Posted by neildubya on 24th September 2007
Now I know how one of regular commenters felt when we had a puzzle themed around Elvis. According to his Wikipedia entry, Terry 13A was the best-selling UK author in the 1990s and has sold something like 50 million books so I’m probably in a minority in never having read one of them.
| Across |
| 1 |
J,INGO(t) - this, like all of the thematic entries, was a guess for me but not a tricky one with J?N?O filled in. |
| 4 |
MARY in S,DIP (all reversed) - one of the last few to go in. |
| 8 |
NEW YEAR - take L (fifty) away from “early” to get a NEW YEAR. |
| 11 |
MOVING PICT,(SURE)* - another stab in the dark, helped by the fact that I knew that a PICT was a member of an ancient British people. |
| 13 |
RATCHET in PT - my heart sank when I got this as I’ve never read one of his novels and couldn’t even name a single title of one of his books.I knew that some were part of a series called Discworld but that’s all. The thematic answers were the last ones I filled in and were obviously all guesses; some confident, some not. |
| 15 |
RUM,BA[-d] - I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen this dance in a crossword. |
| 18 |
(LANCASTER)* - ANCESTRAL. |
| 20 |
LORDS AND LADIES - the checking letters helped an awful lot with this one. |
| 24 |
RAP,IDLY |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
JA,NE |
| 2 |
NEW,POT,AT,O |
| 3 |
hidden in “rOBE LIkely” |
| 4 |
PERI,GEE - I couldn’t get this as I didn’t know PERI = “fairy” and PERIGEE was also new to me. Apparently, it’s “the point in the orbit of the Moon or an artificial satellite around the Earth when it is closest to the Earth”. |
| 5 |
REP,R,IN,[-i]T |
| 6 |
(SMART NAME)* - MEN AT ARMS. The first thematic clue I got but it didn’t really help me with the rest of the puzzle as I didn’t know who wrote it! |
| 14 |
(CD PLAYERS)* - CLEPSYDRA. Handily, this word appeared in a puzzle last week so this shouldn’t have tripped too many people up. |
| 16 |
U in SORE,DRUM (all going up). |
| 18 |
N in (DAY ONE)* - ANNOYED. |
| 19 |
CO,LETTE[-r] - I got this novelist before I got 13A. |
Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 24th September 2007
It’s been a busy time for Maggie lately, dropping in on her old abode to see what colour Gordon’s painted the walls, meeting Rudolph Giuliani, and of course appearing in the Eye Crossword (though without her handbag).
| Across |
| 8 |
M-A-HOG-ANY - “scores” = MANY ; “one - pig” = “A HOG” |
| 10 |
AGENDA - A-GEN-DA “1)” = A ; low-down = GEN ; “Duck’s arse” = DA the Teddy Boy / Rockabilly hairstyle. Could he have yet used Dumbledore’s Army for DA?
I did like the way the whole clue is like an entry on an agenda. |
| 11 |
DAWDLING - (WAD)< D(eflower) LING=heather Last one I wrote in. I had trouble deciding if “Mooning” was sufficiently close to dawdling in meaning, but as I write the blog I think of “Mooning about” so that’s OK. |
| 12 |
KNOCK OFF - Triple Definition! Full clue:
Kill Nick and Roger! (5,3) |
| 15 |
COMMON - COMMON[s] Full clue:
The place for MPs to get end away, Wimbledon? (6)
I thought it was more likely Clapham for MPs. Wombles anyone? |
| 16 |
VLADIMIR PUTIN - (DIM RIVAL)* PUT IN The misdirection “follower of Boris” naturally makes you initially think of Boris J and the YCs, but once you get around to thinking of Russia and Boris Y the anagram becomes a bit easy. |
| 17 |
ABSEIL - ABS-(LIE)< |
| 18 |
SILICONE - SILI (”Silly”); CONE = “ice cream”. That sort of jug |
| 20 |
CATHETER - (THATCHER +E[lbow] -H[andbag])* |
| 23 |
TRUSTY - TRUS[s] T[on]Y |
| 25 |
POGROM - It took me a while to decode this after getting the answer. Full clue:
Brown accepting alternative work backing is “organised persecution” (6)
P-(OR-GO)<-M where “Brown”=”PM”and “OR-GO” is “alternative work” |
| 26 |
FINANCES - F-(NANCIES)* |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
JARGON - J-(GOR[e])*-AN This took longer than it should’ve done. Full clue:
Month getting stuffed with endless rehashed Gore gibberish (6)
I thought the surfeit of apparent anagrinds meant one of them was actually the definition, and “gibberish” at the end was the prime candidate. However, I missed JARGON until I had the A and G. Previously I had gone through all the 3-letter month forms and missed that. |
| 3/9 |
LAVATORIAL HUMOUR - Finally get this when most of the checked letters are in place. Full clue:
John’s sort of schoolboy repartee? (10,6)
“John” is a good misdirection here. |
| 4 |
EYED - I think - Full clue:
Was viewer supplied with your organ? (4)
“Organ” or “your organ” or similar often indicates the magazine itself, “Private Eye” or “The Eye” or “PE” or just “Eye”. Then if I assume “Was viewer” is the definition, it means “supplied with” is getting us the final “D”. Maybe we should take this as “Supply D”? I’m confused. |
| 5/2 |
SHOWDOWN - [a]SH-OW-DOWN Paddy Ashdown. Ow! That hurt |
| 6 |
EMBLEMATIC - (TIM BECAME L[abour])* A good surface here, Full clue:
Representative Tim became sick embracing Labour’s leader (10) |
| 7 |
TURN DOWN - T[ories] (RUN)* DOWN |
| 13 |
CLARE SHORT - (CHARLES ROT)* |
| 14 |
FLIES - F-LIES Hurray! You can tick off a sighting of the lesser-truthful Jeffrey. |
| 15 |
COPULATING - (COLA NUT PIG)* A relatively simple anagram frankly |
| 16 |
VIBRATOR - VI-BRA-(ROT)< Vi: A girl’s name that’s more common in crosswords than in Real Life. |
| 19 |
NUTTER - N-UTTER |
| 21 |
TOMB - TOM-B[altic] Cruise = Tom Cruise “world’s most powerful celebrity in 2006″ (really? shudder) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise |
| 22 |
RIFT - [labou]R IF T[ime] My favourite clue for its surface reading. Full clue:
Labour’s last uncertainty: Time for a split (4) |
| 24 |
ULNA - L in UNA Another crossword-common girl |
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | No Comments »