Fifteensquared

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Archive for May 22nd, 2007

Guardian 24083/Puck — one for the birds

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 22nd May 2007

Colin Blackburn.

A quick grid fill with some clever clues and some nice inter-linking. I missed the wordplay in a couple but got the answers okay.

Across
7,18 THE CAT’S WHISKERS — (CRESS WITH H(orse) STEAK)* — One definition is “the best” the other hint is a reference to the cat food Whiskas not being the dog’s breakfast?.
8 JOHANNA — H in JOANNA — Joanna is Cockney rhyming slang for piano. I’ve not checked if Johanna is a vision for Bob D. or D. Thomas.
9 TWIN — W in TIN = “Cannes” — a clever homophone in the clue rather than the answer.
15,16,17 DOG’S BREAKFAST — double def. — Pal is a brand of dog food.
20 STOOL — LOOTS< — this wouldn’t look out of place in the Eye crossword!
21 GOOSANDER — (ORANGE SOD)* — a goosander is a diving duck related to the smew and merganser.
24 TRIGGER — ? — (Roy) Roger’s screen partner is Trigger. I’ve not checked where Twice G. fits in.
25 PYJAMAS — double def. — The cat’s pyjamas are just the thing.
Down
3 STUBBY — S+TUBBY — a clever little clue.
4 NOTEBOOK — ETON< + BOOK — Eton is a classic crossword school.
6 ANEW — cellophANE Wrong — a good surface that almost got me with the question mark interrupting the hiding place.
14 OUSEL — ? — The European Dipper is also known as the Water Ousel, though the Ousel itself is a very different bird. I haven’t worked out the word play.
16 BEE-EATER — BEEF-EATER - F(inger) — the third bird and the most colourful of the three, an occasional visitor to Britain.
20 STRAYS — ST(reet) RAYS — and a reference back to cats that probably don’t enjoy Whiskas.

Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »

Independent 6426 by Virgilius - Much ado about Nothing- Nothing

Posted by nmsindy on 22nd May 2007

nmsindy.

Another amazing themed puzzle by this masterly setter.   Every across answer contains two successive Os - except for the first and last, which contain another flourish - in the top one the clue contains “contents of book” i.e. its middle letters oo and the final across entry is SCORELESS DRAWS i.e. 0-0s.     All this achieved with the downs being everyday words.

Solving time:   18 mins, with the theme evident fairly early on.

ACROSS

1 LICENSED TO KILL    James Bond

12 ROOM crazY   Moor reversed.   Othello, the Moor, Shakespeare play.

14 OVERT O (ring) OK (fair)

19 LA GO ON

21 FOOLSCAP   Before metric sizes came in, this was the rough equivalent of A4, though it was bigger.   Draft initially refers to D being written on a dunce’s cap.

25 SHOO(t)S

28 SCORELESS DRAWS

DOWN

2 IS O TOPE

4 SNAP SHOT   Still = photo

6 ON THE BOIL

7 IRON OUT   Not a expert in golf, but I think you’d use a driver for the first (tee) shot, then an iron for the second.

8 LEPER   A very pleasingly worded hidden.

9 CHAR COAL   “charr”  “cole”

18 POT (HOOK) S    First reading suggested the other way around, but it’s quite OK.

20 GAL(l) I LEO   “Scientist giving a lot of annoyance to one pope”   An excellent @lit

22 CHOCTAW   Double definition - the first referring to skating.

24 MAINS   “Manes”   Shocks of hair.

Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »