Posted by manehi on 16th July 2008
Phew! Struggled through this very slowly, including a good five minute stare at 1dn before giving up on it until almost the end. Really enjoyed this.
| Across |
| 9 |
LAURIE LEE |
LAUREL around I, EE cummings - Laurie Lee wrote… |
| 10, 27 |
CIDER WITH ROSIE |
(hisweirderotic)* |
| 11,22,24 |
BARRACK ROOM BALLADS |
BARACK Obama, holding R(ight), and ROADS around OM = Order of Merit and BALL = dance. The Barrack Room Ballads were a collection of Kipling’s poetry. |
| 12 |
PROVERB |
PUB dropping the U and taking in ROVER |
| 13 |
EXIT |
I have this down as a double def, but there may be more to this. |
| 16 |
TIN TRAY ? |
Last one I put in - TINT RAY looks like the wordplay, but I don’t understand the definition - clue is: “Coloured light for final cargo item” |
| 19 |
GRANDE DAME |
“GRADED A” = ranked first, by ME, taking in N(ame) |
| 25 |
SPARTAN |
PART in SAN(E) (insane, but not quite). Loved this. |
| 26 |
EQUAL |
QUA is Latin, and means “as”, more or less, in EL, which can apparently mean an elevated railroad. |
|
| Down |
| 1 |
FLIBBERTIGIBBET |
F(inds), homophone of “liberty”, and GIBBET is, thankfully, pretty much the only synonym of “gallows” I can think of. |
| 3 |
VICAR |
V(ehicle), I CAR - vicars have taken holy orders |
| 4 |
BLAKENEY |
BLAKE is a painter and poet, NEY was a commander under Napoleon, and Sir Percy Blakeney was the Scarlet Pimpernel, who rescued French aristocrats from execution under the Terror. I suspect this is also a clever &lit, but can’t remember if Blakeney was also a poet/painter/soldier. |
| 5 |
DELPHI |
Site of the temple to Apollo, and also ADELPHI, Greek for brothers, topped/beheaded. |
| 6 |
ACCORDING |
(ccargo)* around DIN. Not too sure about “according”=”agreeable” - “agreeing” would be closer in meaning. |
| 8 |
PROBOSCIS MONKEY |
(boycomposerskin)* |
| 15 |
GRADUALLY |
GRAY is the poet, DUAL must be some kind of control, and L for learner. |
| 17 |
BOMB SITE |
BOMB=fail, SITE sounds like SIGHT |
| 18 |
APOSTASY |
A POST (say)* |
| 20 |
ALL BUT |
ABUT about L,L = 50-50 in Roman numerals. I suppose 49-49 is “all but” 50-50? |
| 21 |
DISOWN |
“This way”, referring to the clue’s direction means DOWN, around IS. |
| 23 |
MARRY |
An old fashioned way of saying “indeed”, I assume. |
Posted in Guardian | 15 Comments »
Posted by John on 16th July 2008
One runs out of superlatives. Every clue here is pithy, elegant and utterly fair, and my slowness in completing some of the clues in the bottom half of the grid is only the result of incompetence.
Dac seldom seems to have hidden words in his clues. Yesterday, on the other hand, Virgilius had three. They both, however, like to use complete anagrams.
| Across |
| 1 |
HOM(A G(randee))E |
| 4 |
GAS THA(t) US, a German word. No doubt there are gasthausen (actually I’m told it’s gasthauser; gasthauses anyway) in Augsburg |
| 9 |
R A REST |
| 10 |
I NUN DATE |
| 12 |
BLUE - 2 defs |
| 13 |
INF(L)ECTION |
| 15 |
CASTLE HOWARD - (watches a lord)* |
| 18 |
UN(CLASS)IFIED |
| 21 |
EUROTUNNEL - (route)* un n el - a quite brilliant &lit. |
| 22 |
ZEN O |
| 24 |
AUGSBURG - Aug (grub’s)rev. |
| 25 |
KUWAIT - (UK)rev. wait |
| 26 |
S(URGE)ONS |
| 27 |
HAVE(O)N - def. ‘wear’ |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
HARDBACK - ‘bard hack’ Spoonerised |
| 2 |
MARQUE SS |
| 3 |
GA(astronaut(S))P |
| 5 |
ARNOLD WESKER - (Landseer work)* |
| 6 |
TONY CURTIS - (runs to city)* |
| 7 |
A TAXI C(abby) |
| 8 |
STERNE - “stern” |
| 11 |
IN THE LONG RUN |
| 14 |
PLANET ABLE |
| 16 |
LIB E RATE |
| 17 |
E(D MON)TON |
| 19 |
P(rovid)E CANS |
| 20 |
KRUGER - “crew” Ger |
| 23 |
J(o)UR A |
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by Octofem on 16th July 2008
ACROSS
Much of this puzzle was ‘instant’ but I had some problems with 24a and 26a, and would welcome
comments.
1. TEMPLE - (dd - Shirley Temple, adored child star of the Thirties, later an Ambassador for her country)
4. ALARUM - (< m-ural-a)
8. BARRAGE - ( bar-ra-ge)
9. PROVIDE - ( pr-ovid-e - PR for public relations of course)
11. DERMATITIS - (* tardis time)
12. LOUT - C(lout) - having some clout is to have influence.
13. omitted
14. MEANTIME- ( me-anti-me - or me against myself. The other Dogberry was from Shakespeare’s Much Ado. He was noted for his Malapropisms)
16. CAROUSEL - (carouse-l)
18. STEER - (dd)
20. ALMA - (Alma was the beautiful wife of Mahler - he had psychological hang-ups about his love for his mother, which plagued their relationship)
21. MAGISTRATE - *megistar it)
23. INDIANA -(in-<aid-na)
24. PARODIC - (<c-i do-rap- this held me up for a while, as I think of ‘crap’ as a dice game, not cards)
25. EASTER - (e- aster)
26 STREET - (st-reet - ‘reet’ the Northern word for right, and reference to street-wise?)
DOWN
1. omitted
2. MARIMBA - (ma-ri-mba - RI abbreviation for Republic of Indonesia - marimba an African instrument,
adopted and much loved by Central America)
3. LIGHTNESS -(*hit singles)
5. LARKS -( Bevy is the collective noun for larks - and also quails and beauties!)
6. RIVULET - (riv-ul-et)
7. MIDSUMMER - ( m-ids -ummer - I suppose December is mid-summer in the Southern Hemisphere.)
10. ETYMOLOGY ( *gloomy yet - the linguistic study of word derivation, not to be confused with entymology , study of insects.)
13. AT A GLANCE ((a-tag-lance)
15. ASSISTANT (dd)
17. OVARIES-(o-varies - the female reproductive glands)
19. EARHOLE - (ear-ho-l-e - the slightly less inelegant version of ‘lughole’ as in ‘pin back your-’
21. MANGE - (mange-(R) - usually used for animals when they have a skin complaint allied to human
dermatitis)
22. TWIST - dd
Posted in FT | 10 Comments »