Fifteensquared

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Archive for January 9th, 2007

Independent 6312 by Virgilius - themed as always

Posted by nmsindy on 9th January 2007

nmsindy.

I found this tough, though guessing the theme when I solved straightaway the very first clue (BROWSER) which was a hidden.

Grid filled with words associated with computers.    Some very inventive clueing, as I
associate with Virgilius.

Solving time:  34 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS
9  COMPACT DISC    CD is in middle of anecdote!  Good.
10 E MU Mu is Greek equivalent of M
11 UN(SUR)E  Two French words.   Were you looking for ER or UM?
14 SPELL CHECKERS “Chequers” PM’s residence in holidays.
23 P(L)UG IN  The architect PUGIN
25 UGH  (HUGH) Grant, the actor, with the initial h missing (”for Cockney”), I think.
26 SPREADSHEET e.g. centre SPREAD in paper (2 pages) + SHEET (another)
27 SPOT and PAL (both reversed) to give laptops “going to West”.   Excellent surface.
28 FOR MATS   

DOWN
1 BACK UP   Had to think a bit about this, before remembering that to get someone’s back up is to annoy them.
2 (c)OSMOS IS
15 (L (chemical finally) + REACT SAY)* CATALYSER Took me a while to spot the precise anagram.   A brilliant & lit.
16 B I ANNU(A)L.    Annoyed I did not get this, in a crucial position in the grid, more quickly.   Means twice a year, unlike “biennial” which means every two years.
18 KETCH UP
19 RIG V (ED) A   Got this eventually from the wordplay.   A Hindu work.
20 UNITES  SET IN U (university) “upset”
24 HALF  A score (twenty) is half forty!   Last I solved.

Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »

Guardian 23,969/Shed - Guardian keeping it in the family

Posted by loonapick on 9th January 2007

loonapick.

Following yesterday’s puzzle by Audreus, we are today presented by one compiled by Audreus’s son. This was a similar kind of challenge, with a few unusual words which were attainable through working out the wordplay. One or two of the surfaces don’t read particularly well, but, all in all, a fair puzzle.There is a loose sporting theme to the puzzle, with references to rowing, drag racing, hunting, tennis, horseracing, fishing (5ac)? and yachting.

Solving time - 8 minutes (plus time taken to check some of the answers)

ACROSS

9 - BEGUNK - a Scots word for “to trick”. Despite being Scottish myself, have never come across this word.

11 - DRAG - liked this one. Came across “drag hunt” in another puzzle recently, so this was still fresh in my mind, making the clue a little easier to solve.

12 - MAKEWEIGHT - MA(KEW)EIGHT - where MA=”master” (Master of Arts) and EIGHT=”rowers” (eight being the number of rowers in the type of boat used in the University Boat Race, amongst others)

13 - SEMPITERNAL - (rest in maple)* - “syrup” is the anagram indicator.

18 - CONTRABAND - CO(NT-RABAN)D - NT=books, as in New Testament, and Jonathan Raban is a travel writer who sometimes contributes to the Guardian.

21 - GLEE - a word meaning joy, but can’t see “dance”?? Chambers and a few online dictionaries have “glee” being a song, but I can’t find a dance. Anyone?

24 - ESTATE - “in France is” = EST (i.e. “is” in French)

DOWN

1 - STRUGGLE - ST-RU(GG)LE - wher ST=”way” (street) and GG=”horse”. Gee-gee is a childish name for a horse, but yet to be convinced that you can use GG to mean the same thing.

2 - BUNKUM - B(’UNK)UM

3 - DEFLOWER - DEF(fed<=)-LOWER. I like overstuffed to indicate the reversal of “fed”. Lower is standard crossword fare for “cow” (i.e. one which makes a lowing sound)

4 - SATORI - reversal of I(ROTA)S. The wordplay and the checked letters make the word easy to work out, even if you have never heard of the Buddhist state of enlightenment that is Satori.

8 - MARKET RASEN - (tar, arms, knee)* Market Rasen is a racecourse in Lincolnshire.

14 - PLAYMATE - clever.

15 - ARGONAUT - ARGO(NAU)T - although “no seasickness” is a wonderful way of indicating NAU (nausea with no sea, geddit?), I don’t think the surface reads well.

17 - SERENA - (rasen)* involving E (”end of Tennessee”), referring to Serna Williams, American tennis player, sister of Venus.

Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »