Posted by ilancaron on 13th May 2007
Solving time: 15’
Rather fast solve for me… nothing really held me up with the long clues falling almost on first read. I think this means that I’m no longer an Everyman GREENHORN.
Across
| 1 |
BACK-TO-BACK – two meanings: I suppose “terraced houses” are BACK-TO-BACK since they are connected to each other. |
| 10 |
G[et],RACE – Even I know that WG GRACE was a “famous cricketer” (with a big beard). |
| 11 |
REM(BRAND)T – BRAND in term*. |
| 12 |
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT - The enumeration and the clue transparency made this a very easy double/cryptic def. |
| 13 |
LAMB,ENT – Charles LAMB is a popular cryptic essayist as is the ENT hospital ward. |
| 15 |
A,T (HEAR)T – My last clue, I think because I resisted defining AT HEART as “really” for a long time. Recall that the TT race is a motorcycle race in the Isle of Man. |
| 17 |
END,GAME – interesting clue that took a bit to decode: ENDGAME is the Beckett “play”, where the wordplay is (the verb) GAME for “trick” and END for “purpose”. Note how “X on Y” produces Y,X. |
| 20 |
DUTCH ELM DISEASE – quite an impressive anag &lit: (causes the middle)*. |
| 22 |
GREEN,HO,RN – another interesting clue that takes a bit of decoding: definition is “raw, inexperienced youth” and “new” produces GREEN, “house” abbreviated as HO and finally “outskirts of Ripon” is RN. |
| 23 |
AMIGO – hidden in “PotsdAM, IGOr”. If you’ve read “The Good German” you’ll know that Igor was a common name at Potsdam – too bad the Spanish weren’t involved, would have been a great &lit if so. |
| 25 |
ST, BENEDICT – BENEDICT “Arnold” isn’t considered much of a saint to Americans – but I imagine the British are rather grateful. |
Down
| 1 |
B(A,GAT)ELLE – it’s a table “game” and GAT is slang for a “piece” or gun. |
| 3 |
THE (TIME) MACHINE – I’m pretty sure that TIME is “the enemy” here (as in, old age I suppose) and “infiltrating” indicates insertion. |
| 4 |
B(URN)OUT – for some reason I put in BLOWOUT here initially which slowed me down. |
| 5 |
C(A,MILL)A – at first I thought this was CAMELIA which is also a “plant” but “plant” is MILL here and CA is our Chartered “Accountant”. |
| 7 |
WINNEBAGO – (Now I began)*. I usually think of WINNEBAGO as a huge US-style camper. |
| 8 |
GO(T) AT – def is “unfairly influenced” and GOAT is our “foolish person”. |
| 16 |
TURNED OUT – quite liked these two quite different meanings: “Came to be expelled”. |
| 18 |
EE,L(P)OUT – hadn’t heard of the EELPOUT but the wordplay was tractable enough. Don’t need to know what “panchax” means just that its first letter is P but do need to know that “yobbo” is LOUT and “extremely ExquisitE” is EE. |
| 20 |
DOG,MA – nice simple charade for “teaching”. |
| 21 |
ALIBI – easily spotted hidden in “MexicALI BIllionaire”. |
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Posted by ilancaron on 6th May 2007
Solving time: pretty quickly except for one clue
I went through this at a pretty good clip but I’m still befuddled by the wordplay for 5D (CARGOSHIP) : I suspect I’ve completely missed the boat. At it were. (Now corrected thanks to Stilt).
Across
| 4 |
BECK,ON=rev(no=small number) – a BECK is a (probably Scots) stream. |
| 9 |
SPE(C)TATOR – C in (a protest)*. |
| 10 |
F(O)UND – “reverse” is a (financial) FUND in this case, i.e. doesn’t indicate reversal. |
| 11 |
RUSSIAN ROULETTE – Clever cryptic def for the game which has exactly “a round”. |
| 14 |
HAT(CHE)T – our perennial revolutionary CHE in that*. |
| 16 |
BIG DEAL – two meanings |
| 19 |
MONTGOMERY C,LIFT – Ref. MONTGOMERY, Alabama. |
| 23 |
D,I’S,TEMPER – turns out DISTEMPER is a “viral disease” in cats… |
| 25 |
NURSE – bit of a surprise to learn that there’s a NURSE shark. |
Down
| 1 |
G,ASTRIC=(scar – it)* - note how the trailing possessive “’s” isn’t used in the fodder which is valid since could be read as “scar it – is ugly” with “is ugly” being the anagrind. |
| 3 |
EX,TRIC[k],AT,E – I saw the answer well before I worked out the wordplay: “end of sentencE” is just E. |
| 4 |
BAT,ON – rev(tab=check). |
| 5 |
CAR(GOSH,I)P – not sure about this: with C?R?O?H?P not much else occurs to me: “Fish around my island for vessel”. I can’t find a dictionary though that supports de-hyphenating CARGO-SHIP. As for wordplay I see: COS the “island”, HIP for “in”, anagram of GAR for “fish”. But I don’t see how to put it all together. Stilt below points out that it’s CAR(GOSH,I)P — where GOSH is exclamatory “my!”. So much for Greek islands and anagrammed fish. |
| 7 |
HUNT-THE-SLIPPER – double/cryptic def for what was needed to win Cinderella’s hand. It’s also a children’s party game. |
| 8 |
AD,VENT – def is “appearance” and I think that “is good for” is just a link phrase? |
| 15 |
TRUNCHEO=(once hurt)*,N – TRUNCHEON is Brit billy-club. |
| 16 |
BUMPER – two meanings: “unusually large” as in BUMPER crop e.g. |
| 18 |
ASTARTE – hidden in “feAST, ARTEmis”. Good apposite surface: ASTARTE is a fertility goddess (aka Ishtar). |
| 21 |
[c]RUSTY |
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Posted by ilancaron on 29th April 2007
Solving time: pretty quickly
Not sure how long I took to solve this since I was multi-tasking at the time but I don’t recall any untoward hold-ups. In retrospect not much to comment on either which is too bad. The across clues were more interesting than the downs.
Across
| 1 |
JA(LOP)Y – another word for a crate, banger, beater… |
| 4 |
C(AES)AR – sea* in CAR. Sure, he was a Roman Emperor, but first he was the American comedian Sid CAESAR |
| 8 |
IN,T(ROVER)T – TT often crops up as the Isle of Man TT motorbike race. Good abbrev to know. Do they still make ROVERs? (perhaps BMW does?). |
| 11 |
THE SKY’S THE LIMIT – I interpret this as: “the TV’s” producing THE SKY’S (Murdoch’s channel) and “intolerably exasperating person” being THE LIMIT. |
| 18 |
TACK,Y – those unsavoury Frenchmen (Y[ves] in this case). |
| 20 |
NATIONAL SERVICE – (isn’t on, Alice, Vera)* — proper nouns are often anagram giveaways. |
| 25 |
STAT(U)E – U for universal (“all”) in STATE of which Ohio is an example. Not my favourite surface reading though: ”Cast figure for all to see in Ohio, perhaps”. |
| 26 |
FRUG,AL – don’t think I ever danced the FRUG nor I suspect did AL Capone. |
Down
| 1 |
JOINT ACCOUNT – Nice cryptic def for where George and Weedon Grossmith no doubt deposited their earnings. |
| 3 |
P.L.O.N.K. – last letters of “poP wilL gO dowN sinK”. |
| 5 |
EX,C(ELLEN)T – a capital clue! |
| 6 |
ATTEMPT – two meanings but really too close for comfort: ”Shot in a bid to kill someone.” “Shot” is an ATTEMPT and so is an ATTEMPT on someone’s life if your chosen profession happens to be assassin. |
| 10 |
STOR(M)Y, PET,RE,L – one of the meanings of PET is a sulk. |
| 13 |
T(IT,FORT)A,T – Our hard-working volunteers are TA. |
| 21 |
A,DO,RE – Royal Engineers are known as sappers. |
| 22 |
RIPER – hidden in “baR I PERceive”. |
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Posted by ilancaron on 22nd April 2007
Solving time: 45’
I actually fell asleep solving this – not because the puzzle was boring, simply due to jet-lag (or as my aunt would say, let-jag). Probably unintended but a couple of Irish clues and cricket clues might be a way of suggesting that Ireland is doing surprisingly well at the World Cup.
Across
| 1 |
DASH – two meanings: the second as in “I’m running the 60 yard DASH”. |
| 3 |
STAGE,CRAFT – “put on” is STAGE. |
| 9 |
W(R)EN – my last clue: R (“king”) in rev(new=original). And WRENs were (are?) women who served in the Royal Navy |
| 11 |
COMMONPLACE BOOK - straightforward charade for COMMONPLACE BOOK which I wasn’t familiar with. |
| 13 |
S,URGE,ON – Not a bad clue: good surface and surprising definition: “one used to working in the theatre”. Hands up if you thought it was the other kind of theatre. |
| 14 |
SAT(I)E –ref. Erik SATIE, French composer. |
| 17 |
A,C,CLAIM – requisite apposite cricket clue given the World Cup. |
| 20 |
CONGRATULATIONS – two meanings: embarrassingly I can actually hum this Cliff Richard song that almost won a Eurovision contest. |
| 23 |
MYRA – hidden in “pygMY RAttlesnake”. But does “feeding” indicate containment (even if a snake’s involved)? |
| 25 |
R,ELY – ELY must be a city if it’s got a cathedral I suppose (population 15,000!). |
Down
| 1 |
DOWN,CAST – ref. County DOWN – good idea to review your Irish counties since they tend to crop up cryptically quite often (e.g. Mayo, Sligo…). |
| 2 |
STEAMER – must be two meanings: the second being “vessel” not sure about the first? ”Wetsuit in vessel”. |
| 4 |
TIN-OPENER – rev(nit=stupid person) followed by OPENER for “key”. But why is “small” needed to qualify “kitchen tool”? There are, after all, smaller kitchen gadgets (teaspoons, toothpicks, salt cellars…). |
| 7 |
ATHLONE – (an hotel)*. I already mentioned the need to review your Irish geography. |
| 8 |
T(OP)EKA – OP in Kate. Capital of Kansas I think. A point of honor not to check this. |
| 12 |
OPEN, VERDI,CT – Wasn’t familiar with OPEN VERDICT beforehand but the wordplay was quite clear. |
| 14 |
SMALL BEER – two meanings &lit: nice clue worth repeating: ”A trifle in glass?” |
| 16 |
CANDID,E – “unrehearsed” produces CANDID and E is produced by “ending to thE”. The book’s by Voltaire but the operetta by Leonard Bernstein. |
| 18 |
A,CO,LYTE=”light” |
| 19 |
A,CROSS – another cricket allusion. |
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Posted by ilancaron on 15th April 2007
Solving time: 20’ except for one answer
This puzzle number as printed in the paper is No. 00. So even The Observer isn’t free of Graudian Gremlins. I did this in a minicab on the way to the airport so the traffic references were apposite. I struggled though with PARKING METER and PARKING METRE as I was still in London at the time. It’s the former but that stopped me from finding 27A (FRANKLIN).
Across
| 1 |
FAL,STAFF – Ref. Sir John (Prince Hal’s mentor). FAL is another TLR (three-letter river) that’s worth remembering along with Exe, Cam, Ure… |
| 9 |
CLERI[c],HE,W – def is “comic verse” something I wouldn’t have known several months. Note how “snubbed” indicates tail removal. HE for “His Excellency” (sometimes High Explosive though). |
| 10 |
MUR,DER – well, def must be “kill” and rev(Red Rum)– and turns out there was a “famous” steeplechaser Red Rum — incidentally the referenced article begins thus: “For murder spelt backwards, see Redrum”. |
| 12 |
TRAFFIC WARDEN - ”A poor piece of parking? Fine by me!”. I think this is just a cryptic definition – anything else? |
| 14 |
FED-UP – G-man is short for Government Man, i.e. a federal agent. UP is invariably up astride a horse. |
| 16 |
POKER, F,ACE – nice surface and charade: clever suggestive overlap between the def (“impassive expression”) and wordplay (POKER for “card game”). |
| 17 |
CA(STELLA)N – he’s a governor of a castle in fact: CASTELLAN. |
| 19 |
PICKS – two meanings: quite a good clue using both nounal and verbal senses. |
| 21 |
GOOD S(A,M),ARITAN – GOODS for “freight” and train* containing A M[ale]. |
| 25 |
STAG,N,ANT – “tracked” seems superfluous. |
| 27 |
FRANK,L,IN – my last clue: the American in me wants this to be Benjamin FRANKLIN. Note that “holding office” is IN rather than indicating containment. |
Down
| 1 |
FACE T,O F,ACE – charade straddling word boundaries of the definition. |
| 2 |
LEE,WARD – rev(draw, eel) |
| 4 |
FRENCH POLISH - seen this before but enjoyed it again nonetheless. |
| 6 |
ROUND TRIP – ROUND as in “round sum” which I suppose implies something considerable and TRIP up is to make a mistake… seems like the “up” is missing though in the clue. Is there another appropriate sense? |
| 7 |
MAD,ON,N.A. – Our “star” is just MADONNA (of Guy Ritchie fame I guess). She’s incidentally also North American. |
| 8 |
TERM – two meanings – quite different. The second (“spell”) as in a period of time. |
| 11 |
PARKING METER – clever cryptic def which I thought might be METRE in England still. Our second traffic clue. |
| 23 |
I,CON – the usual way to clue this. |
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