Posted by neildubya on 30th October 2007
More thematic wizardry from my favourite compiler: spot the colours in 6 across clues.
| Across |
| 1 |
BROWN-NOSED - little bit of politics from Virgilius there. |
| 6 |
PS,ST |
| 10 |
TOT in LIES - LITOTES is one of those words I only know through crosswords. Chambers defines it as “understatement used for effect, especially by negating the opposite” and gives the example “not a little angry”. |
| 11 |
COLLIE,R |
| 12 |
(THE BIRDS WE ATE)* - WHITE BREASTED. On my first look I was tempted by WATER-something but then the theme began to suggest itself and WHITE seemed obvious with W???E filled in. |
| 14 |
OHMAGE - “homage” with the initial letters swapped. |
| 15 |
BLUE-EYED - a BLUE is an Oxbridge athlete that has competed for their university. |
| 17 |
ED,F in RACED |
| 19 |
NOB,ALL - a NO BALL is an extra in the crossword compiler’s favourite sport. |
| 22 |
GREEN-FINGERED - sounds like “[Graham] Greene” |
| 24 |
MAE WEST - one of the most chestnut-ty of all crossword chestnuts, but at least Virgilius tries to take a fresh approach to clueing it. It seems to be a hybrid clue containing a straight definition and another, more cryptic one.m |
| 27 |
GREY-HEADED - sounds like “Gray” |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
hidden in “devOUT SWAMis” |
| 3 |
T in (DUNGEON I HADNT)* - NOTHING DAUNTED. Not a phrase I was familiar with but once I’d settled on NOTHING for the first word, the remaining anagram fodder solved itself. |
| 4 |
N,S in OPEC - the definition - “as a gamble” - is a bit tricky and export group for OPEC is not immediately obvious. |
| 7 |
SAINTLY - this was a great clue, and very misleading. John, Paul and George were all saints (as well as Beatles) and Ringo wasn’t (a saint, that is). |
| 8 |
A RAT<,DIDDLE |
| 9 |
AL’S,ACE RAIN in LORE - another great clue. The surface reading is excellent and very apposite and the handling of the cryptic elements is very well done. |
| 13 |
GAMES in BOARDS - very well disguised definition: “Go, with others”. |
| 16 |
ROTA,IDEM (all reversed) - IDEM is the Latin phrase for “as previously mentioned”. |
| 20 |
(I AND DR O)* - ANDROID is pretty much all you can do with those letters. |
| 21 |
AGE,C in NY |
| 23 |
BIRD - double def. A HOBBY is a small species of falcon. |
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 30th October 2007
loonapick had to admit defeat on this puzzle. This was partly because the theme of the puzzle mainly affected England rather than Scotland. It was Michael Fish and his quote about the telephoned hurricane warning - the puzzle appeared on the 20th anniversary of the 1987 storms (I saw repeats of the quote three or four times on the TV that day - so I think loonapick also struggled as he didn’t start on the day of publication). The ‘eye’ in the centre of the grid was presumably a visual hint.
The quotation is: A woman rang to say she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well don’t worry, there isn’t. [Hurricane being anagrammed to 'raunchier'.] The extra letters in wordplay for other answers gave: “Twelve examples of who said it”. So you had to find twelve fish in the grid and highlight them. With careful consultation of Chambers and counting of cells, my 12 are (in the order they’d be listed as clues): SOLE, RUFF, BASS, RUDD, ORFE, CHUB, SPRAT, SKATE, BAR, TROUT, SMELT, DAB. The biggest problem for the setter was probably ensuring that there are no alternative fish elsewhere in the grid.
For me, spotting the quote was pretty easy, but fairly tough clues meant that the rest of the puzzle still took quite a while - maybe three or four hours in total.
In the clue explanations below, the clues with extra letters in wordplay start with “+”
| Across |
|
|
| 1 |
CYTONS+T - ONST = once (dialect) replaces E in CYTE - a rare word for a cell, though obvious enough from words like lymphocyte and leukocyte (at least if you live in the same house as a hospital lab scientist) |
| 13 |
LOOK-UP+E - LOOE,K,UP |
| 14 |
V(I)ET,NAM = man = servant, rev. |
| 17 |
SUTRA+L - S-short,ULTRA |
| 18 |
ETON+V - ETO(N)V = N(new) in vote, all rev. |
| 20 |
TAGETES+E - T(AGE)ETES or TE(AGE)TES |
| 21 |
RAGEE+E = RE,A,GEE - ragi/ragee/raggee/raggy is a kind of millet |
| 23 |
THROE+X - THRO’,EX. |
| 30 |
GALAH - GAL,kAtHy |
| 32 |
TRAUMA+A - anag of AMATAUR = amateur with A=America for base=E (natural logarithm base) |
| 33 |
RUDDERS = redd rev. in Rus. - a budget is a kind of rudder, and red(d) is to put in order |
| 35 |
NA=not avilable,T=to,HAN=Chinese People - T=to is a new trick to me - it’s in C as “t- or t’ an obsolete shortened form of to before a vowel, as in tadvance (Spenser)” |
| 36 |
NAUTILI - compound anag. of jubilation less ‘job’ |
| 37 |
BETA-TEST+M - anag. of (team, best, t) |
| 39 |
LENTEN+P - hidden in “benevolent pension” - not too surprisingly, ‘Lenten’ means ‘meagre’ |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
COUNTERAGENTS+L - (cotangent rules)* |
| 2 |
TOLU+E - TO=for,ELU=ule (=rubber) rev. |
| 3 |
OLEFIN+E - (s)OLE FINE |
| 4 |
NEAFE+O - ONE,A,FE |
| 5 |
INTIMA+F - (in fat I’m)* - intima = an organ’s innnermost membrane |
| 6 |
ALLERGIST+W - WALLER=builder,G(IS)T. |
| 7 |
ECONUT+H - ECHO=E,NUT=head |
| 8 |
DRUM - 2 mngs, one = ridge or drumlin - I remember drumlin (a ridge formed under an ice-sheet) from A-level Geog. |
| 10 |
S,P,RAT - a Shak. term of contempt |
| 11 |
SKATER+S - S(KAT,ER)S - k(h)at = leaves from a shrub of the same name, chewed as a stimulant |
| 17 |
SET,T=the - set(t) = a paving stone = flag |
| 19 |
NE,SH = susceptible to cold or otherwise delicate (dialect from OE hnesce) |
| 22 |
GALUTH+I - (ha(d) guil)* - a galut(h) is a forced exile of Jews |
| 24 |
HE(ART)E.N.=Enrolled Nurse |
| 26 |
SADH=dash*,US=me (colloq.) |
| 27 |
TURN=go,TO=until |
| 29 |
SMELT+D - S(MEL)TD. |
| 32 |
ROUTE+I - routi(n)e |
| 34 |
FIST+T - (its)* in FT - fist = an index (printing) |
Posted in Inquisitor | 1 Comment »
Posted by ilancaron on 30th October 2007
This was hard. Not easy. Some of the clues seem better suited to a weekend puzzle — not to the mention the fact that the online version didn’t indicate enumerations (word divisions) at all which made some clues quite difficult: 1D, 8D, 23A, 19A. A couple of fine clues (e.g. 14A) but overall more dictionary-words than is my wont for a weekday (e.g. LORICA, EFFERENT, HEPTANE). I also must admit I don’t understand 20D (ACCORD?), 21D (LORICA) and 25D (LARK?). Read the comments below to understand how to decode the early-morning online errors (since fixed) which apply to the last few down clues.
Across
| 9 |
1,BU(PROF,E)N - a two-drug clue: IBUPROFEN and E[cstasy]. |
| 10 |
DEUCE=”juice” - as in “what the deuce [devil]?” and I think we’re trying to rhyme with “juice” which will have someone upset somewhere I’m sure. |
| 11 |
HE,P(T)ANE - HE is our High Explosive. HEPTANE must be a chemical. |
| 12 |
INCISOR - ah, a rare Pasqualean cryptic definition, where your “trap” is your mouth. |
| 14 |
DEPO[a]RTMENT - my fav clue: DEPARTMENT is a French county basically and “nothing” (O) replaces “a”. Slick. The whole thing meaning “carriage”. |
| 15 |
A(BEY)ANT - BEY is a useful cryptic Turkish governor. |
| 17 |
P,ARABLE - ref. the Parable of the Sower (see under: The Bible). |
| 19 |
Y,LANG-Y,LANG - a tree grows in Malaya. I really hope there’s an Archbishop LANG otherwise this all falls flat (Y’s our unknown). |
| 22 |
ELLA - rev(alle[ueia]). Ref. ELLA Fitzgerald. |
| 23 |
EN CLAIR - (Arc? Line)* — rather tough since should have been indicated as (2, 5). |
| 24 |
RELATED - two meanings: simple and elegant clue. |
| 24 |
CORGI - hidden in “dramatiC ORGIes” - presumably only applies to the Queen’s son who married a porn star (or is that libel?). |
| 27 |
CAM(A,R)ILLA - speaking of which, I take it she’s a duchess now? CAMARILLA is a kind of political clique. |
Down
| 1 |
WITHIN EASY REACH - not really since the enumeration was just (15) — however it was clearly an anagram of (Cheshire ain’t way)* |
| 2 |
CU(T)P,RICE - this time our food’s RICE (last time it was BUN). |
| 3 |
[w]ORC,A - rev(a cro[w]) — it’s a killer whale. I think it’s a bit loose to not hint at the seagoing nature of this particular kind of killer. |
| 4 |
EF=rev(FE),FE,RENT - FE is “iron” — had to look EFFERENT up: related to motion-transmission neurons. |
| 8 |
LEARN THE HARD WAY - indeed: without the (5, 3, 4, 3) enumeration this was quite hard. |
| 16 |
AU GRATIN - seems like a fairly weak cryptic definition? |
| 18 |
BELITTLE - I think this wants to be ELI (”priest”) in BATTLE (”conflict”) but I don’t see how to remove the A - ideas? “Sneer at priest in conflict?” |
| 20 |
ACCORD - I think. The clue is “Not the answer” — was it supposed to have been “Nod to answer”? |
| 21 |
LORICA - it’s a hard protective sheath in the world of biology. Wordplay? “Agreement that’s current - something binding?” |
| 25 |
LARK - Maybe. “Covering unduly ornate lacking edges around”. |
Posted in Guardian | 11 Comments »