Guardian 24,313 (Sat 16 Feb)/Paul – A bit Pete Tong
Posted by rightback on February 24th, 2008
Solving time: 10 mins, one missing (13dn), one wrong (18ac)
I love rhyming slang but was caught out today by one I didn’t know. 18ac is possibly my favourite clue so far this year.
Music: Lots of options today but I’ll go for 10dn, Air on a G String by J S Bach.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TIME + BOMB |
| 5 | ATONIC |
| 9 | GREAT SKUA; GR + EATS + rev. of AUK – the reversal SKUA/AUKS is well-known to crossword setters. |
| 11 | [j]ARGON |
| 12 | BARNARD’S STAR; (RN + ARDS) in BASTAR[d] – I didn’t know Ards but did know Barnard’s Star, thanks to Blur’s cosmic offering Far Out, from the album Parklife. ‘Illegitimate short red dwarf’ is a marvellous image in the surface reading. |
| 16 | SWA(NU)PPING |
| 18 | KHMER ROUGE – brilliant clue (‘Pot reds’), referring to the communist party led by Pol Pot. I knew my first effort ‘Kamir Rouge’ was misspelt but carelessly forgot to go back to check it. |
| 19 | CHAT (double definition) |
| 21 | ANTICIPATION; A, + rev. of (A PIC(I)T) in NATION |
| 24 | [c]RAVEN |
| 25 | ELIZABETH; E + rev. of B[r]AZIL + (THE)* – pretty good &lit, with the question mark excusing the slight looseness in definition. |
| 26 | EX + H(O)RT |
| 27 | AG(RIM)ONY |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TO GO |
| 2 | MEET; “MEAT” |
| 3 | BET + RAY |
| 4 | M(A KING + WHO)OPE + E |
| 6 | T + RAN + SEPT |
| 7 | NIGH + T(L)IGHT |
| 8 | CONGREGATE; (GET ON + GRACE)* |
| 10 | [h]AIR ON A G-STRING |
| 13 | PECKHAM RYE – rhyming slang for ‘tie’. I guessed the reference to ‘Bow’ in East London but didn’t know this phrase. |
| 14 | BA(R(M)ITZ + V + A)H |
| 17 | B + RUCK + NER[o] – refers to Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. |
| 20 | SO + MALI |
| 22 | ZERO (hidden) |
| 23 | WH(E)Y |
February 24th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
PECKHAM RYE defeated me, and, to add insult to injury, Mrs. Settee picked up the paper and got it straight away. You an really go off some people…
February 25th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Peckham is in SE London, so not really in the Cockney rhyming slang area which includes Bow, but see this link -
http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/peckham_rye_1
February 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
13dn: Peckham Rye. For more links Google “rhyming slang”
February 25th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
No, but ‘Peckham’ is indeed rhyming slang for tie.
‘Aristotle’ is about as far away from Bow as you can get in four hours on a jet, but he’s still rhyming slang for ar*e (via bottle, of course).