Fifteensquared

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Archive for March 17th, 2008

Independent 6682 (Tees)

Posted by NealH on 17th March 2008

NealH.

* = anag, < = reversed, () = dropped

A slightly easier puzzle from Tees compared to some recent entries, although I have no idea who the person in 24 across was.

Across
1 Tennis: (Sin + net)<
5 Pub Crawl: Cryptic def.
9 Cornelia: Cornea around li.
10 Oracle: (C)oracle.
11 Rocking Chair: Cryptic def.
13 Beef: Ref to Beef Wellington.
14 Glad Rags: Gags around lad + r.
17 Pastrami: Past + ram + i. Good surface definition based on “smoked”, which referred to the type of meat but appeared to mean cigarettes.
18 Troy: Try (rugby score) around o.
20 Sea of Galilee: (Feel as goalie)*. The anagram wasn’t difficult to spot, but it was good to see the apparent football theme kept going with the use of “nets” as the definition.
23 Potter: Double def.
24 Saunders: The wordplay is obviously SAS around under, but I have no idea who Saunders was. Tried to look it up in Wikipedia, but there were dozens of entries.
25 Werewolf: Took me a while to get the wordplay in this one, but I think it’s (few)< around (lower)<.
26 Exmoor: (Romeo)* around x.
 
Down
3 Nonprofit: (on for pint)*
4 Select: Double def, but well-disguised to look like an anagram.
6 Brougham: (Mab)< around rough (long grass in golf).
7 Reach: R + each.
8 Wellington. W + ellington (Duke Ellington, a jazz player).
12 Sea Anemone: (Aeneas)* + mone(y)
15 Rotterdam: Rotter + dam.
16 Kangaroo: (Go + anorak)*
19 Claude: laud in CE (Claude was Debussy’s first name).
21/5/2 In the playing fields of Eton: (y + define fight Napoleon lost)* + &lit.
22 Argo: (C)argo

Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »

Guardian 24344/Rufus - what a scream!

Posted by ilancaron on 17th March 2008

ilancaron.

The serial number is probably a misprint online. Anyway, a rather good Rufus I thought - an &lit here and there, a couple of reasonable cryptic definitions. Overall a pleasant accompaniment to my first cup of tea of the day. And by posting this early I hope I’ve recovered lost karma points for being late on Friday.
Across

1 RAN,CID - nice shift of meaning of “rank” from the surface to the definition.
5 PARA,NO,ID
11 CUT=score, AND=with, THRUST=truths*
13 P(IT)Y - &lit for the appropriate emotion when encountering extreme poverty. Well… we all give money to the homeless don’t we?
14 S[ill]Y,NDROME=modern*
17 FLAME,NCO - Sweetheart’s just FLAME here and not E or WEE.
18 CANT - two meanings.
24 ONE(SIDE)D - SIDE in done*. Good surface.
25 AS,SAS,SIN - ref. the Brit SAS special forces. Again, surface holds together well.

Down

1 A,MO,S - second is just a “MO” and our prophet is from the OT not the Koran.
3 C,ATACLYSM=(stay calm)* - disaster is our anagrind and upheaval is our definition.  
4 DRAFTS=”draughts” - another nice clue with the surface misleading towards military DRAFTS.
5 PUT ONES FOOT DOWN
6 R(OAST)ING
8 INVESTMENT - two meanings
12 VILLA,IN,O,US - ref. Aston Villa (English football team).
15 RECESSION=(once rises)* - nice &lit again.
19 SCREAM - groan. As it were.
21 DOG,MA - ref. DOG lead.
22 BETA=beat* - I like “offbeat” indicating a jumble of beat but would a purist complain?

Posted in Guardian | 10 Comments »