYAL

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE*
14 Male model, topless, backing undue favouritism (8) 

NEPOTISM (undue favouritism to one’s relations and close friends)

(M [male] + SIT [model] + OPEN [topless]) all reversed (backing)

(NEPO TIS M)<
15 Lord who ran to embrace murderer and 22A’s addiction? (7) 

COCAINE (Sherlock HOLMES [entry at  22a] had an addiction to COCAINE)

COE (reference Lord Sebastian COE [born 1956], former Olympic and world record athlete; Lord who ran) containing (to embrace) CAIN (character in the Book of Genesis who murdered his brother Abel; murderer)

CO (CAIN) E
17 Make matters worse? One left out most important thing! (7) 

CAPITAL (principal or most important thing)

CAP IT ALL (the phrase ‘To CAP IT ALL‘ usually introduces a description of an event or action that makes an already difficult problem even worse) excluding (left out) one of the Ls (left)

CAPITAL – as the clue says, either L could be the one left out
20 One counting down minutes until soldiers go in? (3,5) 

EGG TIMER (a device that counts down the time [minutes] till an EGG is boiled and one can dip [go in] narrow strips of bread or toast [soldiers] into the newly boiled EGG)

EGG TIMER – cryptic definition described above

EGG TIMER
22 See 26

HOLMES
23 See 12

CONAN DOYLE
24 Style worn by new Danish king (4) 

CNUT (reference King CNUT [994 – 1035], King of England from 1016 until his death.  CNUT had Danish ancestry)

CUT (style) containing (worn by) N (new)

C (N) UT
25 Scholarly American leaves for BBC workplace? (6) 

STUDIO (Many BBC staff work in a broadcasting STUDIO)

STUDIOUS (scholarly) excluding (leaves) US (United States, American)

STUDIO
26/22 Solver‘s female, right to secure houses around lake (8,6) 

SHERLOCK HOLMES (fictional detective; solver of [murder] cases)

SHE (female) + R (right) + LOCK (secure) + (HOMES [houses] containing [around] L [lake])

SHE R LOCK HO (L) MES
Down  
1 Have as name a name, recalling ‘Old Tartan Trousers’? (6,2) 

ANSWER TO (to have as one’s name)

A + N (name) + (O [old] + TREWS [trousers made from tartan cloth]) reversed (recalling)

A N (SWER T O)<
2 Is it MacCool in loud hostelry? (4) 

FINN (reference FINN MacCool, a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He was the leader of the Fianna bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer and poet)

F (forte; loud) + INN (hostelry)

F INN
3 See 11

MY DEAR   
4 Knowledge drawing in female brought to a hellish place (7)

GEHENNA (a place mentioned in both the Old and the New Testaments where children were sacrificed and the wicked were punished after death; a hellish place)

GEN (information; knowledge) containing (drawing in) HEN (female) + A

GE (HEN) N A
5 Climber in the main having to carry little teepee? (5,3) 

SWEET PEA (climbing plant; climber)

SEA (the main) containing (to carry) (WEE [little] + T [tee] + P [pee])

S (WEE T P) EA
6 Big case: let it stand outside by raised earth (5,5) 

STATE TRIAL (a TRIAL [case] for an offence against the STATE; a major or big case)

STET (written direction to an editor or printer to let the original wording stand rather than make the changes; let it stand) containing (outside) AT (beside;  by) + LAIR (den; earth] reversed (raised; down entry)

ST (AT) E T RIAL<
7 Victorian craftsman married The Florentine (6) 

MORRIS (reference William MORRIS [1834 – 1896], Victorian English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement; Victorian craftsman)

M (married) + ORRIS (the Florentine or other iris)

M ORRIS
13 Courage wins in vitally important area (10) 

HEARTLANDS (areas of countries that are centrally situated and/or vitally important)

HEART (courage) + LANDS (wins)

HEART LANDS
16 Possibly pardon me, and say you know 2, 7, 9, 10, 12, 21, 22A, 23, 24A, or 24D? (8) 

NAMEDROP (try to impress others by casual mention of important or well-known persons as if they were one’s friends)

Anagram of (possibly) PARDON ME –  all the entries listed in the clue are proper names [forenames or surnames]

NAMEDROP*
18 What does? (8) 

ADEQUACY (sufficiency; competency; some that does even though it is not brilliant; what does)

ADEQUACY – unless I have missed something, this clue is simply a cryptic definition

ADEQUACY
19 Most white, former monarch looks tense (7) 

GREYEST (most white when referring comparatively to older persons’ natural hair colouring)

GR (Georgius Rex, King George; former monarch) + EYES (looks) + T (tense)

GR EYES T
21 Bondone! Try going round ten times! (6) 

GIOTTO (reference GIOTTO Bondone [died 1337], Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages)

GO (attempt; try) containing (going roun) (IO [characters together  representing the number 10, ten] + [T {time} + T {time} giving times])

G (IO T T) O
22 What about two editors having listened? (6) 

HEEDED (attended to; cared; having listened)

EH (what?) reversed (about) +(ED [edit] + ED [edit] giving editors)

HE< ED ED
24 Welsh muso John about to get on the beer (4) 

CALE (reference John CALE [born 1942], Welsh musician and composer)

C (circa; about) + ALE (beer)

C ALE

 

15 comments on “Independent 11921 / Moriarty”

  2. For 8a ANTITYPE I didn’t know TIT as a horse, but knew Eve, the Original Sinner, as the antithesis of Mary, with her Immaculate Conception and Virgin Birth.
    Stuck for a while on my last two: 18d ADEQUACY (“that’ll do”), then 17a “to CAP IT ALL”

  4. Same three tricky ones as FrankieG. nho horse = TIT and, tbh, have not really encountered ANTITYPE but that’s my bad. I eventually had to reveal ADEQUACY which shows my own lack of it! I did not find this the easiest puzzle to get into but things began to drop. The multi-light one was clearly an anagram but I wasn’t going to try and do that one in my head. Having spotted ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, as soon as SHERLOCK also appeared, of course, it suddenly became a write-in. How weird is English that GREYEST should mean whitest? ANSWER TO probably my fave clue and I liked discovering who/what The Florentine was.

    Thanks Moriarty and duncan

  5. Looked like it was going to be a write-in but the second half was tougher. Not much to grab hold of at times. What does? In desperation I asked a word search for a an 8-letter word containing exactly ‘uac’ because I had the relevant crossers and ADEQUACY came up first. Top clue. I noticed COCAINE CAPITAL across the middle. Is that London? Could be any city these days. And from the top in the middle GEHENNA which, and this is subjective of course, might be a reference to somewhere closer to the original location which is certainly a ‘hellish place’. Big ticks for the ’10 TT’ trick in GIOTTI and ‘one left out’ in CAPITAL. Thanks Duncan and Moriarty.

  6. DNF as couldn’t see/didn’t know GEHENNA and entered unparsed ‘inferno’, which seemed to fit, at least partially, so also couldn’t see/didn’t know ANTITYPE. Otherwise much enjoyed, especially the name-lifting, so thanks Moriarty and Duncan.

  8. Cor, this was a workout, but very satisfying to finish.

    I wasn’t especially confident of either ANTITYPE or GEHENNA (which I thought might have been something Norse), but my last two by some way were ADEQUACY and CAPITAL. For the former, I was certain it was going to be something punny relating to ‘does’ being female deer, so I was toying with ‘SHE-‘. And while I tried a Q early on, it didn’t occur to me that it might end in a Y for some time – the moment it did, the answer popped in to my head. By contrast, I knew I would know the latter entry perfectly well, but I needed that final A to figure it out.

    Thanks both, and merry Christmas.

  9. Thanks both and season’s greetings to all. I won’t be promoting this to any visiting aliens over the festive period, as I would struggle to adequately justify ADEQUACY as anything more than a little cryptic, but certainly deceptive, and failed wholesale on the nho ANTITYPE neither knowing the definition (basis or angle) nor the overtired nag, and then we have GREYEST served up as the extreme of a different colour – my hair is turning from one to the other at the very thought.

  10. Thanks to Moriarty. Interesting puzzle, very enjoyable in places but slightly uneven. I utterly failed on MORRIS, ANTITYPE and ADEQUACY and don’t feel bad about it.

  11. As others said this was uneven. Some fun attached to the Conan Doyle theme. But antitype is fiendish with a no tit in an nho antitype crossed with an nho Gehenna. And are Eve and Mary antitypes – both mythical biblical women to me!

Comments are closed.