Posted by neildubya on 7th June 2007
A very enjoyable puzzle from Jason with a few top-notch clues and a couple of nice ideas. Not too tricky either.
| Across |
| 9 |
(CHESS I TRY)* |
| 12 |
ETERNAL - I don’t think I’ve ever seen this done before. The full clue is “The first seven points in real tennis could become interminable” - which means an anagram (”could become”) of REAL TENnis. Nice idea, nice clue. |
| 14 |
(SAT RESOLUTE)* - LOTUS EATERS |
| 17 |
FOR, T(herap)Y |
| 21 |
(BLASTED ROOM)* - the FT crossword has to account for the fact that the paper has a wide overseas distribution and, therefore, a potentially large number of overseas solvers. So I was surprised to see “the claret” in this clue as I thought it was a piece of British slang - maybe not. |
| 25 |
AV in A,QUIT - “a couple from Avignon” for AV, is perhaps a bit loose but I think it’s fair enough. |
| 29 |
THIN in ON ICE |
|
| Down |
| 1 |
CHANCE - replace the G in CHANGE with C |
| 2 |
A, F in SKATER |
| 3 |
(PLY DOE DEER)* - REDEPLOYED. I guess this is right but I’m not about the definition part of the clue: “As this or that could be!” |
| 5 |
O, T in SENSIBLE - nicely hidden definition (”seeming”). |
| 15 |
TEMPTATION - I liked this one. The Lord’s Prayer has the line “Led us not into temptation”… |
| 20 |
(LONG)* in A KIN - which I guess is an alternate spelling of “Algonquin” |
| 22 |
E in OU, (REV)* - OEUVRE doesn’t look like a promising word to clue so I think Jason does well here. |
| 24 |
T, RAVEL - that’s RAVEL of “Bolero” fame. |
Posted in FT | 4 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 7th June 2007
In a relaunch of the paper this has been moved from the inside back page - on P 75 of 96 this week.
Solving time: 15 mins - held up by 18/7 Down and 24 Across which intersected
* = anagram
ACROSS
7 L ((left) ARCHE(r)S BBC serial “everyday story of country folk”
9 CASHBACK Nice cryptic definition. Bread = money
13 TITUS OATES (at outset is)*
14 SEVEN-YEAR-ITCH (severe Cynthia)* A play and later a film from the 1950s, starring Marilyn Munroe
20 (t)RAMP
21 FOURTH “forth” After gold, silver and bronze.
22 GOING S ON The parable of the Prodigal Son (New Testament)
24 D (I OX) ANE
25 EUREKA
DOWN
2 Annie BESANT (absent)* Social reformer (1847-1933)
8 S OUSE Duck in the sense of put in liquid
15 NAILHEAD The less common meaning of boss
18/7D “Do everything possible to ignore a feeling of emptiness and enjoy a novel” (5,4,3,6)
This was cleverly disguised as I’m sure I was not alone looking for a title of a novel with four words in it. But it’s A VOID LIKE THE PLAGUE, The Plague being a novel by Albert Camus.
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 7th June 2007
Spot the Nina time - take a peek down the left- and right-hand sides of the grid.
| Across |
| 1 |
VEND - I hope I’ve understand this correctly: SALSA appears in the completed grid at 7D or “seVEN Down”. |
| 4 |
(IS TACITURN)* |
| 9 |
AVANT-GARDE - a fairly complex clue to parse this one and I’m not confident I’ve got it right. Here goes: “No 1 for Arsenal” = A, (GRANTED A)*, “playing up front” = V(ersus), before the anagram fodder. |
| 10 |
LEGO - which is a toy but “I left in van” is lost on me. |
| 11 |
ME in ROO |
| 12 |
PEN,DRAGON - is “playing TV role” a reference to Dragon’s Den?. Uther PENDRAGON is this person. |
| 14 |
IS,IS - Isis is the reserve boat racing crew of Oxford University (Goldie is Cambridge’s) |
| 15 |
DENT in WOO,OPS - A bit before my time but I had heard of the TV series - didn’t know about the dog though so this was a bit of a guess. |
| 21 |
BILLY LIAR - Spooner’s way of saying “lilly buyer”. |
| 23 |
hidden in “booZE BRAndy” - very nice hidden clue as the definition is well disguised. |
| 27 |
GG in (PERMEATE)* - the surface reading for this is very creaky: “What child’s up on getting admitted to permeate unusual medium?”. Also, why does GG (Gee-Gee = horse) have to be something only a child would ride? I’ve heard plenty of grown-ups using the term. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
VI in (NO USE)* |
| 3 |
N,ERSE in DINT - can DINT mean “force”? |
| 5 |
AGREE TO DISAGREE - 13D and 6D are TWEEDLEDUM and TWEEDLEDEE, who agreed to have a battle but never had one. Not sure about “imitate “Starboard” and “Port” here?” thought - it might be reference to the far left- and right-hand side of the grid which spells out the words VARIABLE and CONSTANT in the unchecked letters. |
| 6 |
TWEED,LED,EE - “cummings” is a reference to e.e.cummings - the typographically-challenged poet. |
| 13 |
TWEE,(MUDDLE)* |
| 16 |
BLEW in (EAT IN)* |
| 20 |
THREE R’S - this must be right as nothing else fits but I don’t understand the clue - any offers? |
| 22 |
LEAST - 28A is EAST |
| 24 |
hidden in “onLY RAda” |
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »
Posted by jetdoc on 7th June 2007
A typical Araucaria puzzle — a mini-theme, classical references, multi-word answers and clues referring to other clues. Quite entertaining, provided you’re not too much of a purist.
| Across |
| 1 |
BIGOTRIES — Omega = big O + TRIES |
| 6 |
ALAS — a lass -S |
| 11 |
PAVAROTTI — I knew this had to be Pavarotti, and wouldn’t have bothered too much with the wordplay on a non-blog day. The Roman satirist is Varro (presumably Varro Atacinus rather than his contemporary, Varro Reatinus). ‘Singer’ is the definition, so that must leave ‘patti’ for the ‘coloratura’ part, but I don’t know how it works. (Patti Smith springs to my mind, but seems a little incongruous in this company.) |
| 12 |
TANTARA — hidden word, with the indicator being the ‘in’ part of ‘inconstant’. I suspect this is not at all Ximenean, but I quite like it. |
| 13 |
RAMBERT — RT (right) about AMBER (the middle traffic light) |
| 14 |
NOT IN THE LEAST — NO TINT HE then LEST containing A |
| 17, 1d |
TWO TENORS AND A BARITONE — reference to the three singers at 11a, 21a and 16d. TWO TEN OR SANDA (Sandra -r) BAR I *(note) |
| 21 |
DOMINGO — a domino is a type of cloak, G is a note. |
| 22 |
SCHEMER — SC HEM ER |
| 24 |
SHORT TIME — MITT< in SHORE. Chambers defines this as ‘working fewer than the normal number of hours per week’, which is 40 for some people. (And I would have said ‘less than’, time being a continuous variable.) |
| 25 |
OWNER — N in OWER, defined by ‘I have’. |
| 26 |
NEED — “knead”. |
| 27 |
THERSITES — easy to work out from the wordplay, even if you’re not familiar with the name. Thersites was a soldier in the Greek army in the Trojan war, and appears as a character in Troilus and Cressida. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
GAVIN — GAIN round V. Chambers says Gavin is a Welsh name, perhaps meaning ‘white hawk’. |
| 3 |
TERRA INCOGNITA — *(integration + RC) |
| 4 |
IMPEACH — IMP (‘monkey’ in the sense of mischievous child) + EACH. |
| 5 |
SEVERAL — *(leavers). |
| 7 |
LYTTELTON — reference to the baronetcy and the ever-wonderful Humph. I’m not sure where the ‘John’ fits in, but doubtless someone will enlighten me. |
| 8 |
SHIFTY — 1 FT (foot) in SHY. |
| 9 |
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS — *(logos) about RAM MARS CH. ‘Select affairs’ seems a slightly dodgy definition, but forgivable. |
| 15 |
TOTEM POLE — TO TEMPLE outside O. |
| 16 |
CARRERAS — CARRIER minus i + AS |
| 18 |
EGOTIST — E GOT IS T(on), the ’vulgarly’ referring to the dropped h’s. |
| 19 |
OBSCENE — OB (obit) on SCENE. ‘Not very nice’ is a slightly sardonic definition. |
| 20 |
ODDS ON — ODD SON |
| 23 |
MONET — a lot of ‘money’ plus the usual T for ‘model’. |
Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 7th June 2007
I am particularly pleased when I open my FT to find a puzzle by Cinephile. Often his puzzles have hidden themes that make them more challenging if one cannot spot the theme and then fairly easy once one has cottoned on to it — well, unless that theme is an obscure subject as has happened for me a couple of times. In this puzzle the theme is a very light one, anagrams of LARGELY, and spotting it did not help me, uh, largely.
Across
1. RADIAL - RA+DIAL.
4. FARCICAL - homonym
9, 10. FOR THE MOST PART - FORTH + reverse(TRAP + T + SOME).
12. NUMERATE - *(NEAR MUTE)
13. EGRESS - [n]EGRESS
15, 21. RINGWORM - RI*(WRONG)M
16. GALLERY - *(LARGELY)
20. ALLERGY - *(LARGELY)
25. MEDLAR - homonym. I have heard of this fruit but never eaten one.
26. ENORMOUS - *(NERO) + MOUS[e]
28. OUTBURST - *(TO BRUTUS)
29. SIESTA - hidden word
30. TURGENEV - *(VENTURE + G)
31. REALLY - *(LARGELY - G)
Down
1. REFINERY - RE + FI(N)ERY
2. DORTMUND - *(R MUD DONT)
3. ASHORE - ASH + ORE
5. AGOG - A + GOG
6. CATEGORY - CAT + E + GORY
7. CRATER - CRATE + R. This proved the toughest clue for me.
8. LATEST - L + A + TEST
11. STEAMER - double definition
14. ELEGANT - E + LEG + ANT. What would compilers do without ants?
17, 24. PLEASURE CRUISE - PLEA + SURE + homonym(CREWS)
18. COLOSSAL - LOSS in COAL
19. EMISSARY - MISS in [w]EARY
20. IMPORT - I’M + PORT
23. EDITOR - *(TIRED + O)
27. ISLE - IS + LE[ft]. This eluded me for some time but may be my favourite clue of the bunch.
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »