Posted by NealH on 23rd June 2008
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed
An excellent mix of clues from Punk as usual, with some relatively easy and some quite difficult. I had a couple of goes at completing it - got most of the way through this morning but had to come back and finish it this evening.
| Across |
| 1 |
Venture capital: (lucrative + a pent[house])*. |
| 9 |
Vital Statistics: cryptic def. |
| 10 |
Vagabond: VD around a Gabon. |
| 12 |
Keeper: Reference to the World Cup goalkeeper, Gordon Banks. |
| 13 |
Behind: Bind around he<. |
| 16 |
Sawbones: Seas around Now around B all <. |
| 18 |
Bewilder: be wilder. |
| 19 |
Tweedy: T[off] + weedy. |
| 20 |
Push up: Pup around us + h. |
| 22 |
Gorillas: Go rill as. |
| 25 |
Mistress Quickly: M + I stress quickly. |
| 27 |
New balls please: topical CD. |
| Down |
| 2 |
Evita: [N]ative<. Had to press reveal to get this one, for which I’m a bit annoyed. The “mother” bit really threw me - I convinced myself it must be Erica, with something to do with dropping the AM (ma<) from America. |
| 3 |
Tiara: Tara around I - a tiara is half of a crown. |
| 4 |
Responded: Reed around S pond. |
| 5 |
Cha: Cha[p]. |
| 6 |
Prink: Pink around r. A word I’ve never come across before, so I had to check the dictionary. |
| 7 |
Title Role: (Little or)* + e. |
| 8 |
Lickey End: Licked around yen. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of the place. |
| 11 |
Dishrag: Drag around his*. Pants here is being used in the colloquial “it’s pants !” sense. |
| 14 |
Execution: (on cue + exit)* + &lit. |
| 15 |
Irish Stew: Iris + h[i]s + wet<. |
| 17 |
Water jump: (a wet)* + rump around J + &lit. |
| 21 |
Pieta: Pi + ETA (est time of arrival). |
| 23 |
Lucre: Lure around c. |
| 24 |
Atlas: A salt<. |
| 26 |
Sol: hidden in mausoleum. |
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by stan on 23rd June 2008
A typically pleasant Monday puzzle from Rufus with at least two classy clues (15d and 24a). I still don’t understand why we must always get an easy puzzle on Monday. There’s always the simpler crossword in the Guardian supplement and you can always borrow or steal a copy of “The Telegraph” if all else fails.
I’d also genuinely like to see what Rufus could produce if he upped the level of difficulty to Paul/Araucaria strength.
ACROSS
9 ARBITRATE : (bar attire)*
10 ANNU(a)L
11 EVI-DENT
12 TICK OFF
13 SATAN - reference to the phrase “the devil provides work for idle hands”.
14 PACEMAKER : In this case a horse that sets the early pace on a (race-)course
16 OBSERVATION POST : usually abbreviated to O.P by soldiers
19 Omitted on purpose
21 Omitted on purpose - the answer is clear
22 OLD SALT - (LAD LOST)*
23 DI-STAFF
24 KN(a p.s)ACK - a good complex clue from Rufus - more like that please ! A second thought is a “p.s” and a knapsack is a pack. “Having the knack of something” is definitely a gift
25 OFF COLOUR
DOWN
1 WATERSPOUT
2 OBVIATES : (bias vote)*
3 STRE-WN : (rest)* + W N
4 FAST
5 HEATH CLIFF : From “Wuthering Heights” and also two features of wild countryside.
6 WATCHMAN
7 UNHOOK : reference to “hook and eye” fastenings
8 CLEF
14 PIANO STOOL
15 RETURN FARE : This is a lovely pun : I’m usually a critic of Rufus’ work, but he did make me smile this morning.
17 RAN-SACK
19 OPERA-TOR
20 KID-NAP : I know a card game called “Napoleon” where you score big if you promise to take all the tricks and do so - this is called “Nap”. There may be a less obscure rationale.
21 CASTOR : (+POLLUX = the Gemini Twins)
22 OAKS : A classic horse race and that most English of trees
23 DUFF : e.g “Plum Duff”. Good misdirection - it’s not the kind of “boiled sweet” you expected, right ?
Posted in Guardian | 16 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 23rd June 2008
Another crossword where the last answer (correctly) written in is the first clue you look at, i.e. 1A or equivalent. This seems to have been happening to me a lot recently. Is it just that these instances and more memorable? Are setters purposely making 1A clues harder than the rest? Or is it simply that my brain is less in tune with cryptic thinking, more easily misled or fixated, early on in a solving session?
| Across |
| 7 |
FRILLIES ILL inside FRIES (homophone Fry’s ref Stephen Fry). I had TROLLEYS initially on the basis of a couple of crossing letters and as they are slang undies, without any justification from the clue besides the def. Then when the other crossing letters checked (espec. after I changed my spelling to trollies) I might have left it in if I wasn’t going to do this blog. Finally I thought of the only Stephen likely to be mentioned only by first name:
Dicky gets into Stephen’s (so it’s said) girly underwear (8) |
| 9 |
RETAIL (ER)< TAIL |
| 10 |
NON-VIOLENT [brow]N (LOVE IN)* all inside (TON[y])< Complex wordplay - quite satisfying to work out |
| 11/23 |
RIFF RAFF RIFF (FAR)* F |
| 12/13 |
PARTY POLITICS PARTY (TOIL)* inside PICS |
| 15 |
MARILYN (MAINLY R)* By a short head this simple solid clue picks up my favourite clue award:
Film star mainly gets screwed without resistance (7) |
| 16 |
PLAINLY LAIN inside PLY |
| 19 |
BACKSIDE BACKS[L]IDE |
| 21 |
RUDDY [c]RUDDY |
| 22/25 |
STAR TREK (RATS)< TREK Again I got fixated on an answer - in this case “This Life” - brought on by thinking it was an anagram of “shits + something else” - that was was obviously wrong but wasted time wondering if a “White South African” is known as a “efi” or a “fil” and so on. |
| 24 |
LEGAL COSTS CD Were we supposed to think of Jeremy Paxman and … (shudder) … his briefs ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7199696.stm ):
From which briefs get more than adequate support? (5,5) |
| 26 |
SNIFFY SN (poles) IFFY (unsettled) |
| 27 |
REVOLVER CD Nice one:
Spin exponent likely to get fired? (8) |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
TRIO RIOT with T sent to the front. I over-thought this (i.e. got it completely wrong initially) and wrote in RIOT thinking it was (TRIO)*. Crossing letter put me right |
| 2 |
CLEVER DICK C[onservative] LEVER DICK |
| 3 |
MISOGYNY (GISMO Y N Y)* But isn’t misogyny synonymous with sexism rather than sexist? |
| 4 |
BRUTAL RUT in LAB reversed Definition slippage here too I reckon. Brutal is surely at less one notch up from Blunt which is nearer merely Tactless. |
| 5 |
STIR DD Very standard clue for this (bit too easy really):
Prison unrest (4) |
| 6 |
DIFFICULTY (CLIFF DUTY I)* One of the last to go in. I had been suitably misled into thinking about Cliff Richard and wondering if he had a nickname I didn’t know, and even considering if there are other famous Cliffs - Michelmore and Thorburn were all I could come up with - and even even if there are famous enough cliffs - such as Beachy Head or Golden Cap - before eventually spotting the anagrind “everywhere”:
Cliff: “Duty everywhere engulfs one” - pain in the arse! (10) |
| 8 |
SHERPA ER inside (PASH)* Another extremely easy clue here I thought. Gives me a chance to slip in a link to one of my childhood heroes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay |
| 12 |
PLAY-ACTING P LAY AC TING I thought the clueing of TING by “ding-a-ling” was sweet. |
| 14 |
THIRD WORLD DD First def is nice, as the Earth is “Third rock from the Sun”, but I’m not sure about the other def. these days (and neither is Cyclops we assume from the “?”):
It could mean the earth in Sun circulation terms, much of Asia? (5,5) |
| 17 |
LORD LEVY (LOVELY)* with RD (road = way) inside. I notice “too zealous a supporter of Blair!” is effectively presented as a def. without a question mark - maybe Cyclops has more information that may help the Met Police with their enquiries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_for_Honours |
| 18 |
MERGER VERGER with M for V Nice smooth clue:
Church official against getting changed for male union (6) |
| 20 |
INLAYS IN (A SLY)* |
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 1 Comment »