Fifteensquared

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Archive for January 10th, 2007

Independent 6313/Dac - Mr Wednesday

Posted by neildubya on 10th January 2007

neildubya.
Across
1 C,ROT,ON - I’d not heard of this before and “heralds” had me puzzled for a while but once I’d got C?O?O? the wordplay became more obvious.
9 (LIVE)*,ED - cleverly worded. I spent time thinking the definition was “live” and the wordplay involved a word for “broadcast” inside (covered by)”journalist”.
13 A in LEVE(l)
14 THOU in GUESSES
18 RABBI,T PUNCH - another one that had me going for a while as “teacher” is not the most obvious definition of RABBI, not to me anyway.
22 EVERGREEN - I’d never heard of this particular song but luckily my wife (sitting next to me on the train) had.
24 TOD in MASON - does TOD come from the Disney film, “The Fox and the Hound“? I didn’t know about this at the time of solving but with some checking letters in place and a straightforward definition I knew the answer had to be right.
25 (MOB)*,VIE - the enumeration (1-5) is probably the biggest clue in this clue, if you see what I mean.
26 (EINSTEIN)*
 
Down
1 COVE,RAGE
2 (IMPOUND,E)*
5 (SUCH A ROLE IN)*
7 I in TAP,AN - luckily this word came up in another puzzle fairly recently so I already knew it. Nevertheless, the wordplay is quite straightforward and gives you a good chance even if the word was new to you.
8 hidden in “usING REStored” - smooth surface reading.
12 ROUBLES in TOME
16 C in ONE,OVER
20 (SCOUT)*,N
23 G,EMMA - the book being the one by Jane Austen.

Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »

Guardian 23,970/Rover

Posted by loonapick on 10th January 2007

loonapick.

Rover has presented us with a good mix of clues, many of which use clever wordplay. I solved this crossword very quickly (less than five minutes), but didn’t always know at first reading why the answer I had put in was right. In at least one case, I’m still not sure that I have the right answer, but one of the advantages of writing a blog is that it forces you to think about the answers rather than blindly throwing in any old words, hoping that they are right.

ACROSS

1 - BREADWINNERS - not necessarily first home with the bacon, but it makes the clue read better, I suppose.

9 - AMNESIC - (I came)* holding N and S. Clue gives you the image of someone not knowing who they are.

11 - KAMPALA - KAM(PAL)A, Kama being a Hindu god of desire.

13 - NINTH - Hidden in “maN IN THe” - again you are presented with the image of someone sitting in the snug (a room in a pub, for non-British solvers), having his ninth pint, thus putting him “one over the eight” (i.e. drunk)

19 - SWARM - (w arms)*, where W=”with”

21 - IRELAND - composer referred to could be the British composer, John Ireland (1879-1962), but there may be other composers with that surname.

24 - TRAPEZE - 99% certain it’s the right answer, but not sure about the “hold-up” reference in the clue.

25 - ORGANZA - referring to the newspaper as an organ (means of communication of opinions) and ZA are the letters you’d see on a car from South Africa

DOWN

1 - BATSMAN - in cricket, if you are in, you are batting. God knows how people with no knowledge of cricket cope with British cryptics.

4 - IRAQI - I assume that this refers to Sunni, a follower of one of the two great branches of Islam (cf. Shi’ite). Although it is true that many Iraqis are Sunni Muslims, Sunnis don’t just live in Iraq, so I don’t think one should use this to clue IRAQI, especially as the “say” in the clue indicates the homophone, and can’t therefore also be used to indicate “for example”. A question mark might have helped, but personally I don’t like it.

7 - TALKING POINT - see my comment for 1dn. A fielder at point (a fielding position square of the batsamn on the off side) chatting away would certainly irritate a batsman.

10 - CHRISTMAS DAY - (starchy maids)*

17 - EWE LAMB - excellent clue. According to Chambers, a ewe lamb is not only a female lamb, but has also come to mean a treasured possession, and lambs should certainly be kept in the fold.

18 - DEADEYE - EYE is just one of the collective nouns for pheasants (others include nest, nid, nye, nide, bouquet, bevy, brood, bunch, harem, plump…)

20 - AVIGNON - The Pont d’Avignon (aka Le Pont Saint-Benezet) was the only crossing of the Rhone between the Papal enclave at Avignon and the rest of France during the Middle Ages.

Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »