Posted by neildubya on 12th May 2008
I found this quite hard as birds, along with trees, are not a strong point with me. I’d never heard of a 13, a 14 or a 16 but eventually got them from the wordplay and/or educated guessing.
| Across |
| 1 |
(EPIS[-o]DE)* - ESPIED |
| 5 |
PL,OVER - the first thematic clue I got. |
| 8 |
GUIL[-e],(MOTEL)* - GUILLEMOT |
| 12 |
SCREE,CHOW,L |
| 13 |
L in (THE SORT)* - a guess, once all the checking letters were in place, as THROSTLE was new to me. It’s a song thrush apparently. |
| 17 |
hidden in “genERATOr” |
| 23 |
KING - I think this must be right because of the K in 2d but I can’t see how the clue works. |
| 26 |
PART,(DIRGE)* - PARTRIDGE |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
K in SIMMER |
| 4 |
IM< in DOCILE |
| 5 |
TR in PEEL |
| 6 |
CROW in (DROVE)* - OVERCROWD |
| 7 |
E,PI,TOME - I guess that PI is “pious”. |
| 8 |
GETS,TH[EB-b]IRD - hesitantly filled this in because “contracts” for GETS wasn’t obvious at first, although now it’s as plain as day: you GET an illness if you contract it. |
| 10 |
(DOGGE[-r]EL,A L[-i]NE)* - the hard part with this one was working out what was anagram fodder and what wasn’t. |
| 14 |
STORMCOCK - another name for the mistle thrush apparently. Not sure about the wordplay, apart from “outcry” = STORM. |
| 18 |
hidden in “hALLE GROup” |
| 20 |
ARIA,END< - a reference to the Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos. |
| 24 |
R in WEN - WEN means “an enormous congested city”. |
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Colin Blackburn on 12th May 2008
Rufus’s naval past seems to evident in this puzzle with numerous mentions of ships and the sea. As usual too many cryptic definitions for my taste but a few bits of clever word play too.
* = anagram
“” = homophone
cd = cryptic definition
|
| Across |
| 1 |
DRAUGHT |
cd |
the depth of water below a ship, ie how far a sailor could sink.
|
| 9 |
SWALLOWS |
WALL in SOWS |
‘between’ is the slightly odd sounding inclusion indicator here. It works if you treat SOWS as a string of letters.
|
| 10 |
ARMADA |
A+RM+ADA |
jolly = RM (Royal Marine). The definition is quite good here, less obvious than something like ‘Spanish fleet’.
|
| 12 |
CARRY FORWARD |
“Carrie”+FORWARD |
|
| 15 |
COURT ORDER |
cd? |
|
| 22 |
LAUREL WREATH |
cd |
laurel = bay. Very misleading surface reading with all the other sea-based clues. I guess that means it was a good cryptic definition.
|
| 28 |
RANKLE |
R+ANKLE |
I spent a little time trying to put something in R+ON or R+L and come up with a joint.
|
| 29 |
ENSIGNS |
cd? |
|
|
| Down |
| 1 |
DISC |
IS in D+C |
D & C are two of several Roman numerals but in this clue the two required ones are fairly easy to guess.
|
| 2 |
AFAR |
SEAFARER - SEER |
tricky word play here even though the answer is staring at us.
|
| 3 |
GALLANTS |
cd? |
I see the definition here but I assume there is some reference I’m not getting.
|
| 7 |
ADAM AND EVE |
cd |
|
| 8 |
STANDSTILL |
ST+AND+ST+I’LL |
clever word play.
|
| 13 |
OCEAN LINER |
(RELIANCE ON)* |
nice anagram.
|
| 18 |
PLATYPUS |
(SUPPLY AT)* |
can ‘capacity’ be read as an anagram indicator?
|
| 23 |
ELOPE |
cd |
|
Posted in Guardian | 15 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 12th May 2008
Erm.. I haven’t got much to say about this one. It was standard Eye/Cyclops stuff with nothing to greatly complain about, but also also not much to praise - merely workmanlike. Oh Gawd - have I become a critic now? Let’s get on with the detail:
| Across |
| 9 |
ULURU This is pretty much a General Knowledge clue |
| 10 |
FAIRY TALE (A LEFTY)* around AIR. “Lord” Archer is the Eye’s standard fibber. |
| 11 |
PRESS-STUD Hacks=PRESS ; Sex machine=STUD; I think I have press-studs on my anorak |
| 12 |
PILOT PILOT[I] Piloti is the Eye correspondent for the column about the built environment, “Nooks and Corners” |
| 13/14 |
ROTTEN BOROUGHS ROTTEN (awful) B.O. (personal stink) ROUGHS (yobs) Another intra-Eye reference, “Rotten Boroughs” is the section in the Eye where local Council shenanigens appears - sometimes the fraudulent and criminal behaviour exposed there is breathtaking. |
| 16 |
UTTERLY UTTER L[a]Y |
| 18 |
SHIATSU SHI(A)T (US)< |
| 20 |
HEADCASE HEAD (crown) CASE (cabinet) |
| 22 |
SEX MAD EX M inside SAD |
| 24 |
ROYAL ([M]ayor)< L[ord] |
| 25 |
CHATLINES LINE (strip) inside CHATS (birds) I think. I’m not sure about this, here’s the full clue - tell me if I’m wrong:
Birds strip inside; they allow caller to have group intercourse (9) |
| 28 |
DUNGAREES DUN then (ARSE)* around E[lasticated] |
| 29 |
GUCCI First letters of G[ordon] U[seless] C[rud] C[ameron] I[nitially] - I found this clue too contrived |
| |
| Down |
| 1/27 |
JUMP SUIT Shag=JUMP; Clubs=SUIT |
| 2 |
RUPERT PAPER without PA (Press Association) inside RUT (depression) R Murdoch mentioned without refering to him as the Dirty Digger - that must be a first |
| 3 |
BUM STEER B[rown] UM=er STEER=guide First I got in a trickier crossy than normal to get started in. |
| 4 |
E-FIT I inside EFT Looks like Ken now has more time to carefor his newts |
| 5 |
BIRDHOUSE BIRD (A lark maybe) HOUSE (MP’s place) |
| 6 |
NYMPHO (M PHONY)* cross-ref to 22A sex-mad |
| 7 |
GASLIGHT GAS (talk) Light (fair) Ref “Fanny by Gaslight” 40s Film more famous for its suggestive name than anything else: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036814/ |
| 8 |
DEATH SQUAD (QUASHED DAT[a])* I thought this was a quite well disguised anagram in a grid with very few:
Means of having political opponents eliminated, quashed: data endlessly lost (5,5) |
| 13 |
ROUGH TRADE Unhealthy=ROUGH; business=TRADE. Queen used in the non-Brenda sense here |
| 15 |
EYE SOCKET Organ=EYE; Electical source=SOCKET |
| 17 |
TOADYING (ADO)* inside TYING |
| 19 |
IDEOLOGY ID=”The same”(?) (GOOLEY)* Is it OK to use “the same ” to imply ID? I know what he means, but … |
| 21 |
COLLAR C (100) then [D]OLLAR[S] |
| 23 |
MONICA MO (AC IN)< (no comment) |
| 26 |
ARSE DD in the Eye Crossy sense: =Seat, and also the source of many a politico’s views. Full clue:
Seat, source of many a politician’s speech (4) |
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 2 Comments »