Posted by nmsindy on 3rd June 2007
A pleasing puzzle based on the affectionate nickname of the paper, famous for its misprints. The eight-letter words had to be entered by shifting their letters in the same way so e.g. as Grauniad became Guardian, acrimony becomes aircyonm. Though it did not say so in the preamble, the definition and letter mixture (DLM) clues were the eight 6-letter words in the puzzle.
Solving time: about 1 hr 15 mins
I’ll list first the answers of the 8 DLM clues with the definitions ACROSS 8 SPARSE thin 12 TEHRAN capital 19 ANTICS Fun and games 23 SHERPA Native mountaineer DOWN 1 TISANE brew 4 MARRED disfigured 18 ADMIRE like 20 CANUTE Old king. The extra letters gave GRAUNIAD.
Other clues
*anagram
ACROSS
5 A CR (IM) ONY
10 TAC(k) O O = egg and taco is a Mexican pancake (so would have eggs) Tack = food
11 DI’S C HAR ROW
13 N (EAT H) ERD h = horse = heroin neat = cow
14 KNOW THE SCORE Ref musical score
17 MAGNOLIA ai (long = pine a) m all reversed
21 DIAMANTINE Tin in (a maiden)* ice = diamonds
22 SANG Double definition
24 TIT AN ATE B C by A
DOWN
2 CON CORD E Cone = nose with cord= string holding parts together
3 THE (SSAL) Y lass reversed
6 gOLDEN
7 MISANTHROPIST (in short I’m past)* Not as common as misanthrope
9 S (CO)URGE Co = firm
14 KENTISH (Think SE)* and Kent is in the South East
15 S (ALES) IAN Religious order (St Francis de Sales)
16 OUT LINES
19 A VERT
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Posted by ilancaron on 3rd June 2007
Solving time: 12’
Fastest solve for me ever – I think. Even managed to spell AUF WIEDERSEHEN correctly the first time. I recognized SHREVEPORT pretty quickly as well probably because it figured as a minor actor in the New Orleans debacle a couple of years ago. And “criminal” cropped up here again as an adjectival anagram indicator.
Across
| 1 |
S(H,REVE)PORT – it’s in Louisiana (what’s left of it) and it’s rev(ever=always) in SPORT for “play”. |
| 11 |
YESTERDAY – two meanings: I think of e.g. Cole Porter songs as “standards” but of course most Lennon-McCartney compositions qualify. |
| 12 |
TEQUILA SUNRISE – (Qualities nurse)* - just the thing to have for breakfast on your Caribbean Club Med holiday. |
| 16 |
GRENADE – enraged* — easy word to clue since lends itself to anagramification. Note how “criminal” plays the (non-nounal!) role of anagrind in the cryptic reading. |
| 19 |
CATC[h]ALL – my 2nd to last clue: not particularly hard but, in general, subtraction clues tend to be more challenging: in this case, I wasn’t sure if it was L (for “left”) or H “hospital”) that was to be removed. |
| 21 |
AUF WIEDERSEHEN – (In here, a few used)* — German au revoir. Fell at first glance for some reason. |
| 23 |
SACRAMENT[o] – another American city. |
| 24 |
LAPS,[orangead]E – incidentally also a homophone of LAPS… |
| 25 |
SASH – hidden in “ArkanSAS (Harrison)” — I actually thought of “The Traveling Wilburys” when I saw this – probably unintended. |
Down
| 2 |
R,ANGERS – ref. Glasgow RANGERS among others. Does Everyman have a soft spot for all things Scottish (e.g. certainly likes Sean Connery)? |
| 3 |
VENTURE, CAPITAL – a double/cryptic def. Paris is just an example of a capital city – would have worked with any other I suppose (but wouldn’t have been as surprising perhaps since Paris isn’t really a center of hi-tech investment). |
| 4 |
P.H.,YLLIS=rev(silly) – PH for “public house” (actually, local) tripped me up in another puzzle recently. |
| 8 |
CLYDE,SDALE=leads* - the nice thing about this clue is that “straying carthorse” has one thinking about orchestras. |
| 9 |
PENNY=our “girl”, IN-THE-SLOT=(thin stole)* - this must be ref. one-armed “bandits”, i.e. slot machines where one wastes all ones pennies and larger denominations. |
| 13 |
SPY,GLASSES – “schooners” are usefully both drinking and sailing vessels. Both meanings hinted at in this clue. |
| 18 |
ENDLESS – two meanings |
| 19 |
CUR,ATOR=rev(rota=”cycle”) – my last clue. I couldn’t stop thinking about a gamekeeper which I’m sure was the setter’s intent. |
| 20 |
A,DELPHI=(I’d help)* - well-known West End theatre. |
| 22 |
MERE – two meanings |
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