Posted by linxit on 21st March 2008
Solving time 9:09
A pretty straightforward puzzle from Chifonie today - I don’t often finish non-Rufus Guardian puzzles in under 10 minutes. Still, there were some good clues and a few less familiar words in there, along with a couple of old chestnuts.
| Across |
| 4 |
APRICOT - pair* + COT |
| 12 |
AVERTABLE - AVER + TABLE |
| 13 |
ENCHANT - PENCHANT - P |
| 15 |
NIACIN - CAIN rev + IN, also known as Vitamin B3. |
| 17 |
BROOCH - BROACH with the A replaced with O |
| 19 |
CARLYLE - clearly*. This is Thomas Carlyle, the Victorian essayist and historian. |
| 24 |
EVENS - EVEN(t) + S. Surprised that this wasn’t linked to 2D, although the clue reads better as it is. |
| 27 |
BRIDEWELL - this is in Chambers as a generic word for a jail. The original Bridewell was a palace of Henry VIII in London that later became a prison. |
| 28 |
BOWSHOT - BOWS = accepts + HOT. I suppose bow is just about about OK for accept, in the sense of bowing to the inevitable for example. As far as I know though, a quarrel is just another name for a crossbow bolt, whereas bowshot only refers to how far an arrow can be shot from a bow. |
| Down |
| 1 |
TROUNCE - T(ory) + R(uns) + OUNCE |
| 3 |
DESPERADO - speared* + DO |
| 4 |
ACTAEON - ACT + A + EON. In Greek mythology, he was a hunter who came upon the goddess Artemis having a bath in the woods. She turned him into a stag and his own hounds ripped him to pieces, hence the definition “the hunter hunted”. |
| 6 |
CELEBRITY - B inside CELERITY |
| 7 |
TOTTER - double def. [ I originally had TATTER for this, which also sort of fits but not as well as TOTTER. Thanks for the correction, Superdad. ] |
| 8 |
AGHAST - AG HAS T(ime) |
| 14 |
CORKSCREW - “Cork’s crew”. Nice cryptic def too, “pulls out the stops”. |
| 16 |
AGREEMENT - MEN inside A GREET |
| 19 |
CADDIE - C(ollege) + aided* |
| 21 |
BICARB - CAR in BIB. A new one for me, BIB is another name for the pout, a fish of the cod family. |
| 25 |
ELEGY - E.G. (say) inside ELY (see). |
Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »
Posted by John on 21st March 2008
So now we see why Phi was on Tuesday: Eimi had ready a nice 28ac crossword. I hesitate to say that it was tough, but it took me ages, and some of the references were so obscure that I had to use Google.
| Across |
| 1 |
GE(TH(S(uffer))EMAN)E |
| 6 |
BACH - “bark”, although it depends on how “Bach” is pronounced |
| 10 |
doubLE Agent. I’m less than keen on such a slight hidden indicator. |
| 11 |
VENN DIAGRAM - (van dreaming)* - excellent [my simple mistake pointed out in a post has now been corrected] |
| 12 |
OREGON FIR(e), not a tree I’d heard of but fairly obvious once the checking letters were there |
| 13 |
DIR(G)E. I don’t understand why he needed to use “mainly”. The clue is long enough as it is. Far be it from me to suggest to the Indy crossword editor how he should write his clues, but what’s wrong with “Good bit towards the end of dreadful sad song”? |
| 14 |
HOT (striking) CROSS (angry) BU(N)S |
| 18/23 |
THE OLD RUGGED CROSS - the old (grudge)* cross (centre, as in football). Had never heard of it, but it’s evidently big in America. |
| 24 |
CAPACITOR - (tapioca)* in c(ontaine)r |
| 25 |
CANTON CREPE - (kitche)n in (once carpet)*. Easy enough to see what was going on, but I, like Chambers and Bradford, had never heard of this material, and my lack of Bible knowledge about Thomas delayed 22dn, so this wasn’t easy. |
| 26 |
TAB - much research eventually showed that this is both an LSD tablet and a cigarette in the NE |
| 27 |
RoyAL SOciety |
| 28 |
GOOD FRIDAY - (diary of God)* - nice semi &lit. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
GO(L GOTH)A |
| 2 |
TR(AVE ST)Y |
| 3 |
SAVIOUR - (various)*. Not totally convinced by “performers (in?)” as an anagram indicator, and what is the significance of calling it “The Messiah” when the Handel work is “Messiah”? |
| 4 |
MANIFEST O |
| 5 |
NADIR - (Ahmedineja)d in (Iran)* |
| 7 |
AUR(OR)A |
| 8 |
HUMMER - a 4×4 that hums in both senses |
| 9 |
GARDEN - (drag)rev. en |
| 15 |
BEDS P(RE)AD |
| 16 |
A G(IT)ATED |
| 17 |
A DO RA(B)LY |
| 19 |
HESTON - the Heston service station is on the M4 (not something overseas readers will be very familiar with), and Charlton Heston |
| 20 |
UNCLEAR - (clue ran)* |
| 21 |
(Obam)A CA CIA |
| 22 |
WOUND (Thoma)S, referring to the disciple Thomas’s having to poke his finger into Jesus’s wounds |
| 24 |
CACAO - CD referring to chocolate bars |
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 21st March 2008
I wonder if anyone will solve this without realising there’s a theme? There are a number of 6d 14a in the grid (highlighted in bold below) as well as in almost every clue, along with non-16d 14a and singers. In the Across clues the only ones without a thematic reference were: 1,5,12 and 18. In the Downs, the following all contained a band, singer or song: 2,3,5,7,13,16,19,20,23 and 25. Also, 6d 14a is To get all that thematic material into a 15 x 15 puzzle and yet still be accessible to every solver is quite a feat.
| Across |
| 1 |
R in BEAK,UP - I knew that BEAK was slang for a magistrate but I didn’t know it could also apply to a headmaster. |
| 10 |
(HE AND ENOD)* - ONE-HANDED. |
| 11 |
CINEM,A - had to stare long and hard at this one to work out what was going on: “taking every measure” means removing ALL and EM (a unit of measurement in printing) from “cALL EMinem” leaving CINEM. |
| 12 |
E in FE[-n]DER - FEEDER |
| 14 |
B AND S - which are the first letters of “Britney Spears”. The webmaster in me is now thinking: will we get more visits from search engines now that I’ve included that very popular search engine term in the blog? If so, I may have to figure out a way of including it in every post… |
| 15 |
([-re]HEARSES SO) - SEAHORSES. Another one that took some blank staring before I realised what “so not re-edited” was doing. |
| 18 |
RADA in COLON - this is very sly and was the last one I filled in: “Statesman: introducing school for performers”. Spotted the COLON yet? |
| 21/24 |
PR,I SLAM<,CREAM - PRIMAL SCREAM My favourite of all the artists name-checked in this puzzle. |
| 27 |
(NO IAN DIES)* - INDONESIA. |
| 28 |
hidden in “abOUT REm” |
| 29 |
HIT in WE - “like Fab Four album” a reference to the Beatles’ White Album. |
| 30 |
RIPE in STS - along with 29a this makes WHITE STRIPES |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
LA,NO I,TO ME (all going up) - I thought this was very well done indeed, although I did wonder about “my way” for TO ME. I think it’s a reference to what footballers might say when they want the ball passed to them, e.g. “to me, on me head” but that’s a little esoteric I think.Of course, for the surface “my way” must have been irresistible, especially as the melody for the song is actually from a French song called “Comme d’Habitude”. |
| 3 |
KILLERS - not sure I fully understand this one: “hit makers” is the definition (in the sense of hit - to kill someone) but I’m not sure about “ability with Queen beginning to sink to bottom”. The last 5 words could give S but where does KILLER come from? I thought it might be a reference to the Queen song “Killer Queen”? |
| 5 |
PLACEBO - a band I know next to nothing about except their brilliant debut hit (I think) “Nancy Boy”. |
| 6 |
IN,DIE - which is the contrary of “out live”. |
| 8 |
FE[-ed]ER (going up) - REEF. |
| 13 |
ASH,Y |
| 14 |
BE,C,K |
| 17 |
SPIN,(LP AT A)* - SPINAL TAP. I thought it was a nice touch to get this one in. |
| 19 |
(AMEN COR[-ner])* - ROMANCE. This is also very good as “Bend Me Shape Me” was actually a hit for Amen Corner. |
| 23 |
L,US,H |
| 26 |
hidden in “PEEL Sessions” |
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »