Posted by petebiddlecombe on 13th August 2007
As older readers will know, we’ve had a couple of evening meetings at London pubs for contributors to and readers of this blog, Times for the Times and Tony Sever’s RTC3. Both times, we’ve also had some of the setters present. S&B 1 and 2 were attended by about 15-20 people each.
Sloggers and Betters 3 is on Wednesday 22nd August. Drinks, from about 6 pm onwards are at The Doric Arch, Euston Station (formerly the Head of Steam) - chosen for convenience for late tubes. Food - at about 8 - is at the Great Nepalese Restaurant, which is close to the pub.
If you would like to come, please let me know (especially for the Food part) by e-mailing sb3 {at} biddlecombe {dot} demon {dot} co {dot} uk
Posted in Admin | 4 Comments »
Posted by michod on 13th August 2007
My favourite clues combine Rufus’s trademark cryptic definitions with wordplay, so as to keep you guessing for longer - 5 and 11 across require unravelling, whereas 17 across couldn’t be anything else.
ACROSS:
5. O(X)TAIL (hom. tale). A lot going on in this clue, with ‘love story, say’ giving O TAIL, but the beauty is in the definition. Had the clue been simply ‘Neat ending’ I would have looked immediately for a CD and felt less satisfied.
9. WHI(L)ST.
10. NEATNESS (SEAN SENT*). Is this the beginning of a theme?
11. AN ON. Very simple wordplay, another neat definition - ‘name-dropping’.
17. PRIVATE EYE. CD which, on its own, leaps straight out at you.
13. PACE SETTERS. Rufus avoids the obvious self-reference offered by ’setters’.
18. AMANUENSIS (I NAME SUSAN*).
23. GLANCE. Ref glancing shot in cricket and shooting a glance at an attractive leg.
24. TEETHE. CD.
DOWN:
1. AT(A)LANTA.
2. BIG TOP. As in a spinning top.
3. PLEASANT (AT NAPLES*). Good surface.
5. ON HAND. I think this is it, but don’t see why it’s ‘next door’, except in the same sense as it’s ‘present’, but that would hardly be a double meaning.
7. E S SAYS. Goood misleading surface using dual meanings of ‘tracts’ and ’states’.
8. ANN IVERSAR Y (ARRIVES*).
15. REP EATER. Chambers says it’s a watch that repeats, but I’m not sure what that is exactly - does it mean I can have my time over after all?
17. TRACES. As in ‘kicking over the traces’.
20. SIGNET (hom. CYGNET).
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 13th August 2007
| Across |
| 9 |
(+M)OBS,TER(-M) - an “obsolete expression” would be an OBS TERM. Move the back (M) to the front to get MOBSTER. |
| 10 |
TO(Y for P)SHOP - I initally thought the fashion retailer might be GA(P). |
| 11 |
SNUFF,EDIT - excellent clue with a misleading surface leading you up a cocaine-related garden path. |
| 12 |
BB in SE< - the Home Counties are all in the South East (SE). |
| 14 |
(DONT)*,O - NOD TO. |
| 15 |
(CREPT IN SO)* - INSPECTOR. Was slightly surprised when this turned out to be the answer as I’ve never usually thought of these two words as (near) synonyms. |
| 18 |
ERR in OVULE,D - I thought of OVERRULED almost straight away but didn’t think about it hard enough and decided it couldn’t be right. |
| 22 |
A,WED - seeing A?E? left in the grid can sometimes send a shiver down the spine - so many words to choose from… |
| 23 |
ARC WELDER - not sure if this is right or not but if it is then it must be an ark/arc homophone-type pun thing. |
| 27 |
(GRASS NO MINE KEPT)* - ON SPEAKING TERMS. I’ve always thought that one of the most deceptive tricks in the setter’s locker is to take a natural sounding phrase - “Not cutting grass” - and have one part of it as the definition and the other as part of the wordplay. This clue is a great example of that. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
(SOME TONIC)* - COMES INTO |
| 3/13 |
OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT |
| 4 |
FI(R for L)ED,RILL |
| 5 |
OCTET - stared at O?T?T for a while thinking that there couldn’t be a word to fit that. Eventually twigged that the band is OCTET, “outrageous” is OTT and “church” is CE and that “alternating” means you do exactly what it says on the tin. |
| 8 |
TAPAS - move the TA (”thanks”) of PASTA to the front. |
| 17 |
RING ROADS - the surface reading misleads but the first thing I thought of when I saw “arteries” was roads. I very nearly filled in ROAD SIGNS, which would be ok for the second bit of the clue but not the first. |
| 21 |
(STROL[-l]ED)* - OLDSTER. Great word. |
| 22 |
A,G,GRO(up) |
| 23 |
hidden reversed in “blacK CAB Abroad” - I had A?A?K filled in so ABACK suggested itself almost immediately but I’ve only just spotted the hidden bit. |
| 24 |
M,ACE. |
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 13th August 2007
… and two erections that were not “up” - giving the lie to my pronouncement a few weeks ago that “erection” often means “up” in the Eye puzzle.
Some good examples in here of using well-known people or their names to mislead, and at least provide a laugh.
| Across |
| 7 |
JAPAN - JA(de Goody) PAN Most of this long clue delivers just 2 letters |
| 8 |
RUPTURED - Cryptic that is really a single definition. I needed most (it may have been all) of the crossing letters to get this. |
| 9/12/27 |
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY - (N S COALITION THAT’S)* PARTY from “do”. Ref Party leader Alex Salmond. I got the answer within seconds of reading the clue as Alex Salmond sprang to mind from the surface reading, (I suspect we were supposed to be mislead to think of Alex Ferguson) but it took a while to confirm it by seeing how the anagram part worked. “Pisspoor” is a common anagrind in Eye puzzles. |
| 10 |
NOZZLE - N(OZ)Z LE One “place down under” OZ in another NZ. My favourite clue. |
| 11 |
SEMEN - Hidden in baSEMENt. I suppose you could say it comes from below. |
| 14 |
TRIVIAL - TRIAL is the Case; IVy “taken short” is the woman. |
| 16 |
ACADEMY - A(&)E is the hospital; CAD is the arse; MY from “Cyclops’s” |
| 19 |
TWO-TIMER - Nice cryptic-ish double def. |
| 21 |
VICAR - V Against; I one; CAR buggy. For the definition “Our incumbent no longer” to make sense you’d have to know that the recently retired Rev A.R.P. Blair MA (Oxon) was the Vicar of St Albion in Private Eye’s St Albion Parish News feature. |
| 23 |
CARTER - (AC<) from Bill; RT right; ER Brenda. Clueing one ex-President with another, good stuff. |
| 25 |
THROTTLE - TH from 2/3 of “THe”; ROT from “balls”; (ELT)* |
| 26 |
SCORCHER - As in “Phew! What a”. “Fry” presumably gives scorch, then (RE<) from “about to flip”. Using a definition of part of the word that is essentially the same root meaning as the full word doesn’t seem quite right to me. Presumably couldn’t pass up the suggestion towards Stephen Fry. I remember once seeing Stephen Fry in a Guardian clue, where he was used as the very definition of wit. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
SPUTUM - “Hawking” Another slyly misleading allusion to a well known personage whose name happens to mean something. S-PUT-UM SUM “total”, with PUT “placed” inside. |
| 2 |
INSIGNIA - (SIN)* (GIN)* IAn Ref. Hislop, the editor. Have we ever seen a broadsheet editor referenced in a clue in their paper? |
| 3 |
URCHINS - (SUN RICH)* |
| 4 |
SPINET - SPINE “bottle”; T(odger) |
| 5 |
BUZZ WORD - BUZZ “call”; (ROW)* D(ate) |
| 6 |
HEEL - Hidden in “tHE ELections” |
| 7 |
JACK STRAW - “device for easing an erection” (WARTS<) For once erection not meaning “up”. |
| 13/24 |
ADMIRALTY ARCH - “Capital erection” - And again. Surprised Cyclops didn’t get in a dig against John Prescott with this answer - probably thought it would then be too obvious. |
| 15 |
VOTE TORY - (VERY TO TO)* “very to twice” gives the anagram fodder. “Stupid” is the anagrind - not the definition. |
| 17 |
COVER-UPS - OVER “balls” inside CUPS. I’m sure I’ve seen “Bristol supporters” or similar delivering CUPS or BRAS before - possibly by Paul in the Graun. |
| 18 |
URETHRA - (ARTHUR E)* Ref A Scargill I assume. |
| 20 |
MARSHY - (ARMY)* around SH from “quiet” |
| 22 |
CATERS - (CAST)* around (RE<) from “about rises” |
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 3 Comments »