Posted by smiffy on 7th September 2007
Some nice touches today but I had to rattle through the puzzle (and this blog) later in the day than usual, so I may not have appreciated all of the nuances fully. Had to guess at the anagram in 24ac, but the grid’s obvious nina (in the unchecked flanks) helped to narrow down the possibilities successfully.
Across
1 LAICISES - c in (liaise)* + s
10 CO-AUTHOR - not a desperately cryptic CD.
12 PLAT DU JOUR - ditto
14 LAST WORD - referencing His Maj’s infamous dying words “Bugger Bognor!”
18 L,URE - Midge Ure was the lead singer of Ultravox and, along with Bob Geldof, the co-instigator of “Band Aid”.
19 MEASLIER (Smile are)*
21 L,ACT,I,C,A,CID - plenty of sub-components. The least well known to inexperienced solvers would probably be the phonetic “see”=C.
22 ROAR - nice punning use of “pride”, as in the collective noun.
24 LONICERA (I clear no)*
Down
2 ARENA - initial letters
4 SCORPION - (cr poison)*, good spot of the the potential &lit-ishness
8 INOCULATE - the best of today’s cryptic readings.
17 LAUDA,TOR - segueing Niki Lauda and Graham (or, depending on your own vintage, Damon) Hill.
20 SCR(E)AM
23 A,WOK,E - a simple but effective surface - in that it instantly conjured up a believable image in my mind’s eye.
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Posted by bensand on 7th September 2007
This made a quick solve for me - possibly because two of my grandparents were from New Zealand and I’m more familiar with the cities than I might otherwise have been. I think it will have been fairly straightforward for most people anyway although none the worse for that! On a family note I was slightly disappointed, although obviously unsurprised, not to find Otautau and Invercargill as solutions which would have made my day! 24 is CITY and 18 is TOWN so theme answers were NZ cities and one town.
Can’t see a nina unless it’s a prediction and NZ beat England 65-19 in the World Cup?
| Across |
| 1 |
ROTORUA - ROTOR + U A (Us All initially) |
| 5 |
FIBROMA - F + (MORBI(D) <=) + A (hope that notation is clear!) |
| 9 |
CLIENTELE - (EXCELLENT)* but with I replacing X |
| 10 |
LEVIN - “remarkabLE VINeyard the only NZ place I didn’t write straight in but it looked likely even before the checking letters were in |
| 11 |
WHEW - W + HEW, my last answer which felt appropriate after a quick solve |
|
| 12 |
AUCKLAND - A + (D)UCK + LAND |
| 15 |
NEW ZEALAND - NEW ZEAL + AN + D. I thought this was a little easier than theme keys usually are |
| 23 |
MESMERIC - ME + ME + RIC(H) around S |
| 27 |
CROSS - (A)CROSS |
| 28 |
GEOMETRIC - (GET MORE)* + I + C |
| 30 |
DUNEDIN - DUNE + DIN |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
TRISHAW - (THIS WAR)* |
| 4 |
APEX - one of those phenomenally cheap fares you can allegedly get if you know what train you want to catch many months in advance. I don’ think I’ve ever got one. |
| 7 |
OBVIATE - (ABOVE IT)* easy anagram but a pleasing word |
| 14 |
FLEETINGLY - FLEE + TINGLY |
| 17 |
ON SCREEN - one slides down a mountainside ON SCREE naturally (+ N) |
| 22 |
NELSON - NEON around L(IGHT)S |
Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 7th September 2007
Three alphabets used here: English, Greek and Hebrew though I have a quibble about use of the latter. The preamble made this puzzle quite easy I thought – I suspect it would have been more enjoyable without it actually – though perhaps that would have been more suited to a weekend puzzle. Not sure if there’s a pattern of which letters were actually chosen but perhaps, while writing this blog, that will be revealed.
In any event, as per usual, must admire Brendan’s brilliance in which each clue started with the sound of a letter of an alphabet (16D).
Across
| 7 |
PIPE,BAND=”banned” – starts with Greek PI. |
| 8 |
E,ER(I)ER – starts with EE=”e”. |
| 11 |
DELTA WINGS – (Wild agents)*. DELTA is, well, the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet. Oh, you knew that… |
| 14 |
A,PI,ARIES – this time PI is “religious” (short for pious) and A=”a” (a long A, that is, to rhyme with ape). ARIES is our “sign” and it’s where busy worker bees hang out. |
| 15 |
INITIAL – first word of our theme. For some reason this was obvious to me on first read (beginner’s luck, or should I say, INITIAL luck). Two meanings: one cryptic. |
| 17 |
LETTERS – 2nd theme word: two quite different meanings – ref. 16D (ALPHABET) and if you’re in the business of hiring something you need to let it. |
| 22 |
E(US)TON – US in rev(note). EU=”u”. |
| 23 |
DE-ESCA,LATE – DEE=”d”: ceased* followed by rev(et al=rest). |
| 24 |
OBE,Y – O=”o”. &lit I think since I believe there’s an “honour and obey” your parents commandment injunction… no? |
| 25 |
EU=”you”=”u”,GENE=”Jean” – it’s a boy’s name |
| 26 |
EMPHATIC – (Item chap)*: EM=”m” |
Down
| 1 |
EIGHTEEN – (he teeing)* and EIGH=”a” and it’s the number of holes in a round of golf. |
| 2 |
ZERO – another number (0=love). Though, in this case, “ZE” doesn’t really sound like “z” which is closer to ZEE at least in America. |
| 3 |
TAW,DRY – turns out that TAW is a kind of marble. Another case of the homophone going wrong – the setter must have meant TAW which is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet – but it really should be pronounced TAV with the V as in “vier” in German. That said, for all I know, perhaps somehow in English it’s pronounced to rhyme with CAW? Having just said all of this, I just realized that perhaps he intended it to be Greek TAU (which I thought was pronounced to rhyme with ouch)? Adjudication? |
| 4 |
PENALISE – (pain, else)* and PE=”p”. An S&M clue (what does this say about our setter I ask you?) |
| 5 |
AR[e],BIT,RATES – AR=”r”. BIT RATE is a slightly technical term for transmission speed of digital data. |
| 6 |
GEE-GEE – it’s what the middle part of “trigger” sounds like and GEE=”g” (and it’s childlish for “horse”). |
| 8 |
DELIAN – rev(nailed=caught): “from island in the Aegean” describes someone from Delos – I guess must be pronounced “DE”=”dee”=”d” though if I had to guess I would have opted for a short “e”. |
| 13 |
BE(TA-TE)STED – BETA’s our letter this time. Another technical term for early product testing. |
| 16 |
ALPHABET – lovely clue (of the HIJKLMNO-school): A to M (atom) is indeed half the alphabet (and it starts with ALPHA!) |
| 18 |
RHODES,I,A - RHO is yet another Greek letter with an apropos surface. |
| 22 |
EX,EMPT[y] - EX=”x” and means “old flame”. |
| 24 |
O,KAY – two homophones again: KAY=”K” (stands for knight”) and O=”o”. OK? |
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 7th September 2007
This was definitely trickier than the last few Beelzebub puzzles but still very enjoyable. Not sure about the wordplay for 11A though.
| Across |
| 5 |
N in UP,LACE - LACE can be a verb meaning to beat or thrash. |
| 11 |
HEARTWORN - this looks right and it’s about the only thing that fits but I can’t see the wordplay. The full clue is: “Man with eccentricity going around platforms turned very sad”. [Edit: correction - it's not the only thing that fits, as fgbp points out in the comments. Correct answer is HEARTSORE.] |
| 12 |
(CAT)*,I,VAT in DEE |
| 14 |
S,TAT |
| 15 |
INC,UN,[-f]ABULIST - tough word, easy clue. Very good surface reading too. “Incunabula” are extant copies of books produced before 1501. |
| 17 |
TAD in SIAL |
| 23 |
(HAD TO END)* in AGON - AGATHODAIMON. The anagram element of the clue was fairly easy to spot but it took me a while to get to AGON for “conflict”. |
| 28 |
OUSE in HM,AID - actually quite an easy clue and certainly not a difficult word but for some reason this clue took a while to parse. I find that’s the case with a lot of Columba’s clues. |
| 29 |
E,TR in MIST |
| 30 |
[r]ECCE |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
CHAR,IS,MA - had a “do’h” moment when I got this as I’d convinced myself that “academic” would be DON. |
| 2 |
RED,(TINGE)*,RATE - REDINTEGRATE means to “make whole again” but the clue has the definition as “restored”, which isn’t quite the same thing (or is it…?). |
| 8 |
AT IT in APE - for some reason I was expecting “on the job” to be smutty and was delighted to find that it was. |
| 16 |
RAN in DUST<,E - TRANSUDE means to “ooze through pores or interstices”. Nice surface reading to the clue. |
| 18 |
hidden in “sAGA INSTructive”. |
| 19 |
(TOOK)* in AUS |
| 21 |
HOL[-y] in TOI[-l] - THOLOI. |
Posted in Beelzebub | 3 Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 7th September 2007
I lied when I said I’d solved this and lost it - I solved most of it and lost it as I discovered in my re-solve. The theme was very easy to spot from “Three sixes” and the “horned one” in the edge-quote unch phrase - devils, presumably without Beelzebub or Mephistopheles who should be blindingly obvious to xwd fans. After solving some of the normal clues and ones with extra words, I went off to the ODQ to look up ‘devil’ (as there was a V?L sequence on the right edge and a V in the top row). “The devil’s most devilish when respectable” - (EB) Browning - was clearly what I needed for the edge-quote. With this much done, you’d think the rest would be a doddle, but it was quite hard work for me. My re-solve ended with a bit of a flap over getting from ?Y?VIA to SYLVIA (that third unch seemed like it had to be a vowel, and if you’re wondering about the twins, Rhea Sylvia was apparently mother of Romulus and Remus), and the “where’s that def?” grief from failing to spot “cut” as the extra word in 22D.
One minor gripe: the preamble’s “appear as extra words in six other clues …” instruction could maybe have clarified that in this puzzle, a few of those def’s are more than one extra word.
The definitions for the theme clue answers are, as far as I can tell, interchangeable. They are: Scratch (19), Deuce (27), Nick (32), Davy Jones (26), Ragamuffin (9), goodyear (15).
Solving time: say 2 hours
Theme answers - answer, jumble, def. for jumble with clue number
| 11 |
BEL(I,A)L |
LIABLE |
tending to / 23 |
| 30 |
EBLIS |
BILES |
humours / 21 |
| 3 |
DEVIL |
VILDE |
Ed’s foul/ 14 |
| 5 |
DICKENS |
SNICKED |
cut / 22 |
| 16 |
DIABLE |
BAILED |
ladled / 30 |
| 26 |
SATAN |
TANAS |
police stations / 8 |
Once you’ve located all the extra words, I think the clues involving them (and the normal clues) are pretty straightforward, so I’m going to hope that they don’t need explanations. (It’s also time for my breakfast!) If you do need anything else explained, leave a comment…
Posted in Inquisitor | No Comments »