Posted by neildubya on 30th November 2007
Not having been lucky enough to get a crossword to solve for a while I was slightly disappointed that this one was so undemanding. I got through it in under 8 minutes. Still it gave a gentle ending to the week, and it meant I didn’t wear out my brain before Saturday’s, which may well be more challenging!Across
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 30th November 2007
Nice puzzle from The Editor with a theme that revealed itself in two parts for me: first, cities then Italian cities. Plaudits for getting so many in, especially when so many of them end in awkward letters like I and O. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by neildubya on 30th November 2007
I know next to nothing about horse-racing so once I’d twigged the theme I had to use Google to check a couple of answers that I got from the wordplay (1a and 28a). There are still 4 clues that I don’t understand though. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 12 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 30th November 2007
A very enjoyable puzzle from a very reliable setter. It might be my imagination but there seemed to be a few more obscure words than there usually are in Beelzebub puzzles but I actually found this easier than a typical Columba effort; maybe because harder words meant easier wordplay? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Beelzebub | No Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 29th November 2007
The preamble stated that ‘before solving, one letter must be changed in the definition part of 25 clues, the new letters all being different. The missing 26th letter is to be revealed as required by the completed grid.”
Posted in Inquisitor | 5 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 29th November 2007
An excellent puzzle, as usual, from this top setter. Solving time: 19 mins
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 29th November 2007
A St Andrew’s Day theme in the appropriate week. One or two tricky clues, but I found it fairly easy overall. Solving time: 16 mins.
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 29th November 2007
Another lovely puzzle from Cincinnus. I particularly like 13A, 19A, 25A and 5D. I found 26A and 20D hard.
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 28th November 2007
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 4 | SCHNAPPS – cleverly done. A drunkard might pronounce “snaps” (pictures = shots) as SCHNAPPS. The literal reading works too. |
| 10 | D in LANG,RAVE – this was new to me but fairly easy once I stopped thinking about Lean (ie, David) as the film director. A LANDGRAVE is a count that has jurisdiction over certain territory. |
| 11 | VIE in GENEVE – I think I vaguely knew that GENEVIEVE was a film but I couldn’t tell you anything about it. |
| 13 | CHEST in GRANTER |
| 17 | (SOUTHERN [-M]EDOC)* – nice anagram but it was the clue enumeration that helped me get this one. Can’t really avoid that I suppose. |
| 24 | SWILL – the last one in for me, and I wasn’t completely convinced about it at the time although I am now. Pigs’ SWILL is made from scraps so I guess that counts as “refuse” and a SWILL is a gulp of beer or other alcohol. |
| 26 | W,EIGHT |
| Down | |
| 1 | ENG in (EAGER)* – really good clue, with a good surface: “Sign up again, eager for training to include engineering”. |
| 2 | MAD ON,N,AS – once I’d worked out that “really into” was MAD ON, then MADONNAS had to be the answer but it took me a while after that to spot “when” for AS. |
| 3 | KIR,OV[-er] |
| 5 | S in (MONK DECLINED)* – wasted some time assuming that “Monk” was the definition. I kicked myself when I finally saw CONDENSED MILK as I had written out the remaining anagram fodder and MILK should have leapt out at me from that. |
| 6 | (WEIGHT RAN)* – oddly enough, I got this (from the definition) before I got 26A. |
| 10 | L,I,ECHT,E[-i]NSTEIN – easy enough to get from “Learner” indicating something beginning with L and the fact that we’re looking for a 13 letter place in Europe but the wordplay is not so obvious. ECHT means genuine or authentic and “clever fellow, one given promotion” means move an I in EINSTEIN up a bit. OK, it’s slightly vague but, for me at least, the wordplay confirmed the answer rather than led to it. |
| 14 | T,ER in ROUSED |
| 19 | W in CREEL – quite a tough clue so I’m glad I knew that CREEL is something for holding bobbins in a spinning machine. “With” for W is tricky to spot too as it’s so often used as a link word. |
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by ilancaron on 28th November 2007
A good puzzle to learn a few new words via clear wordplay (e.g. SATINY, ASGARD, COLUMBA). One unusual river (AMUR) and an unfamiliar actress (ANNA NEAGLE) and a couple of other more familiar dramatic characters (the BARRYMORES, SONDHEIM and IAN FLEMING).
Across Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 8 Comments »
Posted by smiffy on 28th November 2007
Just when you thought that the FT blogs had become extinct…. Apologies for going AWOL last week, when short-notice travel plans scuppered my schedule again. Incidentally, the FT puzzles seem to have become freely available online (they required a site-subscription until quite recently); for anyone who desperately needs a stash of extra puzzles, the index can be found here.
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 27th November 2007
Apologies if you checked in earlier – a work crisis of Biblical proportions had wiped out my leisure time and my solution was sparse.
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Posted by John on 27th November 2007
The usual brilliant crossword from Virgilius. His clues are consistently excellent, but there is nearly always a very clever theme, which is usually signposted by the fact that the grid is a bit unusual (although recently we have been having quite a lot of sub-50% checking). For this theme see below. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 17 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 26th November 2007
I found this very tough, although the Milton theme helped a lot if you were at all familiar with his work. My favourite clue was 25 – a superbly hidden anagram. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 18 Comments »
Posted by michod on 26th November 2007
A gentle start to the week as ever. Most of the clues are pretty straightforward, so I’ve only given a few explanations – more can be supplied on request.
Posted in Guardian | 3 Comments »
Posted by linxit on 25th November 2007
Solving time 38:18 (with Chambers and Bradford’s)
I made one mistake (9ac, SOOM for SOOP) but realised when I came to do the blog, as I’d never been happy with my original answer and had another look at it. Whenever I fail on an Azed, it’s always a little 4-letter word with an unch at the beginning or end.
Posted in Azed | No Comments »
Posted by rightback on 24th November 2007
Solving time: 17:58
About the last 10 minutes were spent on two pairs: 16ac/18dn and 19ac/20dn. The first I sorted out once I accepted that 16ac was an &lit (and realised that 24ac was LENTIGO and not ‘lentego’), but the second pair was harder: I couldn’t explain 19ac while solving and still couldn’t when blogging. Needless to say, I got it about 30 seconds after originally posting. Some very good clues in this puzzle.
Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »
Posted by michod on 23rd November 2007
ACROSS:
4. JAM PAN. A guess now confirmed – it’s a kind of sedan chair.
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 23rd November 2007
In his blog yesterday, nmsindy was wondering why Phi had been moved from his usual Friday slot; this puzzle might provide an explanation… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by Colin Blackburn on 23rd November 2007
By the time you read this I should be at the top of Manau Kea in Hawaii.
Unless I turn out to get altitude sickness in which case I’ll be in a bar in Hilo!
Posted in Inquisitor | 1 Comment »
Posted by neildubya on 23rd November 2007
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 3 | A,MB,U,LANCES – I hesitated a bit over this as I didn’t know that LANCE=move quickly but with A,MB,U and a definition of “hospital transport” there’s not much else it can be. |
| 11 | [-s]CARED |
| 12 | E in WILDE,D – I liked “an Oscar” to indicate WILDE because it’s a bit different to what we would usually see: “Oscar, say” or “Oscar, perhaps”. |
| 13 | REWARD< – one of four answers in the puzzle that uses the same letters. |
| 15 | INFERNAL,A CHIN in ME – INFERNAL MACHINE. I’d heard of the phrase but wasn’t really sure what it meant – apparently it’s a concealed explosive device intended to destroy life or property. |
| 18 | (L ENGLAND ASH TREE)* – HANSEL AND GRETEL. |
| 21 | WARRED – “ward”. The second thematic clue. |
| 23 | W in TOE,RED – I’ve been caught out by “legend” (end of leg) before, and by the same setter I think. |
| 26 | ED in CAR – is there a technical term for clues like this: “Editor’s vehicle wrapped round tree”, where we have to read it as “Vehicle’s wrapped round editor tree”. Reverse container-and-contents, perhaps? |
| 27 | SATYRICON – which was a satirical novel written in the 1st century AD by Petronius. SATYR is a word for a lascivious man (”Chap desiring sex”). |
| 28 | S in PALM,ODIST |
| Down | |
| 1 | C,ART,W,RIGHT |
| 5 | hidden in “fUND IDeally” |
| 6 | RA (going up),A in CHIC – with A?C???? filled in I had to resist the urge to fill in “ancient”. |
| 7 | C,RIS[-e] in (ARETE)* – CAREERIST. “Professional climber” is a great definition. |
| 8 | SIDE – was a bit puzzled about this one when I filled it in but I think I get it now. Full clue is “Left Channel 4?” and it was the “Channel 4″ bit I didn’t get. I think it’s a reference to a TV station being a SIDE, as in “Switch to the other side”, meaning to change channels. Unless anyone else has a better explanation. |
| 9 | WARDER – the third thematic clue. The “lift and separate” definition is “screw”. |
| 14 | BELLY-DANCE – marvellous cryptic def. “Corporation shake-up in the East”. |
| 16 | IN LAND in F,AI (going up) – FINLANDIA is a symphonic poem by Jean Sibelius. |
| 17 | TIDE (going up) in MATES |
| 19 | EAR[-ly],DRU[-id],M[-en] – an excellent clue with an original treatment. “Both feet having been severed” is the indicator for lopping off the last two letters in “early Druid men”. |
| 20 | REWARD – the fourth thematic clue, and identical to 13A! “Artist’s back pay for good work”. |
| 22 | DES (going up),OD – I originally filled in DOPED thinking “I’ll figure out the wordplay later”, but that’s never a good idea. |
| 25 | S,CUP – a “porgy” is a type of sparid food fish, or SCUP. This was all news to me but the wordplay could only take you in one direction. |
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 23rd November 2007
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | L in BASH – I hesitated over this at first because I couldn’t see why “go” = BASH. Then I remembered “have a bash at [something]“. |
| 11 | (SIGN BLOOMERS)* – REBLOSSOMING. Pleasing &lit clue. |
| 12 | ENZOOTIC – this must be right as the definition fits but I can’t untangle the wordplay: “Quickly one should return around zone suffering localised disease”. |
| 16 | BEE,SWING – a BEE is a social gathering (e.g. spelling bee) and BEESWING is a flaky deposit found in port and other wines. |
| 19 | P in A DRESS |
| 21 | DA in DUET,E |
| 24 | E in SLP,TOFF – I initially filled in SWEPT OFF even though it didn’t really fit with the definition because I convinced myself that Arthur Scargill was in the Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP). Turns out he founded the Socialist Labour Party. |
| 29 | IT’S A< – IT is vermouth, as in “gin and it” (which sounds like a classic martini to me…) |
| 31 | ON in (BEST NEARLY)* – BLARNEY-STONE. |
| 32 | (B[-a]BY)*,LOW – BYBLOW. Excellent &lit clue. A BYBLOW is an illegitimate child. |
| Down | |
| 1 | BREEZE – I liked this clue a lot: “Refuse to go cheerfully”. As a noun, BREEZE refers to cinders, ash or dust (which is what breeze blocks are made out of) and as a verb it can mean a few things but probably the most relevant is “to move in a self-confident or jaunty manner”. |
| 2 | (CLEARLY UNLIT)* – LENTICULARLY. I struggled to get, partly because I thought I was looking for a word ending -ICAL. |
| 4 | BE,A in H (FOOT)* – HOOFBEAT. Another excellent &lit: “Horse with foot moving? Happen one will be involved”. I’ve only now spotted that “happen one” is BE,A though. |
| 5 | (REST)*,EAST – ESTREAT. |
| 8 | P,P,IE in LIST |
| 15 | QUEE[-r],(MAN)*,B – QUEEN MAB is a tantalizing fairy who “governs and produces peoples’ dreams”. |
| 17 | SPOFFISH – not sure if this is right as I can’t work out the wordplay. Full clue is “Officious affected types upset a person”. This answers crosses with 33A – which I’ve got as HASTE (the H is where they cross) but I can’t explain that either so it’s possible that might be wrong too. |
| 20 | DEFRA,Y[e]S |
| 25 | odd letters of SiLk, initial letters of “Used By Braiders”. |
| 27 | IT<,R,L – TIRL. |
Posted in Beelzebub | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 23rd November 2007
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by jetdoc on 22nd November 2007
A pretty straightforward daily cryptic, though you did need to know a few single-letter and two-letter abbreviations (like three ‘meanings’ of D). There were several obvious, as it seemed to me, anagrams; if anyone found them less obvious, I’ll gladly explain. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 14 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 22nd November 2007
Phi usually appears on Friday rather than today (Thursday). Wondered if there was a date-specific reason for this, but cannot see a theme. Quite an easy puzzle, I found. Solving time, 15 mins
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
