Guardian 23988 / Paul - difficult
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 31st January 2007
Solving time 14:42
Not much to do here, so let’s have a go. This was pretty tough, and there are three clues I don’t understand or can’t quite swallow. For me, these slightly spoil an otherwise entertaining puzzle.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LI(T)E,RACY. Romance = lie, “like a Jackie Collins novel” = RACY. |
| 5 | ESCHEW - letter swap in Escher. |
| 9 | GERONIMO - rev. of minor in Geo- = “earth”. |
| 12 | T(HATCHER)IT,E - “old blue” is the def, from the traditional Tory colour. |
| 17 | STEE(L)D,RUM |
| 18 | SAN(H)E,Dr.,IN |
| 19 | DHOTI - TO in half of GanDHI |
| 24 | HOT DOG - the first baffler, as I don’t see how you get the DOG part. “Such pants” provides HOT, for those who can remember the fashion of c. 1970. But “taken down” just seems to link up to the mustard and ketchup bit for surface reading purposes. I wondered about a reference to “sausage dog” but it doesn’t seem strong enough. Or am I missing something? |
| 25 | DI,STRICT - Princess Diana campaigned against mines, but I can’t make “put her foot down” into “strict” without a “was” in front. OAIMS? again … |
| 27 | RE(T.A.)IN,E.R. |
| Down | |
| 1 | LEG IT,IM=M1,IS = one’s,E=point |
| 2 | TAR,PAUL,IN,S - “me” = (the setter’s pseudonym) is standard Guardian fare. |
| 3 | RUN=ladder as in stockings,IC(e)=rocks. |
| 4 | COMMENSURATE - “A RUS(k)”<= in COMMENT, then E=point |
| 6 | S(HOVEL)LED - time wasted here looking for SNOW????? words, which I suspect was intended. |
| 11 | RISE AND SHINE = “get up”. “rhin-” = nose-related, there’s an anagram of hair in there, and ne is an archaism for not=”never”, but if these are relevant, the rest is a closed book to me. Any offers? |
| 14 | AMBIDEXTER - cryptic def. |
| 16 | STERN,POST |
| 21 | U,L.T.(R)A. - LTA = Lawn Tennis Assoc. = “racketeers” |
| 22 | SHE,M |
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