Fifteensquared

Crossword bloggery

Archive for April 2nd, 2008

Financial Times 12,731 (Dogberry)

Posted by diagacht on 2nd April 2008

diagacht.

Having recently blogged a SHED puzzle from the Guardian, this DOGBERRY was also very enjoyable.

Across
1 MUSTER: ER after MUST
4 CHAMPION: H in CAMPION
9 HERNIA: IN reversed in HERA
10 PART-SONG: PARTS + ON (broadcast) + G
12 GRIDLOCK: GRID (framework) + LOCK (secure)
13 SPRITE: R in SPITE
16 BULLDOG: BULL (herbivore) + DOG (carnivore)
21 PAGE: double definition
25 CLOUDY: LOUD in CY (city limits)
26 HEAT RASH: HE + A TRASH
28 UPSTAIRS: anagram of A PURISTS
29 SCHISM: MS (manuscript, reversed) around CHIS (plural of Greek letter Chi)
30 FALSETTO: FAL (river in Cornwall) + SET TO
31 POMMEL: double definition (part of a saddle; part of a gymnastics horse)
Down
1 MAHOGANY: A HOG in MANY
2 SURBITON: anagram of IRON BUST
6 METAPHOR: PA (reversed) in anagram of MOTHER
7 ICONIC: C in IONIC
8 NUGGET: GUN (reversed) + GET
11 SCOURGE: CO (commanding officer) in SURGE
14 BLOATER: L in BOATER
17 MANDRAKE: MAN + DRAKE (both male bipeds)
18 PARADIGM: A DIG in PARM(a) (Italian city lacking a)
19 BECHAMEL: BE (live) and H (hogshead) in CAMEL
23 MORSEL: MORSE (from Colin Dexter) + L
24 STUCCO: anagram of CUT COS(t) (no end)
27 TROT: double defintion (brief form of Trotsky)

Posted in FT | 2 Comments »

Guardian 24352/Orlando - Mungo Jerry?

Posted by ilancaron on 2nd April 2008

ilancaron.

Not as hard as the last Orlando I had to blog though had to guess at a couple of defs. Please enlighten. Seemed more than average anagram count which probably explains why I found this relatively easy.

Across

1 MUM’S THE WORD=(who strummed)*
9 HESSIAN - two meanings (I recognized the cloth from somewhere)
10 DU(CHESS)ES - our game’s just CHESS.
12 MUN,GO - I don’t fully understand this — I did manage to guess the answer given M?N?O and GO is a great definition of “leave”, Saint MUNGO is a fully paid-up sponsor of Glasgow but I don’t understand the dialect part and MUN: “Scottish saint using dialect has to leave”.
13 WOOD=”would” — nice clue. A grove of limes being a WOOD though the Ximenean rule of misleading capitalization being violated.
14 MAI(SON)ETTE - SON in teatime*
19 WA,I,F - would this have won last month’s Times crossword clue competition?
22 PROGESTIN=(top singer)*
24 ARAL SEA=(alas! - are)*
25 IN FO,C,US - “dope” is our INFO.
26 SMALL CHANGE - two meanings

Down

1 MUSIC TO ONE’S EARS - (assure economist)* — another anagram. Auditor not indicating a homophone for a change but part of the definition.
2 MAIN,[constabl]E
3 TUN(IS,I)A - well-constructed clue with a sensible surface.
4 EPHES=sheep*,US - it’s an ancient Illiyrian city but I don’t see how US is produced from “no good” (other than an expression of universal anti-Americanism). “Stray sheep no good in ancient city”. (OK — I looked up US in Chambers and, yes, as a couple of commenters have noted, it’s U/S meaning “unserviceable”).
5 ON, RE(MAN)D - “bloke” is our MAN and “working” is ON (not sure why I blogged IN REMAND initially… see notes).
6 DEFINITE ARTICLE - nice CD
7 SH(AD)OW
15 CLAR(IS)SA - IS in rascal* — ref. the novel by Samuel Richardson.
16 F(ULM)AR - ULM must be in Germany. And FULMAR’s a seabird I think.
17 T(OP,S)AIL - To TAIL is to SHADOW (7D) and a TOPSAIL’s part of a boat’s rig.
18 GOO,DISH
20 FINISH=”Finnish”
23 ELFIN - hidden in “AriEL FINally”.

Posted in Guardian | 8 Comments »