Posted by neildubya on 29th June 2007
| Across |
| 1 |
BESIDE THE POINT – double definition. |
| 9 |
RI,T in IRAN,T – excellent surface reading. |
| 11 |
H in (METEOR)* |
| 12 |
DUN,(GONE)* |
| 15 |
HOMOPHONE – nothing to do with the answer at 4D, simply that “For” sounds like 4. |
| 20 |
RID(g)ES – I liked “zero gravity” to indicate the lack of a “g”. |
| 23 |
ENFORCE – sounds like “N for C” which is the replacement you make to turn “salicet” into “salient”. [Edit: as the commenter says below, this should of course be "EN for CE", which is what I meant to write] |
| 25 |
JUNK MAIL – nice cryptic definition. |
| 26 |
hidden in “reveaL A BELiever”. |
| 27 |
CHINLESS WONDER – is this right? If so, I can’t see the wordplay, although “chump from Eton” would seem ok as a definition. |
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| Down |
| 1 |
(ON RUN BUT THEY)* – BOUNTY HUNTER. Excellent clue, with a well hidden anagrind (“rent”) and a sly definition (“their trailer”). |
| 3 |
ERG in DETENT – I filled in DETERGENT without understanding the bit about “wheel-checker”. I’ve just looked it up and apparently it means anything that “checks motion”. |
| 5 |
A,R,L in MODE (all going up) – EARLDOM |
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| 6 |
(s)OFTEN |
| 7 |
(DONE CROWN)* – NONCE WORD |
| 10 |
(LINER RATTLES)* |
| 16 |
reverse hidden in “OIL OF TROPical” – excellent hidden clue as it’s not the kind of word that you’d expect to be hidden. |
| 22 |
A,K in TEN – I’m assuming that “one” refers to 1A here…? [Edit: this should be OAKEN, see comment below] |
| 24 |
B in RAID. |
Posted in Guardian | 11 Comments »
Posted by bensand on 29th June 2007
I thought I’d got the schedule wrong when I came to post this and saw the top Independent post from Neil for a Phi! Closer examination revealed a different crossword completely so business as usual. [Change to 8 down, thanks to nmsindy for pointing it out]
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Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 29th June 2007
Even though his name is Mudd here – it’s Paul in the Guardian. I definitely solved this more quickly than the typical Paul – so maybe there is something to the theory that FT puzzles are pitched somewhat lower. Seemed to be a mild food and drink theme (9a, 12a, 19a, 7d, 11d, 17d, 24d, 27d) which is probably more than my imagination. And, as an American, I appreciate that the Britishisms are kept to a minimum.
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Posted in FT | 11 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 29th June 2007
We had a tough Saturday Phi puzzle a couple of months ago but I think this one was harder. I solved this one in deepest Suffolk, with no access to a decent dictionary or other solving aids (ie, the Internet) so I was unsure about a number of answers; I filled them in anyway in order to make progress but I had to wait until I got home to be sure about the last two or three. There’s a Nina too – starting at the left-hand corner of the grid and going round clockwise, the unchecked letters spell out: IS THIS A HIDDEN MESSAGE OR ISNT IT. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 29th June 2007
Solving time: about 90 mins
A fairly standard challenge here: find extra words in four across and four down clues which allow what’s presumably a quotation to be identified, and clashes between across and down answers which are resolved by continuing the quote in some part(s) of the grid. The author appears in a couple of unclued answers, and the rest of the quote must be written under the grid (the part not to forget!).
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Posted in Inquisitor | No Comments »