Posted by NealH on 30th June 2008
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed
Eimi crosswords tend to send me scurrying for the reference books and there were quite a few words in this that were new to me (13 across being particularly obscure, I thought). Overall though, it was an enjoyable puzzle with some good surface meanings (21 across, 4 and 5 being excellent).
| Across |
| 9 |
Launder: foreign articles (la un der). |
| 10 |
Rummage: Rum age around m. |
| 11 |
Palominos: Pal o’ Minos. |
| 12 |
Abyss: hidden. |
| 13 |
Verst: Vest around r. Vest here means place in the legal sense and verst is apparently some sort of Russian distance measurement. |
| 14 |
Scintilla: soundalike of “sin tiller”. |
| 15 |
Razored: R + Azed around or. |
| 18 |
Red Meat: Red Heat with h (hour) converted to m (minute). |
| 21 |
Stratagem: (mega tarts)<. |
| 24 |
Nisan: Nan around I s. |
| 26 |
Lazio: (I Zola)*. |
| 27,29 |
Yves Saint-Laurent: (anti slavery tunes)*. |
| 28 |
Fermata: (Farm [m]eat)*. One of those obscure musical terms that fit neatly in crossword grids. |
| Down |
| 1 |
Slip over: Pils<. |
| 2 |
Curler: double def - Rhona Martin and a curler used to turn up one’s barnet (Barnet Fair = hair). |
| 3 |
Odometer: Od + (meteor)*. |
| 4 |
Uranus: U + RA + Sun<. |
| 5 |
Trashier: (Are Hirst)*. |
| 6 |
Impart: Imp art. Bosch painted lots of pictures of demons and the like. |
| 7 |
Navy blue: navy + blue. |
| 8 |
Geisha: GE is HA (chemical symbols). |
| 16 |
Zero-zero: double definition (I assume Americans say zero-zero instead of nil-nil). |
| 17 |
Doggy bag: cryptic def. |
| 19 |
Dinosaur: (is around)*. |
| 20 |
Tiny tots: double definition. |
| 21 |
Spliff: SP + Liff[e]. |
| 22 |
Trocar: carrot*. |
| 23 |
Muesli: Muse with last two letters reversed + L I. |
| 25 |
Snivel: Levis< around n. |
Posted in Independent | 10 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 30th June 2008
Apologies - I wrote this up last week and then forgot to publish it.
| Across |
| 9 |
(CULT AWARE)* - CATERWAUL. I liked “heated call” as the definition. |
| 11 |
(ON ISLAM)* - OSMANLI |
| 12/15 |
NOTHING LIKE THE SUN - 22a’s brilliant novel (more of a fictional biography really) about Shakespeare’s love life. The title is from Shakespeare’s sonnet “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun”. |
| 14 |
BRIDE,WELL - London’s first “house of correction”. |
| 16 |
(THINK THAT GROCER)* - ON THE RIGHT TRACK. |
| 19 |
KIN,KIN,E,SS - I thought this was a great clue with a nice surface reading and a clever bit of deception in “closer to some” for E. |
| 21 |
HEART - “earth” with the H moved to the front. |
| 22 |
URGES in BS - “nonsense” is B[ull]S[hit]. A reference to the marvellous Anthony BURGESS. |
| 23 |
S,X in (I FEEL)* - great &lit for SEX LIFE. |
| 24 |
RE,A,DS - DS (in music notation) stands for Dal Segno, literally “from the sign”. I think I only knew this because it appeared in a recent puzzle, somewhere. |
| 25 |
MP,MP in (IN OUR)* - IMPROMPTU. Very cleverly worded clue for an unpromising looking word. |
| |
| Down |
| 1/3 |
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - 22a’s novel and later an infamous film by Stanley Kubrick. |
| 4 |
hidden in “bacK A LIttle” - in Hinduism, KALI and Durga are manifestations of the Mother Goddess Devi. |
| 5 |
L in BAN,DISHES |
| 7 |
VENI,CE - a reference to “veni, vedi, vici”. |
| 17 |
PI in (SLEEPY)* - EPILEPSY. |
| 18 |
NIP in A GAPE - AGANIPPE is a fountain and the naiad associated with it. |
| 20 |
R in NO WAY - not sure I understand the definition: “Taters here”. |
| 21 |
H,X in OT,ON - HOXTON is an achingly trendy area of East London, popular with media types. |
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by ilancaron on 30th June 2008
Pretty good offering from Rufus: quite a few clues with a surprising twist in the surface. And not a cryptic definition in sight (OK, not many).
Across
| 1 |
LUCIFER - two meanings: a well-known match company thus “striking example”. |
| 9 |
P,RESERVE - I liked the way “specially for game” defines RESERVE, however, didn’t know that P could abbreviate “perhaps”. Rufus himself points out that perhaps is part of the definition — and that as well as game reserves there are game preserves. Same difference.
|
| 12 |
CHARTERHOUSE - HOURS* in TEACHER*. It’s a school I didn’t go to. |
| 15 |
COPENHAGEN - OPEN in change*; interestingly “round” is the anagrind not “change”. |
|
| 19 |
OWN - two meanings: my last clue (probably because I associate OWN up with concede rather than just OWN). |
| 22 |
LANDED GENTRY - an amusing cryptic definition. |
| 26 |
A,LB,I,ON |
| 27 |
IM(MODE)ST - MODE in mist* |
| 29 |
DETROIT=(tried to)* - another clever definition: “huge carport”. |
Down
| 1 |
LAPS=”lapse” |
| 2 |
CH[i]EF |
|
| 3 |
FREE HAND - a fine surface |
| 4 |
[d]RIVER - ref. RIVER Tees |
| 6 |
CRECHE - a surprisingly clever clue that is sort of a double cryptic definition playing on the two meanings of “mind” (it’s a Brit kindergarten). |
| 7 |
CO,RNUCOPIA=(our panic)* |
| 13 |
SCHOOLDAYS - I fear I’m missing an allusion (e.g. Tom Brown’s SCHOOLDAYS — were they happy?) |
| 14 |
OPENING BAT - requisite cricket cryptic definition |
| 16 |
AVENGE - I think this is another (non-obvious) cryptic definition. |
| 18 |
STAR,TOUT |
| 21 |
RECOIL - definition is “kick” and I guess rewind and recoil are synonyms as well. |
| 24 |
HE,[i]RO]n |
| 25 |
STET - printing term (thus “impressive”) to reinstate something. |
Posted in Guardian | 9 Comments »