Posted by neildubya on 10th January 2008
This was mostly not too difficult and great fun to solve, as always from Nestor but there’s one clue I couldn’t get (10d) and eventually had to concede defeat and look it up. Annoyingly, I still don’t understand the wordplay.
| Across |
| 1 |
OFFA[-l] - of Dyke fame. |
| 4 |
P in SCRAPE,’D |
| 11 |
JOINED-UP,R,IT in WING - very tough, although getting the J helped me a lot. Took me a while to separate out “script” from “script run by computer” as I convinced the latter would be the definition. |
| 12 |
RUN WILD - Spooner would say “one riled” |
| 13 |
IRON OUT - when I see “club” in a clue I first think of IRON and then “wood”. |
| 14 |
(SALE)* in PANTRY |
| 18 |
USE,BO in HOUND |
| 20 |
ENS in INCE - for non-sporting types, Paul Ince (ex-Man Utd and England midfielder) is the manager of the Milton Keynes Dons (who used to be Wimbledon) |
| 21 |
L,OTTERY - I think OTTERY is a pun meaning “having lots of otters”. |
| 23 |
(SPOKE HURRY NOT IE)* - from the enumeration I immediately thought this was KEEP YOUR something ON but the only thing that occurred to me for “something” was a word for ladies’ undergarments. Eventually I wrote out the anagram fodder and ticked off the letters until I was left with SHIRT. |
| 25 |
DAYLIGHT - “annual savings” refers to DAYLIGHT saving time, aka putting the clocks forward aka British Summer Time. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
(SO DEFINITELY CRY)* - SOCIETY seemed an obvious choice for the second word, and there wasn’t much you could do with the rest of the fodder, apart from FRIENDLY. |
| 3 |
AM,ERICA - had a bit of a guess with this as I didn’t know that ERICA was any plant of the heath genus. I had the first and last letters filled in though so it was a confident guess. |
| 7 |
N in PO,IS OPEN,LETTER - POISON-PEN LETTER. Another tough one, especially the definition, which is hard to spot. |
| 8 |
I,GIT in DATE - DIGITATE is a botanical term, referring to leaves consisting of finger-like sections. A new word for me but not too tricky to work out from the wordplay. |
| 10 |
?U?D?A?U?E - got stuck on this and gave up after 10 mins or so, having solved the rest of the puzzle in only a few minutes longer than that. I figured it that it might start with QUAD so I looked it up once I got access to a dictionary and it looks like the answer is QUADRATURE but I still cannot work out the wordplay. The clue is: “How to fit damn circle in square? Slice tops off both!”. “Damn” could be DRAT and “square” with the s missing gives QUARE but that leaves the second U unaccounted for. |
| 13 |
(SHIFT HELEN)* - IN THE FLESH. |
| 16 |
PA,NICKED |
| 24 |
[-h]UGH |
Posted in Independent | 10 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 10th January 2008
I think the theme here is famous people that I’ve heard of — unless someone can find a better link between BLAIR, PRESCOTT, FATS WALLER, Stirling and Kate MOSS, Gordon Brown, PARIS HILTON, Dean RUSK, Peter Shilton, Abe Lincoln, Thomas Becket, ABEL… they all speak English?… OK, except for ABEL.
Across
| 1 |
YO B,LAIR - supposedly Dubya’s way of greeting his good bud Tony. Turns out that LAIR is an Oz term for “a man who dresses garishly…”. |
| 5 |
T[o],WADDLE - O for “duck” is removed. |
| 10 |
C[hurch],A,RM,ELITE - “jolly” is a Brit term for a Royal Marine. And perhaps Monk is Pasquale’s nomination for the next Archbishop? |
| 11 |
ELEVEN-PLUS - nice self-referential clue. Ref. the exam the English use to decide their children’s future when they are still far too young (is this still true? not in London I think). |
| 14 |
RALLENTANDO - (later on land)* - musical deceleration. |
| 18 |
PARI=pair*,S HILTON - ref. Peter SHILTON who was the goalie for England in the 80s (?) and Britney Spear’s main competitor for tabloid attention (typically related to not wearing underwear). |
| 21 |
RUSK - ref. Dean RUSK the American Sec. of State but I don’t understand the Brecon ref: “Dean goes through Brecon”. |
| 22 |
FATS WALLER - (waterfall’s)* |
| 25 |
RHODONITE - (the iron do[se])* and it’s a mineral |
| 26 |
[b]OUNCE - the OUNCE is a common feline in the cryptic zoo. |
| 27 |
B(A,T[w]IST)E - it’s a kind of … fabric. |
Down
| 1 |
YAM,M,ER - rev(re,m[aiden],may=can) |
| 2 |
B(ILL)ED - I think. The def is “listed as”, “sick” is ILL, I don’t see how BED is indicated nor the containment though. |
| 3 |
AMATEURISH - (True - a ham is)* - anag &lit |
| 5,20 |
TURBULENT PRIEST - (Blunt upsetter, 1, R[ex])*. Ref. Eliot’s “Becket”. |
| 6 |
ABE,L |
| 7 |
D,RIPPING - our “semicircular piece” is just a D. And DRIPPINGS are “fat and juices exuded from meat”. |
| 8 |
ER[l]ECTION |
| 13 |
S(T[oe])ANDAL,ONE |
| 16 |
S(PARE R)IB - our “brother” is our SIB. |
| 17 |
PRE,SCOT,T - I think John PRESCOTT is/was a leader or deputy leader or assistant vice deputy leader of the Labour Party. And Gordon Brown certainly sounds like a SCOT. |
| 19 |
GLANCE - I don’t understand this… ref. a glancing shot? “Shot that may have some lead in it”. |
| 24 |
MOSS - two meanings: ref. Stirling MOSS (he of “Bluebird” fame) and Kate MOSS. |
Posted in Guardian | 9 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 10th January 2008
The usual pleasing, accessible, puzzle by Quixote - solving time, 17 mins.
Notes on some clues below, happy to explain others if asked.
* = anagram < = reverse
ACROSS
11 THE GAY GORDONS (Go to garden, shy)*
24 NO (NET) S ten< Two uses of “ten about” - one cryptically to reverse it as shown and in the definition as nonets have nine instruments or members.
DOWN
6 INTRODUCE (Reduction)* ‘in broadcast’ indicates the anagram
7 MARASCHINO (chairman so)*
8 IN CAN DESCENT
10 ED G A R WALL ACE Referring to the Eton Wall game - not sure if EW is much read today.
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 10th January 2008
Cincinnus again brings us an enjoyable puzzle with a few brilliant clues. I particularly like 4D, 7D and 18D.
Across
1. JOYSTICK - JOYS (delights) + TICK (parasite)
5. CHASER - double definition
9. BACKCHAT - BACK (second) + CHAT (bird)
10. ARCTIC - ARTIC (lorry) around C (central)
12. OCTET - OCT[ober] + E[igh]T
13. SNARE DRUM - SNARED (caught) + RUM (odd)
14. AMIENS - AMIS (friends) about EN (in)
16. PALADIN - LAD (50% of ladies) in PAIN (distress). This one I had to look up.
19. NONPLUS - double definition
21. CLEAVE -double definition
23. MEGAPHONE - anagram of EH MAP GONE
25. TORCH - CH (church) on TOR (high ground)
26. NOTION - IT (it) in NOON (time)
27. EVENSONG - [st]EVEN + SONG (lied — think German)
28. CANADA - CAN (is able) + ADA (woman)
29. FLUTTERBY - FLY (fly) around UTTER (say)
Down
1. JOB LOT - JOB + LOT
2. YACHTSMEN - anagram (singular) of CHEST MANY
3. TACIT - TACIT[us]
4. CHASSIS - CHAS (Charles) + S (Stuart’s head) + IS (is)
6. HARPER LEE - HARPER (musician) + EEL (fish) backwards
7. SATYR - SAT[urday] + Y[ea]R
8. RICHMOND - RICH (wealthy) + MON (Scottish man) + [ba]D
11. RASP - hidden word
15. ELLIPSOID - anagram of SOLID PILE
17. DOVER SOLE - DOVE (bird) + R (river) + SOLE (only)
18. MNEMONIC - MNE (one not employed in mine) + MONIC[a]
20. SHOE - double/cryptic definition
21. CHERVIL - CHER (Sonny’s former partner) + V (versus) + IL (the Italian)
22. SHAGGY - SHY (coy) about A (a) + GG (horse)
24. GET ON - double definition
25. TENET - palindromic doctrine
Posted in FT | No Comments »