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Archive for February 4th, 2008

Independent 6646 (Merlin)

Posted by NealH on 4th February 2008

NealH.

Quite a tough puzzle from Merlin and I didn’t manage to finish it, getting stuck on 25 across, 5 across and 8 down.

Across
1 Bludgeon: B(l)udge on.
5 Ageism ? Clue was “Ming eased out with this end”. I thought it might be a reference to Ming Campbell’s resignation, but can’t work out the wordplay.
12 Norma: Norma(n). Norma Major was John’s wife.
16 Hammer throw: Hammer (West Ham) + throw.
18 Red: Clued as “sort of wine lake ?”. I assume the lake refers to the Red Sea - I’m not sure whether that’s technically a lake or not. Wikipedia describes it as an “inlet”.
20 Hand in Glove: Cryptic def.
21 Amersham: Not sure about this one, either. Seems to be AMER + SHAM, although I’ve never heard of sham being used to mean idol.
25 Parfit ? Parvie ? “Right in 4,6 cryptically like Chaucer’s knight”. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Chaucer lies somewhere between slim and non-existent. For 4,6, see below.
28 E THANE: Thankfully, I did cover MacBeth at school, so thane wasn’t too much of a problem.
 
Down
2 Ugh: (H)ugh
3 Gilgamesh: L in GIGA MESH.
4,6 One Foot in the Grave: Probably the best clue in the puzzle. Definition was in 10 ac (”past it”)and the clue is a reference to one foot being a sixth of 6 feet under.
8 ??t?: Clue is “First part of 13 or last part of 20″.
11 Heart in Mouth: Heart + T(e)i(g)nmouth.
13 Romney Marsh: Footballer Rodney Marsh (I thought he was a cricketer) with the d (500) doubled to m(1000).
17 Wagnerist: (T ring awes)* + &lit.

Posted in Independent | 13 Comments »

Guardian 24,302 Rufus : “Baggsies !”

Posted by stan on 4th February 2008

stan.

Another Monday, another Rufus - it’ s starting to become rather a comforting sight. Although I did stare at this puzzle to no good effect for a worrying length of time wondering if I’d had a stroke. Once I’d got going though this didn’t put much resistance. As usual, some excellent wordplay and a pleasing accompaniment to a medium Americano.

ACROSS

1  BENCHES : “settle” as in the long seat. Helps to know some German (”Sessel”), but English is already enough to expect on a Monday morning.

5 TO(ERA)G

9 DOORNAIL : as in “dead as a …”

10 GIMLET : Not my regular pint, but it is a cocktail and a tool also.

12 WILL O’ THE WISP : (WHITEPILLOWS)*

15 EXTRACTION Not exactly sure about the “strain” bit

17 GIN - Distilled (still produced) in Holland - and where would crossword compilers be without (gin=trap) when you have an -ing word to clue.

19 ‘OWL - one drops one’s aitches in the East End.

20 COALMINING

22 ASCERTAINING - (SEATING IN CAR)*

26 IN(S)TAL

27 PUR(CHA)SE

28 NESSIE - (IS SEEN)*

29 STEPS ON - if you board - you “step on”

DOWN

1 B(rig)ADE

2 NOON - Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong. (Clock strikes 12 times)

3 HANDICAP - reference to golf handicaps

4 SPILL -either the thing used to light candles or a reference to theatrical “spill lights”

6 Omitted on purpose - straight cryptic definition

7 Omitted on purpose - rather flat cryptic definition

8 GET UP AND GO - (A PET GUN DOG)*

13 DECORATION

14 AT ALL COSTS - (CLASS TOTAL)*

16 TOO BAD - hmm not too satisfying. Is it just “too bad” = what a shame and “too bad” = excessively awful ?

18 P(INN)ACLE

21 Omitted on purpose - easy anagram

 23 N(O)UNS

24 BAGS - As in the childish construction “Bags I … !” when you want to claim something.

25 MEAN 

Posted in Guardian | 3 Comments »

Private Eye/Cyclops 357 - … and the band played on

Posted by beermagnet on 4th February 2008

beermagnet.

I found this more of a struggle than usual, particularly with some of the definitions.  Is it just me? 
The massive “Titanic” answer once spotted thankfully gave many checking letters throughout the grid so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.

Across
7 EARTHMAN Sod is Earth OK, but this relies on lover defining man, as in “He’s ma Man!”, which I have seen before but don’t like.
9 CHALET H(ard) and ALE inside CT for court. Cyclops has used Piss to indicate Ale in earlier crosswords. I might agree that nitrokeg beer and lager are synonymous with piss, but I know of many decent ales that would be sacrilege to describe as piss.
11 /12/13/23/19 REARRANGING THE DECKCHAIRS ON THE TITANIC One of those Definition plus Cryptic Def. clues. When I saw this big answer I tried to tackle it first and spent a long time counting letters assuming there was a massive anagram in there somewhere. Those apparent anagrinds in the clue, “shuffling” and “pathetic”, reinforced my assumption such that when I couldn’t find a set of words of the right letter count I went on to search for partial anagrams before giving that up as a bad job. Mind you, later it only took a few crossing letters of “deckchairs” for the answer to come clear.
13 DITTO D(IT)[O/T] Swap the O (ring) of DOT with its T (model) and put around IT (sex).
14 PARKHURST Ref Damien Hirst the not-so-enfant-terrible-anymore of the YBAs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst I realised it must be a prison but went blank on them and needed all the crossing letters, before twigging it was that high-security des. res. on the IOW
16 CARVE-UP CAR(V EU)P
18 BUGATTI BU(G A)TT  I Hmmm. This clue explanation relies on “Fistful of dollars” giving G. Full clue:
Fistful of dollars one stuffed in arse gets Cyclops a vintage car (7)
20 CASTRATES Cast (as in throw) Rates (as in berates)
25 PUBLIC FUNDS PUB(LIC FUN D)S I don’t fully see how we get LIC, it must be from “endless lap dancing”. Full clue:
Misused by corrupt officials having endless lap dancing or other amusement with date in boozers? (6,5)
27 ROUBLE (T)rouble
28 DUTCH CAP A Def. plus CD clue. I liked the “European spending limit” CD
 
Down
1/24 PEERAGE (P E AGREE)*
2 CHARIOTEER (ARCHER I TOE)* The reference is to the Roman, rather than the modern, circus.
3 CATNAP CAT (o’nine tails) NAP(oleon)
4/25 SHAGPILE I wondered if the letter count should have been (4,4) but checking I find both seem acceptable. If separate words had been required then the clue would have been easier for me.
5 ULSTER (SLUT)* ER
6 UTTER TRIPE Utter (say) TRIP [blu]E
8 REACTOR Re-actor
10 MIDRIB (BIRD I’M)<
15 HIGH OFFICE Favourite clue award here due to the excellent image conjured by the clue surface. (Dirty-old-man? Moi?) Full clue:
Penthouse-style on-the-job situation coveted by would-be cabinet ministers? (4,6)
17 PUTS BY (BUST)* inside P(enn)Y
21 SPEW UP S(PEW)UP
22 SLIP-UP
26 SAPS (SPAS)< Last in the list and last I put in as I am not happy with the definition. How is SAP synonymous with NUT?  I regard a sap as an innocent, and while he may lack judgment he is not necessarily of unsound mind.  Full clue:
Bath, etc. overturned, revealing nuts (4)

Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 2 Comments »