Fifteensquared

From FT Saturday Prize Puzzle on 16 August 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

Not so difficult for a prize puzzle

Across
1 FIFERS Fife (somewhere in Scotland) RS (the extremities of rigorous)
4 SCHOONER dd
9 TENET palindrome
10 FLAPJACKS Cha of FLAP (stew or state of panic) JACKS (children’s game)
11 SHAMPOO *(has mop) + O (middle letter of JOB)
12 BACARDI BA (rev Able-Bodied) Cardi (gan, a garment)
13 EATS E (first letter of England) ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service)
14 ESPRESSO ESPR *(reps) + ESSO (oil company)
17 CENTAURS *(Etruscan)
19  NERO ha
22 DILEMMA Ins of L (left) in Di & Emma (two girls)
24 APPLAUD Cha of A PP (a very quiet) LAUD (William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645)
25 LUCRETIUS Cha of LUCRE (money) TIUS (rev SUIT, clothes) Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99 BC- ca. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher
26 ERICA Ins of IC (99. a number) in era
27 DETESTED Ins of TEST (trial) in DEED (legal document)
28 ADAGES Cha of AD ages (modern times)

Down
1 FETISHES *(his feet) + S (Davies ultimately)
2 FANTASTIC *(in fat cats)
3 RETYPE ha
5 CHAMBER ORGANS Ins of OR (gold) GAN (rev of nag or jade - see Chambers jade2) in CHAMBERS (dictionary)
6 OBJECTS dd
7 NICER Nice + R (middle letter of Paris)
8 RUSKIN Rusk (something to chew on) IN (at home) John Ruskin (1819-1900), an English author, poet and artist, most famous for his work as art critic and social critic, and for his writing on the architecture of Venice.
10 FOOL’S PARADISE Fool’s (for sap) paradise (ideal)
15 OPERATING *(an ego trip)
16 CORDIALS Cha of Cor (blimey or crikey) + *(is lad)
18 NUMBERS dd
20 ADDLED *(dad) LED (light-emitting diode)
21 SPREAD dd
23 LICIT Ins of I C (one chapter) in LIT (literature)

From Monday Prize Crossword 18 August 2008

dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

Dante aka Roger Squires has the sleekest and slickest style of clueing smooth surfaces. All his clues, albeit quite too easy to solve, read so effortlessly polished.

Across
1 REPAST Ins of PA (pop) in REST (the others)
4 LAY LOW dd
8 STARDOM *(smart do)
9 GAS BILL Cha of gas (talk) bill (William)
11 GROUNDWORK Another simple cha of land and labour
12 TASK Odd letters of T h A t S o K
13 SERAI *(raise) caravanserai n esp formerly in some Eastern countries, a kind of unfurnished inn or extensive enclosed courtyard where caravans stop (aka khan). The other meaning of serai is much more interesting; a harem
14 NOTARIES not Aries, the Zodiac sign
16 ATHLETES Ins of LET (allowed) in *(heats) What a smooth topical clue while the Beijing Olympics is still going on
18 DEBUT Rev of TUBED (it’s rolled)
20 TANG tang (o)
21 VANITY FAIR Vanity (Pride ) Fair (without prejudice) Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray that satirises society in early 19th-century England. Dante is able to use the title of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice in a very Ximenean way.
23 PICTURE dd
24 OBVERSE Cha of OB + verse (lines of poetry) The opposite side of the coin is reverse
25 NARROW NAR (rev RAN) ROW (disturbance)
26 TEA SET Ins of EASE (comfort) in TT (Tee-totaller or abstainer from alcoholic drinks)

Down
1 ROTOR Chestnut palindrome
2 PURSUER What a beauty of a cd. My favourite clue of the lot
3 SNOWDRIFT Another good cd
5 ALACK
6 LOBSTER An excellent cd alluding to the fact that a lobster pot is a basket for trapping lobsters
7 WELL SPENT Well (water supply) + spent (exhausted)
10 COGNISANT *(son acting)
13 SITUATION dd
15 TIDE TABLE cd
17 LIGHTER *(the girl)
19 BUFFERS dd
21 VIRGO Ins of R (resistance) in Vigo, port in North-West Spain
22 INSET in set

A liberal smattering of general knowledge items (operas, chess players, Roman poets), of the type that one is either likely to know readily or have never heard of. I started off at a fair clip , but progress slowed to a crawl on the last two or three clues (particularly 17D).
PS: Belated apologies for absence from blogging last Friday. I carelessly forgot to remove myself from the roster before heading off on holiday.

Across
1 BECOME - double def’n
4 KARPOV - Reversal of [-D]vorak around p(enny) . Anatoly was world champion in the late 70s/early 80s and the Kremlin-favoured arch enemy of Gary Kasparov.
8 ENGORGE - (go green)*. A neat and cohesive clue.
9 MAN, DELA - “Island” instead of “Isle” to indicate Man caused me more trouble that it really should have.
12 G[-r]EEK
13 PILES - double def’n (these two being about as poles apart as I’ve ever encountered)
14 RE(P)LAYED - I briefly had REPEATED here before realising that I couldn’t justify it from the wordplay.
16 C(A TAP)ULT
18 LE(M)ON - M in Noel(Rev).
20 INCA - hidden alternate letters.
21 SLU(GP,ELLE)T - I have a grammatical quibble here; being under the impression that Elle in French equates to “she” rather than “her”.
23 FIDELIO - (Oiled, if)rev. I struggled to pinpoint a synonym for “squiffy” that was both short enough for the clue and polite enough for use in the FT!
25 FE[-a]STER
26 CYGNET - “signet”

Down
1 BAN,TU[-tu] - An appearance from Desmond Tutu, to complement the earlier one by Nelson Mandela. These days his claim to fame seems increasingly to be as a slang term for university degree classifications (2:2).
2 C,LO(A)CAL
3MOG(A,DISH)U[-l] - capital of Somalia. Synomymous with Black Hawk Down in the US.
6 POD,AGRA - I had to deduce this one from wordplay alone. It’s a specific form of gout (hence a “complaint”).
7 VEL(VET)EEN- Vet in (eleven)*. A bit tricksy in that here the number in the clue is refers to the anagram fodder itself, whereas in 18A it referred to another clue.
10 LUCRE,TIUS - (suit)rev
13 PLAIN,TIFF
15 POLYP,HO(N)Y - the surface reading here is a little thin, but probably not surprising given the disparity of the basic ingredients.
17 A(MADE)US - this alone took me several minutes to crack. “Produced down under” indicating Made in Aus(tralia). Probably better deserving of an exclamation mark than a question mark…
19 MUL,LION - “Chimney”=Lum, as in the Scottish phrase “Lang may your lum reek”.
21 SWIPE - double def’n.

The usual excellent crossword from Dac, hard enough (it took a while to get started), but not too hard. Everything, apart from one answer, went in slowly but regularly.