Posted by ilancaron on 6th December 2007
As always an intellectual treat to solve a Paul puzzle — and as usual he pushes the Ximenean envelope — typically from the outside, but always gratifyingly — e.g. 17D. A couple of very Brit-local refs (e.g. 11A).
Across Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 6th December 2007
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 4 | (SHE COSTS O)* – COHOSTESS. Quite a strange clue as it’s not really an &lit (”She costs nothing when partying”) but it reads like one. |
| 9 | ATE in NS – NATES was new to me so, together with the wrong-way-round wording “clenching worried Poles” meaning “Poles clenching worried”, this held me up for a while. |
| 10 | GAL,I in METHS |
| 11 | CAF[-e] in SELL – last one in for me and I had to use to check that SCA FELL is indeed a mountain or “peak”. |
| 13/1 | IT STARTED WITH A KISS – A song by Hot Chocolate. The rest of the clue (”answers here”) refers to the positioning of the answer in the grid so that A KISS starts the crossword at 1a. |
| 16/24 | THIS WILL END IN TEARS – similar to the previous answer in that part of the clue (”description of today’s puzzle”) refers to the completed grid – the last across entry being TEARS. |
| 18 | H,S in (LAPSE)* – HAPLESS |
| 20 | GATE A,U,X – I was a little puzzled by “first opening” but have just twigged that it’s GATE A. |
| 21 | (A GULLET OR)* – LAGER LOUT. I liked this a lot. The gullet is the throat so we have a reference to drinking and “misbehaving” in the clue. |
| 23 | (RETRO AZED)* – ZERO-RATED. Misleading surface reading and, of course, name-checking a fellow compiler. |
| Down | |
| 1 | (COSTING A)* – Quite a hard definition to spot (”He doesn’t know”). I think I would have spotted the anagram a bit quicker but I thought “it’s” had more significance rather than just being a link word. |
| 2 | N,S in INTRA,IT – took a while to parse this one – “Crossing partners break within it” – as my initial thought was that “within” was a container indicator and “it” the container itself, which works for IN TRANSIT. But actually, “within” in INTRA/ |
| 3 | (CARROT MYSTERIES)* – SYSTEMATIC ERROR. |
| 4 | (USE WET POLO MATCH)* – COMPLETE WASHOUT. |
| 5 | HIGHLY DELIGHTED – a pun on being up high (”cloud”,”heaven”). |
| 6 | (EVENTS AFFLICTED)* – SELF-EVIDENT FACT. I was a bit surprised to see EVIDENT in the answer given that “evidence” is in the clue but it must be right. |
| 7 | EAT-IN – don’t understand this one: “CH in full is not to go!” “Not to go” must be the definition – any offers for the rest of the clue? |
| 14 | HYDRANGEA – sounds like “hyde ranger”. |
| 15 | (SEX SINCE)* – IN EXCESS. |
| 17 | L in SHUT,Z – must be a reference to this man. |
| 19 | RE,GAP (going up) |
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 6th December 2007
A more difficult than usual Cinephile this time around. I started my puzzle with 30A which gave me a good entree to 5D. The mention of “rose” in the clue and a three-letter word ending in P made me think of HIP, and from that I quickly had the one long answer. I thought that would make the rest of the puzzle a breeze but I was wrong! I found 1A, 6A, 27A and 8D to be tough. I particularly like 6D, 13D and 20D.
Posted in FT | 4 Comments »