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Archive for January 21st, 2008

Azed 1859 (Plain)/ Tricky Stuff

Posted by tilsit on 21st January 2008

tilsit.

Solving Time: around 75 minutes.

A tough challenge from Azed this week with some straight-forward stuff, but one or two really tricky clues that took me a while to work out. 

Music:  Maria Callas giving her all to Puccini.  Un Bel Di is one of the few pieces of music that genuinely moves me to tears.  You try too:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z3-yBlDckY&feature=related

ACROSS     * = Anagram  CH = Chambers Dictionary

1  SHAPE    HEAPS*

5 SPIN-OFF   NO (short for number) inside SPIFF

10  TOUSY TEA  OUT* + YEAST*  See under TOUSY in CH.

12  BANG TAIL   In CH, under Bang2, it relates to hair bangs (fringes / tufts).  BANG = Beat  +  TAIL as in tail-enders of cricket team (an Azed pet subject), usually the low scorers of a side.

13  ALOHA  Replacing P in ALPHA with an O.

14  ZERDA   RD inside ZEA (Mrs Bradford came in handy here)

15 KAMEEZ  MAKE* + EZ, which is the abbreviation for the biblical book Ezra.

16 AIRGAS  I R inside AGAS

17 MOONCALF   MO+ ON CAL(L) + F (following)

20  LACROSSE  L + A + SCORES*  One of my favourite clues.

23 DRIVEL    DR + VEIL*

25 AUNTER  (H)AUNTER

28  PELES  Hidden answer

29  STORE   T inside SORE

30 ALIGARTA  G inside  A TRAIL A reversed

31 WELL-SEEN  WELLS + EEN

32  KYANISE   INKY SEA*

33 MESNE     Hidden answer.

DOWN

1  STRAK    KARTS (rev)

2  HOLLA   O inside HALL*  (Wes Hall - W Indian  cricketer)

3  AUTOMOBILIA    A + OUT* + MOB + ILIA

 4  PSCHENT    SCH inside PENT

5   MOZART    Was CONSTANZA a girlfriend of Mozart?  Otherwise I am not sure about this one.

6  PENNAL   PENN + AL

7  NOTER     RE + TON (Rev - “from a worm’s eye view”)

8  FRIDAYS  I’D inside FRAYS

9  FILASSE   ASS inside FILE

11  BARGE STONES  BARGEST + NOSE* Bargest is a large mythical black dog from round the Lancashire hills, where I live.   Wouldn’t have described it as a goblin, but Ch gives it.

17  MUDPACK   PAD* inside MUCK “coated in dirt”.

18  OWRELAY  OW! + LAYER*

19  CONTUSE   NOSE CUT*

21  ALURES    LURE (see Ch) inside AS “an antique copper!)

22  CANTLE  Hidden answer

24  VEGAN  Pythagorean = vegetarian (acc to Ch) AS inside VAN

26  ERVEN   NERVE moving its first letter to last place

27  RENNE Hidden answer

Posted in Azed | 1 Comment »

Independent 6634 (Glow-Worm)

Posted by NealH on 21st January 2008

NealH.

A solid puzzle by Glow-Worm, but I didn’t really understand the logic behind either of the 12 clues.

Across
1 Curriculum Vitae: Cryptic def (possibly more of a reference to its latin meaning than its normal English usage).
12 Songstress: Didn’t really get this. The clue is “Soprano who is first in the bar ?” The only thing I could think of was that it was “song stress”, but that doesn’t sound likely.
13 Scillies: “c” in “sillies”.
15 Breton: “Br” + eton. Quite pleased to get that because I normally struggle with hats.
20 Horse sense: Soundalike of “hoarse cents”.
25 Assent: N in (Tessa)<. Not completely sure about “resile” as a way of indicating something is reversed.
26 Ancestor Worship: Misleading cryptic def.
 
Down
2 + 22 Uriah Heep: U + (hair)< + soundalike of “heap” (deal in the “a deal of …” sense).
5 Loch Ness Monster: (Scots lore men shun - u)* + clever &lit def.
6 Mains: Alternate letters of Miami (mai) + ns. Good surface meaning that pointed towards a musical answer.
8 Ayers Rock: (Years)* + rock (dance).
12 Spied: Couldn’t make sense of this. The clue is “Sandpiper’s poll’s variegated and spotted”. Possibly it’s “s and p” followed by bits of the others words.
17 Austere: Auster (the South wind) + “E”.
23 Ennui: (genuine - g)*

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Posted in Independent | 11 Comments »

Guardian 24290/Rufus

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 21st January 2008

Colin Blackburn.

Classic Rufus, lots of cryptic defnitions! There were a couple of tough ones in here for me, exposing my lack of knowledge of literature and opera.

Across
9 ACTON BELL — ACT ON BELL — I’m not familiar with the Bronte’s despite having visited their house in Haworth.
11 SEEPAGE — SEE+PAGE
12 OPULENT — OPU(s)+LENT
13 DUKES — double def. — DUKES is slang for fists.
16 A DROP IN THE OCEAN — cryptic def. — the best of the CDs.
22 ALPHA — cryptic def? — not sure about this one, “A classical type (5)”.
23 FORSAKE — FOR+SAKE — SAKE is a Japanese alcoholic drink.
24 MACAW — M+A+CAW — a disturbing image!
25 CEASE FIRE — (FIERCE SEA)* — a semi-&lit.
Down
4 HERE — HER+E(aster) — first non-CD of the down clues.
5 ALTOGETHER — double def.
6 INNUENDO — (ENNUI NOD)* — lovely anagram.
7 FRIEND — FRI(day)+END
14 CONSPIRACY — CONS+PIRACY
17 PIPE DOWN — double def? — not sure whether this is a cryptic definition or a weak double definition. Either way this one doesn’t work for me.
18 EMPHASIS — (PIES+MASH)* — nice anagram with a misleading definition, I initially looked at ????SHIP!
22 MIMI — MI+MI — I think this is right, a character from La Boheme and two notes but the online solution suggests MIMA is the answer. MIMA is an art gallery in Middlesborough.

Posted in Guardian | 17 Comments »