Fifteensquared

Never knowingly undersolved.

Archive for January 16th, 2007

Independent 6318 by Virgilius - couples

Posted by nmsindy on 16th January 2007

nmsindy.

Whether it was deliberate after the Bannsider debut yesterday, this was very straightforward.   I’d everything, except one, solved in 12 mins, but that took me another 10 mins to get so solving time was 22 mins.

4 couples around the perimeter and another linking 11 across and 24 down 

 * = anagram

ACROSS

1  When I saw this I thought the theme was going to be movies, which I know very little about, missing Math’s recent theme on James Bond.    But I knew this one.

BONN IE AND CLYDE

9  ANTIPODES     (AS POINTED)*   Where a cricket match was finally won.

10 S AUDI

21 I AM BUSES   An alternative plural to iambi

25  ref Prisoner of Z END A   Looked first at n and l as extremes in novel, but the novel is part of the definition.

26  TWO FOR TEA   The second recent reference by Virgilius to the oldish song - also in his F-themed puzzle.    “Tea for two, two for tea”.

DOWN

1  BRAHMS AND LISZT  Rhyming slang - two composers.

3 I’M P (pawn) ASS gam(E)

4   ANDY   My ten-minute clue, thinking also of AIDE.     Then I got it, William of NORM ANDY.

5  (INDIANS)* in DIG   i.e  DISDAINING

6  LA (as in LA Galaxy) + SCAR

8  WILLIAM AND MARY    Ruled jointly - not too difficult, that.

15  THE OMANI A

19  PIBROCH    Cryptic definition, though not far off a straight one, if you were familiar with it.

20  A U PAIR

23 UTTER   Double definition  (sometimes think this is the most common answer in crosswords, usually with a clue just like this).

Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »

Guardian 23975/Brendan – back to the books

Posted by ilancaron on 16th January 2007

ilancaron.

A literary feast with clever use of grid geometry. I was helped by incidentally having a copy of “The New Yorker” next to me with the name JULIAN BARNES (1A, 4A) on the cover. Some very clever wordplay with a nice touch of humour.

Across

1 JULIAN – I worked this out from the answer to 24A. The answer itself is a double definition: with a cryptic 2nd part: as in JULIAN calendar as opposed to the Gregorian which is what we use now.
4 BARNES=”barns” – ditto. BARNES is in SW London.
9 HEART OF DARKNESS – my first clue solved. “Novel about deep gloom” was pretty evocative (and I’d seen “Apocalypse Now” recently) though the definition is just “novel” and the wordplay is: “OF DARKNESS” for “of deep gloom”, coming “after” HEART for “red card”.
10, 22 JOSEPH CONRAD – He wrote 9A. The answer is part of the wordplay – or the initial letters thereof: (JC, had no prose)*. I was wondering if there was going to be an allusion to that other well-known JC.
11, 21 THE QUIET AMERICAN – A brilliant clue. Again I saw this only once I had the “baseline” answer (26A: the bottom of the grid). Graham Greene indeed is the writer and as anyone who watched tennis (especially Wimbledon) in the 80s will know, John McEnroe is both very American and vocal.
12 UPAS TREE – (pasture, e)* — a bit of guessing from me and checking the definition of UPAS TREE: UPAS actually does mean poison in Javanese. I also have a feeling that the UPAS plays a role in some Conrad story about SE Asia. But my brain might be overheating.
18 IDENTITY – hidden in “…presIDENT I TYpically…”. The definition “lack of distinction” defines uniformity more accurately than IDENTITY but I suppose it’s close enough.
24 FLAUBERT’S PARROT – by 1A, 4A – another one of Julian Barnes’s novels that I haven’t finished. Wordplay is simply Gustave FLAUBERT’S (“French novelist’s”) followed by PARROT for “imitator”.
26, 25 GRAHAM GREENE – Took me a bit longer than necessary since I read the clue number as 25, 26. He wrote 11A and Billy GRAHAM is a well-known US religious type followed by GREENE=”green”.

Down

1 JOE S, OAP – Was Joseph Conrad really referred to as JOE? OAP is Old-Age Pensioner (I grew up near Chelsea and they were a familiar sight). JOE SOAP on the other hand was a tough Brit cultural reference for me: is “one taken for a ride” a good definition?
5 AI(RHEA)D – definition is “loon” and RHEA is an ostrich-like “bird”
6 N.A.,N(TUCK)ET – NANTUCKET was a whaling port that also happens to be in North America (MA for those of you who revised two-letter US states yesterday)
8 ODETTE – ODETTE Sansom was a British agent in WWII and one of the few women awarded the George Cross. A little ode could be ODETTE I suppose – not sure what “bijou” is doing unless it’s to indicate the cuteness of adding suffix “ette”.
13 SUGAR CUBE – cryptic definition of what we use to sweeten the tea in our cups.
16 TIME-LAG – clever wordplay: a LAG (second part of answer) has to serve TIME (first part) in prison.
17 RE,C,LEAN – slightly weak surface: to “list” is to LEAN to the side (especially if you’re on a boat).
18 IG,NIT,E – rev(GI=”soldier”) followed by rev(tin=”Can”) and E[nemy]. My last clue: “Can” for tin is well-hidden.
20 TEA-R,OOM – very nice misleading surface. TEAR for “rent” followed by rev(moo=”low” of a cow).
23 NORTH – double definition: NORTH as in Bridge player, and as in the way maps are oriented with NORTH “put on top of the charts”. Almost an &lit if Bridge hand diagrams were called “charts”.

Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »