Independent 6485/Mass
Posted by neildubya on 30th July 2007
Probably the easiest Mass puzzle I’ve solved (and definitely the easiest I’ve blogged). There were some really good clues in this but, again, I don’t think much of the cryptic definitions and I really don’t see how 3D can be justified.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | hidden in “acrOSS Aegean” - there are two apparently; one in Greece and another in Tasmania. I didn’t know about either of them but OSSA sounded convincing as a mountain so in it went. |
| 8 | RE,D,”current” |
| 10 | L in (ACCUSED)* - CUL-DE-SAC. Excellent clue: good anagram and a nice surface. |
| 13 | MET,ALL,I,C - misleading surface reading and “irony” might catch some people out as a definition. |
| 15 | (LANE IN VERMONT)* - for a long word, ENVIRONMENTAL leapt out at me surprisingly quickly. |
| 18 | ANACONDA - barely cryptic, I thought. |
| 24 | (I PRINTED)* |
| 25 | PORT in (CINEMA)* |
| 26 | CREE(p) |
| Down | |
| 1 | CUT in (ONCE HES)* - I didn’t think I knew this word, until I got CUT=”share”, at which point ESCUTCHEON sprang to mind immediately. “Bearer of arms” is a punning definition as an escutcheon is a “shield decorated with a coat of arms”. |
| 3 | PRISONER - if this is just a cryptic definition then it’s not a very good one because being a prisoner doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with being convicted of anything. You could be a remand prisoner, or just be held by someone against your will. |
| 4 | RI in JUST |
| 14 | LAD in IL,(DIVES)* - nice clue. The surface reading would have worked better without “the” but then the clue wouldn’t have worked cryptically. |
| 16 | V,A in ACTION - filled this in without understanding why V=”see”. It’s in the dictionary as an abbreviation for “vide”, which is Latin for “see, refer to”. Must remember that. |
| 17 | QU,I in E,TIES |
| 19 | N,E,GATE - on my first reading of this clue I thought that “entry” was going to be definition. |
| 21 | R in TENCH |
| 23 | M in ACE |
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