Fifteensquared

From Monday Prize Puzzle on 22 September 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

A good set of varied clues for a Monday morning. Light and easy with a few clever wordplay here and there. This puzzle made me recall various times of my misspent youth.

Across
1 BROWN ALE *(bar now) + LE (the French) This clue brought back fond memories of my three-year stay in Newcastle-upon-Tyne when SuperMac reigned supreme at St James Park next to my residential hall in Leazes Park. Noocasel Broon was one of my earliest introduction to British beer.
5 DRY RUN Cheeky clue using the fact the tt can either stand for teetotal (dry) or Tourist Trophy, the Isle of Man TT Race for motorcycles, held since 1907
9 RATTLERS dd noun a rattle; a coach; a rattlesnake; a telling blow; an excellent specimen of the kind (all quotations of definitions from Chambers Dictionary)
10 DUNCAN Cha of Dun (horse) C (caught) A N (knight) When I solved this clue, I immediately recited from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
“Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell”
How come I can remember totally useless information (from English literature lessons circa 1964) and have to walk round twice before finding my car in a multi-storey car-park a few nights ago?
12 OCEAN *(Once a)
13 JOHN DONNE John (can, loo, toilet, gents, etc) Donne (pronounced like done or no more), (1572–1631) was a Jacobean poet
14 RANDOM Cha of RAN (organised) DO (party) M (end of term)
16 CARACAS Ins of A in CARCAS (carcass or body minus last letter)
18 CHELSEA Ch (check) *(lease)
20 UMPIRE Ins of MP (member of Parliament) & I in URE (Yorkshire river)
22 OFF LIMITS Cha of O (round) F (last of golF) + ins of IT in FLIMS *(films)
23 BLAKE B (British) Lake (mere) William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker
24 NOODLE *(old one)
25 FANDANGO Ins of AND (with) in FAN (enthusiast) & GO (energy) This word was propelled from obscurity to prominence by Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody
26 RETURN RE (Royal Engineers or soldiers) TURN (have a go)
27 BETRAYAL *(Beryl at a)

Down
1 BARTOK Bart (Lionel Bart (1930–1999) was an English composer of songs and musicals, best known for Oliver!) + OK (fine) Béla Viktor János BARTOK (1881–1945) was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.
A funny thing happened at this corner for a short while. I had earlier inked in FOSTER being F (fine) OSTER (composer) and FOSTER is also a composer. But when I solved Noocasel Broon, I knew Foster was wrong. Isn’t this amazing; that a clue that involves the name of two composers and a fodder for ‘fine’ can yield two equally correct answers (bar checking letters)????
2 ON THE WATERFRONT *(theatre now) FRONT (top) On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about mob violence and corruption among longshoremen starring Marlon Brando
3 NYLON N (Name) YLON *(only) BTW, this man-made material was named after New York and London (another trivia brought to you by Uncle Yap :-)
4 LORD JIM Sounds like LAUD (praise) GYM (exercise) A novel by Joseph Conrad
6 ROUND TRIP Cha of round (several drinks) trip (set off)
7 RACING CERTAINTY Ins of CE (church) in *(Cary Grant in it)
8 NONSENSE Ins of S in *(son seen)
11 CHIC chic (k)
15 DISTILLER Cha of DI’S (Diane’s) TILLER (one who cultivates)
17 SCHOONER Ins of CH (child) in SOONER (earlier)
19 AXIS A XIS (rev of six)  - a white-spotted deer of India.
20 UPSTAGE up (winning) stage (leg)
21 RECOIL RE (on) COIL (bend)
23 BADER B + ADER *(read) Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader (1910–1982) was a Royal Air Force fighter ace during the Second World War. The remarkable thing about Bader was that he had earlier lost both legs but still went on to fly combat missions.

Great stuff as ever from Dac. Lots of nice clues with great surface readings, and all of them fair.

Across
1	REBUSES - RE,BUSES - Easy enough, but as neat a surface reading as you could wish to see
5	SOFA BED - S,OF,ABE,D
9	SINGING TELEGRAM - (IN GERMAN GIG LISTEN)*
10	TOAST - ‘Brown’ here being used (very elegantly) as a verb
11	ALDERSHOT - ALDERS,HO,T[-errace]
13	TOPCOATS - The last answer to go in, and I have to admit I initially made a mistake with it. I assumed it was HOT,C[O]ATS, but then realised a moment ago that it’s actually O in TOP CAT’S, he being the cartoon feline!
16	DEBARRED - DE,BAR,RED
17	HUGHIE - H,I in HUGE
19	ARISTOTLE - TOT[-a]L in A,RISE
21	TONIC - TO,NIC[-k]
23	PUT IN THE PICTURE - CD
24	TINTERN - INTER in TN (confines of ‘tumbledown’)
25	DEAD SET - I presume that this refers to hunting dogs being ready to pick up dead birds, etc.?
Down
1	RESIT - I in REST
2	BENJAMIN BRITTEN - JAM in BENIN,”Britain”
4	SIGNAL - (Fritz) LANG,IS rev.
5	STEADY ON - (EASY DON’T)* - Another great surface reading
7	BIRTHDAY HONOURS - (SID HORNBY, AUTHOR)*
8	DEMITASSE - (TEA MISSED)*
12	RED CARPET - REDCAR (NE seaside town),PET
14	CRUSTACEA - CRUST,ACE,A
15	HEATH HEN - H in HEATHEN
18	HELPED - PE in HELD
20	TINGE - Hidden in fruiT IN GEneral
22	CHEAT - C[-up],HEAT

It wasn’t too difficult to spot this week’s theme! (as if we haven’t seen enough water this summer :-) A couple of the rivers are a little obscure but easy enough to determine from the wordplay. The clues today are fairy straightforward so there is no need for many comments from me.
.

Across

1 JORDAN 

4 DELAWARE  DE LA MARE with M changed to W

10 MOSELLE  ELL in *(SOME)

11 POTOMAC  *(TOO) in CAMP reversed

12 AVON  A VON

13 ST LAWRENCE  R in *(NEWCASTLE)

16 THAMES  HAM in SET reversed

17 WELLAND  WELL AND - a river in East Anglia

20 VISTULA  IS in *(VAULT)

21 ROTHER  R OTHER - there are several rivers with this name in the UK

24 SHENANDOAH  SHE NAN DO A H

25 ELBE  hidden in ‘kiEL BErlin’

27 ORINOCO - easy after a recent Womble themed Indy

29 GARONNE  N in *(ORANGE)

30 DNIESTER  *(RESIDENT) - a river in the Ukraine

31 SEVERN  EVER in S N

Down

1 JAM TARTS  TART in JAM[e]S

2 RESTORATIVE  REST O[pe]RATIVE

3 ABLE  [t]ABLE

5 EXPIATES  EXP[atr]IATES

6 AFTER BLOOD  dd

7 ARM  A RM (Royal Marine)

8 EXCEED  EX CEED - homophone of ’seed’ (favourite)

9 LENTO  LENT O

14 NONCHALANCE  NO N A L in CHANCE

15 MEAT WAGONS  dd

18 GLADSOME  *(LAME DOGS) - from the hymn ‘Let us with gladsome mind’ (John Milton)

19 TREE FERN  REEF in TERN

22 ESMOND  *(DEMONS) - ‘attacking’ is not the most obvious anagram indicator, ‘upsetting’ might have been better

23 CARGO  CAR GO

26 ERNE  hidden in ‘wintER NEst’

28 ICI  dd - unfortunately one of the definitions is incorrect as ICI is no longer a British company. It has been taken over by AkzNobel, a multinational organisation with headquarters in the Netherlands.

Boatman is a name I’m not familiar with - maybe a new addition to the Guardian stable? As a result I had no idea what to expect from this puzzle, but it turned out to be fairly straightforward: nothing outstanding but a few nice clues, and a couple of niggles too.

Key:
dd = double definition
* = anagram
< = reverse

Across
1. PALLID LAP< LID
5. CAMISOLE CAM I SOLE
9. FRUIT BUN Spoonerisms again! This one is of “brute fun”. The enumeration is given as (8) but should surely be (5,3)
10. AXEMAN E in MAX + AN - the “mad axeman” being an example of one who displays berserk behaviour
11. ECOTERRORISM ERROR in (ETC I’M SO)*
13. PUNT PUN + T(ip). Groan indeed. See 6dn for another appearance by Boatman.
14. TALKBACK (BLACK MARKET less ME R). Nicely misleading definition.
17. JERRYCAN The idea here is “Tom can’t but Jerry can” - easy to solve but I don’t think the structure of the clue quite, er, holds water.
18. RIND IN in RD
20. UNCHARITABLE I in UNCHARTABLE. “Hold” is doing duty as part of the definition of UNCHARTABLE, and to indicate the inclusion.
23. GHURKA A simple hidden answer
24. BACKBONE To finance is to BACK and B1 expanded is B ONE
25. SHARP EYE (PREY AS HE)* Cleverly concealing the division between the two parts of the clue.
26. SPRITE (mothe)R in SPITE

Down
2. AFRO Hidden &lit, sort of - an Afro being a “frothy” hairstyle.
3. LEICESTER Homophone of “less to” - just about, if said as part of the phrase “less to say”
4. DEBTOR (ROT BED)<
5. CONCERTINA TABLE ONCE in INTRACTABLE*. Not sure I’ve heard this expression before, though it was easy to get with a few crossing letters. Rather a weakness that the letters of “table” occur in order in the fodder, I think.
6. MEAT ROLL ME A TROLL. Boatman is “me” in this one, as opposed to 13ac where it refers to an actual boatman.
7. STEER dd - a hint is a “steer”. Bull markets - remember them…?
8. LEAP SECOND APSE in LEÇON + (be)D. Leap seconds are added at midnight on New Year’s Eve from time to time to compensate for slight variations in the Earth’s orbit.
12. SURE ENOUGH (SEEN OUR)* + UGH
15. BURGER BAR (RE GRUB)< + BAR
16. SCARFACE SCARF ACE - Scarface is a gangster film first made in 1932 and remade in 1983 with Al Pacino in the title role.
19. ABACUS (punj)AB A CUS(tard)
21. HIKER Hidden - as in 23ac the slightly contorted wording makes this very easy to spot. The surface is vaguely relevant, as Gandhi did everything simply, and Jack Kerouac described spontaneous trips in On The Road.
22. GNAT (win)G + ANT*. Boatman seems to like using the ends of words for odd letters.

I have only recently become aware of Radian, which suggests that he hasn’t been around for long. But with this crossword I had no feeling that he was in any way a novice: there were some excellent clues, two of which I can’t explain.

We certainly get our money’s worth today, with 32 clues. I’ve noticed that the Indy crossword often has many fewer than this.

Across
1	SWAMP — m in (paws)rev.
4	DANDELION — d(odder) (old inane)*
9	WAGTAIL — a wagtail wags its tail, or swings it hips, “WAG tale”
10	T(ate) EASELS
11	DELFT — D (left)*
12	GOLDEN AGE — (one lad)* in (egg)*
13	C(OR)GI — computer-generated imagery, although there are other special effects and in my opinion, although I know not that of everyone, there should have been some indicator that CGI is only an example of special effects
14	TEST MATCH — t(ribal) in (cats them)*
16	LOCKSMITH — when a clue is this long it needs to be pretty good to make up for its wordiness. But I don’t think this one is: presumably the references are to Tony Lock, almost certainly not the best LH spinner, and Graeme Smith, not in everyone’s opinion the best SA batsman even of the current team. But a cracking definition and Radian did well not to cop out, leaving the clue as a mere cryptic definition
20	LE(v)ANT
22	SPEEDWELL — (weed)* in spell
24	GR(A)SS
26	OCARINA — (raincoa(t))*
27	THISTLE — (the list)*
28	TEDDY BEAR — (darted by e)* — ref. ‘The Teddy Bear’s Picnic‘
29	G0R(S(cience))E
Down
1	SEWED — (Swede)*, assuming 25 is correct
2	ANGULAR — U in (raglan)*
3	PL(ANT)AINS — it seems a bit odd that the clue contains ‘planted’, so similar to the answer. Surely this could have been avoided, with something like ‘found’ instead of ‘planted’
4	D E(L)IGHT
5	NETTLES — John Nettles, the star of Bergerac, the TV programme
6	invadE S A REsort — lovely hidden rev. clue
7	1 NE(X AC)T
8	NISSEN HUT — (tin NHS use)*
13	COLTSFOOT — col (st)rev. foot
15	MALIGNING — “a line” in Ming — squeezing the last drop of crossword use out of someone who won’t be well-known for much longer
17	CUE CARD — “queue” card
18	(l)ITERATE
19	HOLSTER — (others l(inen))* — nice def.
21	AD AP(artmen)T OR — very good clue
23	DAISY I think, although I don’t understand
25	SWEDE I think, although again I don’t understand