| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | (DID GO FOR)*,AY – an &lit and a reference to the GOOD FRIDAY Agreement but I see no anagram indicator… |
| 6 | [-n]OTIC[-e] |
| 9 | WARS,A,W,P,ACT – another &lit, and a good one too, but a tough clue to parse I thought. |
| 14 | (REPENT LATER)* – a “plane” is a large deciduous tree, a fact which didn’t occur to me until very late on. |
| 18 | (A R[-e]D HEN IS OLD)* – a RHODE ISLAND Red is a breed of domestic fowl, something which I only know from watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage series (he keeps Rhode Islands, amongst other breeds). I’m assuming “could” is both an anagram indicator and part of the definition? |
| 21 | LAYMEN in A,LT |
| 23 | F,LUTE – this is very good: “Glass requires fine stringed instrument”. |
| 25 | RISK in A STEED – I saw STEED quite quickly but RISK took longer to get. |
| 27 | (HARM BLEEPS)* – I think this must be an &lit with “undoes” as the anagram indicator? |
| Down | |
| 1 | GO WEST – which can mean “die” but I don’t really understand “disorientate literally”. |
| 2 | OR,RE,RY – the last one in for me. An ORRERY is a clockwork model of the sun and its revolving planets. |
| 3 | TBA in FLATTERY – “sort of charge” must be either TBA or BAT but I don’t understand either really. |
| 5 | A,C,AfRiCa (going up) – again, this looks like it has to be an &lit because “A city” serves as the definition and part of the wordplay. |
| 7 | TOURISTY – filled this in with a blank look on my face but I’ve now worked out the wordplay. URI (Geller) is the spoon BENDER (20d) and STY is the “filthy place”. |
| 13 | STAND,OF,FISH |
| 15 | RATTLER in PS – the definition – “such utter nonsense” is quite deceptive here as it seems to suggest a word for nonsense, rather than the people who speak it. |
| 19 | BUNK,UM |
| 20 | N,D in BEER |
2 comments on “Independent 6618/Merlin”
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GOOD FRIDAY I think ‘Irish’ indicates the anagram – once a common usage, now a bit non-PC, I think. GO WEST – disorientate refers to the east.
FLAT BATTERY Took me a while to see why. Flattery gets you nowhere and in it you have BAT(on) charge!