There was a time when a puzzle by Tyrus appeared on my Saturday blog cycle quite often but this is the first I’ve seen for a couple of years.
I found this much harder than I expected.
Only two clues cold solved on the first pass: 20A mostly from the enumeration, and 28A because Cashew was the first 6 letter nut that sprang to mind. From 28 I then got 18, 22, 23, 26, and 14 to complete the bottom right corner. What a difference having a few crossing letters makes!
Then soon after a few more I got the long 2D but it took until writing this blog before I properly understood the wordplay.
The rest of the clues needed time and some help, ultimately for the last 11A from Wikipedia to check the answer – an animal previously unknown to me, but now seen never forgotten.
Thanks Tyrus for seeing us off.
Addition: Thanks to Hovis at comment #1: Somehow I did not spot the Nina in the perimeter. I will leave it to the reader to see what it asks.
I remember looking at least at the top and bottom unches when I had about half the clues in place and dismissing the possibility but I should have made another check
| ACROSS | ||
| 6 | HALITE |
Salt healthy, it’s accepted? (6)
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| IT inside HALE (healthy) Needed all the crossers before that one finally fell |
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| 9 | AIR CORPS |
My visiting Paris disconcerted fliers (3,5)
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| COR (My!) in (PARIS)* AInd: disconcerted Initially misled to thinking about bird species (as usual) |
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| 10 | WRITHING |
Henry in literature showing signs of pain (8)
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| H[enry] inside WRITING (literature) Nothing to do with Henry Fielding despite the close association between fielding and pain, at least in my experience one day being positioned at silly mid-on. |
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| 11 | CHIGOE |
Parasite chief shortly about to leave (6)
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| GO (to leave) inside CHIE[f] Last one in and had to be checked. My God! This is a nasty little blighter: Wiki for Chigoe I should add a warning for the squeamish about clicking that link. I think I might have been happy never to have known about this one. |
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| 12 | SWERVE |
Avoid where water’s full of crap! Point taken – very reprehensible ultimately (6)
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| S[e]WER (where water’s full of crap, point taken) V[ery] [reprehensibl]E I will take the advice |
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| 13 | IDEAL GAS |
Ladies not finishing frivolous chatter? That’s a hypothetical concept (5,3)
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| (LADIE[s])* AInd: frivolous, GAS (chatter) What do you mean no such thing as an ideal gas? Next you’ll be telling me there’s always someone who doesn’t find my jokes funny. |
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| 15 | ECRU |
City game in shade (4)
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| EC (City, Postcode of the square mile) RU (game, Rugby Union, as usual) That sort of biege would be suitable kit colour for the City of London XV |
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| 17 | TIBIA |
Bone‘s top piece put back (5)
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| AI (top, “A1”) BIT (piece) All reversed Crosswords favourite bone |
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| 19 | BEEF |
Complaint – coffee break about to be shortened (4)
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| Hidden reversed in cofFEE Break Not what you want at a coffee break |
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| 20 | ST HELENS |
Article dissects southern French city and English town (2,6)
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| THE (article) in S[outhern] LENS (French city) First clue solved, mainly from the enumeration and use of “the”, after S |
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| 22 | RIALTO |
Trail suspect over bridge (6)
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| (TRIAL)* AInd: suspect, O[ver] Crosswording’s favourite Venetian bridge Rialto Bridge |
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| 24 | SCOTCH |
Put the lid on drink (6)
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| Double definition I found this very difficult to get |
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| 26 | MILLINER |
Literary tale-teller keeps home for fashion designer (8)
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| IN (home) inside MILLER (Literary tale-teller, as in the Canterbury Tales) Probably the most memorable tale – the one where someone gets a red-hot poker up the arse. |
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| 27 | OMDURMAN |
Ammo run out with day in battle (8)
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| (AMMO RUN D[ay])* AInd: out. The first time hollow point bullets, now illegal under the Hague Convention, made at Dum Dum (near Kolkata) were used. Very effectively. Battle of Omdurman |
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| 28 | CASHEW |
Nut – like to eat shells (6)
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| AS (like) inside (shelled by) CHEW (eat) The only other clue cold solved on first pass. |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | YARROW |
Harry turned up carrying a plant (6)
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| A inside WORRY (Harry) Duke of Sussex been down the garden centre? |
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| 2 | BARGAIN BASEMENT |
Save? Get cross about worthless pieces here? (7,8)
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| BAR (Save, as in “other than”) , then BASE (worthless) MEN (pieces, as in chess) inside GAIN (get) T (cross) &Lit I could not see this wordplay for a long time. I know “cross” is sometimes used for T but it is not something I like. |
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| 3 | ORACLE |
Said about Charlie: ‘E’s a know-all (6)
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| ORAL (said) about C[harlie] E Do you want to know the future? Maybe tomorrow, |
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| 4 | NORI |
Recalled mineral contained in seaweed (4)
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| IRON< (mineral, recalled) plenty of Fe in seaweed, and other good stuff. |
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| 5 | UP TO DATE |
Fashionable but not after potential partner (2,2,4)
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| UP TO (not after) DATE (potential partner) I assume we are all part of the in-crowd here. |
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| 7 | INTERLUDE |
Break under 50 Ronnie’s last – it’s unexpected (9)
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| (UNDER L (50) [ronni]E IT)* AInd: unexpected. My biggest break on a full-size table is about 20-something. It’s harder than it looks! |
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| 8 | EMINENT |
Famous artist’s space by town (7)
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| [Tracy] EMIN (artisit) EN (space) T[own] Is Tracy now considered eminent? I guess so. |
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| 14 | LIBRARIES |
Overlapping signs for places of learning (9)
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| LIBRA and ARIES overlapping. What a brilliant clue – my favourite here. |
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| 16 | CATACOMB |
About time! A thorough search for where bodies are buried (8)
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| CA (about, circa) T[ime] A COMB (thorough search) Great story telling surface reading |
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| 18 | ACRYLIC |
American comic’s original lines – slick but not edgy material (7)
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| A[merican] C[omic] RY (lines) [s]LIC[k] You can see right through it |
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| 21 | EXHUME |
Bring up smell in river (6)
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| HUM (smell) inside EXE (river) A bit Burke and Hare |
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| 23 | THE SEA |
These are found in Booker-winning novel (3,3)
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| Hidden in THESE Are. “The Sea“ by John Banville won in 2005, not to be confused with “The Sea, the Sea” by Iris Murdoch which won in 1978. Do you see. Edit: Hovis at #2 points out this wordplay could be THESE + A(re) with Are being the metric unit of area. I feel both interpretations work fine. I’m not sure which was intended |
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| 25 | TOUR |
Go round and round in flipping boring routine (4)
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| Hidden rev in ROUTine Rounds and rounds off the clues Edit: Again thanks to Hovis at #2. Hidden reversed does not work, that spells TUOR. Correct wordplay is O (round) inside RUT< (routine, reversed (flipped)) |
It now seems most likely this will be my last opportunity to blog an Independent crossword. I have been occasionally blogging these since 12-Aug-2008 – over 18 years – so it feels very much the end of an era.
So I will say thank you to all the setters, the commenters, and good wishes all you readers.
(I will continue blogging every other Private Eye.)
It’s always worthwhile to look for a perimeter nina to help if you get stuck with a Tyrus. I got on his wavelength but a few unknowns held me up: OMDURMAN & CHIGOE. Didn’t know HALITE either but guessed that to start me off.
I did wonder about HATROW for 1d but soon saw the error of my ways.
I parsed 23d as THESE + A (for are, as in hectare) and TOUR as O inside RUT<.
Very sad that this will likely be the last Tyrus. Like Hovis, I found the perimeter very helpful (but I don’t know the answer).
Many thanks to Tyrus and beermagnet
Certainly a tricky solve. Having not done a Vlad for a while, either, it took me some time to get my head around the setter’s economic cluing style and trickiness. At more than one point, I was sure I was going to have to concede defeat – but in the end, everything solved and parsed with the cunningly in-plain-sight THE SEA being LOI. My only surprise was T as an abbreviation for ‘town’ in EMINENT. I have never seen that before and it’s not in the dictionaries. Is it, perhaps, from football? Might one see Luton T occasionally? I haven’t but I guess it’s possible.
Thanks both
Big tick for INTERLUDE. Just an anagram but it’s one from Tyrus. And the hidden clues. TOUR seems to work both ways. Liked the Nina, as well. Plaintive but strident. Independent journalism, for not much longer.
PM@4, thanks for querying the T ex “town”, I suppose it exists in some extended abbreviation acronym, somewhere, but it’s dire stuff, as is CHIGOE.
Is T “a cross”, too? I don’t get it, must be my lack of knowledge.
Grammatically, (16d), is “COMB” a noun, in the sense of a search? I see it only as a verb, but there’s a superfluous A, anyway, it seems?
19(ac)… “to be shortened” is poor, I think.
Clearly, for me, the self-imposed problems caused by the bizarre Nina badly affected the quality of the setter’s wordplays and solutions.
So, not for me, sadly.
Thanks, for all the fish, beermagnet. It’s the end of an era, and the start of an error by the men in grey suits.
I’m glad I never remember setters’ various idenities or I might have not persevered when the going got tough. I can look forward to being pleasantly tormented some more by Vlad it seems.
Thanks for the detailed blogs beermagnet. I’m not one of those who internet searches to find or confirm solutions. I’m happy to admit defeat and look here for clarification. As with the name of the battle in this puzzle. If you knew your Seasick Steve songs you’d have heard of chiggers. I also knew that one from a stay in Costa Rica where we were warned not to walk across the grass airstrip in flip-flops.
Thanks both.
A delight to see a Tyrus today, his was my first blog here back in August 2010 when Father Ted was the theme of the day. I always now expect a perimeter Nina when he sets, I don’t believe it’s first diatribe against water bosses either. Thanks Jim & The Beer Magnet. I didn’t find this as hard as some but perhaps I’ve got used to the way Tyrus/Vlad etc thinks and looking for the Nina helps
Thanks to beermagnet and to others who have commented, today and for the last decade and a half which has passed so quickly. Thanks also to Mike for his brilliant editorship during that time.
T for Town is definitely in the ODE, Mansfield Town being used as the example. The Sea was intended as These + a(re).
Hope this isn’t a final goodbye.
Flash, hope to see you around at the S&Bs
I’m afraid I had to troll a list of Booker winners for THE SEA (my last one in), and once I did, I felt like an idiot.
I agree with the general sentiment that this was quite hard. I know we consider it gauche to discuss solving times here, but it’s worth remarking that the one nice thing about the Indy’s online interface is the running clock. For me, 20 minutes is the benchmark–faster than that, and it was on the easy to moderate end, and slower than that, it was pretty chewy. This time that clock hit 40 minutes across two sittings, which, based on my benchmark, tells you that I was tearing my hair out. But I did finish!
I was going to quibble that iron is not, geologically, a mineral, it not being crystalline in its native state; but then I remembered that it is classed as one nutritionally.
Thanks (I think) to beermagnet for the CHIGOE link–like others, I hadn’t heard of the beastie, and was surprised it was a word–and thanks (for sure) for the blog.