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Archive for April 7th, 2008

Guardian 24356/Rufus

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 7th April 2008

Colin Blackburn.

I managed to solve this puzzle comfortably on the bus back home this morning. It’s a forty minute journey though I spent much of the time looking out of the window at the beautiful snowy landscape of the North Pennines. I also enjoyed the puzzle much more than some Rufus puzzles as he held back on his trademark clue type. There’s one homophone I’m not fully happy with and one cryptic definition I got wrong caused me to struggle on one of the easier clues. Oh, and there are also some very nice clues here.

* = anagram

“” = homophone

dd = double definition

cd = cryptic definition

Across
9 LOOKALIKE A in LOOK+LIKE a very good bit of word play to kick off with.
10 ONION ON+1+ON on (on) both sides of one!
11 GOSLING GO+SLING
12 ASKANCE N in ASK+ACE
13 THEFT THE+F(irs)T
14 INHERITED (IN THE RED I)* slightly oddly phrased clue but a nicely observed anagram.
16 FOUR-LETTER WORDS dd the first definition is by example. I struggled on this because I had it starting with an N for a little too long, see 1d.
21 CRUSE “cruise” I didn’t like this clue. I had C-U-E and knew it was a homophone, however having not heard of CRUSE I pencilled in CRUZE (50-50 guess). For a normal daily puzzle I don’t think you should have to check a dictionary to confirm what letters fill the unches. I’d be more than happy with the word itself if the word play had been unambiguous.
22 MAESTRI A+REST* in MI Italian rather than English plural.
23 WEIGH-IN cd
Down
1 FLAGSTAFFS cd I wrote in FLAGSTONES. This made sense cryptically since FLAGSTONES bear weight. This was fine as it checked everywhere except 16a. It wasn’t until I considered the ridiculous NINE-LETTER WORDS for 16a that I saw the answer.
2 ROUSSEAU US in ROSE+AU
6 COCKCROW COCK+CROW
7 LINNET L+IN+NET after the initial thoughts of putting L in a snare I remembered the bird and realised the IN was en clair.
8 KNEE cd ref. on bended knees.
14 IN THE FIELD dd I do wish Rufus had extended the word BULL by four letters, it would have still worked.
17 LIE STILL LIE + STILL yet = STILL
21 CRISIS CR+ISIS ‘academic stream’ = Isis. Isis is the name given to the Thames as it flows through Oxford.

Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »

Crossword No 6700 by Al

Posted by NealH on 7th April 2008

NealH.

*=anag, <=reversed, [] =dropped

I’ve not come across this compiler before, so wasn’t sure what to expect. It was a good, although not horrendously difficult puzzle with some excellent attempts at deception. The only clue I didn’t really follow was 16 across.

Across
1 Hors Doeuvres: Horse + s around (devour)*. This spelling of Hors D’oeuvres always throws me, although it’s come up a few times before, so it must be allowed. Horse clued as “unusual meat” might be a bit debatable, since it depends what country you’re in. Clearly, in the UK it would be unusual, but less so in countries like France.
10 Idiot: Id + o in it.
11 Transport: (torn past)* around r
12 Hairnet: Hair (Darryl, controversial test umpire) + net.
13 Lorelei: lore + lei.
14 Nontoxic: (On tonic)* around x.
16 Ferret: (Ref)< + re + t. I don’t know what ferret has to do with tape, unless there is such a thing as “ferret tape”.
18 Copper: Co + pp + er.
20 Portions: port + ions.
24 Sporran: SP + narro[w]<.
25 Pastime: PE around “as Tim”.
27 Lookalike: Kali + k in Looe.
28 Aware: A + ware.
29 Ethnocentric: (content reich)*.
 
Down
2 Ovidian: (in a void)*.
3 Sit in: Nit is<.
4 Outstrip: Cryptic def (Gypsy Rose Lee was an old burlesque dance act).
5 Unable: U + (el ban)<.
6 Resurgent: Res + urgent. I’m not personally a big fan of having latin in puzzles (mainly because I didn’t do it at school, so usually end up having to guess what the latin word is).
7 Spoiler: (prose + i l)*
8 Lichen: chil[dr]en*. Not heard of lichen as a skin disease before.
9 Strict: Stir with i moved down 1 place + ct.
15 Overreach: over + reach.
17 Complete: (c + omelet + p)*.
18 Castle: Cast + l + e (chess piece aka rook).
19 Promote: Prom + (ot)< + e.
21 Origami: (I’m + a giro)<.
22 See red: Seer + ed.
23 Indigo: In + dig + o. Good deception to make it look like a word inside dig.
26 Shaft: double def with a clever surface that pointed towards prisons.

Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »