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Archive for May 20th, 2008

Financial Times 12,722 / by Quark

Posted by C G Rishikesh on 20th May 2008

C G Rishikesh.

I am rather late today as the real world caught up with me this morning. I could not give undivided attention to this crossword. I must admit that I had a slow start but clues fell one by one gradually. At the time of writing this blog, I had three to go but I am afraid the distractions won’t allow me to persist and ponder.

Across

1 CROSSBOW - I am not sure of this. Of course, it fits the second def, but I have not yet got a grip over the first def.

5 PLAQUE - Not too cryptic a def.

10 ESTER - anag. of ’steer’ - the surface reading gives a different twist to the def.

11 LIFEGUARD - Cryptic def but none-too-satisfying.

13 ELFIN - elfi(anag. of ‘file’),n

14 not solved: The clue is: Come back for a sort of flask (6)

15 DO OR DIE - door, die

20 TREBLE - tre(-m)ble

22 EMCEE - short for Master of Ceremonies No better treatment can be given to this word, it seems.

24 not solved - The clue is: It’s a ground breaker (nothing to be frightened of) (9)

25 AGENT NOUN - a,gent,noun (anag. of on UN)

27 EARLAP - anag. of ‘a pearl’. I believe ‘earlap’ also means ‘earflap’ and I understand what it is, but I don’t know of this as something that covers a hearing aid.

28 AESTHETE - anag. of ’see E that’

Down

1 COERCE - co(-mm)erce

3 STRING ORCHESTRA - I believe this is the answer. I know what a ’string orchestra’ is and I know what wind instruments are but I have not fully understood the crypticity of this clue.

4 OILIEST - anag. of ‘Eliot is’

6 LEG BEFORE WICKET - Cryptic def. Ref. to the “pads” that a batsman wears.

7 QUAFF - qu,a,ff - Qu. is also recorded in the dictionary as an abbr. of ‘question’ though Q is more familiar and used invariably.

16 DALLIANCE - d,alliance

17 AMPERAGE - a,MP,erage (anag. of ‘agree’)

19 LESION - anag. of ‘lose in’ - Nice surface reading.

20 TRAINEE - t(rain)ee

21 not solved - The clue is: One shipwrecked, being off course (6)

23 CHEER - that this word also means ‘food’ I learnt today on looking up Chambers. But I also remember this was mentioned somewhere before.

 

Posted in FT | 2 Comments »

Independent 6737/Monk

Posted by neildubya on 20th May 2008

neildubya.
Across
1 PAL,(NIMROD)*,E - “sees” is an example of a PALINDROME.
9 ANT,AR(C)TIC,A - “artic” is short for articulated lorry.
12 CONSTITUTION - I know this is right because I checked it using Reveal but I don’t understand the reference to “Old Ironsides”.
15 THE MET,UNE
18 CIVIC - I think “old cardinals” must a reference to the fact that C,I and V are all Roman numerals.
20 STEEP,(CHELSEA)* - STEEPLECHASE. As for the surface reading of the clue, we’ll see if that’s true tomorrow night.
24 IOTA - the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.
26 [-f]LUSH
 
Down
2 [-k]LUTZ - couldn’t get axel or salchow out of my head but eventually remembered the LUTZ.
3 NARROW ESCAPE - you’ll find the ESCAPE key on the top-left hand corner of your keyboard.
4 initial letters of “Reserves Are Telling England Stars”
5 (MINE SUCKS)* - MUCKINESS.
7 VE[-t] in (TERRIERS)* - RETRIEVERS.
8 FLAN,NELL,ED
14 (REVISE)*,(TEST)* - SERVIETTES. Excellent clue with a misleading surface and well-hidden definition.
16 (PUT)*,HE,ANTE
23 E, last letters of “laY tO resT”

Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »

Guardian 24393/Paul

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 20th May 2008

Colin Blackburn.

This is my last regular blog of daily puzzle here at Fifteensquared. I have enjoyed the last 18 months very much and it was great to be in on things at the beginning and to see the blog blossom into the success it now is. Despite feeling that I spent most of my time railing against poor and excessive cryptic definitions I have enjoyed solving almost all of almost every puzzle! The blog gave me reason to sample puzzles from every setter in both the Guardian and Independent stables where in the past I might have set the paper aside for some setters. I will continue to read and comment on the blog avidly, contribute the occasional blog from the subs bench if the occasion arises and to post occasional blogs for Azed and Inquisitor puzzles.

Anyway, what a puzzle to end on. This was a fantastic example Paul’s inventiveness and, barring a couple of complications on my part, it was on the easy side for this setter. There were some wonderfully playful definitions, some excellent word play and great misleading surface readings.

* = anagram
dd = double definition

Across
9 LIVERPOOL LIVER+POOL simple word play but you need to know that Liverpool is famous for its two cathedrals, one Anglican and one Roman Catholic. A line from the chorus of In My Liverpool Home goes “And if you want a Cathedral, we’ve got one to spare”
12 VIOLA DA GAMBA VIOLA + B in DA GAMA This one has thrown me. I can see that the explorer is probably Vasco DA GAMA but I’m not sure how Shakespearean gives VIOLA. I may have misread the clue. Incidentally, viol-de-gamboys is what Will called the instrument in question.
16 ANTI-EUROPE AN + U in TIE+ROPE Thatcher was widely regarded as being ANTI-EUROPE.
18 SCOTCH EGGS SCOTCH + EGGS excellent concise word play. For those not familiar with the SCOTCH EGG, it’s a hard-boiled egg covered in sausage meat and breadcrumbs and then deep-fried. It’s an English dish rather than a Scottish one.
21 IT’S HARD TO SAY dd the cryptic definition is perhaps a little unfair but with the checking letters, letter distribution and a precise literal definition it was fairly easy to get.
24 IDEAL I DEAL this one…
25 DISARMING dd …and this one are both nicely observed.
26 GO-KART (bu)G(attis)+OK+ART when I was a kid a GO-KART was built out of old pallets and pram wheels (soapbox kart to our US cousins). These days it seems to be the first step on the ladder to Formula One.
27 PSALMODY SALMO(n)+D in P(la)Y a disturbing image.
Down
3 BIRDIE dd eagle and albatross are examples of birdies but in golf they are not birdies!
4 SWOLLEN-HEADED (WELL DONE SHED A)* excellent anagram and surface referring to Paul’s stable-mate Shed.
6 RICE GLUE RI + EG in CLUE ‘this construction” here refers to CLUE.
7 DISEMBOWEL (MOB SEE WILD)* the definition here is ‘draw’ as in hang, draw and quarter. What was good about this clue was that ‘wild’ also worked as an anagrind and even with all checking letters in place I was looking for (DRAW MOB SEE)* meaning mayhem.
8 THE MALE EGO (GLEE AT HOME)* THE MALE EGO is often described as fragile.
10 LODGING HOUSES DG IN G(reenwic)H in LOO + USES excellent word play here. DG = Director General, the boss of the BBC.
13 PERSPIRING I in PER SPRING SPRING = warmish season is reasonable and the definition requires a re-reading of the clue though it’s not fully &lit.
14 WIDOW’S PEAK WI(n)DOW SPEAK a distinctive hair line.
17 SCRAWLER S+CRAWLER doctors’ prescriptions are typically said to be scrawled though these days computers have made things a little more readable if no more understandable.
20 LAUREL dd ref. Stan LAUREL who would often get Hardy into “another fine mess”, or rather he’d get the blame.
22 WINO WIN 0 ie WIN nothing. I originally wrote in the answer to 23 here, UGLY, which caused me no end of confusion.

Ciao.

Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »