Independent 6514/Bannsider (01-09-07)
Posted by neildubya on 7th September 2007
Very tough but lots of fun. There are a couple of things I’m not sure about here and there and one answer I can get at all (10A) but I thought this was a very fair puzzle overall with lots of interesting stuff going on.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | (N ALBUM)* in SOME - SOMNAMBULE. “The rest pedestrian” is an excellent definition for “sleepwalker”. |
| 6 | BEE,F - this must be right but I don’t see how the F is indicated by “Finger setting off…” |
| 8 | SARI in ROO - I did wonder briefly if there might be a place called Rominio but then, a mini is a skirt, rather than a dress. |
| 9 | SMACKER - a slang term for a pound (or dollar). |
| 10 | N?O? - don’t know this one. Full clue is “Time off in the Highlands”. It could be NOON (defined by “time” maybe) I don’t know how the rest would work. |
| 11 | BEK in UZIS,TAN - the clue doesn’t say whether “one of 6 reportedly” refers to the across or down answer but it only works with 6D (BECKS), one of which (reportedly) would be BEK. “Sub-machine gunes by Browning” to indicate the rest of the word is very good. |
| 15 | (STREET BANDS LIKE)* - BEER AND SKITTLES. |
| 17 | DINES in KIN,CAR HIRE - excellent clue but very tough. I didn’t know where the Mearns was so I typed it into Google and KINCARDINESHIRE popped up in the first page of results. |
| 18 | SUD,DENNESS - I assume that “England captain” is supposed to be Mike DENNESS? Not exactly the first England cricket captain that springs to mind - not my mind anyway. The surface reading of the clue is excellent though - and very apt too. I liked “foam at the mouth” to indicate the initial SUD. |
| 23 | INN in SEE,J (all reversed) - another tough one. “Neddy” is slang for donkey and JENNIES are female donkeys. The hard bit for me was “get Jack” as I thought that “get” was a link word. |
| 25 | INC,ROWD(y) - “group with it” is the well hidden definition here. |
| 27 | AND,C in HUFFED - there are some nice things in this clue - “had pet” for HUFFED, “bears” to indicate the container and “paws restricted” for the definition HANDCUFFED but for me, it all leads to an unconvincing surface reading: “Had pet bears also caught with paws restricted”. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SPRING,B[o]OK - excellent surface reading and well-hidden definition but I don’t understand why “book fair” should be BOK. |
| 2 | (M REIGNED SO V)* - MISGOVERNED. |
| 4 | BRONZED ADONIS - excellent cryptic definition. |
| 6 | BECKS - I can see this one attracting a few comments. For those of you with an aversion to popular culture, I can tell you that BECKS is the nickname of David Beckham, a professional football player formerly employed by a Spanish side called Real Madrid (hence “Real old boy”), currently |
| 9 | (PENSION MAKES)*,D - should “change” (or “little change” as it is here) for D be pensioned off by now? Yes, I know it’s in the dictionary but decimalisation was a long time ago now. Another great surface reading. |
| 12 | I,Q[replace U with T]EST - the last one in (apart from 10A, which never went in at all) for me and one of those frustrating clues that I feel I should have got quicker. |
| 14 | RA in KATE - another good one. I suppose we all think of George when Bush is mentioned but here it’s the eccentric 80s singer/songwriter. |
| 16 | WARD in STEED - the definition “Did marshal” is hard to spot here as the clue is framed as a question. |
| 19 | U,RED,O - which makes good use of the American slang for “nothing” - “zip”. |
Posted in Independent | 10 Comments »