Independent 6819/Bannsider (23-08-08)
Posted by neildubya on August 29th, 2008
Another superb puzzle from Bannsider with some very original and rigourous clueing. Very tough too, but always a pleasure to solve.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | (PRAYER THAT)* - ART THERAPY. Great clue with an excellent surface reading and a hard-to-spot definition: “drawing to a salutary end”. |
| 10 | SIBYL - a woman who was thought to be an oracle or prophetess by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Also sounds like “Sybil”, the wife of Basil Fawlty. |
| 11 | DJ,EL(LAB)AH - tough clue, which I got from the definition and crossing letters and then worked backwards. “Fit” is HALE and a DJ is of course a Dinner Jacket. |
| 12 | DOG COLLAR - brilliantly deceptive clue, with some lifting and separating needed on “Shadow Minister’s band” to get the definition. |
| 13 | NOT SO? - not sure about this one. I can’t think of anything else that would fit N?T?O and “like a pork pie” could work as a definition for NOT SO if we assume that “pork pie” here is Cockney rhyming slang for “lie”. |
| 15 | A(FIC[-t]ION)ADO |
| 16 | LO(BEGAN)*RRY - LOGANBERRY. One of the easier clues in a tough puzzle; I think this was the first answer I filled in. |
| 20 | I KNOW - sounds like “aye no” |
| 21 | A,MEN,HOTE[P for L] - tough word, reasonably easy clue to unravel: exactly as it should be. That said, I had to look at the clue more than a few times before I got this. |
| 23 | GAIT,S(K)ELL - another corker of a clue. “Style in constitutional” for GAIT is excellent, especially given the context of the surface reading. |
| 24 | A,CHES[-s] - another very well disguised definition: “does long”. |
| 25 | OCHE - which is where a darts player would stand, the “bull” (or bullseye) being one of the targets on a dartboard. |
| 26 | CAPE DOCTOR - a wind that blows on the South African coast in the summer. |
| Down | |
| 1 | AS,SAD - I think “down, no less” must mean “AS SAD” (as someone else,say). |
| 2 | TO BE GOING ON WITH - that’s “boarder” in the sense of getting on a plane or boat or whatever. |
| 3 | HILT,NO (going up) |
| 4 | RADCLIFFE CAMERA - the marathon runner is Paula and the RADCLIFFE CAMERA is a (round) building in Oxford which I think now forms part of the reading rooms for the Bodleian Library. |
| 5 | PIER,REC,(LONELIER)* - PIERRE CORNEILLE. I’d heard of him but annoyingly couldn’t remember his first name until I got the crossing P from 1a. |
| 7 | TAB,I,THAT(WITCH)IT - “sorcerer” and “Potter” are intended to lead you up a particular garden path but the Potter here is Beatrix not Harry. TABITHA TWITCHIT appears in The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, amongst others. |
| 8 | (HE ONLY GOT)* - ETHNOLOGY. |
| 9 | B(L)AN,CO - an easy clue for a sportsman who is not exactly a household name; not in this country at least as Serge BLANCO played rugby union for France. |
| 14 | TALK,(GOT IN)* - “rocket” is a Brit colloquialism meaning to give someone a reprimand or TALKING TO. |
| 17 | NO(W)ISE - I found this very tough and it was one of the last couple of answers to go in. I considered both NEWEST and NEWISH but was never really convinced by either of them. I should have just trusted the simple wordplay and I might have got it a lot quicker. “Never once” is the definition as it’s an archaic word for “not at all”. |
| 19 | C(HEAP)O - cleverly done, especially the use of “clothing” to indicate containment and “lavish” (as in “to lavish praise upon”). |
August 29th, 2008 at 11:48 am
This seems to bear no relation to the puzzle available online… Is this normal?
August 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Do you mean the puzzle online today? My post is about last Saturday’s prize puzzle so it wouldn’t currently be online.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Oh yes. Beg your pardon!
August 29th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
This was very difficult with some unfamiliar words - but Eimi has clearly signalled this is fair game esp at the weekend. Some cracking clues - my favourites being ART THERAPY, OCHE and TO BE GOING ON WITH but many others besides.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
A lovely puzzle and nice touch by Bannsider having 20A “I know” which was Sybil Fawlty’s telephone catchphrase…
August 29th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I spent less time on last week’s Listener than I did solving about 3 clues of this puzzle. Really very hard indeed, even when you know the answers!
August 29th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
NOT SO I read as an equivalent to ‘lie’(falsehood) i.e “it’s not so” with ‘pork pie’ as rhyming slang - main definition ‘less’
August 29th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
The “I know” and Sybil Fawlty thing was a complete coincidence!
Otherwise apologies to those less than au fait with Oxford landmarks, Beatrix Potter, Arab customs, 17th century French drama, French rugby and Egytpian pharaohs - quite a list!
September 24th, 2008 at 1:48 am
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