Fifteensquared

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Archive for May 17th, 2008

FINANCIAL TIMES no. 12,769 Set by AARDVARK

Posted by Octofem on 17th May 2008

Octofem.

FINANCIAL TIMES No: 12,769 set  by   AARDVARK     May 16, 2008

Most of this puzzle was quite straightforward, but I came unstuck on 16A and 14D..
I  have made an attempt at them but can’t quite see the reasons.  I wanted 16 to be some kind of
‘hand’-book, but could not find one to fit.

ACROSS

1.       HOCKEY - C in hokey (slang for prison)
4.       QUEEN BEE- bee as in ’spelling bee.’
9.       LEAN TO -  le-ant-o (leo the big cat)
12.     CELERIAC- C-(hocolat)-E  *eclair
13.     ASSENT- (p)asse- nt
15.      NORM - no-r-m
16.      LABOURSOME(?)- ( bourse cheese may come into this)
19.      WHITSTABLE -*blast within white for snowy
23.      NINETY- n-in-et-y ( French for and, Spanish for and)
25.      PORTUGAL - p-or-tug-al ( pal - old china to Cockneys)
27.     GOVERNOR - g- over-no-r
28.     POETIC - p-oet-ic (alternate letters from moments within pic)
29.     MONICKER- mo- nicker(One who steals)
30.     VERNON - Ver-n-on (<Rev- noon - working)

DOWN

1.      HELICON  - * echoing, substituting L for G (A brass instrument, fore-runner of the sousaphone,
                                 popular for ceremonial use in Europe)
2.      CHARLEROI - cha-r-*loire (City in Belgium)
3.      EATERY - ea-t-e-ry (another slang term)
5..     UREA - *a  rule, without L
6.      EXPOSURE - ex- posure (posture without T)
8.      ELECTEE - <hidden clue
11.    RAMADAN - armada with first letters reversed plus n for navy.
14.    ROLLMOP(?) - only other thought was scallop but could not make that fit.
17     ORANG UTAN - orange without e ,* nut with a
18.    ESOTERIC - e-*tories -c
19.    WINE GUM - win-e-g-um ( wing around base of store, plus hesitation word)
21.    PELICAN - * in place - bird with large beak.
22.    OTIOSE - < hidden clue
23.    NIVEN - n-ive-n (David Niven, much loved film actor)
26     FORE - golfer’s warning ( forest without st.)

 

 

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Guardian 24,385 (Sat 10 May)/Enigmatist - Balfour article

Posted by rightback on 17th May 2008

rightback.

Solving time: 6:55

Easier than usual for this setter, I thought, but perhaps harder if you hadn’t heard of the book referenced at 1dn, which connected most of the other long phrases.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 B(R)EECH
4 UP-BEAT (double definition)
9 FLOG; rev. of GOLF (= ‘a good walk spoiled’)
10 I(SOME + TRIC[k])S
11 BOO + T.E.S. - a constellation which contains the star Arcturus, the third brightest star (excluding the Sun) behind Sirius and Canopus.
12 BIT BY BIT - ‘by’ in the sense of ‘multiplied by’, hence ’squared’. A ‘bit’ is short for ‘binary digit’ in computer-speak, hence can take one of the values 0 and 1.
13 PRESENT (= ‘now’) + [h]ER[e]
17/2/25 BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL; (HEIGHTENED BATH BILL)*
22/5 NONE-SO-PRETTY (double definition) - as well as a beer, London Pride is a perennial plant also known as none-so-pretty.
24 UNDERLINGS; E swapped for G in UNDERLINES
26 AL(PINERO)SE - the playwright is Miguel Piñero. [Edit: More likely is Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (see comments).]
27 P(RAY)ER
Down
1 BALFOUR - a reference to former PM Arthur Balfour, and to Sandy Balfour who wrote the crossword-themed book ‘Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose’ which materialises from the clue. See this article for more.
3 CRIMSON TIDE - fantastic anagram.
6 EARLY BIRD; (BARELY)* + I + RD - this just about works cryptically if you take the definition as ‘Up before most others, he’ with ‘barely’ being the first word of the wordplay.
7 T(ACT)ILE
8 DOUBLE MEANING; (BELGIUM AND ONE)*
14 SIS + AL(HEM)P
16 R(O + MAN)IA - ‘ria’ being crosswordese for ‘drowned valley’.
18 IONISER; I, + IS in ONER - last one to go in.
19 HUSTLER; (SLEUTH)* + R
20/21 GIRL IN A MILLION; MILL in (IN ORIGINAL)*
23 N(OB + B)Y

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