Posted by stevenhall on 17th August 2007
A bit more challenging than the usual Phi, but not as satisfying. A lot of tenuous clueing in place of the usual witty word play.
| Across |
| 1 |
BORSCHT |
TH(C+S)ROB<. Fairly tenuous with ‘c’ and ’s’ being the bits of ‘Cannellini’ and ’such’. |
| 5 |
CURACAO |
CUR (= scoundrel) + A CAO (i.e. a person linked to a company). A difficult word to clue and I have to admit I can’t think of anything less tenuous than this. |
| 9 |
GENERAL PRACTICE |
GENERAL (= military leader) + PR(A + CT)ICE. ‘Price’ = ‘charge’ is nice. ‘ACT’ seems to have been clued as ‘A CT’ for ‘a court’. |
| 10 |
EXTRA |
Quite nice double def. Here, an extra in the first sense here is a run scored in cricket without using the bat. |
| 11 |
PROPELLED |
PROP + (f)ELLED (= knocked over, but not initially). Nice surface. |
| 12 |
DOMINANCE |
D(NO I’M)*ANCE. Nice play with meaning of ‘lead’ for a good surface. |
| 18 |
FRANGLAIS |
(SLAFARING)* (replacing ‘e’ with ‘l’ in ’seafaring’). My favourite in this puzzle: nice mix of abbreviation and anagramming to give a decent surface. |
| 22 |
BLUNT INSTRUMENT |
The beginnings of some good word play, but the surface never quite held together. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
BIGHEAD |
(ABDEGHI)* There may be some subtle double meaning that I’m missing here, but ‘anagram of first nine letters unable to include C or F’ is an anagram of the first nine letters of the alphabet, excluding C and F. |
| 4 |
TULIP |
T(UL)IP. ‘UL’ = university lecturer. Interesting double meaning of ‘bloomer’. |
| 5 |
CORPOREAL |
COR(PORE)AL. There’s a subtlety that isn’t obvious at first, but the ‘in’ forms part of the definition: in body, not body. |
| 6 |
RECCE |
RE(CC)E(l). ‘Reel’ = some film. Nice word. |
| 7 |
CHINLESS WONDERS |
Interesting history of the expression that I hadn’t looked into before. Worth a google if you hadn’t either. |
| 8 |
OPEN DAY |
OP (= (a) work) + END (= finish) + A Y (= a year). Phew. |
| 13 |
NO BRAINER |
BR(A)INE(R) = sea water around a river (A … R). Quite nifty, cheeky, pleasing surface. |
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 17th August 2007
I thought this was a cracking puzzle. It looked like it was going to be a lot harder than it turned out to be as my first pass over the across clues yielded nothing; but I got going with 2D and then it all fell into place fairly quickly. A lot of the words were unfamiliar to me but the wordplay was nothing less than bullet-proof; so much so that I’d filled in a two-thirds of the grid before feeling compelled to check Chambers (11D was the first word I looked up, even though there was at least half a dozen words before that that were new to me).
NB: the IoS printed the wrong grid the magazine so thanks to Eimi for sending me the correct version.
| Across |
| 1 |
(SPOOR MAY)* - PYROSOMA, which literally means (in Greek), “fire bodies”. |
| 9 |
EQUIP,O,I,SING |
| 13 |
FAIR,MY<,ONE,Y - excellent clue. Said to be left by a fairy at the place where it was found. |
| 14 |
Y in FLASH - FLY ASH. |
| 15 |
AM in ARE(a) - an edible type of seaweed. |
| 16 |
I,ANO(n) in LID - another good clue. I knew that this had to be something to do with LIANA but it took a while to see the ANO(n) bit of the wordplay to get LIANOID. |
| 20 |
ASK,LENT |
| 21 |
hidden in “clasSY RENdition” - alternate spelling of “siren”. |
| 24 |
LI in IR,REGION - I’m not sure that “Atheism” is a direct synonym of IRRELIGION but the latter means “lack of religion” which implies (I suppose) a lack of belief in a god. |
| 26 |
IN,I in MATE |
| 27 |
(MINI CUTLASS)* - MASCULINIST. I didn’t know that “masculine” had this form but it was a reasonably easy anagram to spot. |
| 29 |
ESC,ARGOT - I filled this in quite quickly and then wondered why as I couldn’t see why “A key” = ESC. Had a “do’h” moment when I realised it was the ESC(ape) key. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
P,ELF - I had to check this in Chambers as PELF looked too silly to be a word. |
| 2 |
I in (A FURY*),A - the RUFIYAA is the currency of the Maldives. I thought it was spelt differently to this (I would have sworn there was a “h” in there somewhere). |
| 4 |
OR in MILDS |
| 5 |
ASANAS - are positions in yoga but I can’t work out the wordplay. Any offers? |
| 6 |
(ALONE GRIMY)* - excellent clue, which I think would count as an &lit. |
| 7 |
(GIN)*,I in OMINOUS - another corker with a great surface reading. “Threatening to belt one” for the last part of the wordplay is really good. |
| 8 |
GREE in (REST)* - GREE is an archaic word (indicated by “former”) for “favour”. |
| 10 |
(MY TEQUILA IT)* - QUALITY TIME. Interestingly, the Chambers online dictionary gives the definition for this as a period of time where “someone’s attention is devoted entirely to someone else” (my italics) (the Concise OED has a similar definition); whereas the definition in the clue - “when I can really appreciate it” (setter’s italics) - implies a period of time where your attention is devoted to only yourself (a bit like the newer “me time”). |
| 11 |
(GAMER RINGS)* - GRANGERISM. Haven’t the faintest idea how I managed to come up with this as it seems such an unlikely sort of word. Turns out, it’s the practise of illustrating particular books with engravings torn from other books. |
| 14 |
ASH,M in FLAN - another great clue, loved the surface reading. |
| 17 |
(IT PAUSE)* - IAPETUS is the third-largest moon of Saturn. |
| 18 |
PERI(l),W,GI (going up) - the wordplay leads to PERIWIG but I can’t see how that relates to “Major”, the only bit left in the clue that could be the definition. |
| 23 |
AID,I,O (all going up) |
Posted in Beelzebub | No Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 17th August 2007
Absolutely brilliant puzzle from Nestor and very possibly the hardest blocked puzzle I’ve solved in recent memory (and there have been some tough Times puzzles over the last couple of weeks). To be sure, there are a few obscure answers and some fairly recondite knowledge is needed for some of the clues but the wordplay is exceptionally fair throughout and it’s a Saturday puzzle so it’s assumed you’ll have references to hand. In a way it’s a shame it was a Saturday because otherwise I’d be recommending everyone to get a copy of the Indie and have a go at this one.
| Across |
| 6 |
(QUID SO HER STORY)* - DOROTHY SQUIRES, so litigious that she was banned from the High Court. I’d never heard of her so this was tough to get. I was sure that the wordplay had to be an anagram and there aren’t many names that have a Q in them so SQUIRES eventually suggested itself. I already had ?O?O??? for the first name so working out DOROTHY from there wasn’t difficult. |
| 10 |
hidden reversed in “hEAL LIP APplied” - I only spotted that this was a hidden word when I had all the checking letters in place. |
| 11 |
REP,(TUTEE RI)* - I knew the word REPETITEUR but thought it had a different meaning to coach or tutor so this took longer than it should have. Excellent surface reading. |
| 13 |
C in THE< - another one I should have got a lot quicker as I saw the wordplay straight away but in my mind’s eye I saw it as EHCT. I (rightly) dismissed that as a possible answer but didn’t take the time to look at the other possibility: ECHT. |
| 14 |
JUMB(o),LE(o) - saw JUMBLE quickly enough but couldn’t see the wordplay so I should have trusted my instincts and filed it in anyway. |
| 16 |
A,L in CASS - tough. CASALS is the Spanish cellist; “Big Mama” is CASS (Cass Elliot, aka Mama Cass from the Mamas and the Papas). I didn’t know either of these but luckily my wife did. |
| 19 |
SHORED,ITCH - got caught out by the definition, which I thought was just “Neighbour”. |
| 21 |
B,(THIRD)*,AY |
| 23 |
E,U NU,CH - “East” and “Chapter” give us E???CH, for which EUNUCH is a good candidate. From there, you just need to confirm that U NU is/was a Burmese statesman, which he was. Surface reading is a bit nonsensical. |
| 24 |
D in NILES,PER AND UM - I’m a big fan of Frasier so I knew his brother was NILES so that made this clue easy for me. Non-Frasier fans would probably find their way in to the clue at the other end though: PER AND UM is fairly easy to get, which gives ??????PERANDUM (3,11) - NIL DESPERANDUM is pretty much the only possible answer for that. If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll be able to appreciate the accuracy of the surface reading.
|
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
FORTHED (”forced” [strained] pronounced with a lisp),U (posh),(o)RATION - tough clue to parse. |
| 3 |
W,HE,EZINES,S - brilliant clue. The surface reading is superb. |
| 5 |
SR,EL,LURK< - another tough one to work out. Picking out “Zorro’s the” for EL was particularly tricky. |
| 7 |
SUP(P)ER - I really liked “quieter than usual” to indicate the extra P in SUPER. |
| 8 |
(CLASS TO OCCUPY H)* - brilliant &lit and possibly the toughest clue of a very tough puzzle. STAPHYLOCOCCUS is the S in MRSA. |
| 12 |
TEE in R,ACKERS - I didn’t understand where ACKERS came from when I filled this in but apparently it’s a slang word for small change or coins. |
| 15 |
BEL(t),IT(for TI)TLE - a nice idea but it does seem to make the surface reading a bit unconvincing. |
| 17 |
COS,YUP |
| 20 |
INNING - which would be the opposite of “outing” and a turn at batting in cricket. |
| 22 |
hidden in “thirD REIch” - the German word for three. |
Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 17th August 2007
Not a cross-reference in sight nor a long anagram. Was this really Araucaria? I can’t even detect a theme of sorts.
Now that I’ve said this, will someone prove me wrong?
Across
| 1 |
LAID-BACK – def is “relaxed” but not sure about “thinking about England?” though it seems like a good candidate for “wordplay in the answer” which would produce DIAL. |
| 10 |
HELL,AS – not a bad clue albeit my last: “Dis”=HELL, “like”=AS. |
| 12 |
TRA(NSIT CA)MP – (cast in)* in TRAMP for “walk” and “about” indicates the containment. |
| 17 |
BIL(AT,ERA)L – AT, ERA in BILL (Brit slang for the heat, i.e. CONSTABULARY which is 4D). OK, so there was one cross-ref here after all. |
| 19 |
AM,I,GO – I is the “setter” here. The question-mark in the clue is necessary because the answer is a question! |
| 20 |
W(IRE,T)APPING – guess-hazard time: I suspect that there are printing presses in WAPPING (?). |
| 24 |
AL,LIED – yeah, that’s how they got AL Capone finally – for tax evasion. |
| 26 |
JINGLE BELLS=”belles” – Goodness, is it that time of year already? Anyway, ref Alfred JINGLE (“Pickwick Papers”). |
| 27 |
STIMU=(I must)*,L,US |
Down
| 1 |
LEG,I[n]TIMACY |
| 2 |
INST,A[i]LMENT |
| 4 |
CONSTABULARY – two slang terms for the coppers: “nick” is a Brit term for a police station. |
| 6 |
CLEOPATRA – (parcel to a)*. Cryptic def of the empress as a “needlewoman” ref. Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment (didn’t know this but she has two sisters in Paris and NYC). |
| 7 |
IDLENESS –ref. MSND: turns out that Puck is sent by Oberon to find a flower called “love-in-IDLENESS”. |
| 11 |
HA(R,LEY S)TREET – R, LEYS in theatre* - ref. HARLEY STREET which is where all the rich consultants are but I’m not sure how LEYS is produced by “lines” in: “Medical centre on right lines having operating theatre outside”. |
| 16 |
CART(W,HE)EL |
| 21 |
PRO(E)M – I’ve always thought of a PROEM as a hybrid of a poem with prose but it is in fact an introduction (or overture). |
| 22 |
HAD,J |
Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »
Posted by tilsit on 17th August 2007
Solving time: 26 minutes
Terrific fun today from Monk with some real laugh-aloud clues including 1 across and 13 down. Nina hunters (those little hidden messages in puzzles) will be delighted to see one in the puzzle as well.
ACROSS (*) = Anagram (CD) = Cryptic Definition (R) = Reversal
1 FRENCH KISS Witty (CD)
6 LIMB Limb(o)
9 GREEN ALGAE (NEAR GALE + EG)*
10 LION Alternate letters of ELVIS + ON
12 PREFERENTIAL PLANE + FIR TREE *
15 INTESTATE Interest Rate - err.
17 OILED IL (I left) inside O E D
18 EMEER REME (r) WITH E inside
20 ALPHABET SOUP (CD)
25 STRIPTEASE (CD)
26 TOGO As in “Food to go”
27 ICE DANCING (CD) Another witty definition
DOWN
1`FOGY FOG (Cloud) + Y (End of runway)
2 EVEN
3 CENTRE SPREAD Another clever CD
4 KALIF Not a spelling that I had heard of. I inside FLAK
5 SEA BREEZE (CD)
7 INITIALLED INLAID TILE*
8 BANGLA DESH BANG (a quick one!) + LAD + SHE*
11 SNOOZE BUTTON (c)
13 LIFE JACKET Another outrageous clue! Loved it!
14 ATTEMPTING TEMPT inside GIANT*
16 AUTHENTIC AU + THE + ENTIC(E)
21 SPIED I inside SPED
22 BALI Hidden answer
23 BERG GREBE (R)
Marvellous fun and thanks to Monk!!
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »