Independent 6270/Tees - The Two Ronnies
Posted by rightback on 20th November 2006
Solving time: 7:45
I really liked this puzzle on the theme of 11s (coincidentally the first clue I solved), though I wonder if I have missed some of the thematic references. A very slow bottom left corner for me, but overall nothing too difficult.
Beginners’ tips of the day: ‘river’ = EXE (or AIRE, CAM, DEE, ODER, PO, R, TAY, TEST, URE…); ‘for all to see’ = U (= ‘Universal’ film rating)
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | MO’ + USE + rev. of PART - refers to The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, the longest-running West End show. Mo’ for ‘more’ is Scottish, but I can’t remember seeing this in a daily crossword before. |
| 11 | A + V + anag. of GREEN |
| 13 | John STEED - played by Patrick Macnee in the 1960s TV show. I haven’t seen the programme but knew this name; Emma Peel, Steed’s sidekick, crops up occasionally in the dailies. |
| 19 | EX(PERT + IS)E |
| 22 | S(URGE)ON - I don’t really like this clue as ’summoned’ is rather superfluous to the cryptic reading |
| 23 | A brilliant &lit, which means that the whole clue is both the definition and the wordplay. Here ‘All of a gallop:’ is the anagram indicator, the remainder of the clue the anagram and the whole clue a description of the quartet in question. I regret that this clue was completely wasted on me, I wrote in the answer from the enumeration (possibly with a subliminal hint from ‘gallop’ or ‘hoof’?). |
| 24 | THE + ME - the last clue I solved. Using ‘the’ in the clue is surprisingly deceptive, I fell for a similar trick in The Guardian recently (”Lifting the foot” = THEFT) |
| 25 | Anag. of S[hamefu]L and ANOTHER - I think this refers to Jack, although I am familiar only with Jim and Ronnie, whose classic miss from 1992 rivals the other Ronnie’s howler on Saturday. |
| Down | |
| 1 | IMPA(rev. of BASS)LE |
| 2 | MULETEER - cryptic definition with a nice rugby surface (or was it, thematically, American Football?). I think I’ve seen a very similar clue somewhere earlier this year (Guardian?), which took me forever to get, but (probably because of this) I got this one straight away. |
| 4 | B + R + R + R - I think this is one of the few words of four letters to contain no vowel or Y that are permissible in Scrabble. Is BZZZ another? Or CWMS? I’m sure a Scrabble aficionado will enlighten us! |
| 6 | O + P(U + L)ENCE - complex wordplay but simple definition. For some reason I needed the former to solve this clue. |
| 7 | In The New 11s, Mike GAMBIT was played by Gareth Hunt… (go to 20) |
| 8 | MERE - This answer may be wrong as I don’t understand the purpose of ‘what is said’ in the clue, it seems to be just a straight double definition (’only’ and ‘pool’). |
| 18 | EU + TROPHY - from the Greek eu meaning ‘good’, as in euphoria or euphobia (fear of good news) |
| 20 | (from 7) … and PURDEY was played by Joanna Lumley. I didn’t know either name, but both were guessable from the other parts of the clues. |
| 22 | SET + H - the third son of Adam and Eve. My last but one solve, very slow on this and it took me a while after stopping the clock to work out why ‘went down’ = SET (as in the setting Sun - obvious when you realise). |
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