Posted by neildubya on 24th August 2007
Another very entertaining puzzle in a series that I’m already mightily impressed with, even though this is only the third one I’ve solved. Couple of queries: 5D and 22D, which I’m sure are right but I don’t understand all of the wordplay for them.
| Across |
| 11 |
REST in PUR,PURE - this was the last one to go in and I only got it thanks to the generous checking as I basically had to look up words beginning PUR- in Chambers. A PUR is a jack in some game or other (I forget which) and PURE can mean “free from guilt”. |
| 13 |
I,BIS - BIS means “again” and is used as an interjection to call for the repitition of a musical performance. |
| 15 |
NO in SLATE< - as in “he was slated to direct the next film”. An ETALON is used to compare wavelengths and study atomic spectra. |
| 16 |
ASH in PM - PASHM is the wooly underhair of goats found in northern India. I think it’s where we get pashminas from. |
| 17 |
(c)LIPPED - this is a really good clue because the definition “with edges” is so well-disguised. |
| 18 |
ACC,(m)ESSED |
| 20 |
(ANIMATOR)* - I thought I knew most types of anteaters as there was a puzzle by Nimrod in the Indie on Saturday a few weeks ago which featured a number of them but I’ve not heard of TAMANOIR. |
| 28 |
hidden reversed in “othER ANSwer” |
| 30 |
N,IE,F - very sly. “Duke” here means the fist (as in “put your dukes up”), which is what NIEF also means. |
| 32 |
(FINING THE [male]FA[ctor])* - INFANGTHIEF. What a great word. It means “the right of a lord to punish a thief found within the bounds of his property”. Quite obscure though, so we’re helped by easy wordplay and generous checking. |
| 33 |
(REST ELEGY)* - I put in SLEETGREY at first but realised my mistake when it looked like 22D was going to end with NL. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
PIC,A in AL - the definition is “of peaks“. |
| 4 |
CH in DRAMA - another sly definition: “Ready for old Greek” is a reference to money; specifically, the DRACHMA. |
| 5 |
ORIEL COLLEGE - don’t understand the wordplay here. The full clue is “I turned up about learning, uplifting colleague English, in place of learning”. “I” could be EGO, “colleague” might be COLL and “English” is E but that leaves RIEL (LEIR if it goes up). |
| 6 |
(VIRILE CATTLE)* - VERTICILLATE, which means “forming verticils or whorls”. |
| 8 |
BUB,O(-n)ES - N is used in maths to represent an indefinite number. |
| 10 |
MESS,I,DO,R - in the French Revolutionary calendar (which I keep meaning to commit to memory but never get round to doing it), MESSIDOR is the tenth month of the year, from June 19th to July 19th. |
| 16 |
(HYPNOTIC)* - PYTHONIC doesn’t just mean “relating to pythons” you know. |
| 21 |
MA,DEFY - which means to “make wet or moist”. |
| 22 |
NAIANT - don’t understand this one either. The word means “applied to a fish depicted horizontally” so in the full clue “Swimming, not getting close to snakes”, “swimming” must be the definition. |
| 29 |
(j)EMMY |
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Posted by neildubya on 17th August 2007
I thought this was a cracking puzzle. It looked like it was going to be a lot harder than it turned out to be as my first pass over the across clues yielded nothing; but I got going with 2D and then it all fell into place fairly quickly. A lot of the words were unfamiliar to me but the wordplay was nothing less than bullet-proof; so much so that I’d filled in a two-thirds of the grid before feeling compelled to check Chambers (11D was the first word I looked up, even though there was at least half a dozen words before that that were new to me).
NB: the IoS printed the wrong grid the magazine so thanks to Eimi for sending me the correct version.
| Across |
| 1 |
(SPOOR MAY)* - PYROSOMA, which literally means (in Greek), “fire bodies”. |
| 9 |
EQUIP,O,I,SING |
| 13 |
FAIR,MY<,ONE,Y - excellent clue. Said to be left by a fairy at the place where it was found. |
| 14 |
Y in FLASH - FLY ASH. |
| 15 |
AM in ARE(a) - an edible type of seaweed. |
| 16 |
I,ANO(n) in LID - another good clue. I knew that this had to be something to do with LIANA but it took a while to see the ANO(n) bit of the wordplay to get LIANOID. |
| 20 |
ASK,LENT |
| 21 |
hidden in “clasSY RENdition” - alternate spelling of “siren”. |
| 24 |
LI in IR,REGION - I’m not sure that “Atheism” is a direct synonym of IRRELIGION but the latter means “lack of religion” which implies (I suppose) a lack of belief in a god. |
| 26 |
IN,I in MATE |
| 27 |
(MINI CUTLASS)* - MASCULINIST. I didn’t know that “masculine” had this form but it was a reasonably easy anagram to spot. |
| 29 |
ESC,ARGOT - I filled this in quite quickly and then wondered why as I couldn’t see why “A key” = ESC. Had a “do’h” moment when I realised it was the ESC(ape) key. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
P,ELF - I had to check this in Chambers as PELF looked too silly to be a word. |
| 2 |
I in (A FURY*),A - the RUFIYAA is the currency of the Maldives. I thought it was spelt differently to this (I would have sworn there was a “h” in there somewhere). |
| 4 |
OR in MILDS |
| 5 |
ASANAS - are positions in yoga but I can’t work out the wordplay. Any offers? |
| 6 |
(ALONE GRIMY)* - excellent clue, which I think would count as an &lit. |
| 7 |
(GIN)*,I in OMINOUS - another corker with a great surface reading. “Threatening to belt one” for the last part of the wordplay is really good. |
| 8 |
GREE in (REST)* - GREE is an archaic word (indicated by “former”) for “favour”. |
| 10 |
(MY TEQUILA IT)* - QUALITY TIME. Interestingly, the Chambers online dictionary gives the definition for this as a period of time where “someone’s attention is devoted entirely to someone else” (my italics) (the Concise OED has a similar definition); whereas the definition in the clue - “when I can really appreciate it” (setter’s italics) - implies a period of time where your attention is devoted to only yourself (a bit like the newer “me time”). |
| 11 |
(GAMER RINGS)* - GRANGERISM. Haven’t the faintest idea how I managed to come up with this as it seems such an unlikely sort of word. Turns out, it’s the practise of illustrating particular books with engravings torn from other books. |
| 14 |
ASH,M in FLAN - another great clue, loved the surface reading. |
| 17 |
(IT PAUSE)* - IAPETUS is the third-largest moon of Saturn. |
| 18 |
PERI(l),W,GI (going up) - the wordplay leads to PERIWIG but I can’t see how that relates to “Major”, the only bit left in the clue that could be the definition. |
| 23 |
AID,I,O (all going up) |
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Posted by neildubya on 10th August 2007
The Beelzebub puzzle, published in the magazine section of the Independent on Sunday, is currently set by two setters: Phi does three a month and Columba does one. Columba used to be a setter for the daily Independent cryptic (he often appeared on a Wednesday, if memory serves) and I often used to buy the Independent whenever he appeared as his puzzles were always very challenging but great fun. His clues are very fair (as you’d expect from an Azed comp winner) and often quite complex to unravel. If you’ve never encountered this setter before, a number of his puzzles appear in this book.
The Beelzebub puzzle tends to be a bit easier than a plain Azed puzzle and I think that was true for this particular puzzle. I managed to solve just over half the clues in this one before needing to open the Big Red Book of Words. I still don’t understand 3D though.
| Across |
| 1 |
OP,MILL< in ART,ANT - ALL-IMPORTANT. One of the last few I filled in and quite tricky to parse. |
| 11 |
ER in LINE - “expression of uncertainty” is usually either “um” or ER. |
| 14 |
COMMA,N,DEER - top notch clue. The definition is not easy to pick out and “does” is deceptive. |
| 16 |
YEN,TA - straightforward wordplay for a tricky word. |
| 18 |
CHAR in CLOD |
| 26 |
ATTIC,IN,I in LO - another good one, with a very smooth surface reading and reasonably straightforward wordplay. |
| 27 |
(O,IDOL)* in MAR - MODIOLAR |
| 28 |
ON in IRE,R - simple word but the wordplay is deceptively tricky. The definition has to be picked out from “One pressing forward” and ON for “forward” could be easily missed. |
| 30 |
M,(AT THE END DUO)* |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
AGO,ROT - which is a unit of currency in Israel. “Back?” for AGO is tricky but fair. |
| 3 |
INROADS - can’t work out the wordplay for this. Any offers? The full clue is “Raids containers for pills and plugs“. |
| 4 |
MIC,MAC - a Native American language apparently. |
| 5 |
OPAL< in OLD,RID,A - excellent clue but a tough one to parse. OLLA-PODRIDA is a highly seasoned Spanish dish. |
| 10 |
LAME,ILL<,CORN - fairly easy wordplay, although I have to confess that I saw “weak” and just looked up LAME- in the dictionary. |
| 13 |
(ARGOT ERRED)* - RETROGRADE |
| 17 |
PINTPOT - I knew the word, as I expect most people would, but didn’t know it could mean a seller of beer. TP for “troop” was also new to me (I think). |
| 19 |
HEM,(v)IOLA - should have got this quicker than I did but HEM didn’t occur to me as an “attempt to get attention” - I was thinking of things like “Hey” or “Oy”. |
| 21 |
SIN< in AGE |
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Posted by neildubya on 4th August 2007
From next week we shall be blogging the Beelzebub - a barred puzzle published in the Independent on Sunday magazine. It’s currently compiled by two setters - Phi and Columba - and is usually a shade easier than Azed so it’s a good puzzle to turn to if you’re thinking of moving up a gear from daily cryptics. We’ll start with the puzzle published last Sunday - 911 - which will be blogged on the 10th of August.
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