Posted by loonapick on 24th August 2007
This was quite tough, and I had to give up after I’d done about 75% of it. When I got home from work, I attaked the NW corner, and eventually finished after more than 45 minutes’ effort. Some of the delay relates to trying to find the significance of the “1 across” in 16 ac. Generally, the puzzle was fair, but I’d like a bit of explanation for 16 across if anyone else can provide it.
ACROSS
9 OCTAHEDRA - (teach a rod)* - eight-faced solids, with “originally” as the anagrind
10 HO-HUM - as uttered by someone resigned to something
11 RIG-IDLY - liked this, took me ages to think of “supply” as “in a supple way”
12 INTO-NED
13 ORACH hidden in “fOR A CHange” - ORACH is a desert plant
14 L(EFT)OVERS
16 LEADING QUESTION - answers to 3, 6, 7 and 19 begin with questions, and so does 21 dn, the “1 across” in the clue defeats me, tho’
19 WHEREFORE
21 H-ORATIO(n)
25 DOUBLE-YOU - don’t know if this is a dictionary word?
DOWN
1 C(OUR-TO)FLAW
2 (<=AT AM. GITS)
3 WHY-(<=HAD) - a WHYDAH is an African weaver-bird
5 MAG-I-CF.-LUTE
7 W(HEN-C)E
14 LA GIOCONDA - (cold again)* about O - the mysterious “Mona Lisa”
15 SANATORIUM - (a nostrum I)* around A - I don’t think “sickroom” is a very good synonym for SANATORIUM
17 INERT GAS - “He” equals “helium”
18 IN EMBRYO - IN + (my robe)*
20 E-U(RE)K-A
21 W-HOLLY as in Buddy Holly
23 C(O)UP
Posted in Guardian | 13 Comments »
Posted by tilsit on 24th August 2007
Solving Time: 23 minutes
The usual demonstration from Phi that simple clear clue writing can be elegant and humorous - and a delight to solve.
ACROSS (*) = ANAGRAM (CD) = CRYPTIC DEF (R) = REVERSAL
8 ELASTICITY IT SALE (R) + CITY
9 TRIO Hidden answer
11 PREMATURE R (RECIPE) + MEAT* inside PURE
12 CLEFT C + LEFT
13 LOGOPHILE LOG + OLÉ with PHI inside
16 AIOLI AI (Excellent) + OLI(D)
17 HEIR PRESUMPTIVE Nice (CD)
18 AISLE A + ISLE (of Man)
19 RESIDENCY RE + SIDE (attitude) + C in NY
21 ALTAR AL(L) + TAR
22 SCRIPTURE Nice apposite anagram RC PRIEST + U*
24 HYMN Likewise ends of HarmonY and ModulatioN
25 DREAM WORLD (CD)
DOWN
1 PEN PAL P (head of police) inside PENAL
2 RACE AGAINST TIME RACE (people) + AGAIN + SET* with TIM inside
3 ETNA Hidden answer
4 SCRUTINEER RECOUNT RISE - O *
5 STYE STY(L)E
6 PRAETORIAN GUARD UPROAR TRAGEDIAN* Another nice clue
7 TORTOISE O + IS inside TORTE
10 SCRAPPED Double def
14 PUPPETRY PUP + PET + RY (Lines, as in railway)
15 EQUESTRIAN E + QUEST + RAN with I inside
17 HEADACHE AD + AC inside HE + HE (”men”!)
20 YIELDS Another nice clue Y + (F)IELDS
22 SURF SUR(E) + F
23 PAWN W inside PAN
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 24th August 2007
Solving time: c. 45 mins, no books, but one mistake found on checking answers
After a tough battle with Kruger a couple of weeks ago, this was a straightforward “treated answers” puzzle. All the first ten or so clues I solved led to answers the same length as the grid entry, and the preamble included a strong hint that the thematic processing would change the length of treated answers (so I probably hadn’t solved any yet). The penny-drop moment came when I got GESUNDHEIT at 17 to fit GE?HE??, and POTHUNTER at 40 to fit ??NT?R. Removing SUN and THU respectively would work for these, and I then saw that deleting 3-letter day-of-week abbreviations twice each could lead to ‘a fortnight off’ as the entry at 23. Only about 13 of 47 answers were difficult vocabulary, and I remembered many of those from previous puzzles, so filling in the remaining answers and finding the other thematic ones was plain sailing. With this kind of theme, it’s worth keeping track of which of the possible thematic elements are accounted for - in this case, just a “Sun Sun Mon Mon …. Sat Sat” list, for crossing out as the days were found.
| “Days off” |
| 1 |
RE(MON)TANT - (A N) in torment* - a remontant turns out to be a plant that can fruit or flower more than once a season, esp. a rose |
| 14 |
SPIRI(TUE)L = pleuritis* |
| 17 |
GE(SUN)DHEIT = (the n(ew) guides)* |
| 19 |
SA(WED)GED - charade of SA=it,wed=joined,ged=pike (the fish) |
| 36 |
S(WED)ISH - ed. in swish |
| 37 |
EN(THU)SING - slight poser here - I can see EN = (enrolled) nurse and thing = fact, but this implies US = “not working”, which I can’t justify, except by remembering that {useless => US} is something I’ve been puzzled by in the past. |
| 39 |
LEGALI(SAT)ION - (late goal is in)* |
| 40 |
PO(THU)NTER - p = prince, to rev.,hunter = watch |
| 4 |
T(SUN)AMI = (a must in)* |
| 5 |
STA(TUE)TTE - ET in statute |
| 9 |
AL(SAT)IA - sat = situated in Al = Alabama, Ia = Iowa. Alsatia was a sanctuary for debtors and criminals at Whitefriars, London, until 1697 apparently. |
| 22 |
SHIRT(FRI)LL - (firs(t) thrill)* |
| 24 |
NEWS(MON)GER - new, G in sermon* |
| 35 |
A(FRI)CAN - fair*, can = toilet = john |
| Across |
| 6 |
NUMDAH - (had, mun = dialect ‘man’) rev. This was the mistake - I had NAMDAH, rather stupidly as this didn’t account for the ‘local’ in the clue. That said, choosing between men, min, mon and mun without the dictionary would have been a toss-up. |
| 16 |
THE,RIA - theria turns out to be the marsupial and placental mammals, which I guess is all mammals except monotremes. |
| 21 |
S(ENS)IB,LE(ss) - didn’t understand the wordplay here until writing this, as {ens = being} is well-disguised |
| 33 |
K(IR,P)ANS - Sikh swords. See “five Ks” under K in Chambers for four more Sikh k-words |
| 34 |
(c)AROUSE(l) |
| 41 |
NILO=lion*,T,E=earth |
| Down |
| 2 |
TE,RED,O - a classic advanced cryptic word, this - it’s a mollusc that bores into the wood of ships. |
| 3 |
A = annum = year,NOTHER = (throne)* |
| 6 |
NOSHING - nothing = trifle, with T for S |
| 7 |
M(O,IR)AI - the fates. |
| 12 |
DO=thrive,CENTS |
| 18 |
EIFEL - E in life* - I’m fairly sure there are some Eifel hills or mountains somewhere in Germany. |
| 26 |
(b)RAVE,UP=leading |
| 28 |
SK(E)I,G.H. - a Scots word for ’shy’ |
| 29 |
DAI,M,I,O - a Japanese noble |
Posted in Inquisitor | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 24th August 2007
Another very entertaining puzzle in a series that I’m already mightily impressed with, even though this is only the third one I’ve solved. Couple of queries: 5D and 22D, which I’m sure are right but I don’t understand all of the wordplay for them.
| Across |
| 11 |
REST in PUR,PURE - this was the last one to go in and I only got it thanks to the generous checking as I basically had to look up words beginning PUR- in Chambers. A PUR is a jack in some game or other (I forget which) and PURE can mean “free from guilt”. |
| 13 |
I,BIS - BIS means “again” and is used as an interjection to call for the repitition of a musical performance. |
| 15 |
NO in SLATE< - as in “he was slated to direct the next film”. An ETALON is used to compare wavelengths and study atomic spectra. |
| 16 |
ASH in PM - PASHM is the wooly underhair of goats found in northern India. I think it’s where we get pashminas from. |
| 17 |
(c)LIPPED - this is a really good clue because the definition “with edges” is so well-disguised. |
| 18 |
ACC,(m)ESSED |
| 20 |
(ANIMATOR)* - I thought I knew most types of anteaters as there was a puzzle by Nimrod in the Indie on Saturday a few weeks ago which featured a number of them but I’ve not heard of TAMANOIR. |
| 28 |
hidden reversed in “othER ANSwer” |
| 30 |
N,IE,F - very sly. “Duke” here means the fist (as in “put your dukes up”), which is what NIEF also means. |
| 32 |
(FINING THE [male]FA[ctor])* - INFANGTHIEF. What a great word. It means “the right of a lord to punish a thief found within the bounds of his property”. Quite obscure though, so we’re helped by easy wordplay and generous checking. |
| 33 |
(REST ELEGY)* - I put in SLEETGREY at first but realised my mistake when it looked like 22D was going to end with NL. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
PIC,A in AL - the definition is “of peaks“. |
| 4 |
CH in DRAMA - another sly definition: “Ready for old Greek” is a reference to money; specifically, the DRACHMA. |
| 5 |
ORIEL COLLEGE - don’t understand the wordplay here. The full clue is “I turned up about learning, uplifting colleague English, in place of learning”. “I” could be EGO, “colleague” might be COLL and “English” is E but that leaves RIEL (LEIR if it goes up). |
| 6 |
(VIRILE CATTLE)* - VERTICILLATE, which means “forming verticils or whorls”. |
| 8 |
BUB,O(-n)ES - N is used in maths to represent an indefinite number. |
| 10 |
MESS,I,DO,R - in the French Revolutionary calendar (which I keep meaning to commit to memory but never get round to doing it), MESSIDOR is the tenth month of the year, from June 19th to July 19th. |
| 16 |
(HYPNOTIC)* - PYTHONIC doesn’t just mean “relating to pythons” you know. |
| 21 |
MA,DEFY - which means to “make wet or moist”. |
| 22 |
NAIANT - don’t understand this one either. The word means “applied to a fish depicted horizontally” so in the full clue “Swimming, not getting close to snakes”, “swimming” must be the definition. |
| 29 |
(j)EMMY |
Posted in Beelzebub | 1 Comment »
Posted by neildubya on 24th August 2007
This was a very quick solve for me (8:47, since you asked) so I didn’t spot the (subtly done) theme until I had 2 or 3 answers to go in. I’ve mentioned all the thematic answers in the explanations below. Nice puzzle though, and a pleasant change from the tough stuff we usually get on a Saturday.
| Across |
| 1 |
CROOKS - double definition. Note the hidden chess piece. |
| 4 |
ARM in FABLE - took me a while to shake off “limb” for “member”. |
| 10 |
STALEMATE - one of the more obvious thematic answers. |
| 13 |
G in THINK<,HOOD - another chess piece, technically referred to as the “horsey”. |
| 14 |
ALL ABOARD - …and another chess reference. |
| 17 |
RARER - “basic education” is the three Rs but I’m not sure where we get the A and E from; they’re the odd letters in “places” but so is the P. Full clue is “It’s not so usual having basic education in odd places”. |
| 19 |
SET PIECES - the clue that announces the theme: “included in answers here”. |
| 22 |
(BRAWN)* in POKER - “Uncle” is a slang word for PAWNBROKER, a piece of crossword knowledge that I only picked up about a year ago and which seems to have cropped up regularly since then. I’m sure you don’t need me to point out the chess piece here. |
| 26 |
I,BIZ,A |
| 27 |
(MEN QUEASY)* - MAY QUEENS. The anagram sort of leaps out at you. Only a couple more chess pieces to go now. |
| 28 |
PEAK in SING - the most important piece of all. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
CASCARA - move the CAS from “Caracas” to the front. The only word in the puzzle I’d never heard of. |
| 3 |
KEEN - which means “bitter” when talking about the wind. |
| 5 |
A,V,ENG,ED - a reference to the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas,pere. |
| 6 |
M,(IS A TREAT)* - thanks to the injuries sustained by Beckham and Rooney among other, METATARSI (or more commonly the singular metatarsal) is now part of our vocab. |
| 7 |
BISH,O,PRIC(e) - didn’t think too hard about this one, which is just as well as I wouldn’t have known that BISH can mean a mistake (according to Chambers). |
| 8 |
E.MEN,DER - this could be another chess reference (MEN) or a happy accident. |
| 9 |
N,AR(N)IA - from those awful books by C.S.Lewis. Don’t get me started on this. |
| 15 |
I in (THEY WILL)* - LILY WHITE. Another chess reference, with BLACK coming right up… |
| 16 |
BOOT,BLACK |
| 20 |
TIED,YE - “the old” is YE. |
| 24 |
CHECK - “czech”. |
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »