Independent 6300/Virgilius
Posted by neildubya on 26th December 2006
Do my eyes deceive me or is this a theme-less puzzle from Virgilius? There’s the reference to the flags of the US and ex-Soviet Union at 1A and 26A but that’s all I can see. A un-Virgilius-like grid as well, what with those long answers forming the perimeter. Still, the clue-writing is as good as it always is, and that’s the most important thing.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | (MERELY)*,GI’S - the setting for Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” and John Fowles’ “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, fact fans. |
| 11 | ACNE - “‘ackney” |
| 12 | CLERE (”clear”=plain spoken),STORY |
| 14 | L,ILDES,S - so nice to see “new driver” rather than “student” indicated as L. |
| 15 | DEAD SEA - I think this is a reference to the fact that the Dead Sea is the one of the lowest points on Earth (). |
| 19 | (OLD DIET)* - I’m sure DELTOID is right but the definition “to build up muscle” is puzzling. In the Concise Oxford, the only dictionary I have to hand right now, deltoid is defined as an adjective and a noun, not a verb, which is what the clue seems to be indicating. Unless “to build up” is part of the anagram indicator? |
| 20 | hidden in ”RomantiC LOVE HIT CHap” - Edit: I originally wrote this up as an anagram, for some strange reason. Maybe the excitement of the forthcoming festive season got to me. It is, of course, a clever hidden clue. |
| 25 | F,E in REVERSE |
| 26 | STARS AND STRIPES - double definition. |
| Down | |
| 3 | O,RUE< - “rue” should be an essential part of your crosswording French vocab. |
| 4 | EL in ANGUS - I liked this for two reasons. First, Virgilius avoids “the Spanish” and instead goes for the much more original “Don’s article” for EL; second, it’s nice to see a Scotsman other than Ian in a crossword. Excellent surface reading too. |
| 5 | SIR in DEED - I liked “so-called teacher” for SIR. |
| 7 | hidden in “broKEN-DOwn” |
| 13 | PEDOMETERS - do you do your 10,000 steps a day? |
| 16 | (POORSCENT)* - had to guess this because, as I’m sure I’ve said before, I have a blind spot when it comes to plants and flowers. |
| 18 | TIFF in SEN |
| 21 | OUIJA - this is usually clued with reference to OUi and JA being Yes in French and German so kudos to Virgilius for trying something different. |
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