Posted by Colin Blackburn on 11th December 2007
Another highly thematic puzzle from Virgilius. In this case all the down answers can be seen as dangerous women. Corrections and clarifications are in italics.
| Across |
| 9 |
AZORES — “as oars” |
| 14 |
ENAMEL — storagE NAMELy — think teeth rather than tiaras. |
| 15 |
ASIA — IS< in A+A — IS is going west here. This got me for a while as I saw East, West and articles and wrote in NEWS without seeing the wordplay. |
| 17 |
AFFIX — F+F in AIX — I guess the town of AIX got some good news once. |
| 19 |
REEBOK — BEER< + OK — a REEBOK is an African antelope. |
| 21 |
TASERING — ANGRIEST* — not sure if the verb to taser has made it into the dictionary yet but this clue makes for a nice &lit. |
| 24 |
ILL — ILL is hidden both ways in mILLIon, bILLIon, trILLIon, etc. |
| 26 |
GRIEVOUS — R+IE+V+O in GUS — I failed to get this one having ?I?E?O?S written in. I can see the wordplay and the definition, I think, but not the answer! Full clue is, “Small boy pinches king that’s very old, causing a lot of pain (8)” This clue may be affected by the correct answer to 16D. |
|
| Down |
| 1,20 |
LIZZIE BORDEN — cryptic def. |
| 2,5 |
LUCREZIA BORGIA — (A BIZARRE LOGIC + U)* |
| 4 |
BATTLE-AXES — I’m not 100% certain of the wordplay here. I can see the weapons but I can’t see Sarah and allies, though one Sarah Battles seems to have existed. |
| 6,18 |
DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS — cryptic def. — I thought this was the weakest clue of the puzzle. |
| 8 |
FEMMES FATALES — (MALE FATES)* in FEMS — the theme-defining answer in the puzzle. |
| 18 |
BLACK WIDOW — BLACK+WIDOW — Nicole-Barbe Clicquot-Ponsardin who revolutionised champagne making was refered to as The Widow. I’m not certain if that means WIDOW amd champagne are synonyms or if I’m missing something more subtle. |
| 16 |
SHE-BEARS — SHE+BEARS — I failed to get this one having SHE-DEVIL written in. this may be wrong but it fits with the theme. I don’t get it though. “Old novel supports females more dangerous than males (3-5)” |
| 22 |
NAIADS — (IN A SAD)* |
| 25,3 |
MISS OTIS — MISS + O + ‘TIS — Miss Otis Regrets is a song by Cole Porter about a woman who killed her seducer after being abandoned. |
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »
Posted by tilsit on 11th December 2007
Solving time: 12 minutes.
Solving a Chifonie puzzle often seems to me like a labour of love. Nice when you finish, but you don’t get the feeling of accomplishment that you do with other setters. I’m not sure why. I regularly solve and enjoy Times puzzles which never have a theme to them, but this just seems a bit bland.
ACROSS (*) = ANAGRAM (CD) = CRYPTIC DEFINITION (R) = REVERSAL
1 TRAP DOOR ROOD PART (R)
5 COMBAT COMB + A + T
9 GANYMEDE MANY EDGE*
10 GALLOP GALL + OP
12 TIARA Hidden answer
13 ATHLETICS HIS CATTLE*
14 HOUSE PAINTER HOUSE (Take In) + PAINTER ( A rope used to tie up a boat - standard crossword definition No 48)
18 INTERMEDIATE INTER + TE (Lawrence of Arabia’s initials) with MEDIA inside
21 CARTHORSE At least we were spared an anagram of ORCHESTRA! THOR’S inside CARE
23 NICHE H inside NICE
24 AT EASE A + TEASE
25 EQUIPAGE E (Earl) + QUIP (Sally) + AGE (Get on)
26 DANGER D + ANGER
27 REVEREND EVER in REND
DOWN
1 TIGHTS TIGHT (near) + S (opening of sewer)
2 ANNEAL ANNE + A + L
3 DEMEANOUR E+ MEAN inside DOUR
4 OLD MAN’S BEARD The alternative word for the plant Traveller’s Joy. DAMN BAD LOSER*
6 OSAGE - Brave, as in native American Indian (see Chambers) O (OLD) + SAGE
7 BALLISTA LIST inside BALA
8 TAPESTRY TAPES + TRY
11 CHAPLINESQUE A QUINCE HELPS*
15 INTENSIVE This clue doesn’t make sense. IN TENS = “Like the decimal system” - fine works OK. I’VE = “setter’s becoming” ? Rigorous = INTENSIVE. but why would a setter become rigorous like the decimal system?
17 PILCHARD LIP (R) + CHARD
19 SURGEON (Theatre worker - good misleading def) with T inside.
19 OCTANE Is Octane a gas? It’s a consistutent of petrol (gas in the US). AT ONCE *
20 LEGEND GEN inside LED
22 HASTE S inside HATE
Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »
Posted by michod on 11th December 2007
I think we need a new term for a particular kind of clue - the ones which rely on a word in the clue being split into its component parts, in the way that all crosswords treat the words being clued. The most common example is using ‘indeed’ to clue a word going DE____ED.
There was a classic example from Punk in yesterday’s Indy:”Incur trouble east of eastern nation” (E + CUR in ADO). Whenever we blog these, we (and I include myself here) always say something about annoying purists, being menean etc - but as far as I’m concerned, that was a bloody good clue. Can we agree some neutral word to describe this type of clue - ‘indeed’ clues, or ‘internal wordplay’ clues or something?
What do others think?
Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »
Posted by linxit on 11th December 2007
Solving time 10:07
Sorry for the lateness of the post, but I’ve been away from the computer all day and only just got round to solving it.
Typical Rufus with lots of cryptic definitions, and there were some good ones today. I especially liked 20A and 17A.
Across
9 TESTATOR - CD, and an old chestnut.
14 REL(OC)ATE - OC = CO rev.
17 CURTAINS - CD. I liked this one, but wonder about the optional (not necessarily) quartering!
20 COOKERY BOOKS - Really good CD. I thought it would probably be …BOOKS, but didn’t think about it further until I had some crossing letters.
23 GYRATE - tragedy* - d
24 LITERARY (it rarely)* - Good surface reading. I didn’t spot it as an anagram right away.
26 ENW(new*),RAP
Down
5 THREE BRASS BALLS - the symbol of a pawnshop, and to pop is to pawn something. Not in any dictionaries that I could see, but should be familiar to most.
8 I’LL BUY THAT - Another one that I suspected of not being in the dictionary, but surprisingly it is, under buy in Chambers.
12 PSEUDONYMS (send my opus)*
15 CORKS,CREW
16 DISRAELI (L,diaries)* - Benjamin Disraeli was a novelist as well as a politician, although the only one I’ve come across is Coningsby, as there was a thematic crossword based on it earlier in the year. Can’t remember which, maybe the Spectator?
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »