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Archive for November 27th, 2006

Independent 6276 by Obtrox - Nervous start

Posted by neildubya on 27th November 2006

neildubya.

Solvers of advanced cryptics will recognise the name Obtrox as he/she has compiled a number of crosswords for the Listener, Enigmatic Variations and the Independent’s own Weekend Magazine over the past few years.

A small ripple of panic came over me as my initial pass over the clues, both Across and Down, yielded nothing. Not a sausage. A second pass over the Across clues almost had the same result, and the ripple began to turn into a wave, until I finally got 24A. The SW corner fell into place fairly quickly after that and the rest followed suit at a leisurely pace. There were some nice things in this and it was a “good solve”, although I thought 1A was a bit weak and 20A not a very convincing anagram.

Across
1 MATCHING PAIR - to be honest, I was expecting something more cryptic. When I saw “Snap” I thought “Card game! No, too obvious surely” so I waited until had all the checking letters before filling the answer in.
13 ERGO in PLA - I thought “therefore” was going to be “so” so went on a wild-goose chase looking for 10 letter words for “aircraft” (50% would be 5 letters I thought).
15 NOIS(E), ROT (rev) - I liked “cobblers” = rot.
17 S,WIND,LE - nicely disguised def = “do”.
19 TA, L in BEAU
20 TASTE BUDS - anag of “butted ass”. Now, I’m no compiler, but I can’t help thinking that there are better ways to clue this word. Something to do with friends (buds) and discretion (taste) maybe?
24 D in O,O+U,R - the clue that stopped a mild oncoming panic attack.
25 I,FI in AMPLE+R
 
Down
2 A,LO,FT - again, I thought the definition (”up”) was nicely disguised in “then put feet up”.
3 RC (rev)+OS+SWORD - couldn’t quite believe that this was the answer given that the word “cross” appeared in the clue.
6 BY in AS,S - nice misleading surface reading which disguises the definition well.
7 (s)ECOND in RITE - the surface reading for this seemed a bit clumsy though.
9 POLE POSITION - anag of “pipe onto soil” and a ref to Formula 1.
16 anag of “ellen” and “biro” -
19 SS,P in TOOT - thought I’d stumbled into the Private Eye crossword when I filled this one in. It’s in the Concise Oxford though and it apparently means an habitual drinker also.
23 G, RIPE

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Guardian 23934/Rufus - I’m DOWN

Posted by ilancaron on 27th November 2006

ilancaron.

Typical fair Rufus fare. A couple of nice turns of phrase (e.g. 24D), one Shakespearean reference that had me checking Hamlet (22D) and a wordplay whose decoding had me going for a bit (7D). So the downs have it – and I’m a bit surprised that Rufus let DOWN appear twice in the puzzle (18D and 25A).

I’m using our new anagram indicator: fodder* means anag(“fodder”)

Across

9 IN A WAY – nice contrast between IN (home) and AWAY.
11 ARM+AGED+DON – One of the many ways to deconstruct ARMAGEDDON – our fellow is DON and he’s AGED.
14 CLO(THIN)G – Hamper shifts from picnic basket noun to the obstructionist verb CLOG.
15 REP(LET)E – peer* contains LET
20 FELO DE SE – suicide (from the Med. Latin which I didn’t know) so indeed an extreme form of self-effacement. Not sure about the wordplay unless it’s self* + some form of “does”: any offers?
22 BREWED=”brood” – double meaning and homophone.
23 EVAPORATED – nice double meaning and cryptic definition for a kind of milk.
24 DID+O – ref Dido, Queen of Carthage. I didn’t know about the Troy association but I knew that Dido was an ancient Greek type (helped by the fact that my best friend at age 6 was called Dido).
26 LAID DOWN – double meaning: you lay down the law and you lay down your arms. First DOWN.

Down

2 OF+FA – nice wordplay (FA is “Football Association” here) and definition since King Offa built dykes in olden times.
4 GRIM(A+C)E – C for a hundred is a frequent cryptic visitor.
5 DING-DONG – Seems like a double meaning: a “ding-dong” contest goes back and forth and it’s the sound of a bell.
6 HARD CHEESE – Groan… brie is soft.
7 LAG+O+ON – LAGs go slow. And you’ve got nothing (O) ON if you’re not wearing your swimsuit. Took me quite a bit to decode the wordplay.
13 OIL COMPANY – cute cryptic definition
18 STEP DOWN – (Don swept)* — the other DOWN.
19 SE(A)TTLE – Where I live in Washington State.
22 BODKIN – A dagger: ref Hamlet Act III Scene 1 in the To Be or otherwise soliloquy – he considers using one to put an end to it all.
24 DUDS – double meaning: last I filled in and my fav clue. I liked the meaning shift of “assumes” (meaning “to wear”) – I had assumed something else.

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