Posted by John on 30th August 2008
In Azed’s crosswords there is always an enormous amount of Chambers-checking meanings of words. If this blog were to contain all the unusual definitions it would be three times as long. I’ll assume that if you’re bothered enough to do the crossword and read this blog, then you’ll have Chambers to hand, so will confine myself to Azed’s wordplay.
| Across |
| 1 |
PEMBROKE TABLE — broke in (Temple Ba(r))* |
| 10 |
A LOO |
| 11 |
DuBLI NInn |
| 12 |
MEET — “meat” I think: the sweet spot of a cricket bat (say) is its meat |
| 14 |
JET-SKI — J (kites)* |
| 16 |
D RO NG 0 |
| 18 |
SONDAGE — G in (no (i)deas)* |
| 19 |
CAN TIN A |
| 21 |
KEGELS — g in (sleek)rev. — wasn’t sure about this until I found in Chambers that a meaning of to sleek is to calm |
| 23 |
U(N(iobe))RENT — can anyone explain why Azed sometimes puts certain words in italics? It seems to me that the clue would read perfectly well without them |
| 27 |
D(IONA)EA — Dea is a goddess, although hard to find (not in Bradford’s or Chambers Crossword Dictionary) — what would we do without Google? |
| 29 |
B(LOW)OUT |
| 31 |
B(IN)END |
| 32 |
CYTISI — (is city)* |
| 33 |
E TEN — ten is the card below a jack |
| 34 |
1 GLOO(m(ullion)) |
| 35 |
EBON — bone with the e at the front |
| 36 |
PEDICELLARIAE — P.E. (I cellar) in (idea)* |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
PA(JO(in))CK |
| 2 |
MOTEN — (not me)* I think, although I can’t quite explain ‘must’ |
| 3 |
BOSHTER — bosh (ret)rev. — not quite sure why Rafter has been invoked, when Hewitt would be a bit more up-to-date; it’s not as if ‘Rafter’ misleads, since he isn’t at the start of the sentence |
| 4 |
OL(I)D |
| 5 |
KISS-AND-TELL — (Dante’s skill)* |
| 6 |
(h)END-ON |
| 7 |
TIR-NA-NOG — (ignorant)*; some might take offence at this apparent racial slur, but it’s only a crossword clue |
| 8 |
BENAME — (man)rev. in bee |
| 9 |
L(EG GIN)ESS |
| 13 |
TO(E)Y |
| 15 |
ELAEOLITE — (Olea)* in elite |
| 17 |
MIL(d) TONIC |
| 20 |
ORNATER — (re art no)* |
| 22 |
G(R)ONE D |
| 24 |
TAMINE — estaminet with est removed from the outside — made easier by the fact that Azed used the word ‘estaminet’ in a clue-setting competition in October 2006 |
| 25 |
AB(B)E — I think the poet is Kobo Abe, but I read Chambers as saying that an abbe is not necessarily ecclesiastical, so … |
| 26 |
BUDGE(t) |
| 28 |
AL(I)BI |
| 30 |
A COL(on) — ref. Acol, the bridge bidding convention |
Posted in Azed | 3 Comments »
Posted by rightback on 30th August 2008
Solving time: 75 mins, four wrong before using a dictionary (43ac, Q, X and Y).
I always seem to enjoy Araucaria’s Bank Holiday specials and this was no exception, so Araucaria fans will probably rave over this. The 26 alphabetical clues were all (more or less) wordplay-only clues to birds beginning with the relevant letter. I looked at these clues first so twigged to the theme early on (IBIS, LARK and SWALLOW were all pretty easy) but got in a pickle with the 6-letter birds (F, G, M and Y) and also H, together with a few normal clues, especially in the top right and bottom left corners.
Of the four I got wrong, one was just a misspelling (Q), two I maybe should have done better with (X and Y) and 43ac I have just this minute grasped while posting this. At least I did better than usual at keeping track of the alphabet clues: I circled a clue number when I’d placed it and put a line through it when I’d solved it, so I didn’t end up with clues that I’d solved but not placed and then forgot about, which I normally do. Also, a quick early scan of the enumerations for the alphabet clues helped.
I’ve listed the clues as they were published, and put the location of the alphabetical clues in brackets after the letter.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across |
| 13 |
MOO RAGE - not ‘moo ring’ which I originally put, and which doesn’t make much sense. |
| 14 |
HE + AVE - classic Araucaria, requiring ‘Pullman’ to be split into ‘Pull’ (= HEAVE) and ‘man’ (= HE). Not really cricket, but at least you learn to expect it after a while. Sorry, did someone mention the cricket? |
| 15 |
CAMPHOR; (M.P.H. 0) in CAR - ‘0 mph’ seemed more natural than ‘mph 0′ here, so I put in ‘comphar’ before realising that I knew the word after all. Camphor is used as an insect repellant, hence ‘mothball’. |
| 16 |
RUDDY (double definition) - ‘intensifier’ in the sense of ‘England gave South Africa a ruddy good thrashing’. |
| 17 |
ARUNDEL; A + RUN (= ’series’) + rev. of LED (= ‘was first’) - I only knew this because Sussex occasionally play county matches at Arundel, which is supposed to be one of England’s most beautiful grounds. I’m glad I did, too, because without it I might not have finished the top right corner. |
| 18 |
TRE(AT ME)NT |
| 23 |
QUOT(H.H.)E - this is a bit weak, using ‘quote’ in the wordplay for ‘quoth he’. Some people get very upset about ‘quote’ being used as a noun to mean ‘quotation’, but it is listed in Chambers (as an informal usage). H.H. stands for His Holiness. |
| 25 |
ELK HOUND; (HULK DONE)* - good anagram, passed me by on first reading. I love the surface reading, which suggests the mustachioed Mark Spitz arranging a seeing-to for Michael Phelps for beating his record of gold medals at a single Olympics. |
| 30 |
ESTATES - couldn’t see this, even with all four crossing letters. The ‘fourth estate’ is slang for the press; Araucaria has used this quite recently, but I’d forgotten it. |
| 33 |
GERM + ANOPH[eles] + ILIA - using ‘mosquito, largely’ for ‘five of the nine letters of an obscure genus of mosquitos’ is asking a lot! I was held up here by an incorrect ‘Bedford’ at 27dn, and only when ‘-ilia’ occurred to me did I spot the answer and realise that the relevance of the Pope here is just his nationality. |
| 43 |
FLYTE; “FLIGHT”? - I couldn’t get this and guessed fayre/”fair”. It would help if I’d read Brideshead Revisited, which is about the Flyte family. I spent forever last night trying to understand this clue & couldn’t, then posted this morning and immediately twigged - the alphabet in question is of course the one in this puzzle, which are all birds (hence ‘flight’). |
|
| 45 |
SPELL (double definition) - I wasted a lot of time in this area because I read ‘binding’ as ‘blinding’ and wrote in ‘flash’. |
| 49 |
LI(FT)MA + N - clever definition for a lift attendant (’I can give new floor’). |
| 51 |
K + NOLL - at least I think that’s the wordplay: K for ‘king’ and ‘Noll’ apparently being the Royalists’ nickname for Oliver Cromwell. I didn’t know that when solving, but K?O?L and ‘Bit of a hill’ couldn’t really give anything else. |
| 52 |
S(HIPPO)N - a cattle shed. |
| 54 |
OUT LINE |
| 55 |
IMAGERY; I, + rev. of E.G. in MARY |
| Down |
| 2 |
F(LAMB)E - one of the few give-away clues. |
| 4 |
RETRIEVE; (TR[umps] + I) in REE, + ‘VE (= ‘have’) - the splitting of ‘I have’ into ‘I … VE’ is a bit naughty, but I thought ‘Partner to ruff’ was brilliant for REE, given the bridge-playing surface reading (the ree is the female variety of the bird known as the ruff). |
| 7 |
NAVY (double definition) |
| 9 |
THOUGH + T - not sure ‘Introduction to concession’ is quite right for ‘though’. |
| 20 |
RIO TACT |
| 21 |
TAN + DOOR |
| 24 |
O.C. TO BE + R - brilliant! |
| 27 |
BELFORD - I think this is: BEDFORD (= ‘County town with duke’, as in the Duke of Bedford), with L for D (= ‘left for dead’), giving BELFORD; apparently Belford Road is a big street in Edinburgh (= ‘Great North Road’). If that is the explanation it’s absolutely ridiculous, but if not (and perhaps the answer is wrong) then please could someone put me straight! |
| 29 |
CHAD (triple definition) - St Chad is apparently the patron saint of astronomers. |
| 32 |
SEA BASS; (BASE)* + ASS - the superfluous ‘for’ here in the middle of the wordplay spoils this clue. |
| 33 |
GRANNIE; (IN RANGE)* |
| 35 |
ESCALLONIA; CALL ON in [rhod]ESIA - this clue and the previous two all seemed unfathomable until I corrected my mistake at 45ac (qv). |
| 39 |
ESPALIER; PAL in E[a]SIER - a lattice holding tree branches. |
| 40 |
JURA’S SIC - Scottish islands once again proving their worth. I have no idea how to pronounce this one (Jura), not being a whisky fan. |
| 42 |
TERM IT E |
| 48 |
ENNUYE; ([te]NN[is] + U) in EYE - the past tense of ‘ennuyer’, meaning to bore. |
| 50 |
NO O.K. |
| Alphabetical |
| A (1dn) |
AVOCET; [viv]A VOCE + T |
| B (38ac) |
BARNACLE (cryptic defn) - a crustacean that sticks to the bottoms of ships, and a goose. |
| C (41dn) |
CARDINAL - held up here by thinking ‘Number’ = C, but it’s a double definition, a cardinal in the church being someone who would wear a particularly silly hat. |
| D (47dn) |
DIPPER - another double definition. I liked ‘Baptist’! The other one refers to the ‘Big Dipper’, a constellation also known as ‘Ursa Major’ (the Great Bear) or the Plough, which is extremely useful for navigating in the dark as two of its key stars point to the North Star. |
| E (19ac) |
[r]EGRET |
| F (43dn) |
FA(L)CON - presumably ‘façon’ is French for ’style’, but I think that’s expecting a bit much. |
| G (10dn) |
GANDER; rev. of RED NAG - I struggled with this, it never occurred to me that there might be a definition (’Look’) lurking amidst the reversal wordplay. I was thinking of death, famine etc for the horses of the Apocalypse, having forgotten they were of different colours. |
| H (22ac) |
[perc]HERON - no wonder I couldn’t fathom this, having never heard of a ‘percheron’ (a French breed of horse). |
| I (26ac) |
I + BIS |
| J (40ac) |
JACKDAW; JACK (= ‘fish’) + rev. of WAD - a ‘wad’ is slang for sandwich, and a ‘jack’ or ‘jackfish’ is a young pike; I suppose ‘collector’ because jackdaws collect things. |
| K (51dn) |
KITE (double defn) - both ‘crate’ and ‘kite’ are (or were) slang terms for aircraft; ‘box’ is an allusion to the phrase ‘box kite’. |
| L (37ac) |
LARK (double defn) |
| M (11dn) |
MERLIN (double defn) - ‘F’ (= ‘falcon’) wasn’t much help if it was unsolved! ‘Enchanting’ should really have been enough here, though, even if it’s the wrong part of speech. |
| N (3dn) |
NU + THATCH - more naughtiness, ‘untwisted’ = ‘UN twisted’ = NU, and ‘hair’ = THATCH. |
| O (53ac) |
OWLET; LE in (TWO)* (or rev. of TWO) - I have no idea if ‘disclosed’ here is supposed to be an anagram or reversal indicator, but it’s totally unsatisfactory as either. Almost as unsatisfactory, in fact, as ‘associated originally’ as an anagram indicator in yesterday’s Times Crossword, but that’s a different matter. |
| P (46ac) |
PART + RIDGE |
| Q (23dn) |
QUETZAL - humph, misspelt this as ‘quetzel’. Never mind. It’s the Guatemalan currency, and a Central American bird (one of these) also rather wonderfully known as the ‘resplendent trogon’, which sounds more like something out of The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. |
| R (36ac) |
RED POLL - Ha! I don’t think so, Mr Brown. |
| S (28dn) |
S.W. + ALLOW |
| T (31dn) |
TEA + L (= ‘plate’, as in L-plate) |
| U (5dn) |
UMBRETTE; UM + (BETTER)* - another name for the hammerhead, hence the nail reference. |
| V (12ac) |
VULTURE; V (= ‘fifth’) + ULT. (= ‘ultimo’, meaning ‘last month’, i.e. July) + URE (= ‘flower’ as in river) |
| W (6dn) |
WOOD + PECKER - ‘wood’ is Shakesperean for ‘mad’ (solvers of barred/thematic puzzles take note!), and ‘pecker’ is slang for ’spirit’ (as in ‘keep your pecker up’ - honestly, it says so in Chambers!). |
| X (8dn) |
XEMA - oh tish pish posh, I got this one wrong as well (I put ‘xesa’, thinking ‘Marshal’ might be an instruction). This answer makes much more sense - it’s included in ‘Saxe Marshal’ (i.e. with the words inverted). |
| Y (44dn) |
YAFFLE; rev. of ELF + FAY - gaah, another one wrong! No excuses here, ‘ale’ is not ’spirit’, ‘fay’ and not ‘fey’ is a fairy (though ‘fey’ does mean ‘fairy-like’) and anyway ‘yefela’ looks daft. |
| Z (34ac) |
ZEBRA P(A RAKE)ET - first word easy, second word hard. |
Phew! Speaking of birds, I’m ferrying to Dublin for the weekend, so will reply to any comments on my return tomorrow night.
Posted in Guardian | 17 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 29th August 2008
Typical Phi crossword in which everything stacks up. Solving time, 16 mins.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
1 LES (MISERABLE) S By Victor Hugo
8 COD A Musical term for end of a piece
9 T ERRA FIRMA (air farmer)* from Latin
10 BAN TAM(e) My last entry
12 YEOMANR Y (army one)* y = year with an &lit touch also
13 NORTH SEA (The sonar)*
15 SP (I R) AL laps< r = run (cricket)
16 MET RIC(e)
18 MAST E(a)RLY
20 SCO (OP NE) T (open)*
21 (s)LAVISH
23 ENG I N (E ROOM) Moore< (George Edward)
24 STYX River from Greek mythology - I guessed this when I’d the crossing letters. This blogger is unfamiliar with Pooh by AA Milne but Wikipedia tells me there was a game “Poohsticks” i.e. so STYX = “sticks”
25 EYELESS IN GAZA (seeing a sleazy)* by Aldous Huxley
DOWN
1 LEO hidden
2 S H (first letters) AFT
3 IS TH (M) US Very easy definition
4 EARLY DAY (MOTION) S
5 AT A LOSS My favourite clue
6 LAID A SIDE dial<
7 SOMERSAULTS (also musters)*
12 ADOLESCENCE C in A DOLE SCENE !
14 T (ERROR) ISE (site)*
17 CONCEDE Very well hidden
19 SOLO M ON(e)
22 VIS (T) A
25 YEA (r) R = runs (cricket) but no repetition with 15 as here the word in the clue is in the plural.
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 29th August 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
For once, I did not enjoy a Guardian puzzle. This one left me totally cold (in spite of the central heating) and disappointed
Across
1 CENTRAL HEATING Simple charade
8 NOMAD Another simple charade
9 MARKINGS Yet another sinmple charade
11 EUSTACE EUSTon plACE
12 LIGHTER *(the girl) While there’s a lucifer to light your fag, smile boy, that’s the style
13 VIRGO
15 HIGH-GROWN Chambers adj (Shakespeare) covered with a high growth.
17 TRANSPORT dd
20 MINIM palindrome
21 VERTIGO *(Virgo ET)
23 UNPLAIT *(nuptial)
25 ENCLOSED Ins of close in END (middle of Zenda)
26 IMAGE *(magie)
27 DEMONSTRATIONS *(modern stations)
Down
1 CONSERVATIVE The political right
2 NAMES *(means)
3 RADIATORS cd
4 LAMBETH Palace, hq for the Archbishop of Canterbury; “The Lambeth Walk” is a song from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl
5 EARPLUG *(hUGe PEARL)
6 THING TH (the unfinished) Internationale Nederlanden Groep, with a lion logo
7 NIGHTGOWN cd
10 GRANDMOTHERS If you see a huge clock, a grandmother clock is one with a semi-circular top
14 REARRANGE Cha of REAR (back) RANGE (class)
16 GAME POINT Charade of GO (a game) West (point on the compass)
18 OBOISTS *(its boos)
19 THUNDER
22 IGLOO Another corny clue
24 ALAMO ha
Posted in Guardian | 15 Comments »
Posted by Octofem on 29th August 2008
At first glance rather daunting with so many literary allusions. However, the word play was very simple in most cases, and kind Google came to my aid with details. Alan seemed to be a favourite name!
ACROSS
1. BRASSERIE - (brass - erie )
6. MAMET (- Mame-t.[ Musical 'Mame'] - David Mamet, American playwright sometimes likened to
Pinter or Beckett. Screen writing includes ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’)
9. AMADEUS - ( A-made-us - well-loved film about Mozart, adapted from Peter Shaffer play.
10. ORLANDO - ( o- *rosalind without ‘is’. Orlando and Rosalind were characters in ‘As you Like It.’)
11. RUDGE - (rud-g-e. Barnaby Rudge)
12. ON THE ROAD - ( hero in *Donat. Jack Kerouac novel, later a cult film).
14. INN -(hidden in cron -IN N-ovel)
15. SHAKESPEARE - ( shake-spear-e)
17. HELEN MIRREN - ( British actress , now called actor of course, *merlin here -n ORTH)
19. GEM - (comic book, much collected , as is ‘The Magnet’, by aficianados of the genre)
20. RASTIGNAC - (R-*against-C - a recurring character in the Comedie Humaine novels by Balzac)
22. ELIOT - (<toile - from the French word meaning cloth or web. T S Eliot)
24. OLEANNA - (o-le-anna - novel by Mamet)
26. BENNETT- ( Ben-net-t . Presumably Alan Bennett, but could be Arnold as he did write plays too.
27. DORIS - (hidden clue)
28. BLEASDALE - ( *bales -dale. Another Alan - first noticed for his ‘Boys from the Black Stuff.’
DOWN
1. BLAIR - (b-lair. Orwell’s real name - Eric Arthur Blair)
2. ALADDIN - ( a -ladd-in. Alan (!) Ladd, film actor best known in forties and fifties.)
3. STEVENSON - ( steven’s - oWn - Robert Louis Stevenson)
4. RESTORATION - (rest-oration. Name of film by M.Hoffman)
5. ECO - (ec-o - Umberto Eco of ‘Name of the Rose’ fame.)
6. MILNE - ( Mi-l-ne - A A Milne)
7. MENDOZA - ( - *a dozen m - Brigand in ‘Man and Superman’, by G Bernard Shaw)
8. TRONDHEIM -( *modern hit)
13. THE CRUCIBLE - dd. Play by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch trials,
and the Sheffield theatre known to many as the venue for World Championship Snooker)
14. ISHERWOOD - (i-sherwood. Christopher Isherwood, friend of Auden and perhaps popularly
known for his Berlin diaries which led to Van Druten’s ‘I am a camera’ and
the film ‘Cabaret’)
16. PENDENNIS - (pen-dennis - Dennis Wheatley . Novel by Thackeray )
18. LE SUEUR -( le- sue-ur. First and last of ‘likeable’- sue - ur, the cruciverbally ubiquitous old city. Painter , one of founders of French Academy )
19. GUIMERA - (* argue around ‘im’ - Angel Guimera, dramatist. ‘Mar y cel’ was his first success)
21. INNES - (inn-Y-es - Hammond Innes, successful novelist, many of whose books were
filmed - e.g ‘Campbell’s Kingdom’)
23. TITLE - ( ti-<lt-e - Game as in Cup Tie)
25. ALB - (a-lb. - long white robe reaching the ankles, worn by priests.).
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
