Posted by Colin Blackburn on 12th October 2007
Excellent stuff from Phi. I’m lost on the last one across though.
| Across |
| 1/10 |
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE — double def. — the cryptic definition of the two refers to Life magazine. |
| 8 |
LISZT — “list” — radio clues the homonym here. |
| 9 |
RAS TAFARI — RA + (T in SAFARI) |
| 11 |
MAPREADER — (PARADE)* in MER — sea at Le Havre is MER |
| 14 |
RED DWARF — ED in (FWARD)* — Red Dwarf is a UK sci-fi comedy series. |
| 22 |
HELOT — (t)HE LOT — a menial. |
| 25 |
ROTHERAM — ROT HER HAM — nice simple charade that works well. And, my dad’s family are originally from Rotheram, not too far from Sheffield. |
| 26 |
TENOR — double def. — Covent Garden, home of an opera house. |
| 27 |
NOBEL LAUREATE — ? — I’m guessing this is a cryptic definition but I’m missing what laxness means here. |
|
| Down |
| 1 |
TELL ME ANOTHER — TELL MEAN OTHER — William Tell provides the archer that starts this excellent charade with a hint at Lord Archer known for his stories and the One Foot in the Grave catchphrase. |
| 2 |
EASY-PEASY — (qu)EASY + PEAS + (dodg)Y — lovely English term. This type of construction, like argy-bargy, shilly-shally, has a name that I can’t remember at the moment. |
| 3 |
EXTREME — (t)EXT + REME — REME are the less common soldiers or engineers. |
| 5 |
HOSE REEL — REEL + HOSE (reversed words) — nice reversal of words. |
| 7 |
SPAIN — PA in SIN— similar to the Costa Del Sol clue the other day in its inference! |
| 15 |
AFFLUENZA — A + F + (ZEAL + FUN)* — a neologism, the disease of having too much money. |
| 16 |
TAJ MAHAL — T(o) + A + J + MA + HAL |
| 18 |
POTHERB — POTHER + B(roccoli) |
| 21 |
ANEMIA — AN + AIME(d)< — American is used to give the US spelling. |
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by loonapick on 12th October 2007
A clever themed crossword which shows the ambiguity of the English language.
Most of the across clues and some of the down clues lead to words which have two conflicting definitions.
Time taken: about 7 mins.
ACROSS
1 BOLTED - first clue, first ambiguous word
4 PRO(O)FS
10 PHOTOGENIC - (got one chip)*
11 SCREEN
12 B-LESSING - Doris Lessing, Persian-born British writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature earlier this week.
13 TAXI-METER
15 AGED - hidden in “trAGEDian”
17 SENSITIVE - (<=IT IS) in (seven)*
21 CITATION
22 RAVELS
24 SANCTIONED
25 DRAW
27 CLEAVE
DOWN
1 BRESCIA - Br.+(case I)* - a city in Italy
2 LIT(eratu)RE
3 EX(PENS)E
6 OVERSIGHT
8 DOUBLE MEANING
14 INSTANCES - (incessant)*
16 BRIG-AND
18 STRUDEL - “removed from” “feaST RUDELy”
19 VIL(LAG)E
20 DIV(I’D)E
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 12th October 2007
One of the easier puzzles from this usually tough compiler. I filled in a surprising number of answers using definitions and/or checking letters so it was the only when I came to write this blog that I fully understood all of the wordplay.
| Across |
| 1 |
WA,H in (DC GOT)* |
| 6 |
L(UCA<)N,A - I don’t think I’ve seen the “guts returning” trick done before. Nice idea though, and, in this clue at least, perfectly fair. |
| 9 |
LAND in (TO RAVEL ID N)* - TORVILL AND DEAN. I got this from the enumeration and surface reading so I’ve just managed to unravel the wordplay. |
| 10 |
S,CURVY - another one where I filled in the answer from the definition and let the wordplay pass me by. Looking at it now, it’s actually quite clever: “Character with bends” is S, and “with bends” is CURVY. Very neat. |
| 12 |
ICEBOUND - an Axel is a jump in ice-skating. |
| 14 |
READY TO EAT - I liked this one too: take the “extreme” letters from “…RipE? AnD YeT OverripE ApricoT” |
| 19 |
THIN[k] - the first answer I unthinkingly filled in was TRIM but it didn’t look convincing. |
| 22 |
DRIVEL - DR EVIL with the E and I switched round. |
| 23 |
(TRIAL YOUTHS RAN)* - NATURAL HISTORY. |
| 26 |
IDLE< in [d]YING - quite a tough one to parse. |
| |
| Down |
| 3 |
(ORGANIC TV)* - CAVORTING. |
| 5 |
(TAIL NO TAIL)* in GRAVY - one of the more unconvincing surface readings in the puzzle but cryptically sound and not too tricky. |
| 7 |
HEM in CO |
| 8 |
IN ON<,(NAVVIES) - I liked IN ON for “privy” (as in, to be privy to or in on a secret). |
| 11 |
CONTI,NUANCE - I seem to remember that Tom Conti played the sleazy Greek waiter in Shirley Valentine. I did spend a bit of time wondering how I could fit Pauline or Collins into a word. |
| 15 |
TWIT in OUTED - another tricky one to sort out, especially the definition: “had on smartly”. |
| 18 |
L in GO,DIKE |
| 21 |
LATTE[r] |
Posted in Independent | No Comments »