Fifteensquared

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Archive for November 10th, 2006

Independent 6262/Phi — Gentle end to the week.

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 10th November 2006

Colin Blackburn.

Solving time : about 20 minutes

A classic Phi puzzle, very fair Ximenean clues with a few cryptic definitions thrown into the mix.

Across
1 PAST+ORAL — ORAL is always a good guess for exam (aka viva).
10 HACK+ER — Nice to see hacker being defined as computer expert rather than in its more malevolent sense.
15 S(UN)UP — article from Evian gives us UN (rather tha UNE, LE, LA or LES).
18 OB+SERVING — OB = Old Boy = former schoolfellow, I’m not sure if OB appears anywhere other than crosswords.
19 (b)EAGLE — I looked at this one quite early and did a mental trawl through six letter dog breeds, ALUKI and ETTER are not birds I know of.
20 INHERITANCE — This was the last clue I got. I tried to read more into it than I think is there. Unless somone else can tell me what I’m missing this is just a cryptic definition. It’s the word accepted that confuses me.
24 EN(I)G+MA — A classic case of using On the contrary to switch the container and filling around to give a good surface.
Down
1 PERSUASION — A novel and what it might take to get me to read it.
3 (b)ORDER — Book (b) is removed from immigration area, an odd definition for border.
4 AT FIRST SIGHT — anag of THIS IS GRAFT + (cour)T. This threw me for a while as Phi managed to hide the anagram material using innocuous words like IS and THIS.
6 COASTLINE — anag of SECTIONAL, one of those perfect longer one word anagrams that occasionally arises, cf CART-HORSE and ORCHESTRA
11 MERRY-GO-ROUND — A cryptic definition and the first clue that I got. The clue screamed out CD and the enumeration left no room for dithering.
13 SUI GENERIS — anag of REISSUING + (s)E(eries) By the time I got to this clue I had enough checking letters to work out the anagram confidently despite my failure to grasp Latin at the age of 11.

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Independent on Sunday/Quixote 873 - V good as always

Posted by nmsindy on 10th November 2006

nmsindy.

Quixote is, as most will know, Don Manley of the Chambers Crossword Manual, the 4th edtion of which has recently appeared. Highly recommended, especially for help in explaining all the clue types and puzzle types. He was in the Indy pretty much from the start, transferring to the IoS when that paper was launched in 1990 – this puzzle is, as you see, No 873. At one time, I found these easier by quite a bit compared to the Indy weekdays, but that’s changed somewhat. This one took me 25 minutes. I also thought that, for new solvers, I might give a few tips and complete analysis of 4 clues (asterisked in the report below)

ACROSS

1  HALF-TIME   He “collects”  Alf and Tim and we get ED and MARK later.   No problem with that.

10 GROCER     So they say, means, it sounds like  “grow” “sir”

13 SHORTFALL   period between summer and winter = fall (US), autumn (UK)

14 EAR-SPLITTING = very loud.    One of the first solved, but the last understood in that “ear” is “part of” i.e. splitting “fanfarE ARrangement.    I think that’s it, anyway.

17  PATENT OFFICE     PA tent off ice

22  ROTTERDAM   “bad egg” = “rotter”   First man beheaded (A)DAM

23  ESTER   Esther (Book of Old Testament) less h.     The editor of the Church Times Crossword knows his OT

24*  APPEAR

26*  DERIDE

27  CHAMPERS    My favourite clue – double defn with the misleading join between Bubbly and folk

DOWN

2*  LANDMARK

4  MODUS VIVENDI  anagram of v devious mind.    This took me ages, wondered where the 2 Vs fitted in.    Very good clue.    Phrase from Latin.

7  UNCLAD    Uncl less e i.e. almost + a d = day.   “To get” is a link.  Defn is “ready for bed”    

8  THRILL  Th(e) less e + rill.    Tricky

11 MOUTH-TO-MOUTH      mouth = trap.    “Like” needed in defn to show it’s a adjective.

16  NEURITIS    one less o i.e. loveless.   Old City = Ur (more OT).  

18  ABELARD  a + L (50) in Beard.    Liked that a lot.    Abelard and Heloise from medieval days.  I’ll refrain from giving you the full details..

19  FIEFDOM.     Misleading cricket image refers to its HQ Lord’s.  England’s opener  i.e first letter (E) in anagram of mid-off (a fielding position in cricket).  .     And no problem for anyone nervous at using capital letters when the reference is to the word in lower case i.e. the lord who has the fiefdom.     It’s all avoided my having it as the first word in the sentence so it gets capitalised anyway..

21*  STUPOR

80-90% of crossword clues consist of (a) a definition of the answer and (b) another way of getting to it, lying side by side and not overlapping.    (b) is now usually referred to as wordplay; it’s also called the  subsidiary indication.Either may come first.Crossword convention is that the clue must read as a normal piece of English. But when solving you must take the wording literally.The wordplay element will  give instructions on what is going on e.g. anagram, piece of word reversed, hidden etc. The setter has to give indications that this is being done and, while there will often be link words, every word in the clue has a role in getting to the solution.

24    Come into view/with/plea, having changed sides finally.      Plea = appeal – “having changed sides finally” means change the last letter from L (left) to R (right) and you get APPEAR (come into view).  “With” is a link

26  Jeer at/man falling over before journey       Man falling over = Ed (reversed) followed by ride = journey

3   Boy without name is given name/ – a significant event       Boy = lad without name means lad is outside n = abbreviation for name  and then “is given” name (Mark)

21  Numbness/ conveyed by/Proust (translated)   This is an anagram of Proust and the anagram is indicated by translated, suggesting changed around.   A very appropriate one as Proust is a French writer whose work would be translated into English.

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Guardian 23920/Auster - quite straightforward

Posted by neildubya on 10th November 2006

neildubya.

An easier day today after yesterday’s toughie from Paul. Auster is a very occasional setter for the Guardian - one or two puzzles a year I think.

Across
5 HOARDED - anag of “odd hare”
9 G(L)ORY - Libyan leader is L not Gadafy.
10 RAINCOATS - anag of “castration” minus “t” (”not the first [letter of "the"]“). I was expecting flashers to be some sort of cryptic definition. Surface reading of the clue is spot on.
11 I’M PASSABLE
12 ABLE - hidden in “Mabel” so “cooking” is superfluous and probably there to make the surface read better. Abel (and his murderous sibling Cain) make frequent appearances in crosswords. Cain is usually the “first murderer” something like that.
14 NEAPOLITANS - a cake obviously and a ref (I think) to the film “It Started in Naples” starring Sophia Loren.
18 AGGRANDISED - anag of “gardenias” and g,d (”both sides of good”)
28 ECSTASY - “easy” with “cost” minus “o” (”nothing to it”) inside. Other drug-related crossword stuff includes e = ecstasy, pot, and H(eroin).
 
Down
1. IN GRID - a girl’s name and where you enter it. The most popular girl’s name in crosswords surely must be “Ada” but I doubt that it features in any current top 10 girl’s names.
2 St oops - as in “oops, silly me!”
4 TARKA - the otter and the Tarka Trail in North Devon.
7 DEAD BEAT - “whale” is variant of “wale”, an 18th C word meaning to beat or thrash.
15 Add it, I’ve s - “selected initially” is “s”.
16 PASTOR,AL - “reverend gentleman” is PASTOR held up (”supported”) by one left - A L.
17 Ag,litter - it’s worth knowing some of the more common chemical symbols as they often crop up in crosswords. Au=gold, Fe=Iron, Na=sodium are fairly common.
20 S(NAP)PY = mole=spy. Technically, a mole is a particular kind of spy, one that has infiltrated an organisation.
23 G(-E)ORGE

Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »