Posted by Andrew on 29th October 2008
Quite a gentle one today after Brendan’s toughie on Monday, and maybe it suffers in comparison to Paul’s Beatlefest yesterday, but some nice clues here, though as ever I have a couple of nitpicks.
Posted in Guardian | 18 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 28th October 2008
A puzzle in Eimi’s very individual style, which I found quite easy – solving time, 15 mins. Quite a few references in clues that I was not personally familiar with, but these did not prevent solving and I was able to verify most of them afterwards.
Posted in Independent | 12 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 28th October 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in Guardian | 16 Comments »
Posted by C G Rishikesh on 28th October 2008
I had a slow start but managed to complete the puzzle in reasonable time. Last to fall was top right corner. Clue 17 ac is excellent but some clues (e.g., 4 ac) are not exciting by way of wordplay.
Posted in FT | 7 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 27th October 2008
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone
An enjoyable puzzle with nothing very controversial. Only one clue I didn’t entirely follow (19 down). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 27th October 2008
Quite tricky for a Monday, in my opinion. A minor theme of -ee suffixes (9A, 12A, 30A, 17D, 18D) and the little square of three-letter words around the centre was quite interesting.
Posted in Guardian | 40 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 27th October 2008
Some particularly nice anagram clues this time.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | ROOST ROO,ST |
| 9 | SCAPEGOAT S,CAPE,GOAT |
| 10 | MASTER-KEY (MEERKAT’S)* Y AInd: screwed Favourite clue: Penetrator of more than one hole, meerkat’s screwed an unknown quantity (6-3) |
| 11 | RAKED RAKE,D |
| 12/13 | DMITRY MEDVEDEV (MID-TERM DVD EVERY – R)* AInd: crappy I needed several crossing letters before spotting this anagram. Nice clue I thought So-called leader’s crappy mid-term DVD every leader of Republicans ignored (6,8) |
| 16 | NEMESIS (SEMEN)< 1S |
| 18 | SLAPPER CD-ish kind of DD |
| 20 | ANNOTATE O,TAT inside ANNE |
| 22 | ALUMNI A,LUM (scottish smoker), (IN)* AInd: pissed. I prefer to think of pissed as an AInd rather than a reverse ind. |
| 26 | ELBOW ROOM ELBOW (MOOR)< |
| 27 | TENT-POLES CD Couldn’t make a clue for tent-poles without mentioning erections really, could we Camp types erection aids (4-5) |
| 28 | DONOR CD |
| Down | |
| 1 | PRIMA DONNA PRI[nce] MADONNA Is Cyclops linking Madonna with Prince now? I suppose stranger things have happened in the world of the unbelievably egotistical. |
| 2 | BONSAI BROWN without R[esistence] and W[ith] then (IS A)* AInd: hit |
| 3 | EASY-PEASY (PAYEES SAY)* AInd: aroused |
| 4 | HENRY V HENRY [Fonda] V[ery] letter count was a bit of a give-away |
| 5 | COCKED UP ED (Balls) inside COCK-UP At first I thought it was some kind of double-def. Balls possibly getting in an erect state, handled badly (6,2) |
| 6/25 | STUD POKER Boss, “one who stuffs” |
| 8 | THE ARTS HE inside TARTS |
| 9 | SAKE SA[c]K,E I found the use of wine in the wordplay and just “drink” for the definition somewhat confusing |
| 14 | VIRGIN MARY Airline, (ARMY)* AInd: out |
| 15 | TSETSE FLY (FELT TESS [dal]Y)* AInd: Dicky Do tsetse flies suck? I thought they bit. |
| 17 | MONOKINI (NO)< OK (very well) inside MINI |
| 19 | ALLOWED [h]ALLOWED |
| 21 | THRIPS THRI[bb] PS Ref E.J.Thribb (17½) “our versifier” famous for his “So. Farewell then…” poems in the Eye. Surely it’s thrips that are the suckers? |
| 23 | MOOING MO (woman), [d]OING (acting head off) |
| 24 | IBIS BI inside IS |
| 25 | PITT PIT,T |
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 5 Comments »
Posted by rightback on 26th October 2008
Solving time: 12:56
I probably found this a little easier than usual for Araucaria, until I came to the last three clues (EMBRYO, MULCT and STEEL [BLUE]) which took a fair chunk of the time.
Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »
Posted by John on 26th October 2008
A nice crossword from Azed, with several good clues. His grids are always excellent: how he manages to fit in so many long words and avoid using three-letter-words I don’t know. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Azed | 4 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 24th October 2008
It doesn’t look as if Smiffy is going to be able to join us today. He must be otherwise occupied, or his pc has crashed, so here is a brief analysis of today’s puzzle. In the interest of saving time (I want to get on with the Listener) there is no elaboration but if anything is unclear raise it in a comment and I will respond.
.
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Octofem on 24th October 2008
A day late (Blame the uploaders!) Quite a pleasant puzzle but I personally would prefer fewer Proper nouns.
Late in the morning – blame me. I typed it all and then managed to lose it, and had to re-type!
Posted in FT | 9 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 24th October 2008
I think this puzzle was my fastest Indy solve of the year so far, a little less than 10 mins. Word after word went in from the definitions and crossing letters – the only one holding me up was 7 down where all the crossing letters were vowels but I got it in the end.
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 24th October 2008
An interesting grid, dominated by four long Down clues. I managed most of it ok but came unstuck on 6D due to mis-marking it as 6,9 instead of 5,10. A lot of the answers didn’t quite click for me but must be right, I’m sure the commenters will be as eager as ever to set me right on them!
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 24th October 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | COG,CAN< – I think I would have got this quicker if the definition was just “French liquor” as the word “production” made me think there was something more going on. |
| 4 | WEE in (PEATS)* – SWEETPEA |
| 10 | PE,I in EDICTS< – PESTICIDE |
| 11 | TRAM,P |
| 12 | MOOD (reversed) |
| 13 | T(ASK,M)ASTER |
| 15 | T(RACE)RY |
| 16 | R,H,O,MB,I |
| 19 | S,EXI(S)T – I thought this was very good. Great wording and surface reading. |
| 21 | DUG,I in LEG (all reversed) – John GIELGUD |
| 23 | POST,HUMOU[-r]S – “Pole” is often N,E,S or W, but not here. |
| 25 | ST[-a]IR |
| 27 | I,CI[-d]ER |
| 28 | LOG TABLES – double definition. |
| 29 | TO(POLO,G)Y |
| 30 | HERE’S,Y |
| Down | |
| 1 | CUP,I’D,IT,Y |
| 2 | GAS,(ONE CAD)* – GASCONADE. One of a couple of clues that held me up for a while. A new word to me but a fairly easy one to guess. |
| 3 | [-d]AVID |
| 5 | (CREW)*,KER[-b] – WRECKER. |
| 6 | EXTRA COVER – a fielding position in cricket. |
| 7 | PLAN,T – T is the twentieth letter of the alphabet. |
| 8 | A,S(P)IRE |
| 9 | BIG,A,MY |
| 14 | (HELP REPAIR)* – PERIPHERAL |
| 17 | BA(GATE)LLE[-t] |
| 18 | (IS READY)* – I DARE SAY. |
| 20 | TIM,GALE (going up) |
| 21 | G,RUDGE – the Dickensian hero is Barnaby RUDGE. |
| 22 | U,P(L,IF)T |
| 24 | SKI(M)P – I thought this was cleverly worded as my initial parsing of the clue was “bit of material” as the def with a word for “avoid” with “a” inside as the wordplay. |
| 26 | VALE[-t] – this was the other clue that held me up although I’m not really sure why as it looks easy enough now. |
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 24th October 2008
We were told that there were twenty-one special clues, seven with wordplay leading to the answer plus an extra letter, seven with wordplay leading to the answer with one letter missing and seven with a misprint in the definition. Using the corrected letters in the misprints, these twenty-one letters in clue order would spell out two examples of a genre. Finally, we were told that a third example and the genre itself would appear in the grid and should be highlighted.
Posted in Inquisitor | 5 Comments »