November 2007
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Oct		Dec »
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Archive for November, 2007

Independent 6590 by Merlin

Posted by nmsindy on 29th November 2007

An excellent puzzle, as usual, from this top setter. Solving time: 19 mins

* = anagram < = reverse

ACROSS

4 H AND M (Clothes shop) AID

11 A LEX (Luthor - Superman’s enemy) AND RA (artist)

14 (Yorkshire) BATTER IN G RAMS using metric units = in grams

18 FIT S AND S TARTS

22 ORNAMENTS (smarten on(e))*

25 BR ONZE Third in Olympics etc after Gold, Silver. BR = Brazil (IVR), confirmed in Collins. Onze is French for eleven ie football team

27 TH (RE) AT Last I solved and much easier than it looks.

DOWN

2 DO ONE’S BIT Definition ‘chip in’ Lorna Doone = 19th century novel. Good surface suggesting computers

3 CON GA Con = direct course, a less common meaning of ‘con’. GA = Georgia (US state)

‘conga’ is a verb here, I think ‘to dance’

5 AFGHANISTAN (an Asian fight)* less I (head of Islamists). A nice &lit from the master.

6 DER RINGER Note it’s double barrelled not double-barrelled! That’s where definition and word play meet. ‘der’ = the German, like ‘le’ is the French.

7 A (one) PER (each) Y (year). Colony of apes (less common meaning of the word, but not too difficult from the checking and wordplay).

8 DUE (LL’I S) T A very elaborate & lit with punning on score as in a musical piece ‘duet’

I’ll< s = second

15 TRADE MARK ‘used to’ as mark replaced as German currency by the euro in 2002.

18 AS (like) SON (lad) AN (article) CE (Anglican) Same vowel or consonant repeated - the clue itself being an example.

17 IF FINES S (society) Remember provided = if

21 Greta GAR BO Hidden in those answers run together in the order given.

Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »

Independent on Sunday 928 by Quixote

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.

Notes on some clues below - happy to explain others if asked.

* = anagram < = reversed

ACROSS

9 INCUS “Cups may be made of soft bone here” I think it’s saying you get cups if you put p = soft in cus. It’s a bone in the middle ear.

13 SAINT ANDREW (was at dinner)* Surface suggesting not too saintly behaviour.

17 (Andrew) LLOYD WEBBER Pleasingly linked with the above (Well-bred boy)*

DOWN

8 ES TEEM meet< Tu es (in French) = Thou art - not my favourite crossword ploy

15 A BE (R DEE) N Scottish flower = Scottish river = something that flows. And it’s not just DEE but R = River DEE if I’ve read it right.

19 HAR (LE) M Tricky with natural syntax reversed = was looking for a synonym of ‘distress’ at first.

Posted in Independent | No Comments »

Financial Times 12,618 by Cincinnus

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.

Across
1, 28. MAKING TRACKS - double definition
4. THE CHAMP - THE (article) + HAM (bad actor) in CP
9. ADD UP - A (a) + DD (doctor of divinity) + UP (at college)
10. JERKINESS - JERKIN (jacket) + [l]ESS (75% of “less”)
11. LOAFERS - anagram (fantastic) of FOR SALE
12. UNARMED - double definition
13. ASPS - AS (when) + P[oisonou[S]
14. ASTEROID - A (a) + STEROID (drug)
17. DIVISION - double definition
19. HALO - hidden word
22. ORLANDO - double definition
24. RAIMENT - RENT (tear) around AIM (object)
25. ROYAL MINT - anagram of NORMALITY
26. TITAN - hidden word
27. MURMANSK - MURK (darkness) around MAN (chap) + S (seafront)

Down
1. MEATLOAF - double definition
2. KIDNAPPED - “kid napped”
3. NIPPER - NIP (small drink) + PER (for each)
5. HERCULE POIROT - anagram of OUR HELICOPTER
6. CHICAGO - CHIC (elegant) + A (one) + GO (vitality)
7. ABEAM - A (a) + BEAM (shaft)
8. POSADA - PO (post office) + S (small) + ADA (girl)
10. JUST SO STORIES - JUST (only) + SOS (plea for help) + TORIES (right)
15. DIALECTIC - DIALECT (manner of speaking) + IC (one chapter)
16. FORTUNES - “for tunes”
18. VANILLA - ALL IN (comprehensive) + A (a) + V (civic centre) all reversed
20. POGROM - PO (Italian flower) + G (girl’s first) + ROM (memory)
21. BITTER - double definition
23. LAYER - anagram of EARLY

Posted in FT | 2 Comments »

Independent 6589/Dac

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 »

Guardian 24246/Orlando - A rum clue

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

1	COLUMB[us],A - must be a St. COLUMBA. Quite a clever construction: “Finder (and loser) of America…”
5	CON=”tory”,FAB=”cool” - my last clue: in the back of my mind is the feeling that CONFAB is a kind of chinwag.
9	AT(LAN[d])TIC - ref. ATTIC Greek I believe (the “prestige dialect of Ancient Greece”) and not the thing needing a ladder at the top of the stairs.
10	WINNER - two meanings I suppose: not sure what the “director” ref is though?
15	I,AN,FLEMING - hard getting Georges Simenon off my brain given “Belgian author” but a FLEMING is our Belgian this time.
20	ANNA N,EAGLE - ref. Kofi ANNAN (of the UN and of many eponymous coffee bars round the world) and ref. the Roman EAGLE standard (flag) I suppose. Oh, turns out she was a 30s British film actress.
22	COLLARED DOVE - ref. River DOVE in Derbyshire.
26	A,SGARD - rev(drags, a) - ASGARD must be on the way to Valhalla (or a synonym thereof?)
27	SONDHEIM - (Hedonism)* — for all I know an &lit as well! Stephen SONDHEIM is a strong proponent of cryptic crosswords in the US as well.
28	SA(TIN)Y
29	SHY,STER=rest* - I’ve always wondered if this is a kind of anti-semitic pejorative derived from Shylock??

Down

2	LULU - ref. LULU of “To Sir with Love” fame and presumably an opera as well (?). Three meanings.
3	MANN,ERLY=lyre* - ref. Thomas (or I suppose Heinrich) MANN.
4	A,L,IKE - clever clue: “A Latin American President is just the same”. Ref. IKE Eisenhower.
6	O,RIG,IN
8	BARRYMORES - as Spooner would say: “MARRY BORES”
11	VIENNA - ([fina]n[cier], naive)*
13	FIRST-CLASS - double definition both somewhat cryptic.
14	[w]INNER LIGHT - as in “undemanding” (LIGHT) task and I’m making a wild guess that the Quakers have a guide called… yes… the INNER LIGHT.
18	F(ERVID=drive*)LY - someone will have to tell us why FLY is “carriage”?
21	WARREN - two meanings: ref. WARREN Hastings, a Brit general I think.
24	HEAT[her] - Erica is a type of heather.
25	A,MUR=rev(rum=”remarkable”) - had to look this up: it’s a Russian river.