Fifteensquared

Never knowingly undersolved.

Archive for February 8th, 2008

Guardian 24305/Paul - Stub

Posted by beermagnet on 8th February 2008

beermagnet.

I’m putting this short post in place to carry the chat requested by others elsewhere.
I, too, would like explanations for a few answers here.
I’ll remove this post on request.
[Additions made to this post about 15:35]

Across
1 ACCUSABLE A then CU’S inside CABLE
6 CUBED DD Mathematically raised to the 3rd power
9 BREAM (1 down)*
10 STRINGENT TRING in SENT
11 REACQUIRED C (many) QUIRE (sheets) in READ (study)
12 OKRA OK (fine) RA(in) drizzle without IN (popular). After getting the crossing K it had to be Okra, but decoding the clue took a while
14 SHEBANG The novel is the popular (in crosswords) “She” - again
17 TANGENT (w)ANGE(r) inside TNT.  Another mathematical reference.
20 NEAT I don’t understand Holy Spirit reference. Full Clue:
Smart to listen to Holy Spirit? (4)
25 CABALLERO CAB-ALLER-O Aller from French “to go” from “across the Pyrenees”.
27 LIMIT LIM-IT? I can’t see where LIM comes from. Full clue:
Not entirely relaxed, it proving extreme (5)
 
Down
1 AMBER Hidden in cAMBERwell.  Amber is above Green on a traffic light.  Marvellous clue.
3 SEMIQUAVER (REQUIEM AS V(ery))* Lovely clue
5 (f)EARLESS
6 CANE homophome CAIN
8 DOT MATRIX I think this is an anagram of MAD and TO plus the T from cruciverbalisT then Brian RIX is the “man of farce”
14 SATANICAL SAT-AN-I-CAL(ifornia)
16/24 GRAVEYARD SLOT Lovely CD :
Is one reserved for the late programme scheduler? (9,4)
18 TRIREME Offers requested to decode this clue. Full clue:
Virtually all old masters turned up, including Turner’s “Last Ship” (7)

Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »

Independent 6645/Morph

Posted by neildubya on 8th February 2008

neildubya.
Across
8 FAST FOOD - I think this could be considered an oxymoron because fasting means not eating at all.
9 NET,(LET)* - “stingy” is made all the more deceiving because of the money reference in “tax deducted”.
10 W,HIP - in Parliament, a WHIP is a note sent to MPs requesting their attendance to vote on a particular issue. The definition in the clue - “Persuade MPs” - suggests that it can also be used as a verb.
11 FRIEDMAN - first name Milton, and an economist, like J.M.Keynes.
13 SNITCH - for those who have managed to avoid the books and films, Harry Potter plays a game called Quidditch; one of the objects of the game is to capture a small flying gold-coloured ball called the SNITCH. Doing so ends the game, I believe.
14 ARNI[-e],CA - Good clue, with a great surface reading.
18 WAS A BI
27 MORPH in (ATOMISES)* - METAMORPHOSIS. One of our Australian readers told me recently that the Independent crossword is syndicated to his state paper but with one detail missing - they don’t publish the name of the setter. So the “me” in this clue won’t mean much to him (or people solving the clue online) but it’s a common enough word and the wordplay is straightforward so hopefully it wouldn’t have stopped anyone from solving the clue.
 
Down
3 EGOS - I liked this one a lot: “When they clash, you’ll ‘ear either ____ or I go!” EGOS sounds like “‘e goes”.
4 UNDER THE WEA(THE)R - this is very nicely done: “ill fitting” looks like the definition but it’s actually definition plus a key wordplay element.
12 BUTS (reversed)
15 (MAY DREAD)* - DAYDREAM.
17 (BOW OAR T)* - ROWBOAT. “All found at sea” seems to be doing double-duty as the anagram indicator and definition, unless I’m missing something.
19 BACCHUS - “back us”.
20 A,DON,IS - the previous clue had “God, he’s drunk” for the definition and this one has “God, he’s gorgeous…”
22 LOC[-k],UM

Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »

Financial Times 12,686 (Sleuth)

Posted by diagacht on 8th February 2008

diagacht.
Across
1 GAINSBOROUGH: the town profits; the borough gains
8 IBERIAN:(l)IBERIAN, African country without left (l)
9 BEARS UP: E in BAR + SUP
11 DONNISH: IN NOD (reversed) + SH
13 NADAL: N (new) + A + LAD (reversed)
14 RESONATES: SONAT(a) in REES
16 SERVIETTE: VIE in anagram of STREET
19 MABEL: M (beginning of malign) + ABEL (biblical character)
21 ESSAYER: anagram of YES (i)DEAS, where (i)deas is ideas without the disowned ‘i’
23 PERUGIA: GI between PERU and A
24 SATSUMA: SA (appeal) + A MUST (reversed)
25 ORIGAMI: O (old) + RIG + AMI
26 NOTHING DOING: NOTHING DO + IN + G
Down
1 GLEANED: LEANED in GED (a kind of fish)
2 INITIAL: I (island) + I (one) in LATIN (reversed)
3 SANDHURST: &Lit
4 ORBIT: R in OBIT
5 OVATION: (inn)OVATION
6 GO SHORT: OR in GOSH (as in goodness me) and T (first letter of truth)
7 FIND ONES LEGS: anagram of DESIGN OF LENS
10 PENNSYLVANIA: referring to American Presidential election, I think
15 SHEEPFOLD: Jacob is a breed of sheep
17 RISOTTO: SIR (reversed) + OTTO
18 IVY BUSH: IVY + BUS + H (hotel)
19 MARTINI: ART in MINI
22 DRAIN: RA in DIN

Posted in FT | 2 Comments »

Guardian 24306/Logodaedalus - when’s Shrove Tuesday?

Posted by ilancaron on 8th February 2008

ilancaron.

A pretty easy and pedestrian puzzle. I had to look up the Tuesday ref in 2D and there were a couple of weak clues in my opinion — unless I missed some subtlety.
Across

1 UPRIGHT - two meanings
5 RUN RIOT - is this just two meanings? if so, aren’t they both the same: “Raise hell and act unrestrainedly”?
11 SHOW JUMPER - my fav clue - though frankly I’d have thought her bare top would be what she’d SHOW us under her JUMPER.
12 PA’S,TEL
13 T(ASTI)EST - ASTI is a v. popular wine on the cryptic menu.
14 RED, CARPET
17 SCORE - two meanings (where “the way things are” is a slightly cryptic definition, as in, the current state of play).
19 ARM,STRONG - though strictly speaking he was actually on the moon.
23 FRE(EDOM)S - ref(mode) in ref(serf)
24 EYEFUL=”Eiffel”
27 T,WIN
28 O(ST)RICH - ST in choir* (ref. hiding one’s head in the sand).

Down

2 PANCAKE - two meanings: I only understood the make-up ref and had to look up the Shrove Tuesday (aka PANCAKE Tuesday) ref.
3 I(NEP=rev(pen))T
4 HUSTLE=sleuth*,R[ex]
8 O,VERSE,A - “one” can be A in “The Guardian” but I wonder about singular OVERSEA for “from abroad”?
9 FOR THE PRESENT
15 CARP,ENTER - “chips” is Brit slang for a CARPENTER.
18 CORNERS - Interestingly if the clue had read “Hideaways for football players?” it would have been truly transatlantic since CORNER is an American Football player position.
20 SPENDER - ref. Stephen the poet.
21 NOURISH=(in hours)*
22 MOSAIC=(coma is)*
25 EX,TRA=rev(art=craft) - Ref. background EXTRAs in a crowd scene only understood the wordplay later.

Posted in Guardian | 8 Comments »

Independent 6650 by Phi

Posted by nmsindy on 8th February 2008

nmsindy.

I found this easier than usual, solving time 10 mins

< = reversed   * = anagram

ACROSS

1 SP (A R) RING  PARTNE R   entrap<    r =right

9 SP (L) IT    L = latitude

10 HERE TI (C) AL   lait(y)<   C = Church’s leader (1st letter)

14 (t)EAS T END     tend = nurse

16 SCEP TIC   pecs<

17 HUM(p)

18 TH (E VERY) ID E A    each single = every   a = article

22 S(l)IGHT      L = lecturer

DOWN

1 WALL(y)

3 IN THE END   Never played bowls but an ‘end’ is part of the pitch, I think.

7 SISTINE CHAPEL   (se in this place)*     In the Vatican

12 A SS I’M (I) LATE     Nice use of ‘board’ to mislead initially.

15 (g)ENT (IRE) LY

19 E (LE) VEN (t)

22 GIDE    (E dig)<

Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »