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Guardian 24,387 - Araucaria

Posted by manehi on 13th May 2008

manehi.

Was, unusually for me, on the right wavelength for Araucaria today, and sped through most of the puzzle, which was as enjoyable as always. There was a nice mini theme of a few clues linked somehow or another to 18dn. 1ac and 28ac were new words to me, and I had to do a little research for the wordplay of 25. Still need help deciphering 6dn. Edits thanks to Shirley and Eileen.

Across
1 GLENLIVET G, LENT around LIVE
6 MYRRH MY,R,RH - also known as Sweet Cicely, one of the gifts brought by 18.
9 APPLE APE around P[upi]L, “Pupil” also is the def.
10 SOPHISTRY S,OP,HIS TRY
11 EAR-WIGGING EARWIG,GING[er], I think. It can mean a reprimand.
14 THAT WAS (what)* in rev(Sat), putting this on either side on 15 gives the satirical That Was The Week That Was
15 THE WEEK TWEE around HE = high explosive, K. Also defined as “…what ends then” [i.e. Saturday].
17 PREVIEW REV,I in PEW
20 GOLD GOL[iath], D[avid], another of 18’s gifts
22 PSYCHIATRY sounds like “psi, chi” + A TRY - second similar use of TRY in this puzzle.
25 NEWSWOMAN Rebekah Wade is the editor of the Sun. As for the wordplay… Tyneside is in the NE, from there you need to go WSW to reach Keswick, and then to OMAN to get to Muscat. Or, some abbreviation for Newcastle for the first few letters. Maybe.
26 EBOLA rev(a lobe)
28 NIERSTEIN (entries in)*
Down
2 EXPURGATE EX, PG = “paying guest” partly inside [c]URATE. Thomas Bowdler published an expurgated Shakespeare.
3 LIES IN WAIT LIES = “stories”, and carollers might tell of an “inn wait”, I guess. WAIT can refer to a carol singer.
4 VISAGES VI SAGES = six sages ~ twice “three wise men”. Nice.
5 TOPKNOT TOP as in to exceed, and KNOT the rate of travel.
6 MAIN “Supplier of “light … on land or sea”?” - sea would be the def, but can’t make out the wordplay. Main as in electrical mains.
7 RATTY ref the Wind in the Willows character
8 HAYMARKET sounds like “hey, mark it”
14 TYPE GENUS TYPE, GEN[eral], US - zoological term.
16 EIGHTSOME EIGHT,SO,ME - EIGHT is half of 16, the clue number.
18 WISE MEN W = with, rev(NEMESI[s])
19 INCENSE follows Frank to make frankincense, the last of 18’s gifts. Unusual wordplay, but gettable enough in the context of this puzzle.
21 LOWRY Low Railway = base line
24 TWEE TWEE[d]

Posted in Guardian | 8 Comments »

Guardian 24386/Rufus

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 12th May 2008

Colin Blackburn.

Rufus’s naval past seems to evident in this puzzle with numerous mentions of ships and the sea. As usual too many cryptic definitions for my taste but a few bits of clever word play too.

* = anagram
“” = homophone
cd = cryptic definition

Across
1 DRAUGHT cd the depth of water below a ship, ie how far a sailor could sink.
9 SWALLOWS WALL in SOWS ‘between’ is the slightly odd sounding inclusion indicator here. It works if you treat SOWS as a string of letters.
10 ARMADA A+RM+ADA jolly = RM (Royal Marine). The definition is quite good here, less obvious than something like ‘Spanish fleet’.
12 CARRY FORWARD “Carrie”+FORWARD
15 COURT ORDER cd?
22 LAUREL WREATH cd laurel = bay. Very misleading surface reading with all the other sea-based clues. I guess that means it was a good cryptic definition.
28 RANKLE R+ANKLE I spent a little time trying to put something in R+ON or R+L and come up with a joint.
29 ENSIGNS cd?
Down
1 DISC IS in D+C D & C are two of several Roman numerals but in this clue the two required ones are fairly easy to guess.
2 AFAR SEAFARER - SEER tricky word play here even though the answer is staring at us.
3 GALLANTS cd? I see the definition here but I assume there is some reference I’m not getting.
7 ADAM AND EVE cd
8 STANDSTILL ST+AND+ST+I’LL clever word play.
13 OCEAN LINER (RELIANCE ON)* nice anagram.
18 PLATYPUS (SUPPLY AT)* can ‘capacity’ be read as an anagram indicator?
23 ELOPE cd

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Guardian 24,379 (Sat 3 Mar)/Crucible - Cue jumping

Posted by rightback on 10th May 2008

rightback.

Solving time: 9:06

A snooker-themed puzzle by an appropriately named setter to coincide with the World Championship at the Crucible last weekend. The unclued entries consisted of all the colours (less black and yellow which appeared in 1ac and 31ac) and the players referred to were [Steve] Davis and [Jimmy] White (the latter doing double duty as a ball). Seven other clues contained the letters DER in order, which was probably deliberate; hiding the full fifteen reds might have been a bit much to ask!

I solved 28dn straight away so guessed the theme quickly, and the rest of the clues weren’t too difficult. 16dn (RED) appeared as ‘null’ in the online version, but I think it was probably meant to be blank.

Music of the day may have to be shelved for a while as I’ve managed to break the sound on my computer, but what about Snooker Loopy by Matchroom Mob with Chas And Dave?

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 BLACK + PEPPER - as in Sergeant Pepper.
12 TH(E.R.)E + UN + DER - I nearly wrote in ‘thereafter’ but luckily checked the wordplay.
15 DEC + O[r]DER
17 LOO + S,E,N
20 DERIDE; rev. of RED, + IDE
22 DERRICK; rev. of RED, + RICK - as in Red Adair.
23 VEDA - an ancient Sanksrit text.
27 REPROACHER; (OR PREACHER)* - I just couldn’t solve this anagram.
29 SE(AB)A + SS
30 EYEBROW; “[h]IGHBROW”
31 YELLOW FEVER; (FEEL VERY)* around LOW
Down
2 LEASEHOLDS; AS and HOL inside LEEDS
3 CO-LANDER - I liked this one.
4 POWDER; P.O.W. + rev. of RED
6 EDIBLES; I in [b]ED,B + LES - my last entry, which took about 20-30 seconds at the end because I was slow to split ‘Food writer’.
8 SLEEVE (hidden)
14 JOURNALESE; (NEURAL)* in JOSE
19 DERRIERE; [London] “DERRY AIR”
21 RED TAPE, from TAPERED - a bit of an old chestnut.
23 CO(HER)E
28 BALL[et] - I thought this might have been made a bit harder to prevent the theme being cracked too early.

Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »

Guardian 24384/Brendan — say something.

Posted by Colin Blackburn on 9th May 2008

Colin Blackburn.

As ever an excellent puzzle from Brendan. It was quickly apparent that every clue ended in “, say”. After solving a few it became clear that Brendan was using “say” in a number of capacities: definition by example, homophone, part of the fodder, and as the definition itself. This led to more homophones than you’d normally get in a daily puzzle but Brendan balanced this with some superb examples of this clue type.

* = anagram
dd = double definition
“” = homophone

Across
9 PRONOUNCE PRONOUN+CE say as a definition.
10 E-MAIL E+”male” say as a homophone indicator.
13 OSSUARY (OURS SAY)* say as part of the fodder.
19 CAR Coke And Rum say as part of a definition by example.
22 STEWART “Stuart” ref. James Stewart and Andy Stewart though less famous people may fit the bill too.
24 GREAT DANE dd this is a fifth type of clue. Say here is being used as a question mark might be to highlight the second, more cryptic, definition.
29 TIDEMARKS “tied Marx” great homophone with a nicely misleading definition creating a surface conjuring up Stalin and the Second World War.
Down
3 FOR EXAMPLE FORE+X+AMPLE so concise!
5 SEAFARER “see fairer” another excellent homophone.
6 BEAU “Bow” I filled this in from the definition and checking letters but failed to see the word play. It has only just dawned on me as I type that it is a reference to Bow, a district of London.
7 MAINTAIN AIN’T in MAIN say here is a definition again.
8 KLEE “clay” I guess you need to know how Paul Klee’s name is correctly pronounced for this clue. I didn’t!
13 OSCAR (kok)”oschka” odd one here, a hidden homophone, for want of a better term.
See comment 1 below for a much more likely explanation.
15 NOM DE PLUME PLUM in (ODE MEN)* excellent stuff again, the definition is by example. Dr Seuss was the nom de plume of Theodor Geisel.
16 KRAFT “craft” KRAFT is a type of paper.
25 TORY T(his) O(ffice) (anothe)R (sa)Y heads and tails!
27 EASY E(x)A(m)S(a)Y and finally yet another device to end on.

Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »

Guardian 24383: Paul — Rainbow Nation

Posted by jetdoc on 8th May 2008

jetdoc.

When it’s a blogging day, I’m always happy to see that Paul is the setter, and this did not disappoint. As ever, some clever and potentially deceptive clues.

Having solved 10a and 12a, I spotted 8d, ORANGE FREE STATE, and saw that the theme is South Africa.

Now that I have blogged this, I realise I forgot to leave out any clues, as we’re supposed to with dailies. But I can’t decide which ones to delete, so apologies for the omission of omission.

Across
9 HOT POTATO ATO = alternate letters of ‘action’; on HOTPOT = a dish of chopped mutton, beef, etc, seasoned and stewed together with sliced potatoes.
10 AMOUR O = love; in ‘a rum’ backwards. Nice clue.
11 PILLAGE LAG = criminal; in PILE = large building.
12 DISCERN E = English; RN = Royal Navy, an armed service; on DISC = record.
13, 5 EAST LONDON A city on the south-east coast of South Africa (with a cricket ground called Buffalo Park). *(last one); over [the river] DON.
14 DOWNSTROKE [Irish County] DOWN; R in STOKE, an English city, with a football team also called Stoke City.
17 SLEEPER Double definition. As well as someone who’s asleep, a sleeper is a small gold hoop worn in a pierced ear to prevent the hole from closing up.
19 DESCENDANT END = target; DESCANT = range (presumably, though Chambers doesn’t define it as such). Two meanings of ‘succeed’.
22 HERE Hidden in ‘further education’, with a deceptive line break, in the online version at least.
23 EQUATOR *(a route Q). Clever &lit clue, although Quito is actually 25 km south of the equator. I suppose ‘roughly’, as well as being the anagram indicator, could refer to the geographic inexactitude.
24 EXPLOIT I in EX-PLOT.
26, 15 SOUTH AFRICAN OUT = away; H = Hungarian capital; A FRI[day]; in SCAN.
27 ARCHIVIST IST = first; after ARCH = top, IV = four.
Down
1 CHAPTER AND VERSE ‘authority’ is the definition. CHAP = man; *(raved about n); in TERSE = short.
2 UTILISER *(result I I).
3 IOWA IOW = Isle of Wight; on A.
4 CAPE TOWN I’m not sure about the wordplay for this one. I am assuming: COW = objectionable woman (‘vixen’ is given as ‘bad-tempered woman’); A PET = ‘a personal’ (uh?); N = ‘loan, finally’. Chambers does define PET as ‘potentially exempt transfer’, but that’s a gift rather than a loan.
6 CASSETTE SET = put; in CASTE = order of rank. For you young people out there, recorded sound used to be purchased in the form of cassettes.
7 SOWETO SO WET; O = duck (no runs).
8 ORANGE FREE STATE Lovely double definition — fruitlessness is an orange-free state (though oranges are not the only fruit, of course).
16 CHEETAHS Sounds like ‘cheaters’.
17 SENTENCE Double definition, referring to the legal term ‘passing sentence’.
18 PRETORIA *(to repair).
20 SPUTUM PUT = write; in SUM. As always, Paul manages to include something a bit unsavoury.
21 DURBAN D = daughter; URBAN describes a city, which Durban is.
25 PAIR ‘2’ is the definition. ‘Pair’ sounds like ‘pare’.

Posted in Guardian | 13 Comments »

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