Posted by neildubya on 3rd November 2006
I found it hard to get going with this; I did about 6 clues in 20 minutes and then got stuck. So I did something else for a while, came back to it and polished the rest off in about 10 minutes. I still don’t understand 18,3,22 though - I know the defintion is “saw” but I don’t see how the rest of the clue works.
| Across |
| 1 |
P(HOB)OS - I like “top-of-the-range item” as HOB. Phobos is the largest of Mars’ two moons |
| 11 |
REPITITIONAL - anagram of “Note: reptilia” |
| 13 |
JO(E)Y - A joey is a baby kangaroo. Like the def “bounder in the making” |
| 17 |
C-LAUD-I-US - or CLAVDIVS from the 80s TV series. |
| 23 |
COBBER - is this china=china plate=mate=cobber? Or something a little less indirect that I’m missing? |
|
| Down |
| 12 |
CODLIN MOTH - I guessed CODLIN from checked and remaining letters as this was new tome |
| 15 |
MILITARIA - Excellent surface reading; not misleading but reads perfectly. |
| 16 |
PISSARRO - if you thought of Rory Bremner he’s the wrong kind of impressionist. |
| 19 |
BEHEST(-ON) - my first thought was Bobby Charlton, rather than Charlton Heston. |
Posted in Guardian | 3 Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 3rd November 2006
(a rival entry for the other I just glimpsed - let’s see how far we agree on clues to write about…)
Solving time 4:32
… which is my view of Phi puzzles in general (though the Listener ones can be tough). This one was good for me as I knew Honegger at 11. Nice clues to the two long answers, and nice to see YOUR instead of ONE’S, though “What’s ones poison?” woud probably be counted as too silly even at the Times. Readers of my Times blog will know that I share an interest in classical music with Phi. If I’d also studied astronomy, his puzzles might be even quicker - Antares took a bit of working out.
| Across |
| 1 |
SP (Starting Price)=odds,I,V. |
| 11 |
HONE,G,G,ER - active first half of 20th century. Best-known work: Pacific 231 - premiered at half-time in the England-France rugby international of 1928, says Greene’s Biog. Dict. of Composers. |
| 13 |
ELEVEN - realised after stopping the clock that adding the two subs gets you the clue number = ‘here’. |
| 15 |
SPOO(N)FED |
| 17 |
H,O.R.=other ranks = “men”,RI(B)LE - get angry = rile |
| 20 |
O,S,PREY=predate as in predator - nice confusion with predate = go before |
| 22 |
ABOVE ALL - nice joke about dictionary order |
| 25 |
ATMOSPHE = anag. of shop, meat,RE |
| 26 |
OPEN SEAS, ON |
| |
| Down |
| 3 |
V(o)ICE,OVER |
| 5 |
ANT(ARE)S - a star, the brightest in the constellation Scorpius. |
| 6 |
WHAT’S YOUR POISON - ref. their family history of skulduggery |
| 18 |
ERASMUS - rev. of ’sums are’ |
| 21 |
ROMAN - Fr. for novel as in “roman a clef” and similar phrases |
| 23 |
LUR(e),ID(ea) |
Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 3rd November 2006
Phi is another of the Indy’s weekly regulars. I first encountered him in advanced puzzles. Puzzles characterised by very accurate construction - I find I always understand the answer, once found. This make him easy, too, though not his advanced puzzles, of course.
I solved this in 13 mins
Across
4 BEAR WITH ME CR is a friend of the bear Winnie-the-Pooh (AA Milne)
11 Arthur HONE - GG - ER (1892-1955)
13 ELEVEN players in a soccer team - two reserves refers to clue number 13
19 RESUME double definition - accents are ignored in crosswords
26 OPEN SEAS + ON = feasible
27 TIDY - I’d pencilled in TALL first
Down
2 VOICE-OVER O = Love in vice + over = discontinued
4 BRING-AND-BUY SALE anagram of ”bargain bundles” including y = yard. Very good & lit type
5 ANTARES are = live in ants (soldiers)
6 WHAT’S YOUR POISON What are you having to drink? Poison associated with the Borgias
8 MAUSOLEUM au (gold) + sole (only) in mum
18 ERASMUS (defined to need no further explanation SUMS ARE “raised” (this is a down clue)
21 ROMAN Foreign novel, seemingly from Italy French for novel (book)
22 LURID lur less e = drug (ecstacy) + ID (idea not half)
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Colin Blackburn on 3rd November 2006
Solving time : ? done in dribs and drabs through the day
As I started to solve this puzzle I quickly realised it might be pangrammatic as I’d got a Z, X and Q. I then noticed several Xs and Ks. In the end it turned out to be a double pangrammatic grid with an extra X and few extra Ks. Maybe there’s more to the distribution but as this isn’t the Listener I won’t be spending hours staring fruitlessly at the completed grid.
| Across |
| 9 |
ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCHE — anag of H(ard) Azed clue has boy, nice to see Azed namechecked. |
| 15 |
KNESSET — Kt covering several points of the compass, just keep adding them till it makes sense! |
| 25 |
AI(NT)RE+E — oddly I’d started to write in ENTREE without thinking it was too short. |
|
| Down |
| 1 |
JADE — J’adore dropping OR (gold) |
| 8 |
SEX+TUP+L+E — SEX here is defined by (a bit of) ‘the other’. |
| 19 |
LIEBNITZ — anag of BLINTZ+IE - an answer belying Monk’s mathematical background. |
| 20 |
S+PACE — and where “…small step…” was heard from? |
| 22 |
Y(OU+B)ET — is ‘correspondence course’ a good enough definition for OU, a university? |
| 27 |
RIVE(r) — I initially penned in (t)RENT even though I was unsure about using ‘most of’ to remove the first letter. |
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 3rd November 2006
Solving time: 45’
Rover is on the more rigorous end of the Guardian scale: he (she?) typically has both clean wordplay and sensible surface readings. Today’s puzzle has some good puns (1A, 17A, 27A, 1D) and had me going to the dictionary when the wordplay was the only way to the solution (13A, 25A).
Across
| 1 |
GNOMES OF ZURICH – cryptic definition: “swiss bread” had me thinking for a long time about bagels (bread with holes)! |
| 8 |
MEDIA – Had to use wikipedia to remind myself that Media ruled the Medes (Asia Minor) in olden days. |
| 11 |
PORCINI – another pun since in Italian literally means baby pigs. |
| 13 |
E+TAPE – New word for me: public storehouse. |
| 17 |
EXCISE+MAN – “Duty officer” as in the bored guy at customs. Nicely misleading. |
| 23 |
DIGGERS – double definition. Given the crossing letters I got the answer based on the definition – had to use wikipedia to learn that “diggers” is a nickname for Anzac soldiers (who were Churchill’s cannon fodder at Gallipoli). |
| 27 |
PLASTIC SURGEON – Best of today’s puns: surgeons operate and credit cards are made from plastic. |
Down
| 1 |
GAME PRESERVE – Another pun: pool is kind of game (“perhaps” indicates it’s an instance). And “can” is nicely misleading. |
| 7, |
CHANDLERS – Yet Another Clever Pun. It’s Raymond Chandler of “Big Sleep” fame. |
Posted in Guardian | 1 Comment »