Independent 6266/Dac
Posted by neildubya on 15th November 2006
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PAD,U,A - accomodation=”pad” |
| 4 | CHE in BUT, RED - Nice clue for beginners: Che (Guevara) is the crossword solver’s favourite revolutionary and a communist is almost always “red”. |
| 9 | CH, APTER (”more suitable”) |
| 10/11 | PUT ONE’S FINGER ON IT - something else for beginners to note: “one’s” is usually preferred to “your” in phrases like this. One exception was in a crossword from last week - “WHAT’S YOUR POISON”. Using “one’s” there would just sound silly. |
| 16 | GAELIC - sounds like “gay” (carefree) and “lick” (defeat). |
| 18 | HOT DOG - solvers of last Saturday’s Scorpion puzzle will know that “Mick the Miller” was a famous hot-dog. Walthamstow is home to a famous dog track. |
| 27 | ENTICER - anag of “reticent” without the “t”. |
| 28 | I’D in PRESENT (here) |
| Down | |
| 1 | PACIFISM - nice &lit clue. IF,I,CAP (all going “up”) + SM (sergeant-major). |
| 3 | AT THE READY - anag of “treated hay”. I thought “freshly” was a good anagram indicator here. |
| 5 | TOPPING - Interesting juxtaposition of old and new slang here. If I understand this one correctly, Dac is using the “street” definition of “wicked” to mean “good”. Topping someone obviously means to kill them but it is also a slang word for good although I can’t imagine anyone has actually used it in conversation this side of the 1940s. |
| 7 | RINGTAILS - anag of “starling” + I. Not sure about the use of “…spotted being pecked by vicious…” though - seems to be stretching things a bit to make the clue read well. |
| 8 | The wrong clue was printed in the newspaper - see eimi’s comment on this post for the correct one. |
| 15 | BIOSPHERE - anag of “beer I” and “hops” with “brewed” being a perfect anagram indicator. |
| 19 | GEORDIE - I saw G?O?D?E and filled in the rest without bothering to work out the wordplay. Looking at it now, I see that it’s EG (say) “set up” + I in ORDE(-R) |
| 20 | A EWE’S in MT - a Mae West is (or was) a life-jacket. |
| 24 | RECTO - hidden in “directory”. A simple but nicely worded clue and an illustration that “hidden” clues don’t always have to refer to something being hidden or concealed - “torn from” does the job here. |
| 25 | SOLI - plural of “solo” and nearly “solid” (reliable) |
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