Fifteensquared

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Archive for July 12th, 2007

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Financial Times 12499 by FALCON

Posted by murf on 12th July 2007

murf.
Across
1. ANTENATAL CLINIC - cryptic def. issue=children
9. TH(e)ROW,IN
10. NUT,CASE
11. ELITE (hidden)
12. DEODORANT (too darned)* - good surface.
13. ETRUSCANS (runes cast)*
15. C,HAIR - ‘Hair’ is a musical about hippies.
16. DOTTY double def.
18. STEVE,DO,RE [do(h), ray, me, fah, blah, blah, blah]
20. REDUNDANT - R(NUDE<,D)ANT
23. PL,EAT
24. SPORRAN - s, r in (apron)*
25. ME,TH(AN)E
26. SHEPHERD’S LAMENT (helps mend hearts)*
 
Down
1. AS THE NEED ARISES (see a dish, eastern)*
2. T(ERR)IER
3. NEW JERSEY - how low can you go?
4. TONED (hidden) - had me staring at the next clue for a while.
5. LANGOUSTE - (sea - no glut)* - Liked the use of ’sea’ as part of fodder.
6. LET GO
7. NIAGARA - again<=, RA
8. CHESTER-LE-STREET - (secret letter she)* a town in Durham. Not somewhere off the Champs-Elysées.
14. A,B,STAINE(s),R
15. CLEOPATRA - (to a place)* containing R(ex)
17. TADPOLE - ‘Po Delta’ as fodder was well spotted by setter (& me).
18. OPERATE - double def.
21. NORTH - Frederick North, PM 1770-82
22. TIME,S

Posted in FT | No Comments »

Indendent on Sunday 908 by Quixote - harder than normal

Posted by nmsindy on 12th July 2007

nmsindy.

I think Quixote commented on this site some time ago that the aim was to keep the puzzle fairly easy, but that he would put a more difficult one in from time to time. I wonder if this was one, with more tricky wordplay, but, as always, everything stacking up in the end for a very enjoyable solve.

Solving time: 32 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 MON (ARCH) ICA L (beginning to look) Monica was mother of St Augustine

8 PA (R TI P)RIS From French, starting with a preconceived idea. R = take (recipe). Interestingly, Roger Phillips, who comments on the monthly clue-writing competition on the Times website, revealed recently that the Times no longer allows this. It used to be much more common.

10 MO (UN) T Nicely misleading Arab = horse here and the false capital in the clue is allowed by convention.

11 N (I NET) Y A very tricky one with a cunning divide of the two parts of the clue at Number/One. The metropolis is New York (NY)

12 AC (ANT) HUS (such a)*

14 D (RUM) ROLL

19 CASTLE Another very good one, with “building with farm animals” making you think of stable or sty. but it’s another seamless join between the two parts. It’s s (sun) replacing one of the ts in cattle, this being indicated by “a t”. Good surface, too.

22 COME DO

26 DENTAL NURSE Cryptic definition.

DOWN

2 N ARK

3 REST CURE A very well concealed anagram of “creatures” less a

4 HOMONYM Sometimes you look at a clue many times and get nowhere and then suddenly light dawns and say “Of course!” Very good. Where the same word means different things - cf synonym where different words mean the same thing.

7 SPANDREL DR in (Naples)*

8 FRANKIE VAUGHAN (having fun a rake)* Pop singer who first came to prominence in the 1950s.

21 TREED Pun on elder. An animal would take refuge in a tree.

23 SP(e)AR

Posted in Independent | No Comments »

Independent 6470/Nestor — some of it’s Greek to me!

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 12th July 2007

Colin Blackburn.

A challenging puzzle in parts with some superb charade clues that inventively stitch together the component parts and at the same time have very good surfaces. One word was new to me and I had to check it, another clue hasn’t left me satisfied but I might be missing something.

Across
1 GAELIC FOOTBALL — (BALLETIC GOAL OF)* — I got this straight-off without reference to 23 and so got 23 instantly.
10 OATER — trurO A TERrible — a new one for me, apparently an oater is a Wild West film, a “horse opera”.
11 NISSEN HUT — (THUS ENNIS)*
12 COCTEAU — “cocked toe” — I assume Cocteau was notably gay as well as notably surreal.
13 TWO-INCH — O in T WINCH — excellent surface.
14 RUN ITSELF — R UNIT’S ELF
17 SWARM — S+WARM — this was very clever, between S+HOT and S+COLD!
18 OXFAM — OX+FAM(e)
20 PERONISTA — (AT SIN O’ REP)< — excellent reversal that I had to work hard to understand once only Peronista would fit.
22 ROYAL WE — W in RO(d)+YALE
24 AEROBIC — (CARB IE O)* — very nice &lit
26 SNOWDONIA — (WOODS IN AN)* — Snowdonia is one of the UK’s National Parks. It’s not quite a nature reserve but the definition is close enough without giving the game away too easily.
27 FLOCK — DD — this is a very clever double definition that took me a while to fully appreciate. I initially read it as a simple definition, then I realised that a flock of geese in flight is a skein. Flock is waste wool.
28 OPENCAST MINING — (ETC MAN’S)* in OPINING
 
Down
2 ATTIC — (h)ATT(r)IC(k) — yet another excellent charade building a great (cricketing) surface.
3 LARGEST — LAG overlapping REST — and again!
4 CONJURE UP — JUR(y) in ONE in CUP — ref to film “Twelve Angry Men” = JURY, thus nine angry men = JUR.
5 ONSET — ON SET
6 THE TOPS — to get BEST one takes THE TOPS of the four words in the clue. Thanks to Niall for that one.
7 ATHENIANS — A(sk) THEN I ANS
8 LET THEM EAT CAKE — (L+TEETH)* MEATCAKE
9 CONCERTO GROSSO — ONCE in CR + ROSS in TOGO
15 NO-FLY ZONE — (FLOOZY)* for I in NINE — again, inventive wordplay providing a good surface.
16 FIRE ALARM — REAL A in FIRM
19 MELODIC — cinematiC IDOL EMerging <
21 NUROFEN — NUR+OF(t)EN — Nurofen is a brand of the anti-inflammatory drug Ibuprofen
23 ENNIS — (d)ENNIS — Dennis the Menace, UK comic strip character. Ennis is the county town of County Clare in Ireland.
25 BJORN — (JOB)* tuRNip

Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »

Guardian 24,126 - Brummie (Weird Science (see 1,9)

Posted by loonapick on 12th July 2007

loonapick.

Sorry for the lateness of this blog; I thought I was due to do Friday’s this week, and only realised that it was my turn when the puzzle hadn’t been blogged.  Upon checking the calendar, I realised that I was supposed to have done yesterday.  my only excuse is that this seems to be out of sync with recent weeks where I have done Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday etc so I was expecting to do Friday this week.

Fortunately, I did solve the puzzle yesterday, so here are my comments.  What I remember most about this puzzle is that once you get the long answers (1,9) and 19, 27), there are so many crossing letters in place that the rest of the crossword is not overly difficult.
ACROSS

1, 9dn I BEFORE E EXCEPT AFTER C - one of those spelling rules that has many exceptions.

5 EP(IS)ODE

10 O(MS)K - Russian city - MS = manuscript

11 UNEVEN-T-FUL - FUL=(flu)*

12 R.A.M.-ROD

13 CRANE-FLY

14 STOVEPIPE - (pop Eve it’s)* - as worn by Abraham Lincoln

16,17 BIRTH RIGHT

19,27 CATCH-(boso)M-ENT-AREA - not sure what Jordan etc has to do with it?

23 DISMOUNT (to nudisnm)*

26 S-TAN-LAUREL

28 S(CR)EED-S

29 UPSTATE - in the state of being up, presumably
DOWN

2 BOMB-AS-T(rident)

3 FA(K-I(dris)R

6 PIEMAN - as in one who throws pies in slapstick comedy, and Simple Simon

7 SUTTEISM - outdated Hindu practice of suicide of widows

15 VEHEMENCE - hidden in “overactiVE HE-MEN CErtainly” - have seen that clue somewhere before

18 IDI-OTIC - don’t like “old ruler” for IDI (as in IDI AMIN)

20 CATFLAP - cryptic definition

21 (dauphi)N-E.G.-LE-CT. - I liked this one

22 CUNARD - (<=DR.-A-N-U-C(atheter)) as in the shipping line

Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »

Guardian 24127/Rover – holi shaman!

Posted by ilancaron on 12th July 2007

ilancaron.

Spent longer than usual since there were quite a few clues for which I understood either the wordplay or the definition but not both. One or two is par for the course – more than that and the solving experience becomes frustrating… and a bit humiliating. Nonetheless some nice touches here: 12A, 13A. A couple of cases in which hidden clues weren’t very well – e.g. 25A, 11A.

Across

5 SHA=has*,MAN – took me longer than it should since by now I should realize that “bishop, perhaps” is likely to be a chess reference.
6 PATER,A – my children call me PATER when I’m in trouble with them. PATERA is a new word for me, being a Roman dish.
10 UNA,WARES – our girl’s UNA today – and I guess WARE as in “line” of business?
11 HOLI – my last clue: kind of hidden in HOLIdays. I don’t like it when the answer is a prefix. Anyway, now I know it’s an Indian spring festival.
12 MOTION,LESS – I liked this a lot: ref. Andrew MOTION the poet.
13 THEOLOGIANS – anthologies* — good clue with a surprisingly apposite anagram.
18 BOTTLE,NECK – hard clue for me since BOTTLE for “nerve” is a Britishism that I’m not used to (though I’ve seen it before). Not sure about NECK but I’m going to guess it has a similar slang meaning.
21 PINE – hidden in “shoP IN Edinburgh”. I had a sinking feeling when I first saw this that I was going to have trawl Chambers for some obscure Scots term.
22 ARMCHAIR – I fear I might be missing something here: just a cryptic def? “Comfortable part of the suite”
23 T(ELLE)R – Ref. ELLE the fashion mag. And TR is std abbrev for Turkey. As for the def: I suppose that a bank TELLER works at counting up your money.
24 WILLOW[y] – wordplay is “almost lissome” and I think that sally is related to the Latin salix for WILLOW (but I had to wiki for this).
25 ALLOYS – another lazily hidden answer in: “ALL OYSters”

Down

1 SANDWICH – not sure how this works: “Place for two different kinds of course” but why not speculate? Perhaps it’s a double def &lit: because a SANDWICH you eat (often) has two different things in it or is constructed from two things (namely slices of bread) and it’s also a location since presumably the Earl of SANDWICH not only invented them but came from there and perhaps there’s a racecourse there as well. Who knows… Shirley knows: it’s a golf course as well.
2 RANSOM – again not sure if this isn’t just a cryptic def: “Money paid to a king’s retainers” – since his retainers would need to pay a king’s RANSOM presumably to get him back?
7 AVERSE – (as ever)*. Good sensible clue.
8 AUCTIONEERS – I haven’t been doing cryptics long enough to call anything a chestnut but this cryptic definition must qualify…
14 OPERA,TOR – again what must not be a cryptic def but I think “Norma Hill” must be a Britishism (in the US, it would be the character Lily Tomlin played on ‘Laugh-In’ if that means anything to anyone here). Shirley also knows that there’s a Bellini OPERA called ‘Norma’ and TOR is hill.
15 NAPOLEON – if I was Emperor I’d have a coin named after me as well (the Caron Crown works rather well…).
16 BORROW – two meanings: I had to wiki to learn that George BORROW wrote ‘Lavengro’.
17 ANGELS – two meanings: ref: Charlie’s Angels the TV show and movies.
20 KETTLE – a rather unsatisfying cryptic def (am I missing something?): “It’s put on to get warm”.

Posted in Guardian | 10 Comments »

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