Posted by ilancaron on 17th June 2007
The grid is almost 90 degree symmetrical: would be if 3D and 15D were both 15 letter lights. And we encounter Orlando Di LASSO again. I searched high and low for a Scots, Bond or Connery reference… but to no avail.
Across
| 4 |
DISC,US – nice smooth surface: especially “Field sport record…” |
| 8 |
VISITING FIREMAN – F,I (“female one”) in (Virginians met)*. Brit term for VIP visit. |
| 12 |
LUG(GAG)E – not a drug dealer’s case: “crack” is a comedian’s GAG here. |
| 13 |
SERVICE, FLAT – I might have too much Roland Garros on my brain right now, but I think the idea is that a SERVICE goes over (the net). Actually now that I think about it, it’s probably the verb “go over”, as in “I better have my mechanic go over my car before we start the Paris-Dakar rally”. |
| 15 |
CHARGE(CARD)S – CARD for “eccentric” in CHARGES for “loads” and I suppose you can buy “loads” of stuff with them… (or perhaps as in top-up cards?) |
| 19 |
OR,INOC=coin*,O – a fairly popular cryptic “river” |
| 22 |
PUBLIC, TRANSPORT – nice clue: especially considering that London buses once upon a time didn’t have doors. |
| 24 |
BO(ST)ON |
Down
| 2 |
VIS-A-(V,I)S – where V for “versus”. |
| 3 |
[n]UTTER |
| 6 |
CO,MP,ACT – as in COMPACT car (e.g. Ford Focus) |
| 7 |
SINNER=”Cinna” – Caesar’s uncle as it happens even though he was part of the conspiracy. |
| 9 |
NOTHING TO IT – (Not tonight I)* - “suspect” is our suspect adjectival anagrind. |
| 10 |
FALSE ACACIA – (a Calais café)* - FALSE ACACIA is also the Black Locust (a kind of plant: I had to look this up). |
| 14 |
RE,A,SON,IN,G – SON as in “native son” and middle of BanGkok. |
| 17 |
POM,POM – our dog used to get a little POMPOM round her neck as a reward for being groomed. |
| 18 |
WON TON – rev(not now=later). I actually thought DIM SUM my first time through! |
| 21 |
LASS,O – ref. Orlando Di LASSO — not really Belgian since didn’t exist back then – more accurately, Flemish. |
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Posted by neildubya on 10th June 2007
This would have been a pretty quick solve were it not for 5D; I also hesitated for a while over 19D as I didn’t fully understand the clue.
| Across |
| 1 |
AB,DUCT - “seaman” is usually going to be AB, “tar” or maybe “rating” (and a few others that I’ve forgotten) |
| 2 |
W in SOON, (GIN)* - the surface reading (”Fainting quickly seizing wife having gin cocktail“) paints an amusing picture. |
| 12 |
I’S in (ALERT)* - if I’ve read this one correctly, “high” is the anagrind but I’m not really sure that that works… |
| 13 |
REP in ROME< - REP for “salesman” is another crossword staple. |
| 14 |
M in (PETRODOLLARS)* - these people. |
| 21 |
ARRAN,G(am)E |
| 22 |
EX,AMPLE |
| 24 |
L,INE,R - not sure I get this one. “Long” and “river” are fair enough but “narrow mark” seems to be INE. Is this something to do with the “-ine” suffix? |
| 25 |
(FREUDIANS)* - not really convinced by the surface of this one. |
| |
| Down |
| 2 |
DRAM,A |
| 3 |
U in CASSIS - CASSIS is apparently not just a blackcurrant liqueur. |
| 5 |
ALTER,(sou)P in WIDGEON - never heard of him I’m afraid, so this was the last one to go in. |
| 7 |
INTER, I in A LA |
| 8 |
GENERA(l) |
| 16 |
HE-MEN in VET |
| 18 |
(ERODING)* - nice clue. Good surface reading and anagrind. |
| 19 |
QUARREL - I filled this in without completely understanding the clue. “Find fault with” is straightforward enough but the bit about “one of 007’s allies” was lost on me. I’ve just looked it up though and apparently QUARREL was a character in Dr No. |
| 23 |
PRIOR(y) |
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Posted by ilancaron on 3rd June 2007
Solving time: 12’
Fastest solve for me ever – I think. Even managed to spell AUF WIEDERSEHEN correctly the first time. I recognized SHREVEPORT pretty quickly as well probably because it figured as a minor actor in the New Orleans debacle a couple of years ago. And “criminal” cropped up here again as an adjectival anagram indicator.
Across
| 1 |
S(H,REVE)PORT – it’s in Louisiana (what’s left of it) and it’s rev(ever=always) in SPORT for “play”. |
| 11 |
YESTERDAY – two meanings: I think of e.g. Cole Porter songs as “standards” but of course most Lennon-McCartney compositions qualify. |
| 12 |
TEQUILA SUNRISE – (Qualities nurse)* - just the thing to have for breakfast on your Caribbean Club Med holiday. |
| 16 |
GRENADE – enraged* — easy word to clue since lends itself to anagramification. Note how “criminal” plays the (non-nounal!) role of anagrind in the cryptic reading. |
| 19 |
CATC[h]ALL – my 2nd to last clue: not particularly hard but, in general, subtraction clues tend to be more challenging: in this case, I wasn’t sure if it was L (for “left”) or H “hospital”) that was to be removed. |
| 21 |
AUF WIEDERSEHEN – (In here, a few used)* — German au revoir. Fell at first glance for some reason. |
| 23 |
SACRAMENT[o] – another American city. |
| 24 |
LAPS,[orangead]E – incidentally also a homophone of LAPS… |
| 25 |
SASH – hidden in “ArkanSAS (Harrison)” — I actually thought of “The Traveling Wilburys” when I saw this – probably unintended. |
Down
| 2 |
R,ANGERS – ref. Glasgow RANGERS among others. Does Everyman have a soft spot for all things Scottish (e.g. certainly likes Sean Connery)? |
| 3 |
VENTURE, CAPITAL – a double/cryptic def. Paris is just an example of a capital city – would have worked with any other I suppose (but wouldn’t have been as surprising perhaps since Paris isn’t really a center of hi-tech investment). |
| 4 |
P.H.,YLLIS=rev(silly) – PH for “public house” (actually, local) tripped me up in another puzzle recently. |
| 8 |
CLYDE,SDALE=leads* - the nice thing about this clue is that “straying carthorse” has one thinking about orchestras. |
| 9 |
PENNY=our “girl”, IN-THE-SLOT=(thin stole)* - this must be ref. one-armed “bandits”, i.e. slot machines where one wastes all ones pennies and larger denominations. |
| 13 |
SPY,GLASSES – “schooners” are usefully both drinking and sailing vessels. Both meanings hinted at in this clue. |
| 18 |
ENDLESS – two meanings |
| 19 |
CUR,ATOR=rev(rota=”cycle”) – my last clue. I couldn’t stop thinking about a gamekeeper which I’m sure was the setter’s intent. |
| 20 |
A,DELPHI=(I’d help)* - well-known West End theatre. |
| 22 |
MERE – two meanings |
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Posted by ilancaron on 27th May 2007
Solving time: 30’
Good solid wordplay – no quibbles and a reminder that I really must pay more attention to Sean Connery’s films if I’m to continue my relationship with Everyman.
Across
| 1 |
CA(C)T,US – My last clue with well-disguised wordplay and definition: “plant, succulent one” (succulence isn’t something I typically associate with cacti). Note that “American” is US but cleverly overlaps the definition since the CACTUS is a N. American plant. |
| 9 |
CU,RATE – Doing this without a dictionary so I’m going to guess that the definition “assistant barman in Ireland” is in fact an alternate (ironic?) definition. |
| 11 |
AS(FOLLOW)S – Jenny’s a female ASS. |
| 13 |
HO(B[ar])BS – Jack HOBBS is another cricketer to join the cricket trivia pantheon. HOB is a kind of gnomish hobgoblin type so I suppose a “lout” as well. |
| 14 |
OVER, THE HILL – Everyman must really like this film: it was used recently to clue Harrow-on-the-Hill as well. I’ve never seen it but at least I recognize it now. Note how the definition is just “old” (again clever overlap of definition with the cryptic encoding since “The Hill” indeed is an old (1965) Connery film. |
| 21 |
A,LIE,N – Only four bridge players to choose from (like compass points). |
| 22 |
DER,RINGER – named after Henry Deringer (sic) a US gun manufacturer. |
| 25 |
P(AN)A,MA |
Down
| 1 |
COCK.AT,O,O – two “cricket” ducks are O,O. |
| 3 |
UN,TIL=rev(“lit”) – “one Parisian” is UN (while one Parisienne would be UNE). |
| 5 |
LADY,S[hop], FINGER |
| 6 |
SEI WHALES – (while sea’s)* — you get to know your WHALES if you live in the Pacific Northwest. |
| 7 |
GA(TSB)Y – I was sure about GAY and Jay GATSBY and turns out that TSB is part of Lloyds bank. |
| 8 |
NUDIST – I suppose an anag &lit: (in dust)*, if you consider that a NUDIST probably gets pretty dusty, all over. |
| 12 |
OPEN-AND-SHUT - Amusing double/cryptic def for what attaché cases do! |
| 15 |
TOCANTINS – (cantons it’s)* - I was sure this was an anagram – but had to wikitrawl to work out which Brazilian state was being referred to. |
| 17 |
STAR(WAR)S – rev(raw=”green”) in STARS. Another film… |
| 19 |
MAD,CA,P – when I left England (as a boy years and years ago), MAD never meant “angry”, only crazy. When did this shift to the Americanism happen? |
| 20,23 |
MIRROR, I,MAG,E – The Daily MIRROR is our “newspaper”, MAG’s our “magazine” and the whole thing defines a “reflection”. |
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Posted by ilancaron on 20th May 2007
Solving time: 20′
Another rather fast solve for me… though spent a couple of minutes at first staring until the first clue (EVITA) succumbed. VP Spiro Agnew shows up again, proving that he’s not just anagram fodder. A few other American clues (GALVESTON, FAIRBANKS, RANCHES) but not really enough to identify a theme.
Across
| 1 |
A, SLAP, ON THE, WRIST – def is “reprimand”, wordplay: rev(pals=friend’s) then (not he)* followed by WRIST=”joint”. Note that a “joint reprimand” could have been a kind of cryptic def for the whole thing. |
| 9 |
AP(PET)ISER – PET in praise*. A “bonne bouche” is a tasty morsel. |
| 12 |
GAL,VEST,ON – It’s in Texas (made famous by Glen Campbell’s eponymous song). |
| 13 |
T(U,SCAN)Y – U for universal film rating (you’d think it’d be D for Disney) and SCAN in T[in]Y. |
| 15 |
D,E FACTO=(to face)* - “criminal” is a nounal anagram indicator here which is a little unusual for Everyman I think. |
| 19 |
BOOTLE,[mellin]G – Without checking I assume that “Melling” is also in Lancashire – certainly BOOTLE must be. |
| 22 |
SHE,BA – given that there was a Queen thereof, presumably she had a kingdom. |
| 24 |
A,G,NEW – see, he’s not just anagram fodder after all (Nixon’s veep). |
| 26 |
THE PROMISED LAND – (Handles imported)*. Now that I’ve noticed one, I keep seeing them: nounal anagram indicators. This time it’s “product”. |
Down
| 1 |
A(S A MATTER OF FAC)T[here] – def is “in reality” (note that 15A is “actually”). Wordplay is: (a staff car to me)* in A and T where containment is indicated by “carrying”. |
| 2 |
L(UP)IN – it’s a kind of plant: UP=winning in rev(nil=nothing). |
| 3 |
PETTY, C(A,S)H |
| 6 |
WAS,T[her]E – rev(saw=spotted) then “there” with “her” removed, leaving TE. |
| 7 |
IDENTICAL – (dialect in)* — frequently “broadcast” is a homophonic indicator, this time it’s a (verbal!) anagrind. |
| 8 |
TAKEN FOR GRANT,ED – Cary GRANT was indeed born in Bristol (I actually knew this). |
| 16 |
FOOLS, GOLD – not a bad antonymical bad clue since FOOLS GOOD (iron pyrite) didn’t actually make anyone rich. |
| 18 |
S(AN,CT)UM – our “problem” is just a SUM in this case. |
| 19 |
BI(ST)ROS – BIROS are Brit ballpoint pens (“writers”). The cryptic grammar is a bit strained here: “X brought in Y” for “X in Y”. |
| 21 |
B[l]OWER – only clue I had trouble with: unsurprising since “line’s dead” is supposed to indicate that it’s absent, i.e. has been removed – in this case L from BLOWER (for “phone”). |
| 23 |
E,V(IT)A – My first clue: no such state as East Virginia but that doesn’t matter in crypticland. |
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