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Archive for December 3rd, 2006

Azed 1800 “Sly Oaf” - excellent thematic crossword

Posted by linxit on 3rd December 2006

linxit.

Solving time 1:03:33.

A rare thematic puzzle from Azed this week to mark puzzle no. 1800. There’s an extra letter in every clue which has to be removed before solving. These letters in clue order form a thematic phrase which should help to complete the two unclued lights at 1ac and 13ac (in conjunction with the title, “Sly Oaf”).

Rather helpfully Azed put clues to both words in the preamble anyway (…sure sign…), but I didn’t spot that till I’d got them the hard way (i.e. by finding the theme).

The extra letters in clue order spell out “BIRTHDATE OF THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY”. He was born in 1800, and his most famous work was “The Lays of Ancient Rome”, which is an anagram of “SLY OAF CERTAIN OMEN”. It took me a while to get this as 1ac might have been “CURTAIN”, which gave “CENTURY” in the anagram…

In clue entries I’ll put the word with the extra letter in it first with the letter itself in square brackets, followed by a brief explanation of how the clue works. As every clue needs to be altered to spell the message, I’ll mention every clue (if only briefly).

ACROSS
6 [b]ass: H in DOPE rev
11 X[I]: AR(CHI)T, RAVE
12 A[r]t: DEPAINT - (”at pined”)*
14 [t]reed: DEE, PEN
15 T[h]at: GUEBRE - (burgee*)
19 base[d]: SHEBA - E in (SBAH*) - kasbah less ka=soul
20 b[a]iting: C,AU,STIC(k)
22 s[t]oup: SMEETHS - (”the mess”)*
23 Grande[e]: Hidden in GranDE CORsage
27 H[o]ard: O,RAC(H)E
29 [f]acts: CISTED - (”(a)cts die”)*
30 to[t]: STOA - “to” replacing “part” in “Sparta”
31 [h]is: D, IS, TEND
32 p[o]et: TEA-PLANTER - (”a pet learnt”)*
33 [m]end: IN, DIE
34 rot[a]: MIS(RAT)E

DOWN
1 [s]porter: CADDY,S,S
2 [b]oil: R(APES)EED
3 are[a]: TRAPE - (”PT are”)*
4 car[b]: A,C(I.E.)RATE
5 S[i]ward: NIT-GRASS - (starings*)
6 ge[n]t: hidden in “gET SUpporting” - the ETSU is the Energy Technology Support Unit. Normally even in advanced cryptics there’s a warning in the preamble if any answers are acronyms or abbreviations, but not this time.
7 run[g]s: P(R)OEM
8 ti[t]le: O,VERV(e),IOLENT(”no tile”)*
9 Hell[o]: DEN,E(ntertainmen)T
10 cha[n]t: BEECH MARTEN - (”chat men beer”)*
16 for[m]: SC(HIED)AM
17 se[a]t: JU(DAIS)TS
18 [c]rest: C in TETE rev, ERA
21 Gild[a]: C, RUDDLE
24 s[u]it: R, O, STI(sit*)
25 wi[l]t: SC, API(cal)
26 se[a]t: STE(set*) inside AR
28 wood[y]: hidden in “wHY LEg’s”

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Everyman 3139 – wasn’t paying attention

Posted by ilancaron on 3rd December 2006

ilancaron.

I wasn’t paying attention and that’s what I filled in at 11A instead of ATTENTIVE which made the NE corner a spot of bother. Nice puzzle with good balance of clue types. If you can regularly solve Everyman then you’re ready for the Times.

Across

1 CU(B+IS)T – Among other things, Picasso was a leader of the cubist movement. The little word IS clued by “lives”.
11 AT(TENT)IVE – rev(evita = “musical”) containing TENT. I saw tent too quickly and hazarded attention and had to backtrack later.
12 S(A+SSEN+A)CH – What an “English person” is to the Scots. Usually English simply indicates “e” so this was a nice change. “A” for “answer” and of course “ness” is a type of head(land) and “back” a simple indication of reversal.
15 CARDINAL NUMBER – One is (the loneliest) “number” in question: cardinals are one, two, three, etc. and ordinals are first, second, third…
18 ONE ST(EP AT) A TIME – (maisonette)* containing rev(tape = “video”) with “back” indicating reversal again.
23 QUAD+R(ILL)E – “first half of reel” nicely tells us that we need RE which contains ILL for trouble (indicated by “during”).
24 SNIPE – hidden and reversed in “keEP INSide”. Reversal indicated by “revolution” and “houses” indicates hiding. Hard to detect since the fodder and indicators are related.
26 ORD(i)NANCE – the relationship between ORDNANCE and ordinance has been noted by other setters. The first is what armies need (“guns” and “supplies”) and the second is derived from “order”.

Down

1 CLASS ACT – def is “outstanding performer” and wordplay is a charade.
5 K(IT+C)HEN CABINET – (back the nine)* containing abbrev(“Italian”) + abbrev(“Conservative”). Good example of filling in the answer well before I understood the wordplay.
6 LIN+US – Linus was Lucy’s brother in Peanuts. LIN = rev(nil = “nothing”) and it’s a down clue so “up” is reversal.
7 FRIGATE BIRD – “Rail” is type of “bird” thus needs the “perhaps” qualifier. FRIGATE is an escort ship. “I” refers to the answer.
8 SLEUTH – Double meaning: great movie of a good play (with three characters and two actors which kind of gives the story away).
9 BANANA REP(U)BLIC – (Caribbean? Plan)* surrounding U for “university”. Nice that there are banana republics in the same general vicinity.
16 M+EAT PASTE – First letter of “make” followed by (teas)*+(pate)*. “High” is an anagram indicator here (as in drunk), “spread” is the other one.
17 DEAD-BEAT – dull is DEAD and policeman’s round is BEAT. The whole thing is completely worn out.
19 BAN+QU+O – General in Macbeth.
25 I+MP – too bad that MP has already been used in this puzzle (22A) with much the same meaning.

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