Posted by neildubya on 2nd January 2008
| Across |
| 1 |
(DID GO FOR)*,AY - an &lit and a reference to the GOOD FRIDAY Agreement but I see no anagram indicator… |
| 6 |
[-n]OTIC[-e] |
| 9 |
WARS,A,W,P,ACT - another &lit, and a good one too, but a tough clue to parse I thought. |
| 14 |
(REPENT LATER)* - a “plane” is a large deciduous tree, a fact which didn’t occur to me until very late on. |
| 18 |
(A R[-e]D HEN IS OLD)* - a RHODE ISLAND Red is a breed of domestic fowl, something which I only know from watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage series (he keeps Rhode Islands, amongst other breeds). I’m assuming “could” is both an anagram indicator and part of the definition? |
| 21 |
LAYMEN in A,LT |
| 23 |
F,LUTE - this is very good: “Glass requires fine stringed instrument”. |
| 25 |
RISK in A STEED - I saw STEED quite quickly but RISK took longer to get. |
| 27 |
(HARM BLEEPS)* - I think this must be an &lit with “undoes” as the anagram indicator? |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
GO WEST - which can mean “die” but I don’t really understand “disorientate literally”. |
| 2 |
OR,RE,RY - the last one in for me. An ORRERY is a clockwork model of the sun and its revolving planets. |
| 3 |
TBA in FLATTERY - “sort of charge” must be either TBA or BAT but I don’t understand either really. |
| 5 |
A,C,AfRiCa (going up) - again, this looks like it has to be an &lit because “A city” serves as the definition and part of the wordplay. |
| 7 |
TOURISTY - filled this in with a blank look on my face but I’ve now worked out the wordplay. URI (Geller) is the spoon BENDER (20d) and STY is the “filthy place”. |
| 13 |
STAND,OF,FISH |
| 15 |
RATTLER in PS - the definition - “such utter nonsense” is quite deceptive here as it seems to suggest a word for nonsense, rather than the people who speak it. |
| 19 |
BUNK,UM |
| 20 |
N,D in BEER |
Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 2nd January 2008
Neither fish nor fowl — can’t tell if there’s really a theme here or not: do fish and chips and grouse and chickens and pecking qualify? A couple of wordplays that I’m still struggling with… sometimes I manage to work them out as I write up my notes. If not… please have at them. Updates from comments below…
Across
| 1 |
GR[eat],OUSE - it’s a bird and OUSE is a river but “eat from”? “Eat from river, as bird”. The river is GREAT OUSE from which “eat” is removed. |
| 4 |
PA(RAF,F[og])IN - the RAF are collectively “airmen”. Good example of seeing the answer before I worked out the wordplay. |
| 9 |
[e]NO,U,GAT - rev(tag=name, u, on[e]) where U=upper-class I suppose for “posh” |
| 11 |
I DON’T MIND IF I DO - def is an idiom for “thanks” but wordplay? “So my resentment is not to be trusted? Thanks!” See Geoff’s interpretation below. |
| 13 |
CHIC=smart,KEN,P,OX=steer - def is just the very nicely hidden “spots” with KEN starring as our “boy”. |
| 18 |
IMPECCABLE=”impeckable” - Paul indicates that this isn’t really a word with the question-mark. |
| 21 |
WIND RESISTANCE - (in car witnessed)*: your ability to withstand a blast (of air) would be your WIND RESISTANCE rating. |
| 24, 17 |
FR(YING TON[g])IGHT - I guess the chip shop’s proprietor is back from his fishing trip. I actually recognized the Goon’s “Ying-Tong song” — which just goes to show what kind of education I received at home from my father. |
| 25 |
NOT,A,T[h]ING - “BeetHoven’s fifth” is invariably H - and in this case, “love” is NOT A THING rather than NOTHING. Consensus is that it’s actually NOT [h]ATING, since love is the absence of hate presumably. |
Down
| 1, 7 |
GONE FISHING - (sign of hinge)* - good surface with apposite fodder for the fish and chips shop surface. |
| 2 |
OPUS DEI - (Oedipus)* — read “The Davinci Code” recently which helped. |
| 3 |
S(EA SN)AKE - somewhat unusual wordplay: a hidden string inside of a container, where EASN is hidden in: “observE AS Natural” all inside SAKE our “drink” |
| 6 |
ARM,PIT - Paul reveals that he doesn’t shave nor wax his armpits. |
| 12 |
MAN,U,MISSION - not an everyday word for emancipation, MAN U’s our football team. |
| 13 |
CHAR,W,OMAN - CHAR’s our fish and OMAN’s our nation. |
| 15 |
I(C(E) AP)RON - double containment: it’s a “wedge-shaped structure which protects a bridge pier from floating ice” and IRON’s our metal. |
| 19 |
BACKING - my fav, very Paulian, clue since troppus is BACKING(support). |
| 22 |
EGGY - is this anything more than a cryptic definition? “Dressed in yellow and white?” |
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »
Posted by John on 2nd January 2008
It’s New Year’s day, and it’s Virgilius. That means that his crossword must contain some wonderful Nina, especially as the grid is a bit odd. But I can’t see it.
(Note from Neildubya: Thanks to John for providing this blog at short notice. As for the Nina: at the top and bottom of the grid we have THINKING, “outside the box”. The three phrases in the middle of the grid could also be described that way)
| Across |
| 1 |
THING reduced by 20%; I suppose “thing” in the sense “now that’s a thing”. |
| 9 |
ORESTES - stereos*. A Greek play by Euripides. |
| 10 |
VERBALS - (slab rev) reversed. A verbal is apparently a confession to the police under questioning. |
| 12 |
WHOLEMEAL - (home we all)* |
| 13 |
(A KK UP) rev. |
| 14 |
BREAKING THE MOULD - 2 defs |
| 15 |
PUSHED THE ENVELOPE - I think that if you push an envelope you are forcibly entering post. I think. |
| 19 |
AT THE CUTTING EDGE - 2 defs |
| 23 |
ROUTE. For a long time I was trying to see why “rou” was Waterloo, “to Euston, initially” giving TE. But it’s just the E of Euston and Waterloo = rout. |
| 24 |
A L in (THE TERM)*. |
| 25 |
OPEN SEA, being “open season” without “son”. |
| 26 |
MAT(IN E)E. As intended, I was misdirected towards “noh”. |
| 27 |
KING - The tennis player Billy Jean, and the leader of the court (in the “court circular” sense). |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
“Has bean” |
| 3 |
N(LOVE*)ETT E |
| 4 |
WE in OBBC*. Cobweb was a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. |
| 5 |
BE FOR(ETHE(r))HOUSE. Ether is the crossword setter’s favourite number, and theatre = house. |
| 6 |
STREAKED - cryptic definition. I won’t be caught by this again, having once taken a week to fail to solve “Run without a stitch” in The Times. |
| 7 |
TRIPLE - “trip ‘ll”. |
| 8 |
E COLLAPSE* |
| 11 |
AC(KNOW LED G-MEN)T |
| 16 |
I in (TO RULER)*. Ulterior = succeeding, although one tends to be misled by “ulterior motive”, where “succeeding” is not very apparent. |
| 17 |
HATCH [= release clutch] BACK |
| 18 |
V (EG) E TATE |
| 20 |
C(R)EASE, a cricket reference. Nice &lit. |
| 21 |
I’LL (NEMO rev.). Submarine captain is always Nemo (Jules Verne’s 20000 Leagues Under the Sea). |
| 22 |
(L)EARNER |
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »