Posted by Gaufrid on 4th September 2008
If you have bought, or are about to buy, the 11th Edition please check it carefully. Today I have found that my copy has pages 1168 to 1216 missing and pages 1217 to 1264 duplicated. This might not be an isolated occurence.
Posted in Admin | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 4th September 2008
I solved this online last night and haven’t seen the paper today, so not sure of the setter I’m afraid. There’s an interesting, entertaining mix of clues - some easy, some harder and some I won’t fully understand until somebody explains them below. So, all in all, everything you’d want from a good Thursday crossword! I’ll take a punt and guess it’s Punk.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ANALGESIA - (ALES AGAIN)* | |
| 6 | MOTET - MO,TET - TET for ‘offensive’ is classic crossword stuff (insofar as I always forget to think of it!) | |
| 9 | A LA MODE - ALAMO,DE - ‘What’s never forgotten in Texas’ is very, very nice. Clue of the day for me | |
| 10 | INGRATE - IN,GRATE | |
| 11 | ONAMATOPAEIA - ON A MAT is the judo part, but not sure where the rest comes from here | |
| 14 | ALIBI - ALI,BI(sexual) - Nice surface reading | |
| 15 | ORIENTEER - ORIENT,EER - You could argue that ‘Lower League’ is completely unneccesary here of course, but that would deny the setter (and, just maybe, editor) the opportunity to take a swipe at the fact that Leyton Orient are not a top-flight team!! | |
| 17 | BOLLYWOOD - (DOLL,[-c]OWBOY)* | |
| 19 | SPECTROGRAPH - R in (POP CHARTS,EG) | |
| 24 | IMITATE - IT in [-pr]IMATE | |
| 25 | SITAR - I in STAR | |
| 26 | EIGHTSOME - EIGHTS,O,ME | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | AGAS - A,GAS - An easy one for me as I grew up with an Aga cooker. Mighty fine they are too | |
| 3 | GROUND IVY - ROUND IV (i.e. the fourth set of questions) in GY | |
| 4 | STEAM LOCOMOTIVE - (COAL ITS TO MOVE ME)* - A nice anag. & lit., dealt with in a similar way in a recent puzzle | |
| 5 | ALISTAIR DARLING - R in (RAIDS TILL AGAIN)* - Took me a while to get this, despite my name being in the answer! | |
| 6 | MUG UP - I can’t work this one at all. Any ideas? | |
| 7 | TRACEY EMIN - (NICE,[-pric]E,MY,ART)* - Another nice anag. &lit. | |
| 8 | THE FAIRER SEX - I,R in THE FA’S,EX | |
| 9 | DAM BUSTERS - A,MB in DUSTERS | |
| 13 | FIELD EVENT - FIELD,EVEN,T | |
| 16 | NEWSPRINT - NEW,SPRINT | |
| 20 | TRIER - A nice double def | |
| 22 | PEKE - “Peak” | |
Posted in Independent | 11 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 4th September 2008
I wasn’t scheduled to blog today and so didn’t make any notes whilst solving. I am therefore relying on my somewhat deficient memory for the following.
I found this harder than usual to get in to and took nearly twice as long as usual to complete the grid. With hindsight this may just have been me feeling below par today, but perhaps this was not helped by some slightly morbid content (tumbrel/hearse, assassin/strangle etc), not to mention the various medical references.
On reflection, having completed the blog, this seems to be a rather gloomy crossword in many places both within the clues and in some of the answers.
Across
1 SCURVY S (onset of sleeping) CURVY (not straight)
4 ENDANGER END (close) ANGER (fiery reaction)
9 MOBILE dd
10 INCIDENT CI (101) in INDENT (order)
12 AVERSION A VERSION (cover, eg a new version of a song)
13 PANDER homophone of ‘panda’
15, 16 HALF-AND-HALF dd - in my youth this usually referred to half of bitter and half of mild in the same glass
20, 21 STEEPLEJACK ST (street) E E (energy doubled) [ap]PLEJACK (cider brandy with a p removed)
25 RENTAL *(LEARNT)
26 ASSASSIN ASS ASS (boobs) IN (fashionable) - ‘boob’ = stupid person = ‘ass’
28 STURGEON T (back of protect) in SURGEON (operator)
29 HEARSE HEAR (to pick up) S E (points, of the compass)
30 ON THE SLY *(honestly)
31 PROFIT cd
Down
1 SYMPATHY MY (setter’s) reversed PAT (gentle touch) in SHY
2 UMBRELLA [t]UMBREL (uncovered cart …..) LA (the French) - a ‘tumbrel’ was a cart that took prisoners to the guillotine
3 VALISE hidden word in ’surviVAL IS Exceptional’ - a valise is an overnight travelling bag
5, 14 NONETHELESS NO NET (what daring high-wire performers may have) HE LESS (no men) - definition ‘however’
6 AMICABLE - with C (caught) removed becomes ‘amiable’
7 GREEDY G (start of grating) REEDY (piping) - I am assuming ‘after that and that’ is indicating being ‘greedy’
8 RETORT dd
11, 27 COUNTERFOIL COUNTER (scotch) FOIL (scotch again)
17 STRANGLE L (line) in STRANGE (unfamiliar)
18 SANSERIF *(fairness)
19 SKIN TEST dd
22 FRESCO *(FORCES)
23 INSULT hidden word in ‘HusseINS ULTimate’
24 CAREER E (drug) in CARER (nurse) - I was going to quibble about this one but Chambers does confirm that ‘career’ can be used as an adjective, as in ‘a career man’ = ‘a professional man’
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by manehi on 4th September 2008
Easier than usual from Chifonie.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ORNAMENT | OR NAME NT (New Testament) |
| 9 | EBONY | E BONY |
| 11 | LIBERATION | LIBATION around ER |
| 12 | ASHRAM | A SH RAM - a Hindu hermitage |
| 14 | LORRAINE | LORE around RAIN |
| 17 | SHRIVER | Is a confessor - banker=RIVER, but how does used=SH? Second Hand, thanks to Geoff |
| 20 | ADAMS ALE | AD A M SALE |
| 22 | RIGGER | [t]RIGGER |
| 23 | TINSELTOWN | (let Winston)* |
| 24 | DEAL | can be a softwood, and also handle in the sense of deal with. |
| 25 | GLEAN | G LEAN |
| 26 | SCARFACE | SCARF ACE. Heh. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRAVESTY | TRY=go, around A VEST |
| 3 | BEDLAM | BED LAM |
| 5 | PETRARCH | rev(ART) in PERCH |
| 6 | BOAT RACING | BOA TRACING |
| 7 | TYCOON | (COY)* in the middle, but I don’t get the rest |
| 13 | RINGMASTER | RING M ASTER. Is M the biblical abbreviation for Mark? |
| 18 | ELEGANCE | E LEG (=on, in the cricket sense) AN CE |
| 19 | REMORSE | RE=touching in the sense of concerning, I think, MORSE the inventor |
| 21 | DOINGS | DO (sign)* |
| 22 | RUNWAY | RUN[a]WAY |
| 24 | DAFT | D AFT |
Posted in Guardian | 20 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 4th September 2008
Solving time, 17 mins
* = anagram
ACROSS
6 ENGLISH DISEASE (See his dealings)*
9 CHAR (LAD) Y
10 R (right) O (old) PIER
11 ORA C(L) E Last letter of oral in CE (Church of England)
12 (he) ARTLESS
13 DESMOND MORRIS (Dr so modernism)*
17 BURN IS H (hard - on pencils)
18 IN SITU (unit is)* from Latin
20 TA HIT I
21 AS PI RING
22 GO DOWN THE TUBES Double definition
DOWN
1 TE (THERE) D Ted = old rocker (Teddy Boy from the 1950s)
2 AGA RIC(e)
3 TIR (A D) E tire = weary (vb)
4 LIBRETTO (title bor)*
5 LEAP YEAR e (people ultimately = last letter) in (real pay)*
7 HAY (WARDS) HEATH in West Sussex
8 S (T = front of tongue i.e. first letter) EPS seps is a type of lizard
14 SER (VI) TOR VI = 6 in Roman numerals in (resort)* Archaic word, hence ‘old’ . Friendly wordplay for the unfamiliar word
15 O (PINION) S Ordinary Seaman
16 SATANISTS (at saints)*
17 BR (A V) O very little = v
18 IM PUT E E = second (letter) in test definition = credit
19 Wormwood SCRUBS 9 is ‘charlady’
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