Guardian 24,505 (Sat 27 Sep)/Araucaria - Breech of the peace
Posted by rightback on 4th October 2008
Solving time: 33 mins (one mistake, a misspelling of BREECHES)
I found this ‘Araubetical’ (© Muck) very difficult, mostly because of the high number of unchecked initial letters - in fact, after 20 minutes I had almost a blank grid. Then I looked at where X-PARTICLES could fit, quickly placed the answers to clues Y and Z and it all fell into place.
I won’t say too much about the clues this week, partly because I’m extremely time-limited and partly because I didn’t think they were Araucaria’s best, with some very dodgy wordplays and nonsense surface readings. That said, the self-imposed restriction of clues being presented in rhyming pairs must make them very difficult to write, and there were a couple I thought were brilliant, such as MILANESE.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’. Clues are presented in normal grid order.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| N | NIHILIST; (L,I) in (IN THIS)* - there’s an anagram indicator, at least, missing here. |
| U | U-BOAT; (ABOUT)* - nice anagram which I’m not sure I’ve seen before. |
| G/L | GANG (= ‘mob’) + LING (= ‘fish’); G[ood] + ANGLING - double wordplay plus a definition (’Ungainly’). |
| H | HERB ROBERT; BRO[ther] in HERBERT - at first I thought ‘cranesbill’ might be a bird, but luckily I’d heard of this phrase, if not the 17th-century poet (George Herbert). This was my penultimate entry, leaving only clue Q. |
| K | KEEPER (double definition) - as in a game-keeper and a goalkeeper. |
| T | TRIMETER; TRIM + (TREE)* |
| R | REST DAY; (STRAYED)* - hmm. |
| J | JELLY + BY - a character in Bleak House. ‘Jelly’ is slang for ‘gelignite’. |
| Z | ZYGOMATA; (MOZART GAY - R)* - a kind anagram which I was able to work out, and which helped me break into the grid. |
| F | FOSTER FATHER; (FOREST)* + ? - I don’t know why ‘opera singer’ gives FATHER, and the definition needs an implied subject (’took in kid’). Perhaps I have the second word wrong here? |
| X | X + P + ARTICLES |
| V | [see V down] |
| E | ELMEN (hidden) - a new word to me. |
| O | O + VERV(I)E + W[ith] - ‘go’ for VERVE is pretty tough. One of the best clues in the puzzle, with not a word wasted. |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| M | M1 LANES + [som]E - brilliant clue, I was convinced the definition was ‘Italian road’. |
| L | [see G across] |
| C | CIPHER (triple definition) - this means ‘nothing’, ‘code’ and (unknown to me) a defect in a pipe organ where a note sounds continuously without being played. |
| I | [l]ITERATE |
| Q | QUARTILE - my last, unsure, entry. I think this comes from QUAR[ry] TILE (’unlined’ = ‘remove RY (= ‘railway’)), but I could be wrong. |
| D | DOUBLE FLAT - very nice indeed. A double flat reduces a musical note by two semitones, so a B-double-flat is the same as an A. (Actually, very technically, I don’t think they are exactly the same.) |
| S | STAR(V)E |
| P | PET + ROD + ROME; PETRO[l] + [aero]DROME - a petrodrome is a kind shrew, apparently, so the definition is sandwiched in between the two wordplays. |
| A | A + RABI[d]+ ANS |
| B | BREECHES (rhymes with ‘witch’s’) - two definitions here. |
| W | WALLOON; rev. of LAW, + LOON - an inhabitant of Wallonia in Belgium. |
| Y | YIPPEE; (PIPE)* in YE |
| F | [see F across] |
| V | VIV + A + VOCE - Bill Voce was one of the famous ‘Bodyline’ bowlers on England’s 1932-3 series in Australia. |
Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »