Fifteensquared

Never knowingly undersolved.

Archive for October 31st, 2007

Inquisitors

Posted by petebiddlecombe on 31st October 2007

petebiddlecombe.

The report for No. 42 is now complete.  And 43 is solved so will be blogged promptly.

But loonapick and I would still love to have one or two other Inquisitor solvers to help with blogging these puzzles.  Willingness to write about them is more important than confidence about solving every clue - we can help with that part.  If you’re interested, send an e-mail to the address mentioned in the FAQ page.

Posted in Inquisitor | No Comments »

Independent 6565/Dac — a river runs through it.

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 31st October 2007

Colin Blackburn.

Usual high quality fare from Dac: excellent surfaces, good clear wordplay, and at least one I have failed to get.

Across
1 FLIGHT CREW — F+LIGHT+CREW(e) — “Those serving in air” is an excellent definition here. It naturally runs into the next word, “force”, and led me to think of (the) FEW once I had the initial F.
11 GREENGAGE — GAG in GREENE — a plum.
13 TRIDENT — I’D in TRENT — river one.
15 EMETIC — ITEM< in EC — an EMETIC is a drug causing vomiting. EC = European Community.
16 FORSOOTH — S+O+O in FORTH — river two and an excellent old word.
24 LASAGNE — SAG(e) in LANE — “country way” is LANE rather than RUSTICA as the surface might suggest.
28 STUMBLING — (MUST)* + BLING — BLING is showy jewellery. I saw the ING ending and pencilled in RING having ruled out EARRING. It took me a while to see BLING and then the obvious initial
anagram.
30 ? — ST+?? or ?? in ST — “Though guided by saint, one may go downhill fast(4)” Any ideas? STEP springs to mind but I can’t justify the EP to myself. It looks like this is SLED from S+LED.
31 SAINT PETER — (TAPE ISN’T)* + ER — he was described as a rock.
 
Down
2 IMAGINE — G in I+MAINE — fancy = IMAGINE
3 HIGHSMITH — HIGHS + “myth” — I think this refers to Patricia Highsmith though I don’t know her work. “story-telling” leads to the homophone of myth.
7 PLACEBO — PLACE+BO(y) — The definition here sort of needs the whole clue but the clue itself isn’t &lit…
8 SWEATSHIRT — (T+WEARS THIS)* &lit —…but this one is and is elegantly simple.
14 VERBALISES — BALI in VERSES — my favourite clue, just for Dac spotting Bali in there.
17 STEAMED UP — S + TEAMED UP
18 ANGELICA — ANGEL+I+CA(ke) — the definition here can only be “decoration” though it’s hard not to read “cake” as doing double duty.
27 WEAR — double def. — the third river and the one I can’t quite see from my window though I can see the tree-lined valley.

Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »

Guardian 24,222 - Araucaria/Is there a theme?

Posted by loonapick on 31st October 2007

loonapick.

A typically challenging puzzle from the master himself.  There are a few mini-themes such as religion (NUNNERY, WHITED SEPULCHRE, LOURDES, EXCOMMUNICATION), the Crusades (GRAIL, BALDWIN), a couple of medical terms (FEMORAL, LUSTRAL) and a couple of Welsh towns (MAESTEG, DOLGELLAU), but I can’t bring it all together, so either I’m looking for something that isn’t there, or it’s gone over my head.

Solving time (18 mins, although I had to look up LUSTRAL and DISILLUDE

ACROSS

1 MAE-(<=GETS) - where MAE refers to Mae West, the actress

5 FE-MORAL - of the femur

9 J-AC-K.O.-FALL-TRADES

10 SOMME(lier)

12 YOUNGSTER - (grey not us)* - clever anagram

14 D-URAL - aka Duralumin, Duraluminum or Duraluminium, an allow of copper, manganese and magnesium, first used in arship frames by the Germans.

16 D(IS-ILL)UDE - had to look this word up, then kicked myself for not working it out.

18 LOADS-TO-N.E.

22 WHITED SEPULCHRE - W(HIT)ED-(cups here)* about L - a person who is inwardly evil, but professes virtue

23 (Trevor)NUNN-E-RY

24 LOURDES - (older US)* - hmmm! an indirect anagram and a dodgy anagrind - an Araucaria special?

DOWN

2 EX-COMMUNICATION - “bull” in the sense of a procalamation (Papal Bull, eg)

3 TWO-LEGGED - EGG in (old wet)* - I can’t find a dictionary that defines “isosceles” as two-legged, but I suppose I can see what he is getting at.

5 FUL(L)-MAR-KS

6 MARC-0

7 RIDING-ROUGHS-HOD - Wasn’t sure about RIDING = Yorkshire at first, but then reconsidered.  If you take it as RIDING ROUGHS = “Yorkshire hooliganes” it works.

8 L-(a)USTRAL(ia) - LUSTRAL is a sedative drug

13 TED-IOU-SLY

14 DOLGELLAU - (gold)*-ELL-AU

15 BALD-WIN - referring to Baldwin of Boulogne, one of the leaders of the First Crusade.

17 EARLESS

Posted in Guardian | 9 Comments »