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Archive for November 6th, 2007

Independent 6570/Virgilius — pull the other one.

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 6th November 2007

Colin Blackburn.

The theme for today’s Virgilius is lies, tall tales and shaggy dog stories. All the across answers are thematic and with the constraints imposed on the grid by the long themed answers there are lots of short down answers. All the across answers commented on are either cryptic definitions or double definitions with heavily cryptic readings for one of the defs.

Across
1/12 LIES DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS — famous Disraeli quote, which must irk statisticians.
16 FISHERMENS YARNS — ref to Guernsey sweaters originally worn by Guernsey fishermen when they started exploiting the cod fisheries of Labrador several hundred years ago.
19 TRAVELLERS TALES — travel broadens the mind!
22 TELL ME ANOTHER — account = story
30 BELIEVE IT OR NOT — buy = believe
 
Down
4 AMY — A+MY — my is an expression that might cover admiration.
5 NAPES — P in SEAN< — Sean is second only to Pat in Irish male names.
7 IMP — I’M+P — this confused me for a while, “not under” essentially means over in this context but works well in the surface.
8 SLEW — double def. — SLEW is a US term for a lot, a great quantity. Slay = greatly amuse.
13 TAMIL — hidden &lit — nice concise clue. The question mark is needed since not all Tamils are militants.
14 SOREL — SOREL(y) — quite a tough clue this one. The answer is not a common word this but not much else fits the space. SOREL is a Shakespearean alternative spelling of sorrel, a buck in its third year. Sorely = extremely.
15 ISIS — I+SIS — the River Thames in Oxford is called the Isis. Not sure if “stream” isn’t under selling the river a bit.
16 FETE — “fate”
20 ECLIPSE — CLIPS in EE — my favourite clue. The wordplay and surface reading are both excellent.
23 MORSE — double def. — Inspector Morse was an avid crossword solver as is the Morse after whom the inspector is named.
24 HYDRO — HYD(e)+R+O — this clue was a close second. Part-time doctor could describe Mr Hyde’s occupation.
26 SWAB — cryptic def. — this is a nice cryptic definition playing on a nurse’s role in an operating theatre.
28 OIL — initials — I’m not sure if this is fully &lit. It’s definitely political.
29 SIT — S+IT — I think this is the answer but I’m not 100% happy. The clue is, “Instruction to boxer from second, exactly what’s needed (3)”

Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »

Guardian 24,227, Brummie: Rhine whine

Posted by michod on 6th November 2007

michod.

Brummie seems to be becoming more regular, which is generally to be welcomed, though I don’t think this is one of his best, and several long clues seem to me to fall into the NCD (not cryptic definition) trap. Thanks to Dave for 8 and 20 down, which beat me.

ACROSS:

1. DESCEND INTO FARCE. E.g. this one - the image is of Peter crashing to the stage, which would be farcical, but that’s just applying the metaphor literally.

9. LE(A)NDER. Nice misleading surface.

11. I, NG(E)NUITY (UNTYING*). It took me a while to see the anagram here.

16. RHINE’S TONE. As in paste, not real diamond. Nice clue, put in to cross with Django going down, which at least cleared up his spelling for me (see 1dn).

21. SAHIB (BI HAS<). Hmm… hermaphrodite = having two sets of sexual organs;  bisexual = having sex with people possessing either set. Not the same, surely.

22. AEROMETER (ARE REMOTE*). 

24. TURN OFF (FORT FUN*). ‘About’ before the word seems an even weaker anagrind than after, somehow.

25. A(TH(e))LONE.

DOWN:

1. DJANGO RHEINHART. No, RHINEHARDT. No, that’s too many letters, hang on, let’s check the anagram - HAG-RIDDEN TROJAN… RINEHARDT, OK. Until I got 16 ac, and realised it was REINHARDT. Nice anagram on it’s own, but the clue’s surface is a bit meaningless.

2. SU(DA)N. Not sure what the shortened haircut is - DA_. (see comments - M).

3. EARLIER. I like this a lot - i.e. more ‘earl-y’.

5. NAIL FILE. Another nice idea with a slightly opaque surface. Digital = to do with fingers or toes, of course.

6. ON PERMANENT LOAN. A pretty straight definition, I’d say.

7, 19ac. FLYING LEAP. Don’t really get this one - is it really just brief = flying, leap = bound, and what a squirrel does? Only the comma attempts to mislead.

8. ??? I put in ‘orbery’ (OR + B + (t)RY, er, not sure about the E), but I don’t think that’s a word. Any offers? (Totally wrong. See comments - M).

16, 26ac. RISE TO THE OCCASION. Another NCD, if you ask me.

20. ???? P_R_E_. Is this some measure of light years? (Indeed it is - see comments - M).

23. MA + H(D)I.

  

Posted in Guardian | 16 Comments »