| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TESTAMENT: the male organ is presumably STAMEN but I can’t get offensive from TET |
| 9 | THE BEGGARS OPERA: anagram of A BERG’S GREAT HOPE |
| 10 | ROUT: gROUT firing German (g) |
| 14 | DIARRHOEA: anagram of A HORRID + EA (is EA an abbreviation for enema?) |
| 16 | SASHA: SAS and HA (Hawaii); I think this must be right but I thought the abbreviation for Hawaii is HI |
| 18 | TOLERANCE: anagram of TO CLEANER |
| 20 | EGO IDEAL: EGO + ID (physchological concepts) + EA (each) + L (last letter of theoretical) |
| 25 | PUT ON A BRAVE FACE: &Lit |
| 26 | REEVE: hidden in raRE EVErglades |
| 27 | TIGERS EYE: TIGERS (those who are determined) + EYE (to look); tiger’s eye is a chatoyant gemstone (apparently) |
| Down | |
| 1 | TUTOR: TUT + OR (ordinary ranks) |
| 2 | SPECULA: U (head of urology) in anagram of PLACES |
| 5 | THREE BALLS: clearly right as it is the pawnbroker’s sign but ‘over half shunned’? |
| 6 | MOONRAKERS: MOONRAKER (Bond film) + S (singular); moonrakers are sails that fly above the skysail |
| 7 | SLEDGED: SL (Sri Lankan openers) + EDGED (to play a poor stroke in cricket) |
| 8 | STARSTONE: STARS + T (ultimately covet) + ONE (a particular kind) |
| 12 | BREAK DANCE: anagram of BAD NECK EAR |
| 13 | PORT TALBOT: PORT (left) + TALBOT (breed of dog) |
| 14 | DISTEMPTER: D (doctor) + IS (lives) + TEMPER (alleviate) |
| 17 | SCOTTIE: S (small) + COT (bed) + TIE (like perhaps a dicky bow) |
| 19 | NEONATE: NEON (gas) + ATE (corrosive) |
| 22 | THEME: T (time) + HEM (edge) + E (energy) |
| 23 | YANG: hidden in malaYAN Gkossary |
11 comments on “Guardian 24,320 (Arachne)”
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Tet offensive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive
1ac Tet as in the Vietcong offensive in 1968 in Vietnam
EA is EnemA purged (middle letters removed)…
5 down
An over is six balls so if you shun half of it you are left with three balls.
Minor correction to 1 down
In military parlance OR is “other ranks” rather than “ordinary ranks”.
5D: I wrote it in, but I’ve only just got it: an over is six balls….
14A The middle of EnemA is purged to give you the EA. Quite clever I thought!
NEONATE came up in a very recent Nimrod in the Indy…
http://fifteensquared.net/2008/02/14/independent-6655nimrod/
Please could someone explain 24dn? Is it HEIR? [Clue: We meet king’s successor (4) – ?E?R] The best I can come up with is ‘We’ = ‘he and I’ = HEI (+ R for king), but that’s ridiculous.
I got pretty bogged down on this – couldn’t fathom THREE BALLS (obvious now!), ROUT or PEERAGES (as I didn’t know the homophone ‘pierages’) and had ‘eagle’s eye’ for TIGER’S EYE for a while.
It’s HE and I plus R, where ‘he and I’ are ‘we’, and ‘meet king’.
And were I in a position to veto that construction …
Well thanks a lot Arachne for putting a load of extremely bad music in my head – “Eye of the Tiger”, Bond Themes …
Re Paul B’s comment – that’s a construction which certainly should be vetoed. It’s little things like that which make some clues needlessly impenetrable.