Posted by nmsindy on 28th June 2007
Solving time: 23 mins
* (anagram)
ACROSS
1 RAP TOR
4 BAD BLOOD Pleasing double definition
10 DEC (December is last month) ALITRE (retail)*
13 COELENTERATES (ocean resettle)*
16 POSTMODERNISM (Immodest porn’s)*
23 SUB(editor) STANCE
25 IN (DIAM A) N A maid reversed - Ship trading with India
26 TECHIE (the ice)* Maybe used as only some are in white coats.
DOWN
1 REP(L)AY
2 PROSPECT(u)S U = university
5 ANCIENT GREECE, I think “With old people there’s report of badly neglected hygiene problem in kitchen” “Grease” (Report of … hygiene problem) Bit perplexed by this one - the definition seems to be “With old people”, maybe it means Ancient Greece was (a place) with old people. Ancient then seems to be used as a synonym for badly neglected in the cryptic part.
7 OF TEN(ors)
8 DEE P Loch NESS
14 TOM OGRAP H (a GP or)* X-ray showing a cross section through e.g. a human body
17 MA HAT MA Derby, say, i.e. an example of a hat
19 ANN EXE Remember your rivers Exe here and Dee in 8 down
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Posted by ilancaron on 28th June 2007
1A was the best cryptic political comment I’ve seen in a long time. I had to look up 21A and 14A for being too esoteric. Found this overall rather hard but with many diamonds (well, they are hard, aren’t they?) in the rough.
Hurriedly writing this up I realized there’s a twin theme – many of the clues have a natural sibling. I’ve only identified several of them… please find the rest.
Across
| 1 |
TAR,BUSH – it’s a “hat” and defining BUSH as a “political disaster” is as precise as can be. |
| 5 |
PI,RATES – PI’s our “constant”. |
| 9 |
INTERESTED PARTY – kind of a double negative cryptic def, and another political clue (twin with 1A?) |
| 10 |
TATOU – Ref. the actress Audrey TATOU – not sure about the wordplay: U’s a turn but… “Edentate taking a turn from actress, Audrey”. |
| 14 |
E,PACT – struggled a bit with this: turns out that EPACT is “nothing else than the number of days by which the common solar year of 365 days surpasses the common lunar year of 354 days”. “The Treaty of Rome” is where the 6 EEC starter nations bootstrapped (what became) the European Union (sans Britain it must be said), so I suppose it’s a E[uropean] PACT. |
| 18 |
LICHFIELD – (child life)*. It’s another Brit cathedral town. I cheated and looked this up… |
| 21 |
EU,PAD – another European clue (ref. Brussels as capital thereof). Turns out EUPAD is a kind of antiseptic indeed, for which I needed Google. (Twin is 14A). |
| 23 |
RESPECT – wordplay a mystery to me: “Buzz word of government engineers with no children getting shock treatment”. Is the def “Buzz word of government”? |
| 24 |
ARTISTS – another, and gratifyingly deceptive, cryptic def. |
Down
| 1 |
TWIN-TUB – what Tweedledum and Tweedledee’s mother needs to give them a bath: so just a cryptic def I think. |
| 2 |
ROTATION OF CROPS – wordplay in the answer: with ROTATION OF being the anagrind and “corps” the fodder. |
| 3 |
UNROUNDED – the twins from 1A again. |
| 4 |
HOSE,A – ref. said book in the Bible. |
| 5 |
P,SEUDONYM=(used on my)* - pretty nice semi-&lit alluding to our setter perhaps using Gordius on his very first puzzle… or not. Only he knows. “Maybe” is the anagrind… which is fine with me though I know some people would quibble. |
| 6 |
R.I.P.,ON – another cathedral town showing up. (As I write this I wonder whether there is a “twin” theme in this puzzle… let’s wait and see). R.I.P is literally our “abbreviated prayer”. Twin is 18A. |
| 7 |
TERMINAL REPORTS – I think just a cryptic def referring to what angry parents might do when encountering your end of term report card. At first I thought an anag &lit but the fodder just isn’t there. |
| 13 |
RIFLE SHOT – (file short)*. Another “report” (see 7D – maybe my twin theme has legs…). |
| 14 |
ENTRE(CH)AT – def is “spectacular leap” (ref. ballet) – I don’t see what “not unknown” is doing though?? |
| 15 |
BAL=rev(Lab),FOUR – another political clue: the “fateful declaration” is the 1917 Balfour Declaration affirming Britain’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Didn’t realize he was a Tory. |
| 17 |
AN,DRESS – ref. Ursula ANDRESS (the very sexy Bond girl). I suppose I can’t avoid the twin theme (ref. 10A). |
| 19 |
FEEZE=”fees” |
| 20 |
DAGGA=”dagger” - it’s a kind of “hemp” |
Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 28th June 2007
| Across |
| 1 |
PAT,C,ASH(e) - excellent topical clue. |
| 9 |
P in SOHO,MORE - one of the last 2 or 3 answers to go. “Part of London again” had me puzzled for a while. |
| 10 |
WAG(n)ER |
| 11 |
(MOP)*,ADE (”aid”) - superb &lit clue. Best clue in the puzzle, I think. |
| 12 |
(O QUA-rTERS)* - I didn’t know QUAESTOR so this was the last answer to go in. With ?U?E?T?R filled in and the fairly safe knowledge that the wordplay was an anagram of o + quarters with the “r” missing it was just a case of deciding what to do with the remaining letters. The “q” was easy and the rest followed as QUOESTAR just doesn’t look right. |
| 14 |
H,TIER< - shouldn’t this really be “former BBC bigwig”? |
| 22 |
ME in INCA,RA |
| 24 |
IS,N in LAD - “in van[guard]” indicates that IS has to be at the front of the clue. |
| 28 |
(RENT WIDOW)* |
| 29 |
PASS in S,KY - a reference to Boris Spassky who, amongst other things, played Bobby Fischer for the World Championship in Reykjavik in 1972 - one of the most famous matches ever. |
| |
| Down |
| 1/2 |
(TO PRO SOCIALIST PM)* - PASSPORT TO PIMLICO. |
| 5 |
“czech”,CAR,D - “traveller can get dinars” for CAR,D took me far too long to get. |
| 8 |
R in TORE,O |
| 15 |
(THE PALS ME)* - HELPMATES. Another nice &lit. |
| 17/18 |
MAKE A SONG AND DANCE - Bussell is Darcey, the ballet dancer, but I’m not sure who Jenkins is supposed to be. |
| 21 |
DI(m),SHES |
| 25 |
SEE TO - “C2″. Clever reference to social grades. |
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 28th June 2007
Across
1. ENGLANDER - *(GREENLAND)
6. TORCH - double definition.
9. STAID - homophone
10. NOTEPAPER - reverse(ETON) + PAPER. Very clever!
11. SPECTATORS - *(ACTORS STEP)
12. PELF - P + ELF. Pelf is a word I was unfamiliar with meaning riches, especially those dishonestly acquired. This learning gives new dimension to the character Clara Pelf in that wonderful old movie, Semi-Tough.
14. CHAGRIN - CHA(GR)IN. I am not sure I understand this one. King George gives us GR but “annoyance” seems a bit of a stretch for defining chagrin and I do not understand how CHAIN can mean display.
15. DEMETER - reverse(MET) in DEER
17. REDOUBT - RE + DOUBT
19. PETASUS - *(PAT USES). I was a bit confused by this one because I had come across the word “petasos” before (in another crossword puzzle) but was unfamiliar with the “petasus” variant. The word refers to the winged hat that Mercury/Hermes wears. I love the way Cincinnus has concocted the surface of this clue with an implied reference, I assume, to Postman Pat.
20. APSE - A(S)PE
22. BORROWDALE - homophone
25. EYEBRIGHT - EYE + BRIGHT
26. RISEN - R[hode] I[sland] + SEN[ator]
27. NYMAN - N.Y. MAN. I had some trouble getting this one in spite of the fact that Michael Nyman is one of my favourite composers. His music for The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover stands, I think, as one of the best film scores of all time.
28. TUNISIANS - reverse(IN) in *(SAS UNIT)
Down
1. EASES - AS (for Arsenic) in SEE (for get) reversed. Another little gem.
2. GRACELAND - GR*(LACE)AND. I favour this clue!
3. AUDITORIUM - AUDI + TO + R(I)UM. I am seeing a good number of AUDIs and Hebridean RUMs in crosswords of late.
4. DUNSTAN - DUN + S + TAN. Or is there a Saint Stan? Given that “saint” usually clues ST, not S, I am unsure whether I do not fully understand how this clue works or if it just does not work perfectly. But I like it anyway.
5. RETIRED - double definition
6. TYPE - double definition
7. RUPEE - *(EUR[o]PE)
8. HEREFORDS - HE + RE + FORDS
13. EMPTY WORDS - *(DRY MOPS WET)
14. CARRAGEEN - CAR(RAG)EEN
16. TASMAN SEA - *(SMETANAS A)
18. THOUGHT -
19. PURITAN - P(UR + IT)AN
21. STEAM - STE(A)M with a nice cryptic definition.
23. ENNIS - [t]ENNIS
24. WREN - R in NEW reversed
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