Posted by linxit on 8th October 2007
Solving time 15:33
I was racing through this in the usual quickish time of about 6 or 7 minutes, when I finally got to 24A/D and ground to a halt. It must have taken me nearly 10 minutes to get those last two, with the only checking letters ??E? and ??A?. Fairly obvious when you finally see them (and they are good clues), but an unexpected sting in the tail for me.
Across
8 MEGAS(games*),TAR
9 UTOPIA - first cryptic definition, and an old chestnut. Thomas More wrote the book.
10 TYRE - ancient Phoenician city now in Southern Lebanon.
11 ANTITHESIS (is hesitant)* - clever clue, because “quite the contrary” or “on the contrary” is normally an instruction to reverse the word order in the clue to get the answer. Here it’s just the definition.
12 HEAD-ON - I laughed when I got this one. Very good.
15 A,LAM,ODE - I had always thought LAM was short for lambast, but according to Chambers lambast is “perhaps from lam¹ and baste³“.
17 TYPE,SET - impressive as in “printed in a press”.
20 WAXWORKS - great cryptic definition, had me barking up the wrong tree for a while.
23 MA(GI)STRATE - GI in matters*
24 BLEW - “blue” as in an Oxford or Cambridge Blue. Took me a long time to get that.
Down
2 CANE - I think this needed “perhaps” at least. There are a lot of types of cane that aren’t sugarcane.
3 STRAIN - very weak cryptic def, as a strain is a stress injury! A good entry point for beginners I suppose.
4 BR(IT)AIN
13 DUMB WAITER - another CD. I thought this was just a food lift, but it’s also a food trolley.
18 ELE(MEN)TS - MEN inside sleet*
19 I,S(LAND)S
21 AMAZON - I haven’t seen runner for river much at all lately. It used to be quite common.
22 TO,ECAP=pace rev.
24 BEAT - double definition that had me stumped for ages.
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 8th October 2007
| Across |
| 1/4 |
EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION - “assembled” led me down an anagram-related garden path for a while, until I realised the clue was a sort of cryptic definition, with a surface reading designed to make you think of theatrical productions. |
| 9 |
HICK in TEN - “six and four” might have been VI and IV but that’s an unlikely combination for a 7 letter word. |
| 10 |
R,R in (AID)*,OP - the cryptic reading is a little vague here as it doesn’t say how many “rights” and where they’re supposed to go but I don’t think it’s vague enough to make the clue unfair. I liked the definition: “could be a task for Hercules”, a reference to the military transport aircraft. |
| 11 |
EVITA,R,RAN (going backwards) |
| 15 |
I’M,IV in PULSE - I liked the surface reading for this one, although I don’t know how medically accurate it is! |
| 19 |
K in TOY,O - “nothing more” to indicate adding an O can’t really be justified and yet, I understood immediately what the compiler meant (this might be because I’ve seen it used before although I can’t be sure of that) so I guess that is some sort of measure of fairness. |
| 23 |
LEFT OFF - you turn “seal” into “sea” by dropping the L. I originally filled in LEFT OUT, which seems to be an equally valid answer. |
| 24 |
[h]ALF[h]ALF,A - because two ‘alves make an ‘ole. |
| 25 |
CLIMATE CHANGE - literally,(MALI ETC)*. A really good clue I thought, although the definition makes it very easy. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
EXTENDED FAMILY - don’t really get this one. The full clue is “Cousins, say, made kind of kin?”. I can see that “Cousins, say” could be the definition but I’m not sure what the rest of the clue is doing. |
| 6 |
(LOOS ARE)* |
| 7 |
(SICK TARDY)* - nice clue but with YARDSTICK does leap out at you. |
| 8 |
UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE - “small trattoria” could be TRAT, which is TART upside down. I think that’s the right reading as I can’t see any other… |
| 14 |
(COAL FIR[-e])*,IC[-y] |
| 16 |
PAY HOM[-ep]AGE - not really sure why “homepage” should be a “special website”. Isn’t it just the main page of a website? |
| 18 |
MAIS OUI - sounds like “may we”. |
| 19 |
TWELFTH - don’t understand all of this. The full clue is “This man’s substitute - there may be shots at game today!”. I guess the definition is “This man’s substitute” but not sure about the rest. |
| 21 |
(OF A IS)* |
Posted in Independent | 10 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 8th October 2007
Excellent stuff from Cyclops in this issue. A few really tricky clues which I would never get without the crossing letters, but enough that could be solved cold to get going. A couple of the clues are absolutely outstanding and funny. Cracked me up anyway.
| Across |
| 8 |
THERMAL - Def is “Hot air”. AL is Gore, but I am unsure how THERM=”Jollies associated with”? Full clue:
Jollies associated with Gore’s hot air (7) |
| 9 |
APESHIT - APE=”take off” (THIS)* My favourite clue. I thought this, or should I say (shit)*, was an outstanding clue:
Take off before this cracks nuts! (7) |
| 10 |
MIRED - (RIM<)-ED I knew Rebekah Wade would be ED but initially thought the definition would be Skirt and fiddled with ED anagrammed with LOO and CAN etc. When I got that initial checked M it became clear |
| 11 |
CHICANERY - Chicane = “Turns of course” [To]ry “Nos 1 and 2 going” |
| 12 |
NEW MEXICO - (ex-con I’m WE)* WE from Private Eye When I only had the final O in place I considered (and rejected) San Marino, but when I got around to thinking of US states the answer and construction became obvious. |
| 13 |
TEMPO - Temp=”casual” O Nice concise clue:
Casual love making speed (5) |
| 14 |
CHESTNUT BROWN - Chest=”a couple of tits”, Nut=”Freak”, Brown=”PM” |
| 19 |
MAJOR - MAJOR(CA) |
| 21 |
EYE’S FRONT - Organ’s Bust - I pencilled in Eye’s Right at first but knew the clue didn’t really fit it. |
| 23 |
SOCIALIST - SOCIAL-(ITS)* |
| 24 |
DIPSO - DIPS-O Dips - pickpockets |
| 25 |
NEST EGG - E.G. (say) inside (GENTS)* |
| 26 |
EYE-DROP - Magazine-decline |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
STAMINA - ST-A-MIN-A |
| 2 |
REGROWTH - (ER<) G[rand]=”lots of money” (worth)* |
| 3 |
SMUDGE - (Used GM)* |
| 4 |
ELECTIONEERING - (One gin erectile)* Anagrind and fodder were pretty obvious but this word took a while to pop out when fiddling with the letters. |
| 5 |
MEGASTAR - ME-GAS-(TAR<) Needed all crossing letters to get this (and some! as -E-A-T-R uses such common letters). Full clue:
Spears possibly giving Cyclops wind up arse (8)
“Spears possibly” looked like an anagram of SPEARS, also “wind up arse” could mean an anag of ARSE or even poss. of WIND UP! The clincher was spotting Cyclops=ME |
| 6 |
PHLEGM - H[ospital]-Leg=”section” inside PM=Gordon I liked “cherishes” for the inclusion indicator |
| 7 |
STAYS ON - DD in the Eye manner |
| 9 |
A BIT OF THE OTHER - (Hot bot I feather)* After failing to get the 1D and 17D first letter deliverers, I then looked at this (1,3,2,3,5) phrase for my first answer, and was not disappointed. The letter count was set-up for “A - in the -” or “A - of the -” and I first thought of “A bit on the side” as an obviously wrong possible, then the answer was clear. |
| 15 |
STREAKER - CD Earlier considered and rejected SPRINTER |
| 16 |
WHOPPERS - CD or a kind of DD |
| 17 |
AMUSING - US inside A MING - Last one I put in as I had trouble reconciling the definition of “rich” to “amusing” |
| 18 |
STROPPY - Sweeney Todd was a barber, Barbers strop their cut-throat razors |
| 20 |
JOCOSE - JO-COS-E Uncle JOE Stalin holding COs = companies |
| 22 |
FIDGET - (F[emale] ged[d]it)* Tosses as in “tosses and turns”. I found this clue tricky:
One who tosses female off, geddit? (Not Dee) (6)
With only the E in place I did consider WANKER. It took all checking letters before the answer became apparent. |
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 1 Comment »