Guardian, 24334 (Puck)
Posted by diagacht on March 12th, 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | HEATER: (t)HEATER |
| 4 | SCOWLING: COW in SLING |
| 9 | GOYAS: GOY (gentile) + AS |
| 10 | CASANOVAS:A NOVA in CASS. Giovanni Jacopo is Casanova but not sure if I have the decode right |
| 11 | JOHN DONNE:HND (higher national diploma) in JOON (sounds like JUNE) and NE (new English) |
| 13 | MONOCHROMIST: anagram of M CHOIR ON TOMS |
| 17,22,2 | YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING: As in police caution and mum’s the word. |
| 21 | CHESTNUTS: anagram of STENCH and STU (shortened stud) |
| 23 | RED DEVILS: anagram of ELVIS DED (dead with the article ‘a’1) and R (right). Refers to the display unit that is Manchester United. |
| 24 | SCALD: anagram of AL S (Stewart’s first) CD |
| 26 | ONE BY ONE: as in 11 (eleven) is one alongside one. Spent some time wondering how this clue related to John Donne! |
| 26 | WYVERN: WY (heartless way) + VERN (does this relate to Jules Verne and if so how do we lose the final e?) |
| Down | |
| 3 | EASED: EASE(l) with L (50) multiplied by 10 to make D (500) |
| 5 | COSTERMONGERS: anagram of SORT ME in CONGERS |
| 6 | WONDERS AT: anagram of TOWERS AND |
| 8 | GUSHER: G (good) + USHER |
| 10 | CONTRADICTION: DI in CONTRACTION |
| 14 | CROTCHETY: CROTCHET (note) + Y (end of day) |
| 15 | SATURATE: TUR (half turtle) in anagram of AT SEA |
| 18 | HAIRDO: H (hospital) + anagram of RADIO |
| 19 | STODGE: S (seconds) + TODGE (todger without the r) |
March 12th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
“Red devils” refers not to Manchester United but to this lot: http://www.reddevilsonline.com/
March 12th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
In 26 across VERNE is de-tailed.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Chris! To be fair to diagacht, I think he has it covered regarding display teams, or units.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Nope, Chris is right….
March 12th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
7D Can anyone tell us why this is Irving? We got Washington and Berlin, but what has it to do with Graves?
Thanks
March 12th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Was he (diagacht) not referring to the fact that the display team (he called it a ‘display unit’) shares a nickname with Man U?
March 12th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
For once I’ve got to answer a query before anyone else! 7D. DIRGE less D&E with VIN in the middle. Grave is a ‘vin’.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Sure ManU are also called the Red Devils but the clue is presumably just referring to the skydivers and not the football team.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Is it just me or is the whole willy = todger thing a bit too risque? I was very shocked when I got it.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I have no problems with the willy, todger, whatever. Why is that shocking?
I thought that the references to 11 were very cleverly misleading, for example in 20 (9 by 11!) = IC rather than poem by John Donne, and in 26.
But taking the last letter of a word, interpreting it as a roman numeral, multiplying it by ten, re-interpreting the result as a character, to replace the letter you first thought of — I found this a few too many levels of indirection.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:39 am
And so (re Red Devils) was not diagacht making that connection for fun? Sorry, but I can’t see how he is mistaken, or wrong, in this regard.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I thought 19d was hilarious as did most of the other cruciverbalists I showed it to.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Coming to this way too late, having just solved it - but the clue “Old Bill’s mum’s OK” is a classic. I also had no problem with changing EASEL to EASED. That shows I’ve been doing this sort of thing far too long!
I seem to remember sticking up for Puck ags ago when his first puzzle drew a lot of criticism - I feel vindicated now :-)