Fifteensquared

Crossword bloggery

Archive for May 13th, 2008

Guardian 24,387 - Araucaria

Posted by manehi on 13th May 2008

manehi.

Was, unusually for me, on the right wavelength for Araucaria today, and sped through most of the puzzle, which was as enjoyable as always. There was a nice mini theme of a few clues linked somehow or another to 18dn. 1ac and 28ac were new words to me, and I had to do a little research for the wordplay of 25. Still need help deciphering 6dn. Edits thanks to Shirley and Eileen.

Across
1 GLENLIVET G, LENT around LIVE
6 MYRRH MY,R,RH - also known as Sweet Cicely, one of the gifts brought by 18.
9 APPLE APE around P[upi]L, “Pupil” also is the def.
10 SOPHISTRY S,OP,HIS TRY
11 EAR-WIGGING EARWIG,GING[er], I think. It can mean a reprimand.
14 THAT WAS (what)* in rev(Sat), putting this on either side on 15 gives the satirical That Was The Week That Was
15 THE WEEK TWEE around HE = high explosive, K. Also defined as “…what ends then” [i.e. Saturday].
17 PREVIEW REV,I in PEW
20 GOLD GOL[iath], D[avid], another of 18’s gifts
22 PSYCHIATRY sounds like “psi, chi” + A TRY - second similar use of TRY in this puzzle.
25 NEWSWOMAN Rebekah Wade is the editor of the Sun. As for the wordplay… Tyneside is in the NE, from there you need to go WSW to reach Keswick, and then to OMAN to get to Muscat. Or, some abbreviation for Newcastle for the first few letters. Maybe.
26 EBOLA rev(a lobe)
28 NIERSTEIN (entries in)*
Down
2 EXPURGATE EX, PG = “paying guest” partly inside [c]URATE. Thomas Bowdler published an expurgated Shakespeare.
3 LIES IN WAIT LIES = “stories”, and carollers might tell of an “inn wait”, I guess. WAIT can refer to a carol singer.
4 VISAGES VI SAGES = six sages ~ twice “three wise men”. Nice.
5 TOPKNOT TOP as in to exceed, and KNOT the rate of travel.
6 MAIN “Supplier of “light … on land or sea”?” - sea would be the def, but can’t make out the wordplay. Main as in electrical mains.
7 RATTY ref the Wind in the Willows character
8 HAYMARKET sounds like “hey, mark it”
14 TYPE GENUS TYPE, GEN[eral], US - zoological term.
16 EIGHTSOME EIGHT,SO,ME - EIGHT is half of 16, the clue number.
18 WISE MEN W = with, rev(NEMESI[s])
19 INCENSE follows Frank to make frankincense, the last of 18’s gifts. Unusual wordplay, but gettable enough in the context of this puzzle.
21 LOWRY Low Railway = base line
24 TWEE TWEE[d]

Posted in Guardian | 8 Comments »

Independent 6731/Virgilius

Posted by John on 13th May 2008

John.

The usual wonderful Virgilius themed around one of our favourite activities. Every one (although perhaps 30 is stretching it a bit) of the across answers is in some way connected with crosswords. I think that’s all, but don’t dare to say categorically that it is.

Across
1 CROSSWORD - 2 defs
6 POSER - (perso(n))*
9/13/28 BAD HAIR DAY - 2 defs
10 WORDS FAIL ME - 2 defs
11 GRIDLOCKED - (did clerk go)*
15 LAMENTATIONS - the Bible book and …
19 I HAVEN’T A CLUE - a crossword contains clues, so a solver can’t say there are none.
22 HAteful crosswoRD
23 CAN’T BE DONE - cant bed one
26 AT MY WIT’S END - I can’t see that this is more than two very similar meanings. Perhaps I’m missing something.
29 SOLVE - (loves)*
30 DISASTERS - (a distress)*
 
Down
1 CUB AGE
2 ORDAIN - 2 defs
3 SAW - I think this is 3 defs: ‘Understood’, ’saying’, that’s designed to be cutting’
4 (y)O(S)RIC(k)
5 DYSPEPTIC - (depict spy)*
6 P LAY - I think the def. is ‘Position’ but am not comfortable with this
7 SALVADOR (Dali)
8 RYE-GRASS - (grey)*(r)ass
12 LEADER - “lieder”. Do only editors write leaders, or do editors write nothing but leaders?
14 ATTUNE - at((nut)rev.)e
16 EXTR(a) ACTED
17 HIGH MASS - 2 defs
18 LACRIMAL - (calm liar)*. I’m not sure why there isn’t a question mark at the end, since you can be lacrimal for many reasons.
20 POO(D)LE
21 BERYLS - (sly reb)rev. The word ‘reb‘ was new to me, although it always seemed likely.
24 TEENS - 20 is the score
25 concerT WE Enjoyed
27 DIS - Walt Disney created the dog Pluto

Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »

Financial Times 12,766 / Armonie

Posted by C G Rishikesh on 13th May 2008

C G Rishikesh.

I took 30-45 minutes for this crossword. I got 4ac to begin with, but botttom-right quadrant was the first to be completed. When I began  writing the draft for this blog, I had not solved three clues - 1, 25, 27, all acrosses. Of these, I got two as I returned to the grid. 25 ac remains elusive (anyone may reveal the answer).

Across

1 ASHORE - a,shore

4 PROPOUND - pro,pound

10 HEARTLESS - heart(les)s - Very neat clue.

11  EXERT - ex(-p)ert - I am not sure if ‘employ’ is an apt def. for the word.

12 LESS - (-b)less

13 FIRE WARDEN - f(i,reward)en

15 ERASURE - era (rev. of ‘are’),sure - Can we write such a sentence outside of the crossword? Subjects are sometimes understood, yet… While on the topic: The local newspaper often has the headline “Commits suicide” where the subject ‘one’ is taken as understood. But when I see the headline “Commit suicide” I am annoyed because, first, I could do without any such suggestion and, secondly, how am I to know whether it was two or more than two who killed themselves?

16 TRIFLE - t,rifle

19 STUPID - stu(pi)d

21 BOUNCER - b(ounce)r

23 CONVERSION - con,version  Again, it seems to me that ‘metamorphosis’ does not seem to be quite a fitting definition/synonym for the required word. Are we to accepts this kind of latitude in crossword clues?

25 Not solved - ?R?D - The clue is: You put lights somewhere in here (4) (On edit) GRID See comment below for explanation.

27 RIDGE - rid(g)e

28 BADMINTON - b, adminton (anag. of ‘dominant’)

29 BREATHER - b(RE)ather

Down

1 ACHILLES -  ac(hill)es

2 HEAD-START - (A hard test)*
 
3 RUTH - rut,h

5 RESPECT - two def. I didn’t get this too quickly. 

6 PRECARIOUS - prec(a r)ious ‘Favourite’ is a way-out synonym for ‘precious’.

8 DOTING - dot,in,g

14 SUPPLEMENT - supple,men,t

17 LACERATED - (Act leader)* Nice clue.
 
18 PRUDENCE - (endure PC)*

20 DISABLE - b in ‘disale’ (Ladies)* Shouldn’t we have ‘the Ladies’? Should definite articles be dispensed with for the sake of conciseness in clue-writing? 

21 BROODY - b,rood,y

22 SCARAB - scar,a b

28 BADMINTON - b, adminton (anag. of ‘dominant’)

29 BREATHER - b(RE)ather

 

Posted in FT | 3 Comments »