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Archive for January 15th, 2008

Guardian 24,285, Chifonie: He-rewarding in the end

Posted by michod on 15th January 2008

michod.

This was tough stuff indeed, but ultimately satisfying, with some fine clues. It took a good half hour all told, i.e. half of my tube journey (the needs of work oblige me to read the news first), and a five-minute walk during which I chewed over the last two clues. 27ac hit me as I walked to my desk, and 20dn followed immediately. Phew!

ACROSS:

1. AS PIRATE. Obvious once you’ve got it, but I didn’t spot this until I had the P. I like it though.

9. D(ampness) WELLING. Is there a word for  ’seeping up’? Osmosis? Ah, welling, very good!

10. DE(IC)ER. This was one of the last for me - eventually I guessed that ‘integrated circuit’ might be IC. Not sure I would have guessed does =  (female) deer though.

11. CO(LOSS)AL. Humongous word!

14. FORE(CA)STER. Sybil was a prophet, CA is California, so the writer must be CS Forester rather than EM Forster.

23. PR(ACT)ICE. Straightforward wordplay, but still took a while.

24. ‘ERRING. Quibble 1 - “‘armless” is not needed for the definition, but seems to have been added purely as an aitch-dropping indicator for ‘fish’.

25. BIG AMIS (me)T. ‘Overindulgent union member’ being someone who indulges in one too many marriages.

27. HE REWARD. The last to fall, for me. Hereward the Wake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereward_the_Wake is one of those figures from English history who I suspect used to figure a lot bigger in the curriculum in the days of 1066 And All That. 

DOWN:

1. A(DDI)CT. Quibble 2 - ‘tripping’ tends to refer to hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, not the main addictive substances (heroin, alcohol, tobacco etc), so I don’t think ‘one who trips often’ is really a proper definition for ‘addict’.

3. R(ELI’S)H. I’m guessing the IVR code refers to Republique Haitien or such like.

4. T ANT A MOUNT. There’s some disagreement about the common use of ‘model’ for T; here it’s ‘car’.

8. LAR(BOAR)D.

13. TEA SE R VICE. Not sure I’ve come across R for rare before - at least not in a daily.

15. STRIDE NT.

20. MINIM A. So ‘note’ can not only be N, A - G or Do - me, it can also be minim. Well, it makes a change!

Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »

Independent 6629/Virgilius - Marginally wrong

Posted by neildubya on 15th January 2008

neildubya.

Some Virgilius themes leap out at you, others reveal themselves slowly. This puzzle was definitely in the latter category for me, although I expect it would have been quicker had I got 7/32 early on. I could see something happening in the unchecked letters in the top and bottom rows and left and right columns but it looked very strange with OO in both the top row and right-hand column. Eventually, BOOBOO and BLOOMER suggested themselves and MISTAKE emerged. HERESY didn’t seem to fit with the other three but “error” can mean a deviation from an accepted code of behaviour, which I suppose is similar to HERESY.

Across
7/32 MARGINS OF ERROR - which hints strongly at the grid theme. E and R could be seen as the margins of ErroR.
8 PER,R in TUB
9 IDLE - I hesitated a bit before filling this in. “Run slowly” (e.g. as an engine might do) is easy enough but “in vain” took a bit of pondering as it seemed a bit indirect. To do something “in vain” means to do it without success but I can’t think of a meaning of “idle” that means exactly that: there’s “having no purpose or value” (e.g. idle chatter), “without cause or good reason” (e.g. idle rumour) or “having no effect or result” (e.g. idle threat). Unless I’m missing something spectacularly obvious…
13 SUB,US<,MED - wasted a bit of time thinking that “incorporated” might be INC.
21 EURO - sounds like “you row”, in some accents at least.
22 NY in A,ONE
23 hidden in “paINTER COMmonly”
25 KNOT - which is a small wading bird apparently.
29 LATE - this is quite subtle and I’ve only just worked it out. To “go west” can mean to die and LATE (reversed, i.e. going west) is ET AL (”others”).
31 THE in EARN
 
Down
1 L in BAD - amazingly this was the last one I filled in and I was greatly helped by the fact that I’d already filled in the unchecked B, having spotted the grid theme. It’s a really good clue, with a sting in the tail in form of the cryptic definition “unlocked”.
3 ONUS - “confused” with the C,F,E and D removed.
4 (EVENT NOBLE)* - BENEVOLENT.
5 hidden in “phOTOS COP Exposed”
6 ORAL - I got this from the definition (”it’s said”) and worked back. “Second of each pair in four-ball” means split “four-ball” up into pairs of letters - FO UR BA LL - and take the second letter in each pair - O R A L.
11 (SLIDES)*,I,P,S - can’t say I’ve ever the phrase SIDE-SLIPS before but it wasn’t hard to deduce from the wordplay. [Edit: as nmsindy points out in the comments, this is also another thematic hint.]
15 (IVE MADE NO)*,R - MAIDEN OVER. Nice &lit.
19 A,PO,STATE
30 TROY? - not sure about this one. “In city noted for investment, giving nothing in tax”. The last 4 words provide the wordplay - O in TRY - but I don’t understand the beginning of the clue.

Posted in Independent | 13 Comments »

Guardian 24283/Rufus

Posted by ilancaron on 15th January 2008

ilancaron.

Sorry this is late — I completely forgot. A pretty nice puzzle with a couple of clues that I wouldn’t have been surprised to have enountered in an Araucaria: e.g. 22D and 23D both of which I enjoyed, even 9A and 6D.

Across

9 IRON=”Brand”, CROSS=”X”
12 OUTDO,OR - ref. OUTDOOR sports.
13 IS,LET - def is “a bit of land”.
14 THIN ON TOP - one of the few CDs.
16 HOW GOES THE ENEMY? - OK, another one. The ENEMY we all share: namely, time. Another way of asking what time it is.
21 MOO=”low”,CH
24 ELEMI - hidden rev in “tIME LEft”. A familiar crossword word for a kind of fragrant oil.

Down

1 KINGFISHER - (F, shrieking)*
2 CO(LES)LAW - LES is “the” in French.
4 GOLF - rev(flog=beat). A common cryptical reversal.
6 KNOTHOLE=”not whole” - and “deal” is wood in this context.
8 SLUR - two meanings with a nicely constructed and smooth surface.
14 TEST DRIVES - two meanings: with “runs” actually referring to drives in your car.
15 PSYCHOLOGY - nice CD. Wasn’t obvious to me at first. I suppose if you saw it immediately you’d think less of it: “Subject for those who have the mind to study”.
20 N[otts],AILED - “caught” by the fuzz for instance.
21 M,A,LI(C)E - M is “many” (a thousand) and C for “caught”. Slightly unfortunate that “caught” showed up in two consecutive clues.
22 C,OED - a (female) student and OED is our dictionary. Nice clue. Third consecutive appearance of C for “caught”. No longer unfortunate, perhaps a theme!
23 PUPA=rev(A PUP) - another nice clue: baby animals up or down.

Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »