Posted by Ali on 14th August 2008
This was a stiff challenge for a weekday I thought, particularly the right-hand side of the grid which was all but empty after my first attempt. Managed to chip away at it eventually, but admittedly needed to check one or two answers along the way. A pat on the back for the setter though, there are some very neat clues here with some excellent surface readings.
| Across |
| 1 |
ETRUSCAN - (TRUE)*,SCAN - A very nice surface reading, though I have never seen ‘passed’ used in this way before |
| 5 |
PAMPER - M[-useum] in PAPER |
| 10 |
TAFFETA - F,FE in TA-TA |
| 11 |
ASHFORD - ASH,FORD - Very tricky. Ashford (in Kent) is, I believe, the point at which the Channel Tunnel starts! |
| 12 |
MACAW - MAC[-c]A,W - ‘Singer’ is the neat definition here. I’ve never seen ‘unfulfilled’ as an indicator to remove a letter before, but it works fine for me |
| 13 |
TAKE STOCK - AT rev.,(TESCO)* in KK - Lovely clue |
| 14 |
PIET MONDRIAN - (DAMIEN,[hi]R[st],ON,TIP)* - Not an easy clue to work out by any means, though it reads very nicely |
| 18 |
TOP OF THE POPS - Arguably the easiest clue of the day, and a nice big help for opening up the SW corner |
| 21 |
GUILDHALL - (HILDA)* in GULL |
| 25 |
OLOGIST - [t]O[o]L[b]O[x],GIST |
|
| 26 |
STRATA - TART in AS rev. |
|
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
ENTOMB - ENT,O,MB - I’m used to seeing ’sawbones’ for doctor rather than just ‘bones’, so this one threw me for quite a while |
| 2 |
REFECT - REF[-l]ECT - Had never come across this word before, though it stands to reason given words like REFECTORY |
| 3 |
SKEWWHIFF - S,KEW,WHIFF - A word I can confidently say I have never had cause to write (and would have had no idea how to spell!), but the clue is bulletproof |
| 4 |
ALAN TITCHMARSH - Can’t quite piece this one together. ‘Longing to go on bog’ gives us ITCH,MARSH, but not quite sure how to get the ALANT. ‘Inclined’ suggests LEANT, but how does ‘dispel wind’ fit in? |
| 6 |
ATHOS - [-p]ATH,OS - I’d have had a lot more joy with the NE corner if I hadn’t assumed that [-p]LAN,OS was a place in Greece! |
| 7 |
PHOTOFIT - Fantastic clue, with both meanings of PC being used very deviously indeed |
| 8 |
REDSKINS - D,S-tal]K in REINS - Ref. American football |
| 9 |
JACKSON POLLOCK - JACKS,ON,POLLOCK |
| 15 |
DIPHTHONG - i.e. the ae double vowel sound in words such as encyclopaedia |
| 17 |
SPLINTER - L for R in SPRINTER |
| 19 |
CHOICE - CHO[-c]ICE |
| 20 |
RECTUS - C[-arpe]T in (SURE)* - I should know well enough by now to think ‘anagram’ whenver I see the word ‘ground’ in a clue, but still took far too long to work this one out |
Posted in Independent | 18 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 14th August 2008
Solving time, 18 mins
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 Actor Kevin SPACEY - in a dreamy state (adj) - N American usage
5 SECOND Double definition with split at Extra/time
8 HER(m)ITAGE Tricky with all checked letters being vowels. Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg
9 PAVE Hidden
11 OLDEN Ditto
12 MATE LOT
15 SENTIMENTALISED (Ten men idealists)*
17 COME TO THE THRONE (theocrat - to men he)*
20 SPAR ROW
22 C REST
24 TA CO Another with checked vowels but the wordplay was very straightforward, I thought.
25 TRIM A RAN Thought at first this was an anagram clue, so good misdirection.
26 SK(y) ETCH
DOWN
2 PSEUDONYM (Does my pun)* Another setter has the pseudonym Dumpynose which is another anagram of it.
3 CHI ANT I
4 YEA R After a big calculation with reams of paper last week, here’s another one, maybe Quixote is a figures person. I worked it out this time 365X24X60X60 = 31,536,000
5 STEPMOTHER (Hot tempers)*
6 C (A PIT) OL Officer = Colonel = Col. Main building of US Congress in Washington
7 NO(V)EL very short = v Definition: book
10 C OS SACKS C = 100 in Roman numerals OS = outsize
13 TED HEATH (had teeth)*
14/27 DEATHWATCH BEETLE (that chewed table)* E (last letter of insecticide)
16 ST (ONE W) ALL
18 TURN OUT (runt)*
19 H (ECT) ARE
21 A LACK As before indicating it’s archaic
23 LIMB(o)
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 14th August 2008
Yet another very enjoyable offering from Araucaria. I got 25/26ac immediately and the various types of pear followed quickly. Several clues involved bits of what is perhaps slightly obscure general knowledge (e.g. 18ac, 5d), but luckily for me they largely happened to overlap well with my own random store of facts. I can’t explain 23dn - any suggestions?
Key:
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
* = anagram
< = reverse
| Across |
| 1 |
WILLIAM |
WILL I AM |
WILL and AM are “future” and “present”, and “I” is the setter, as usual. Unfortunately this doesn’t quite work, as the pear is actually Williams. |
| 5 |
AVOCADO |
(C OVA) + A DO |
8 dozen is 96, so 100 eggs (C OVA) is more than that. Hmm.. |
| 9 |
OFTEN |
FT in ONE* |
Slightly strained wording - “round comes” means “comes round” in the wordplay. |
| 10 |
BRAKE SHOE |
BRA KES HOE |
“Kes” is the “film with bird” - Ken Loach’s marvellous 1969 film of a boy who trains a kestrel |
| 11 |
EASTER LILY |
TILLER* in EASY |
|
| 12 |
HELL |
“Man’s going” = HE’LL |
|
| 14 |
PAMPHLETEER |
A MPH LET in PEER |
Using “tractarian” to mean one who produces tracts, or pamhplets |
| 18 |
OTHER PEOPLE |
OT HER + OP in PELE |
“Hell is other people” (in French, “l’enfer, c’est les autres”) is a line fom Jean-Paul Sartre’s play Huis clos. |
| 22 |
CONFERENCE |
dd |
|
| 25,26 |
APPLES AND PEARS |
cd |
Cockney rhyming slang for “stairs” |
| 27 |
PRICKLY |
dd |
|
| Down |
| 1 |
WOODEN |
WOO DEN |
The wooden or woody pear tree is found in Australia |
| 2 |
LATEST |
A T in LEST |
LEST = IN CASE (answer to 19dn) |
| 3 |
INNKEEPERS |
PEEK< in INNERS |
I think an INNER is a hit in archery that is better than an outer but not as good as a bullseye. |
| 4 |
MABEL |
M ABEL |
Abel was the son of Adam and Eve in Genesis, and was killed by his brother Cain. |
| 5 |
A TALL SHIP |
ALL SH in A TIP |
A reference to the line in John Masefield’s Sea fever: “All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by.” |
| 6.24 |
OPEN NECK |
N(i)NE in OPEC + K |
This took me a while to get - not really difficult, but the wordplay is a bit devious. Nice definition too - “open neck” = “not wearing a tie”. |
| 8 |
OVERLORD |
dd |
Operation Overlord was the codename for the D-Day landings in Normandy |
| 13 |
TELEGRAPHY |
(HEGEL PARTY)* |
|
| 15 |
MME BOVARY |
ME in MOB + VARY |
Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary (1857). Cunningly, “with first part abbreviated” is part of the definition. |
| 16 |
BOOT CAMP |
BOO ACT< MP |
Remember Willie Whitelaw’s “short, sharp shock”? |
| 17 |
PHILIPPI |
(H PI PI PI L)* |
From Wikipedia: The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian (the Second Triumvirate) against the forces of Julius Caesar’s assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia. |
| 19 |
IN CASE |
INCAS E |
|
| 23 |
FED UP |
??? |
I don’t get this. “Brilliant clue to the back teeth (3,2)”. You can be “fed up to the back teeth”, but where does “brilliant” come in? |
Posted in Guardian | 17 Comments »
Posted by smiffy on 14th August 2008
I found this less challenging than usual for Bradman. Nothing fundamentally wrong with that; the clueing is as watertight and scrupulously fair as ever. And the fact that I’m uncertain whether I have 8D correct must mean there is still more than enough je ne sais quoi floating around in here!
Across
1 M(ON)ARCH,IS,M
7 ALSO - hidden
9 O,DER - (red)<, this particular “flower” flows along the German-Polish border
10 MID(SHIPMA)N - (mishap)* in (mind)*, “Easy” being the literary exemplar.
11VE(ST)AL - I’ve only just realised; isn’t the phrase “vestal virgins” somewhat tautological?
13 G,RUBB(I)ER - Rubber being the bridge term that’s occasionally applied to more testosterone-fuelled sports (mainly “best of” playoff series in US sports).
15 TOG,S - (S[-on],got)<
17 PO,LO
19 PROPER,TY - T[-hrill] Y[-ou]
22 BAD HABIT - double def’n
23 SA,MOAN - “Militia” = SA (a.k.a. Sturmabteilung, or stormtroopers to us Inselaffen).
25 TOP, THE BILL - (Pot)<
26 NI(L)E - L[-ake] in (Ein)<
27 GLE[-b]E
28 TAKE TO TASK - literal/figurative double def’n>
Down
2 OLD DEAR - I found this cryptic definition a little too transparent.
3 AFR[-aid],IT - A demon, whose name should be familiar to anyone who’s ever read our setter’s oft-cited Manual!
4 CO,M,PLAIN
5 INDIAN ROPE TRICK - (Director in pink, a)*. I know what it is, but not why it may only fool some people…
6 MOHAIR - hidden <
7 A,P,POINT,EE - final letters of “the nice” = EE
8 SLAKING - Not sure this one is correct? I could see water=”lake”, but that’s about it (Edit: Make that SEALING, with the homophone of “ceiling”. Thanks to the man himself for setting me straight).
14 BROCHETTE - (herb etc to)* - the first of back-to-back, French-based anagrams.
16 COR,SELET - (steel)*
20 TH(ALL)US
21 OBJECT - a double def’n that seems to be cropping up all over the place in recent weeks.
24 MON,ET - a refreshingly thorough definition of ET (we usually see it indicated simply as “film”)
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 14th August 2008
I purchased my copy of the FT containing this puzzle at the railway station in Wörgl, Austria, a place I had never heard of until I found myself changing trains there while heading to Munich from my vacation spot in the Tyrol. How splendid, thought I, that I can buy my favourite weekend paper in such a place and enjoy starting the puzzle as I sped through the Bavarian countryside. And enjoy it I certainly did — I think this puzzle shows Cincinnus at his finest with a couple of very juicy cryptic definitions.
Across
1. CHARLTON HESTON - NOT backwards + H[ead] in CHARLESTON (dance)
10. SCRAM - S (bearing) + CRAM (stuff). This clue works brilliantly but was the most difficult for me after 25A.
11. RACONTEUR - anagram of OR CENTAUR
12. ORIGAMI - AM (morning) in ORIGI[n] (dawn mostly)
13. ECHIDNA - anagram of CAN HIDE. I have seen many clues for this word. This one may be both the simplest and the best.
14. ERASE - reverse hidden word
15. GENEVIEVE - cryptic definition. I am not sure I completely understand this clue but, knowing the movie, it was easy enough to guess. At first I thought it referred to a Billy Wilder film but, as best I can determine, he had nothing to do with Genevieve. For those who may not know, the title refers to a car.
19. EYE OPENER - cryptic definition
20. NITRE - NIT (fool) + RE (about)
22. REVERED - REVERE (as in Paul) + [esteeme]D
25. AT A PUSH - anagram of PUT A in ASH (tree). I trust this is the right answer — I am not familiar with the expression.
27. TIGHT SPOT - TIGHT (pickled) + SPOT (see). Lovely!
28. PLAIN - double definition
29. MANX SHEARWATER - anagram of WAS RATHER MEAN + X
Down
2. HERMITAGE - HERM (island) + IT (it) + AGE (a long time)
3. RUMBA - RUM (odd) + BA[nd]
4. TURNING ON - cryptic definition
5. NICHE - H (hotel) in NICE (French resort)
6. EINDHOVEN - anagram of IVE + HERNDON
7. TWEED - TWEE (precious) + D (diamonds)
8. NARRATE - ARRAN (island) backwards + [vo]TE
9. ASHORE - anagram of A HEROS
15. EUPHRATES - anagram of PURE AS THE
17. NOR’EASTER - [celebratio]N + OR (or) + EASTER (festival)
18. ENTOURAGE - anagram of OUT in ENRAGE (madden)
19. ERRATUM - A (a) + RR (Rolls Royce) in MUTE (saying nothing) all backwards
21. ETHANE - hidden word
23. VEGAN - EG (say) in VAN (vehicle)
24. DUPLE - L (large) in DUPE (fool)
26. ALPHA - cryptic definition
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »