Posted by petebiddlecombe on 10th August 2007
Solving time: ages!
The only previous Kruger puzzle I remember was about No. 6 in the Inquisitor series, based on the Offa’s Dyke footpath and associated places - one that I found pretty tough and was quite relieved not to be writing about.
This one proved even tougher for me - I ended up using things like the anagram and full text searches in the CD-Rom version of Chambers to solve about half a dozen of the clues and get some momentum going. My aim for Inquisitors and similar puzzles is to just use the dictionary itself if possible. For puzzles like this one, this approach works if I can guess what the title means, or spot the misprint phrase from contributing letters, or see a common feature in the answers that need ‘processing’. None of these happened for a long time with this puzzle, but eventually, I did spot the pattern - answers that needed changing seemed to include CATAMARANS, GUARDIAN ANGEL, PETULANT and PURITAN. What do these words have in common? A female name - Tamara, Diana, Petula and Rita respectively. With OBI as a sequence of letters near the end of the misprint phrase, the penny dropped when ‘La Donna e Mobile’ came to mind and matched up with the other misprint letters - it’s the title of an aria from Verdi’s Rigoletto, usually translated as “Woman is fickle” - hence the anagrammed title “On a swim” from “Woman is”. Making appropriate anagrams of female first names in 10 answers allows them to fit the intersecting words, and once I realised this, finding the other anagrammed names took very little time. Lesson from this solving experience: if the title is baffling, try making anagrams out of it and see if they suggest anything. Also: try not to get too spooked by the setter’s name just because of one tough puzzle - I shouldn’t really have made such heavy weather of this one.
| Misprints (explained answer / corrected word in def.) |
| 14 |
A,S,T,ELY=see / steLe |
| 15 |
K((s)OUL)AN / Ass |
| 18 |
AL(NAG)E / braiD |
| 34 |
DR(A,W)UP(e) / fOrm |
| 36 |
BOT(SWAN)A - bota = boat* / laNd |
| 37 |
ME(ANE,I)N,G / moaN |
| 1 |
ST(EAR)AGE = steerage / fAres |
| 2 |
EAS(S)E,L / Easterly |
| 6 |
RARE - 2 mngs / Meat |
| 8 |
NAHUM = human* / boOk |
| 10 |
T,OWNS / urBan |
| 12 |
SWANEE - 2 mngs / rIver’s |
| 30 |
BLI(p),M,P / Light |
| 35 |
A,WAY / lifE |
| Fickle women (explained answer / grid entry) |
| 6 |
RESIANT - nastier* = resident / REINAST |
| 13 |
E,S(CAR.)OLE - Endive is the def.s, and Car. is short for Carolus = Charles / ESLCAORE |
| 16 |
CATAMARANS - (cars at an a.m.)* / CAATARMANS |
| 21 |
GUARD,IAN,ANGEL / GUARNAIADNGEL |
| 30 |
BLIND ALLEY - anag. of ILL AND BE(l)LY - not totally convinced by empty= lacking one central letter, but never mind / BDNLIALLEY |
| 38 |
PUR,IT.,AuNt - pur = the jack in the card game ‘post and pair’ / PURATIN |
| 5 |
MAL=rerv. of lam = escape (US slang),MAG = titmouse. The malmag is the same monkey as the tarsier / MMALAG |
| 20 |
PETULANT = (nut leapt)* / ELTUPANT |
| 26 |
TANNER - 2 mngs / TNNEAR |
| 28 |
GROSET - reverse hidden word / GERSOT |
| Across |
| 25 |
ENT(R)AIL - Spenserian ‘twisting’. To entail is to carve or fashion. |
| 39 |
STY,LET - In Shakespeare, let (vb.) = leave. |
| Down |
| 3 |
S.(ULT.)A.,N.A. - among other things, a sultana is a kind of (musical) fiddle |
| 24 |
GAD!,W,ALL - all = “each side”, as in “fifteen all” |
| 29 |
S,C.U.,N.G.,E = a sneaky person |
| 31 |
LE,MNA=man* - Lemna is the duckweed genus |
Posted in Inquisitor | No Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 10th August 2007
Tough: Solving time: 34 mins
* = anag < = reversed
ACROSS
1 DE (BRIe) EF Feed<
5 POL(IT)ICe
9 FR (l)ITTERED Excellent
10 Oliver TWIST Ditto
12 BOS (TO)NIAN
25 LEV (IATH) AN (a hit)* navel < The philosopher is Hobbes.
26 CO CO NUT
27 RE-ELECT E (Spain) for F (France) in reflect
DOWN
2 Benjamin B (R) ITTEN
6 LOT TO
7 T (BIL IS) I it< lib< in Georgia
8 C (OTEN) ANT note* Saw this before, but don’t mind seeing it again.
13 SCREENSAVER Excellent cryptic defn.
19 BANS HEE(d)
20 GANNET Ten nag(s) <
25 LE(f)T ref tennis
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by ilancaron on 10th August 2007
Not the easiest puzzle to return to from France.
Puck and Paul must have gone to the same school of cryptic wizardry if their senses of humor are anything to go by. The theme this time is appropriately a favorite subject of schoolboys (breaking wind) and the Brit 90’s sitcom “Father Ted” which I’ve seen on transatlantic BA flights. Though I don’t think any linkage is intended – unless theme #1 was recurrent in theme #2?
Across
| 1 |
SDON=rev(Don’s),GRASS – ref. Augustus SNODGRASS in “The Pickwick Papers”. |
| 9 |
GO ON, GO ON, GO ON – first theme clue: ref. Mrs. Doyle’s catchphrase. I had to read the “Father Ted” wiki entry. |
| 17 |
MEL – hidden in “soME Licks”. “On the contrary” indicates that the containment indicator “some” isn’t actually a legal indicator since it overlaps with the fodder. |
| 19 |
LIPPI,ER – I assume ref. Marcello LIPPI the Italian manager who won the last World Cup. |
| 20 |
SANDPIT – rubbing my eyes, but is this a baseball clue? I must admit in spite of being American, I can’t, for the life of me, remember if this is the correct term for where batters and pitchers warm up. noted below: hidden in “batterS AND PITchers”. |
| 27 |
FAT,HER TE=three*,D – the only two Brit shows that occurred to me were Doctor Who or FATHER TED. The latter had a leading FAT so… We’ll excuse the very mildly indirect anagram of 3. |
| 28 |
LET OFF - I wonder when Puck noticed this – it turns out that if you remove “the” from FATHER TED you get the breezy term “farted” which is LET OFF. I wrote this up incorrectly at first — thanks for pointing out the mistake. |
| 30 |
GRAHAM NORTON – he had a small part as Father Noel. Haven’t worked out the wordplay though. Noted below that it’s (or, r, to hangman)* |
| 31 |
BROKE WIND – (Rob winked)*. Another way to make a breeze. |
Down
| 3 |
DOYLEY – (old, Y, Y, E)* — I didn’t see the indirect anagrammatic wordplay until I wrote this up. I’d spell it “doily” but DOYLEY is valid as well. Surprised no ref. to Mrs. Doyle though. |
| 4 |
ROOK,I.E. – cryptic men on board are likely to be chessmen. |
| 5 |
S,I(N,CE)RE – oddly enough the Church of England turning up in Southern Ireland. Casus belli? |
| 6 |
DOWNTURNS – I saw the answer v. quickly with (won’t run)* in DS. But as I write this up, I don’t see how DS is produced by: ‘“Dips won’t run out” (from the sign outside)’. Noted below that DS is del signo (”from the sign”). New to me as well… |
| 7 |
ENDOMOR=doormen*,PH=public house – the kind of term my parents would use to describe someone fat when they didn’t want me to understand. |
| 14 |
B(L)ACKLEGS – “scabs” as in people who cross picket lines. I’m going to guess that BACKLEGS is part of an animal costume, say, for a lion. |
| 15 |
OPERETTAS – brilliant clue: (poetaster’s)* and ref. DOYLEY CARTES=d’Oyley Carte, the G&S performing company. |
| 16 |
RIVER FLAT – my last clue: for some reason “current accommodation” had me thinking about wires. |
| 17 |
MRS, BEET,ON – nice homophonic clue: she wrote a cookbook in the 19C. |
| 18 |
LSD – I think this is a sort of hidden clue: it’s in “oLD Sid” but you have to be hallucinating. Noted below that it’s actually “oLd SiD”. Thanks! |
| 22 |
A,MATE,UR[n] – Chinas are MATEs in the East End. |
| 25 |
ARK,LOW – that trip last October round Ireland continues to pay off. |
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 10th August 2007
| Across |
| 1 |
PIP in BLOWE(r) |
| 5 |
TOLD,DO - not a phrase I’d ever come across before but not a tricky one to get from the wordplay. |
| 9 |
(TELE(-v)ISED)* |
| 10 |
SILVER - SLIVER with LI reversed, indicated by “turned over partly”. |
| 12 |
HANKS in SSP,ON,Y - I’d heard of this but I didn’t know what it meant. Chambers has it as “the use of one’s own legs as a means of travelling.” That’ll be walking or running then. |
| 17 |
AI,CAR<,LIST - nice misleading surface. |
| 18 |
S in DIM,EMBER - I had the D and S filled in so I wrote in DISMEMBER without thinking too hard once I saw “pull apart”. |
| 20 |
LAUGHTER in SER(ies) |
| 24 |
ACE<,R(-a)TE - another one I filled in without really knowing why, apart from the definition. I’ve only just worked out the RTE bit of the worplay: “Reckon to lose it, in short” indicates removing the A(ce) from RATE. Nicely done. |
| 25 |
(HOME RAIN)* - MAORI HEN. I had H?N filled in so HEN was the only option for the second word. MAORI seemed an obvious choice for the rest of the anagram fodder given the NZ bit of the definition. |
| 26 |
P(LENT for A)Y |
| 27 |
A,V in DANCES - I guess “potential difference” is V because of Versus? |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
(ABSURD TALE)* - The definition - “One’s coping with it” - would have deceived me for a lot longer were it not for one of my favourite Azed comp clues for the same word: “Bears cope”. For some reason that clue has always stuck with me so when I think of cope/coping I think of BALUSTRADE. |
| 4 |
PLEA,SURE O in BAT |
| 6 |
DAIRY M (all going up),AID |
| 7/8 |
L,AV(-i)ATOR,Y |
| 11 |
CON,G,R in CERT,AND |
| 13 |
HIER,AR(t),CHIC |
| 14 |
RANK in OTHERS - which is where we get the useful-for-crosswords abbreviation, OR. |
| 16 |
T in TIER SEAT - the last one to go in and not a phrase I’d heard of so I had to check it in Chambers. |
| 22/23 |
MET<,PLATE |
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 10th August 2007
My first Sleuth puzzle but I’ve solved a few by the same setter as Hypnos in the Independent. This was a reasonably gentle solve with some nice touches here and there. One query with 15A, where I don’t understand all of the wordplay.
| Across |
| 1 |
M,U in (CLEVER ARIA)* - MAURICE RAVEL. “Mark for all to see” to indicate M and then U(niversal - the film classification) was very good. Great surface too. |
| 10 |
PR in I MOVE - “priest” can have a number of indicators: ELI and REV are pretty common but PR was the last one I thought of. |
| 11 |
C,(A POLYS)* - CALYPSO was an easy anagram to spot. |
| 13 |
ID in A CROCK - my first instinct was to not think about this too hard and fill in PUNK ROCK but while that fits perfectly with the definition - better than ACID ROCK I think - it doesn’t work for the wordplay. I’d never actually heard of ACID ROCK, although I’ve heard of acid jazz. |
| 15 |
RIDICULOUS - don’t understand all of the wordplay for this. “It’s clear…after retirement” must be LUCID< but that leaves RIOUS. The full clue is “It’s clear one’s into drink after retirement? That’s laughable”. |
| 20 |
COD,WALL in SOP |
| 22 |
(DAILIES)*,M |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
A,PP,LIED |
| 3 |
(CAR OK FOR)* - ROOF RACK. |
| 4 |
CREW - “Crewe”, “Eight perhaps” is the definition and is a reference to rowing CREWs. |
| 7 |
([-em]PLOYERS)* - Seems a bit of an understatement to describe LEPROSY as a “complaint”. |
| 8 |
(LIBERAL CHUM IF)* - not often you see LIEBFRAUMILCH in a crossword and this anagram does rather jump out at you. |
| 9 |
(NICE PARK CLOSE)* - COCKER SPANIEL. |
| 14 |
BLOOD’S PORT - I filled this in from the definition with confirmation from the checking letters as I didn’t understand the “Irish adventurer” bit of the clue. It’s a reference to a novel called Captain Blood. |
| 17 |
JA,CO,(I BET)* - JACOBITE. “Yes abroad” is JA (German for “yes”). |
| 23 |
hidden in “fulL HAS Accumulated” |
| 25 |
TT in OO - one classic bit of crossword-ese - TT (tee-totaller, “dry figure”) - and one fairly new (but not unheard of) innovation: OO for “glasses” (OO looks like a pair of glasses). |
Posted in FT | 7 Comments »