Posted by ilancaron on 19th February 2008
Well, according to my local clock it’s still today Tuesday. So by the letter of the law, this isn’t late. I like Orlando’s clean Ximenean sensibility which means precise, albeit sometimes surprising clues. This puzzle was no exception. Not sure about a couple of defs, but I trust someone to illuminate.
Across
| 8 |
DEEP DOWN - ref. County DOWN and I suppose DEEP can be cunning. Not sure what “fundamentally” is doing though despite appearances. |
| 9 |
ENROL - hidden rev in “chancelLOR NEedlessly”. |
| 10 |
O(R[eall]Y)X - oddly enough, I chose an ORYX as my desktop background on a new Vista installation today. |
| 12 |
GAFFE,R - Brit slang for a foreman. |
| 15 |
INGRATE - tearing* - I suppose that “like Cinders” is our anagrind. So thanks to comments, “off” is our anagrind and “like Cinders” describes their location: IN GRATE. Nice clue. |
| 17 |
A,D(V)ANCE - nice clue since there’s probably a Charleston in VA. Note the precision of “leader from Virginia” for V. |
| 20 |
[w]ES[t],PRESS,O - more Americana — Ohio is normally abbreviated as OH but can be just O (unlike Virginia!). Perhaps after all purists would argue with “Midwest” indicating ES though. |
| 22 |
SETTLE - must be a SETTLE in Yorkshire. |
| 23 |
GOBS,TOPPER - I think a GOBSTOPPER is a v. large sweet spherical object one inserts in one’s mouth to provide a challenge for one’s molars. |
| 24 |
B,RAW - splendid clue since it’s Scotch (21D) for splendid! Pointed out in comments that SCOTCH is not quite Scots… |
| 25 |
CHECK - an American cheque. |
| 26 |
ID,ES(ALI)ST - That is, Mohammed ALI in ID EST. |
Down
| 1 |
PEAR,MAIN - not excited by this really, probably since I’d never heard of the PEARMAIN apple. |
| 2 |
APEX - two meanings but the second: “Top fare”? The second kind of APEX is in fact a Brit train fare. Thanks to comments… |
| 3 |
NO,T FAR=rev(raft, on) |
| 4 |
ON, GREEN DOLPHIN S,T(RE)ET - I’ve actually read the Faulks book so I recognized the jazz allusion and ref. the TET offensive in I think 1967?? My wordplay is a bit fanciful actually. It’s really GREEN DOLPIHNS in (to enter)*. Again thanks to comments! |
| 6 |
PROTEST,A,NT - spotter* |
| 7 |
FLY,ING FORTRESSES - FLY as in sly or “knowing” followed by (Forest singers)* — rather doubtful surface frankly. |
| 18 |
CO(LLA=rev(all))PSE |
| 21 |
SCOTCH - two meanings. |
| 24 |
BOLT - and we end with another double definition. |
Posted in Guardian | 21 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 19th February 2008
Make the most of this puzzle, we might not see a Virgilius next week, unless he has a few puzzles in the pipeline. Not sure if this constitutes a theme but lots of answers have Is or Ts in them (see 15/18).
| Across |
| 1 |
hidden in “joB IF Fomenting” |
| 3 |
S,PACE,CRAFT - if I’ve parsed this correctly then I’m not sure what “put into” is doing. Maybe it belongs with “workmanship” and taken together they indicate CRAFT? |
| 9 |
NEXT? - fits the definition but I can’t see the wordplay. “Clothing store that’s still open - most close”. The last two words might indicate T? |
| 10 |
TILL in (ONE SIX)* - SEXTILLION is the sixth power of a million. |
| 12 |
(RANKS FOE)* - FORSAKEN. |
| 15/18 |
DOTS THE IS AND CROSSES THE TS - I’m not sure I really understand all of what’s going here. The full clue is “Applies finishing touches needed to rewrite it”. The first three words provide the definition but it’s the last half of the clue that I don’t really get. I mean “it” already has a dotted “i” and crossed “t” - why does it need rewriting? |
| 22 |
DETR[-o]IT,US |
| 24 |
IT in (TIED ROPE)* - PERIDOTITE. For me, this was another one of those “chuck the remaining letters in and hope for the best” clues. The wordplay is easy enough but once all the checking letters were in, you’re left with P?R?D?T?T? and EIEIO from the anagram fodder. Pretty much all the combinations of letters look convincing so I went for PIRODETITE. |
| 26 |
(A CONTEST ID)* - ANECDOTIST. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
hidden (going up) in “deED IF AN OBjection” - excellent hidden clue with a great surface reading. |
| 4 |
RE,RE in PLEASE - quite a tough one to parse but the penny dropped once I worked out what “holding on repeatedly” meant. |
| 7 |
I,I in AC DC - this showed up my lack of science knowledge. In the PH scale above 7 is alkaline or “basic” and below 7 is ACIDIC. I didn’t know that so I guessed it from the checking letters and wordplay. |
| 8 |
TINKER - which can mean “fiddle” but I don’t understand “Irish sage listened to”. |
| 11 |
TERM in (DEMAND IS)* - MASTERMINDED. |
| 14 |
US,HE,SETTER (going up) - excellent definition “Girl Guides in the dark” and a slightly surreal surface reading. |
| 16 |
EXTR[-a] in DOSE |
| 23 |
last letters in “thiS lasT cluE lasT” - this appeared in the Times puzzle yesterday too. It’s usually found in the margins of manuscripts “to indicate that something which has been changed or marked for deletion is to be retained in its original form after all.” Apparently it means “let it stand” in Latin. |
Posted in Independent | 18 Comments »