Independent on Sunday 906 by Quixote
Posted by nmsindy on 28th June 2007
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Archive for June 28th, 2007
Guardian 24115/Gordius – Twins and tarring the bush
Posted by ilancaron on 28th June 2007
1A was the best cryptic political comment I’ve seen in a long time. I had to look up 21A and 14A for being too esoteric. Found this overall rather hard but with many diamonds (well, they are hard, aren’t they?) in the rough.
Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »
Independent 6458/Dac
Posted by neildubya on 28th June 2007
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PAT,C,ASH(e) – excellent topical clue. |
| 9 | P in SOHO,MORE – one of the last 2 or 3 answers to go. “Part of London again” had me puzzled for a while. |
| 10 | WAG(n)ER |
| 11 | (MOP)*,ADE (“aid”) – superb &lit clue. Best clue in the puzzle, I think. |
| 12 | (O QUA-rTERS)* – I didn’t know QUAESTOR so this was the last answer to go in. With ?U?E?T?R filled in and the fairly safe knowledge that the wordplay was an anagram of o + quarters with the “r” missing it was just a case of deciding what to do with the remaining letters. The “q” was easy and the rest followed as QUOESTAR just doesn’t look right. |
| 14 | H,TIER< – shouldn’t this really be “former BBC bigwig”? |
| 22 | ME in INCA,RA |
| 24 | IS,N in LAD – “in van[guard]” indicates that IS has to be at the front of the clue. |
| 28 | (RENT WIDOW)* |
| 29 | PASS in S,KY – a reference to Boris Spassky who, amongst other things, played Bobby Fischer for the World Championship in Reykjavik in 1972 – one of the most famous matches ever. |
| Down | |
| 1/2 | (TO PRO SOCIALIST PM)* – PASSPORT TO PIMLICO. |
| 5 | “czech”,CAR,D – “traveller can get dinars” for CAR,D took me far too long to get. |
| 8 | R in TORE,O |
| 15 | (THE PALS ME)* – HELPMATES. Another nice &lit. |
| 17/18 | MAKE A SONG AND DANCE – Bussell is Darcey, the ballet dancer, but I’m not sure who Jenkins is supposed to be. |
| 21 | DI(m),SHES |
| 25 | SEE TO – “C2″. Clever reference to social grades. |
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Financial Times 12,486 by Cincinnus
Posted by Pete Maclean on 28th June 2007
Across
1. ENGLANDER – *(GREENLAND)
6. TORCH – double definition.
9. STAID – homophone
10. NOTEPAPER – reverse(ETON) + PAPER. Very clever!
11. SPECTATORS – *(ACTORS STEP)
12. PELF – P + ELF. Pelf is a word I was unfamiliar with meaning riches, especially those dishonestly acquired. This learning gives new dimension to the character Clara Pelf in that wonderful old movie, Semi-Tough.
14. CHAGRIN – CHA(GR)IN. I am not sure I understand this one. King George gives us GR but “annoyance” seems a bit of a stretch for defining chagrin and I do not understand how CHAIN can mean display.
15. DEMETER – reverse(MET) in DEER
17. REDOUBT – RE + DOUBT
19. PETASUS – *(PAT USES). I was a bit confused by this one because I had come across the word “petasos” before (in another crossword puzzle) but was unfamiliar with the “petasus” variant. The word refers to the winged hat that Mercury/Hermes wears. I love the way Cincinnus has concocted the surface of this clue with an implied reference, I assume, to Postman Pat.
20. APSE – A(S)PE
22. BORROWDALE – homophone
25. EYEBRIGHT – EYE + BRIGHT
26. RISEN – R[hode] I[sland] + SEN[ator]
27. NYMAN – N.Y. MAN. I had some trouble getting this one in spite of the fact that Michael Nyman is one of my favourite composers. His music for The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover stands, I think, as one of the best film scores of all time.
28. TUNISIANS – reverse(IN) in *(SAS UNIT)
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