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Archive for December 28th, 2007

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Guardian 24,270: Puck - “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!”

Posted by stan on 28th December 2007

stan.

linxit has reported in sick, so I’ve thrown the following last minute blog together.

I’m something of a Beckett nut, so this puzzle was a joy.

Quotation above from “Waiting from Godot”, but could be most people’s review of his work.

ACROSS

1,4 SAMUEL BECKETT - (MUSTTAKECELEB)* He left Dublin to do his best work in Paris, in French.

9 JAMES WATT - JAM = stick : E,S = ends of loosE wireS : WATT = a unit of power. “WATT” is also a Beckett novel : not part of the clue, but can’t believe it’s an accident

10 D(RYE)R

11 ULRIC - moutnfUL RICercata

12 OMELETTES - MELLEe is the brawl, and SET-TO (reversed) around it

13 NASTASE - NAS is Sanitorium abbreviated and reversed with (SEAT)*

15 SUBWAY

17 CO-RR-IE - Company, Rolls Royce, That is. Whole thing is what the unwashed call Coronation Street

19 ME-L(IS-S)A

22 Left out on purpose - hey, I had to work out the anagram, so should you

24 GOGO-L - Twice 25 is 50 = L : Gogo Dancer. Whole thing is a Russian writer

26 LOCKS - Sounds like LOX (salmon)

27 ASHAMEDLY - (HESALADY-M)*

28 YARD-AGE - American football term combining scotland YARD with AGE

29 AS(I)TI(S) - Asti being the nasti drink you get at cheap Christmas parties. THe word “IS” is half inside and half at the end. Cunning wordplay, Mr. Puck.

DOWN

1 SO(JOUR)N - “son” is French from “his” and “jour” is French for “day”

2 MIM-ER - “MIM” is Roman Numerals for 1999, E.R is the TV series

3 EASY CHAIR - as opposed to “Cheesy Air” as Spooner would have it

4 BATTERS - my favourite clue, BATTERS are the two cricketers who are “in”

5 Left out on purpose because I know you can do the anagram yourself.

6 E.G - YPTIANS - (PAYISNT)*

7 T(H)RASH

8 MALONE - Beckett character who is dying. Reference to Molly Malone

14 SPORT-SCAR

16 Another straighforward anagram to leave as an exercise for the reader

18 ENDGAME - Beckett play, Chess ending

19 MURPHY - Beckett novel, type of potato (also slang)

10 ALLE-YES - ELLA (rev)

21 MOLL-O(nl)Y

23 AT SEA - oddly means take the odd numbered letters ArTiStEwAs

24 GOD-OT - DOG (reversed) + OT for Old Testament. Godot never comes in Beckett’s play. Poor Godot …   

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Guardian 24270/Puck

Posted by linxit on 28th December 2007

linxit.

This was an enjoyable thematic puzzle based on Samuel Beckett (1,4 ac). I’ll put some more up when I can, but I’ve been in bed with flu for the last 3 days, and this is the first puzzle I’ve solved in that time. Starting to feel dizzy again…crawling back to my pit…

Posted in Guardian | 3 Comments »

Independent 6614/Dac

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 28th December 2007

Colin Blackburn.

Considering some of the tough and thematic puzzles this week this was a nice easy end to the week with no themes or hidden messages (famous last words!)

It was the usual high standard from Dac. A couple of less familiar terms were clued very fairly.

Across
1 POLYGLOT — L in POLY+GOT — POLY is short for polytechnic. All UK polytechnics have since 1992 been universities.
10 AUTO — alternate letters of VALUATION
11 STEVIE WONDER — (REVIEW DOESN’T)* — excellent anagram. Stevie Wonder is a US singer, one of Motown’s first artists.
14 FIRMAN — FIRM+AN — new word for me though I think it was hiding in a crevice somewhere in my brain. A FIRMAN is a royal mandate or decree of the Ottoman Empire.
15 SUN CREAM — UN in SCREAM — tanner is a misleading reference to an old sixpenny coin used in the LSD system.
19 INGRID — IN GRID — ha ha!
20 COMPANION SET — COMPANION + SET — a COMPANION SET is a set of fireside implements usually comprising a poker, tongs, small shovel and a hearth brush. These days they are often decorative rather than functional.
24 INDIAN FILE — IAN in INFIDEL*— a term apparently arising from the native American practice or riding in single file. IAN is one of a hadnful of Scotsmen to rutn up in crosswords.
27 ROOTLESS — ROOTLE+SS — I think rootle is an excellent word. The surface here was particularly good.
Down
2 OKRA — OK+R+A — aka Ladies’ Fingers or Bhindi.
3 YACHTSMAN — (MAY SNATCH)* — excellent anagram using wave as a noun to provide an excellent surface and as a verb to direct us to make the jumble.
6 LINCOLNS INN — “Lincoln’s in” — one of the Inns or Court in London.
7 CHARD — CHAR(re)D — chard is an excellent vegetable. My partner grows lots of it in its full variety of colours.
12 VINDICATION — V-INDICATION — V-sign is superb word play here.
16 REGRETFUL — EGRET+(FLU)* after R — an EGRET is a heron-like bird. There was a bird flu outbreak in the UK not long before Christmas.
22 ALAS — (g)ALAS — swimming competitions are known as galas.

Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »

Independent 6610/Scorpion (22-12-07)

Posted by neildubya on 28th December 2007

neildubya.

The easiest puzzle I’ve solved by this usually difficult setter. A few people here have mentioned that they’ve often found many of Scorpion’s clues to be a bit contrived but I don’t think that’s something he could be accused of in this puzzle. There are some really good clues here and my favourite was 20d.

Across
10 (AND HEM)*,D,OWNS - HAND-ME-DOWNS.
11 OU,T - OU is the French word for “where”
12 (CRE[-vi]CE)*
13 ONEROUS - not sure I understand this one: “Taxing people supports our wars”. “Taxing” must be the definition but don’t know about the rest.
14 OM in NINE,E - “one over the eight” for NINE is made more deceptive by the booze reference in the clue.
17 E,MEN in LET - this is very good: “He perhaps authorised patrolling soldiers to follow bearing”. The definition being “He perhaps” as He is the chemical symbol for Helium.
22 HERM in EAT< - THERMAE. HERM is the smallest of the Channel Islands that are open to the public. Like Sark, cars are banned there. Looks lovely .
24 H in (E FIT)* - another good clue with a nice surface reading.
27 I in CRAG - I’m not convinced that “Bond” is a good enough definition for CRAIG (Daniel, the actor currently playing Bond). Surely a bit more help is needed? That said, I did solve the clue with no problems…
28 (FOLDER)*,N,CH - OLD FRENCH.
 
Down
1 CO[H for NF]ERENCE
2 I,NIC in MAM - I think “state contributions” must be NIC or National Insurance Contributions.
3 E,(EVEN READ)* in DAMAGE - DAME EDNA EVERAGE.
4 (DETOX IE)* in TV< - VIDEOTEXT. Couldn’t have been the easiest word to clue but I think Scorpion has a good go at it here.
6 POST,OFFICE (WROTE)* - POST OFFICE TOWER.
15 LIE (LODGER)* - LIEGE LORD.
20 MAILMAN - the clue of the puzzle for me: “Laborer connecting zips to hoods”. Note the deliberate US spelling and the fact that “zips” are zip codes (equivalent to post codes) and hood is short for “neighbourhood”. Put it all together and you have an excellent and misleading cryptic definition.

Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »

Financial Times 12,642 by Cincinnus

Posted by Pete Maclean on 28th December 2007

Pete Maclean.

A fairly standard Cincinnus puzzle this week with at least one great clue (3D) and one that I do not understand the workings of (26D).

Across
1. THE WASP FACTORY - anagram of OF CREW THAT PAYS. “The Wasp Factory” is a book by Iain Banks — not that I had ever heard of either title or author. I figured it had to be either THE WASP FACTORY or PET WASH FACTORY and a quick google confirmed the former.
10. HORSE - double definition with a sneakily good surface
11. SIMULATOR - anagram of LITMUS OR A
12. TRESTLE - anagram of LETTERS
13. ROMANOV - ROMAN (Pompey the Great, say) + OV (over half)
14. PLUMB - homophone
16. CUTTING IN - double definition
19. CONSENSUS - homophone (cons’ census)
20. ERASE - A (article) in ERSE (Gaelic)
22. ACCUSED - A (a) + CC (cricket club) + USED (employed)
25. AUCTION - AU (gold) + anagram of COT IN
27. SNAKE EYES - double definition
28. RATES - tRuAnT fEeS
29. CURTAIN RAISERS - anagram of RUNS AS CRITERIA

Down
2. HARLEQUIN - HARE (run) around L (lake) + QUIN (one of 5)
3. WHEAT - E (energy) in WHAT (eh)
4. SESTERCES - anagram of CERES SETS
5. FEMUR - EMU (bird) in FR (father)
6. COLUMBINE - COMBINE (wed) with LU (Lake Superior) inserted
7. ORTON - hidden word
8. YEREVAN - ERE (before) in NAVY (sailors) backwards
9. SHUT UP - double definition
15. BEERSHEBA - BEER (bitter) + SHE (female) + BA (graduate)
17. TASMAN SEA - MAN (chap) in TASS (new agency) + EA (Eastern area)
18. GLADIATOR - GLAD (happy) + I (infantry) + A (vanguard) + TOR (hill)
19. CLASSIC - LASS (girl) + I (one) in CC (leaders of cross country)
21. ERNEST - homophone (earnest)
23. CHAIR - double/cryptic definition
24. DOYEN - DO (suit) + YEN (foreign currency)
26. CORPS - ???. I do not understand the wordplay here — but see the Comments section

Posted in FT | 2 Comments »

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