Independent 8661 / Tees

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Well what a ‘tease’ we have had this week. We wondered what was going on when Phi disappeared from his normal Phiday slot and appeared on TEESday instead – sorry TUESday!!

There is still one clue (9ac) that we cannot parse so any help would be most welcome. Also we have some concerns about D for ‘daughters’ in 6D. Also our parsing of 2D seems a bit dodgy!

Our lack of football knowledge meant that we puzzled over the wording of 16ac. We had never heard of the Athens football team and did not come across any reference to them when we were in Athens a few weeks ago!

We were held up in the SE corner for quite a while. Bert noticed that it could be a pangram and that perhaps that could help us complete the puzzle. We then realised that all the alphabet was represented already.

There were a number of new words in both the clues and the answers – ealdorman, skirret and seltzer.

Thanks Tees!

 

Across
1   Terrific backing keeps Tories circulating restricted material
ESOTERICA ACE (terrific) reversed or ‘backed’ around or ‘keeping’ an anagram of TORIES (anagrind is ‘circulating’)
6   Happy child chasing others is loose-limbed
LITHE LIT (happy) + HE (we think this may be an alternative, maybe local(?) name for ‘IT’ in children’s games – ‘child chasing others’). However, we can’t find any reference to this in Chambers, so perhaps there is another explanation?
9   Eastern school at first refused to present petition  to present petition
ENTREAT This looks like an anagram of EASTERN without S (school at first ‘refused’) but where is the anagrind and where does the extra T come from? Or, is it E (eastern) + a word for school with the first letter missing? zEN (Eastern school) with first letter removed or ‘refused’ + TREAT (present). Looking at it again we were misdirected by thinking that ‘present’ was a verb! Thanks Gaufrid for the help!
10   Old exhaust learner driver put on first wreck
LOUSE UP O (old) + USE UP (exhaust) with L (learner driver) at the beginning or ‘put on first’
11   Nocturne beginning to go wrong – that’s best
TROUNCE An anagram of nOCTURNE losing first letter or ‘beginning to go’ (anagrind is ‘wrong’ )
12   Ex-spymaster to help very cautious person
OLD MAID OLD (Ex) + M (spymaster as in the James Bond novels) + AID (help)
13   Hasten away in an iconic Volkswagen
BEETLE OFF A play on the fact that the iconic Volkswagen car is a Beetle which if it was ‘hastening away’ could be said to BEETLE OFF
15   Under ealdorman he sat on original offender
REEVE RE (on) + EVE (original offender as in Adam and Eve)
16   Nonsense about AEK replacing back two is exposed in Sun
BAKES BS (nonsense) about AEK with EK (last two) being replaced with each other.
19   Double-breasted coat recently introduced to trade
NEWMARKET NEW (recently introduced) + MARKET (to trade)
22   Rabid pets I’ll release, as did Antony?
LET SLIP An anagram of PET’S I’LL (anagrind is ‘rabid’). The clue relates to Antony’s quote in Julius Caesar – ‘Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war’. Nice one!!
23   Ethics he would address when passing a child of five
AQUINAS AS (when) after or ‘passing’ A QUIN (a child of five)
25   Device putting jets into plunge? Stuff one copper must get into
JACUZZI JAZZ (stuff) + I (one) around CU (copper). Joyce, who is writing up the blog was unaware of the parsing of this clue until she wrote up the blog. She had to check that JAZZ and STUFF were synonyms for ‘to have sexual intercourse with’. No doubt the explanation for her ignorance is that she has led a very sheltered life! Bert, when he solved the clue related it to “all that jazz” meaning ‘that stuff’! Who knows? Perhaps Tees can help us out!
26   Tubers from this rhizome scraped into apron
SKIRRET SKIRT (apron) around RE (first and last letter of RhizomE – or ‘scraped’) It needed two heads to sort this one out. A skirret is a water parsnip which neither of us had heard of. If you find one, it is edible but it is probably best avoided as it looks very similar to the deadly poisonous water hemlock!
27   He plays to the old king
TOYER TO + YE (old word for ‘the’) + R (king)
28   Terrible sisters to have meal with Greek character in visit from East
EUMENIDES DINE (to have meal) + MU (Greek character) in SEE (visit) all reversed or ‘from East’. The Eumenides or Erinyes were the Greek deities of vengeance.
Down
1   Episode exactly on time
EVENT EVEN (exactly) + T (time)
2   End result set to make appearance
OUTCOME We were working on the basis that there may be an obscure synonym for SET = OUT but perhaps it is just a play on the fact that if you are set to make an appearance you may OUT COME!
3   Seabird in river and lake unchanged by time
ETERNAL TERN (seabird) inside EA (river) + L (lake)
4   I create look that disregards an unknown fibre
ISTLE I + STyLE (create look) without or ‘disregarding’ Y (unknown)
5   Not nearly enough wool left – angora initially ordered
ALL TOO FEW An anagram of WOOL LEFT + A (first letter of Angora or ‘initially’) – anagrind is ‘ordered’
6   Daughters into Lauren modelled clean clothes
LAUNDER D (daughter) inside an anagram of LAUREN (anagrind is ‘modelled’). The only problem is that on Crossword Solver the clue says ‘daughters’ and we cannot see that D can be a plural.
7   Young golfing supporter to berate finisher at Carnoustie
TEENAGE TEE (golfing supporter) + NAG (to berate) + E (last letter or ‘finisher’ of CarnoustiE)
8   Contrivance has former lover kick bucket. Shut up outside
EXPEDIENT EX (former lover) + DIE (kick bucket) with PENT (shut up) around the outside
13   Rush with Canadian singer to engage British image-maker
BUBBLE JET BUBLE (Canadian singer) around or ‘engaging’ B (British) + JET (rush)
14   One’s sent up our usual Friday compiler in shout to encourage drinker
OENOPHILE ONE (reversed or ‘sent up’) + PHI (usual Friday compiler) in OLE (shout to encourage)
17   Showy equipment clubs sheepish about
KITSCHY KIT (equipment) + C (clubs) inside or with SHY (sheepish) ‘about’
18   Soft fizzy drink lets off virtually nothing
SELTZER An anagram of LETS (anagrind is ‘off’) + ZERo (nothing) with last letter removed or ‘virtually’
20   Wrong Spenserian answer first reserve overturned
ABUSION A (answer) + NO I SUB (first reserve!) reversed or ‘overturned’. Was Spenser dyslexic? Every time we have a Spenserian spelling we wonder about this!
21   Others in family displaying generous attitude to leftist
KINDRED KIND (displaying generous attitude) + RED (leftist)
23   Rich-tasting brew from a heap sent over
ASSAM A + MASS (heap) reversed or ‘sent over’
24   Does fill odd slots in Seattle USA
SATES Odd letters in SeAtTlE uSa

 

21 comments on “Independent 8661 / Tees”

  1. Well the best I can do for 9 ac is: as you say Eastern without the s and then the t from to presented and petition (verb) is entreat. But I don’t think that works very well so it must be something else.

    This was a tricky one with lots of unusual words and quite strange cueing but I got it done eventually.

    Thanks all.

  2. Ps I didn’t understand Lithe either so I wrote it in and moved on. Got abusion from the word play and also picked up on Daughters but assumed there was an apostrophe missing.

  3. Thanks Bertandjoyce
    I can help you out with 9ac:

    [z]EN (Eastern school at first refused) TREAT (present) with the def. being simply ‘petition’.

  5. I’m sure you’re right about ‘He’ in 6a – we regularly played ‘He’ in the school playground along with other games such as ‘Kingy’ (which would now be banned). I hauled out my old Shorter Oxford and found –

    5. The player who has to catch others on children’s games, ‘it’.

    There’s a similar entry for ‘Kingy’, but nothing on the web that I could find. Bit sad really.

  6. I didn’t find this one easy but got there in the end, even if ENTREAT and LITHE went in from definition alone. I finished in the SE with EUMENIDES/ASSAM after I’d finally got the obscure SKIRRET/ABUSION crossers, both of which I had to trust the wordplay for.

  8. In Scotland the one that is ‘it’ is ‘het’, so no help at all today and merely confused things.

  12. You understand it correctly Sue. As indeed does Monk, who very kindly cast his eye over it (and the puzzle hur hur) before I sent it in to the estimable Mike, who had further excellent advice for me (as he has done in the previous 99 efforts). I’d like to say thanks to Mike and The Indy, and to bloggers and solvers alike who have put up with my weirdness on 100 occasions. Cheers all!

    The puzzle idea is not in the grid, by the way, but … well, you work it out. I’m not the first to do this kind of thing, so it should eventually grab you (if it hasn’t already). ‘Socratic’ might be one way to look at it.

  13. Thanks Tees and congratulations. Many thanks for the hint to look at the clues rather than the grid!

  16. My congrats too, Tees!
    The jubilee’s actually indicated in a very ordinary way (innit?) but oh so cleverly disguised if you don’t know what this is all about.

    I made one mistake (4d) where I entered IXTLE (an alternative for the solution), thinking of X being the unknown. As a result I couldn’t work it out.

    I also needed help for the parsing of ETERNAL (3d) as I had never seen EA for ‘river’.
    What a cheap header for a setter – so, why haven’t I seen this before?

    Many thanks B&J, and of course the Centenary Child (ps, liked your Neo too).

  17. I had considered moaning a little since my right bicep was exercised as much as my brain (I’ve a heavy dictionary!)
    But now I’ve seen the mixed up Croat [sic], I can but add my heartfelt congratulations – and thanks.
    And thanks to BandJ – another splendid blog. I wonder when you’re not? Or, rather, your not?

  18. And I add my congratulations to Tees, who continues to delight us. Only one thing: why did this appear on Friday? If it had appeared on Tuesday and Phi as usual on Friday it would still have been Tees’s 100th crossword …

  19. Wil Ransome@18 If you look at comment 3 on Phi’s puzzle you will see that there was a ghost theme commemorating Harrison Birtwhistle born on 15th July 1934.

  20. Perhaps someone could explain what is hidden in the clues, for those of us who still don’t get it!

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