Posted by Octofem on 28th June 2008
Sorry for the delay - the crossword was only accessible to me this morning.
Rather a lot of anagrams, I thought.
ACROSS
1. VISAGE - (vie, to include sag)
4. AMBIENCE - (Ambi-val-ence - centre removed)
10. CHATTERER - (*trace the)
11. deliberately omitted
12. LARK- (dd)
13. RESTRAINTS -( *transfer list without f,l.)
15. SCENERY -(*screen plus y, last of play)
16. LAMBDA - (innocent lamb plus DA)
19. ALTAIR -(alto without o + air - altair is a star in the constellation Aquila)
21. SHAMPOO - (sh-amp-oo - shoot without ending ,around ‘ a MP’)
23. CORRESPOND- (dd)
25. INFO - (in the Foreign Office)
27. SATIE - (satire without ‘r’ - French composer)
28. NAAN BREAD - (*arena band - accompaniment to 6 down, q.v.)
29. PARADISE -( *a and despair)
30. INSTIL-( hidden answer in pains till)
DOWN
1. VOCALISE - (*voices a l)
2. STAIRWELL- (st-air- well)
3. GITE - (g with ITE - various societies with these initials. Not sure which is intended)
5. MARITAL -(martial, with switch of two letters)
6. INDIAN MEAL- (*maiden in LA)
7. NOT ON - (slang expression for impossible - reads both ways.)
8. EGOIST- deliberately omitted
9. FREELY (f-ree-ly. I did not know that ‘ree’ was the female of the ruff bird, or reeve)
14. SESAME SEED - (* seas seemed)
17. DEPENDENT- (de-pen-den-t - use of Thailand for t is somewhat suspect.)
18. TOROIDAL- ( * Dior a lot - I learnt a new word with this one.)
20. REPENTS - (re-pe-nts - the record did not have to rise!)
21. SUNTAN- (sunk without ‘k’, tan dd)
22. ACTS UP - (catsup with first two letters transposed)
24. RATER -( rafter with ‘f’ removed)
26. OBAN - (o- ban.) Quite liked this one. No ban
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Posted by rightback on 28th June 2008
Solving time: 15:55
Don’t take too much notice of my time - I was at least three-quarters asleep when solving this. Reasonably straightforward for Paul, I think.
I’m going to be unable to blog next week, so thanks in advance to whichever of the team steps in. I also won’t be able to respond to any comments on this puzzle, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes I’ve made.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across |
| 1/26 |
ST(RING + THE)ORY - I spotted the possibility of THEORY early on but couldn’t think of a word meaning ‘article’ ending -ORY. |
| 4 |
GYP + SUM |
| 9 |
BLUB; rev. of BULB |
| 10 |
PROPAGANDA; “PROPER GANDER” - ‘gander’ being slang for a look. |
| 11 |
R.I. + MINI |
| 12 |
PATHE + TIC[k] - the Pathé company used to produce news-reels. |
| 13 |
FRANGLAIS; (A FAN + GIRLS)* - nice clue, with a well-connected anagram and definition (’tongues entwining?’). |
| 15 |
BRIE; B (= ‘Second-rate’) + RIE[sling] - I needed a dictionary after solving to fathom this one. |
| 16 |
POSH; (SHOP)* - I think ‘her’ must refer to Victoria “Posh” Beckham. |
| 17 |
BANK + I + MOON - I knew the person I was looking for straight away from the enumeration, but needed most of the letters to come up with the exact name. Ban Ki-Moon succeeded Kofi Annan as Secretary-General of the UN. It seems to be pretty much compulsory to have a wacky name to hold that office; Mr Moon (yes, ok, Ban is the family name) comes only third in the ’silly names’ contest, just pipping Dag Hammarskjöld but behind U Thant and the clear winner Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whose real claim to fame was a leading role in The Fast Show in the 1990s - brilliant. Sorry, where were we? Oh yes, the crossword. ‘Show behind’ is very subtle for ‘moon’ here. |
| 21 |
T + RAVERS + E |
| 22 |
ACCORD; “A CHORD” |
| 24 |
PILLOWSLIP; (LOW + S) in (rev. of LIP, + LIP) - difficult to unravel. |
| Down |
| 1 |
SOLD(I)ER |
| 2 |
RAB + BI - as in Rab Butler, former Deputy Prime Minister amongst other cabinet jobs. |
| 3 |
NUPTIAL; (PAUL IN T[ROUBLE])* - ‘without money’ indicating ‘remove ROUBLE’. |
| 5 |
YEASTY - not a meaning I knew. |
| 6 |
SNARE DRUM; rev. of MURDER + ANS[wer] - I like ‘very difficult’ for MURDER. |
| 7/27 |
MIDLIFE CR + IS + IS - the second word was clear but the first eluded me until I had the initial M; ‘if (might one say)’ for MIDLIFE is very good and perfectly fair, I think - I’d accept that even in The Times. |
| 8 |
COMPLICATEDLY; (MY TOPIC CALLED)* - unusual to have an anagram indicator from the same root as the answer; this clue pretty much told you the solution so I should have been much faster with the anagram. |
| 14 |
NASH + VIL(L)E |
| 16 |
PER(SIS)T |
| 18 |
K + NAPPER - my last entry, and a guess, as I didn’t know (or couldn’t remember) KNAPPER, meaning someone who breaks stones, or NAPPER, slang for the head. |
| 20 |
DRAWER; rev. of REWARD |
| 23 |
CROSS (double definition) |
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