Posted by Gaufrid on 13th February 2009
I thought we might be in for a hard time today what with this being puzzle number 13,000 and it being Friday the 13th but no, the only problem seems to be the absence of the scheduled blogger. Another enjoyable FT puzzle with some pleasing clues, though 30a may have flummoxed those who haven’t met this device before.
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Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 13th February 2009
I could not finish this, essentially because I’d never heard of the 39 letter phrase at the heart of the puzzle. However, as it bounces up on Google, I may be in a small minority in that. Quite a hard puzzle, with some excellent clues.
Posted in Independent | 27 Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 13th February 2009
Straightforward for a friday but very pleasing with a nice agricultural theme.
Posted in Guardian | 48 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 13th February 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Posted in Beelzebub | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 13th February 2009
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | hidden reversed in “lIETh” |
| 7 | ROB in SINS in NORM< – MRS ROBINSON. Credit where it’s due – Mrs Dubya got this one. |
| 10 | A in RODS in BIDE – BROADSIDE. Last one in, and took a bit of thinking about to work out what was going on. |
| 11 | hidden in “idylliC AROMa” – which is a shot in billiards, or a form of billiards played on a table with no pockets. |
| 12 | FA THE RING – FA is the fourth note of the major scale and THE RING is the cycle of operas by Wagner. |
| 14 | “thE QUiz”,US – EQUUS. The play by Peter Shaffer now famous as the one where Harry Potter gets his kit off. |
| 15 | R,UR – I thought this was a variant spelling of Ruhr but apparently not. It’s a tributary of the Meuse and runs through Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. |
| 18 | K in IS< – not sure why K is “best man”. Something to do with chess perhaps, as K is an abbreviation for King. |
| 19 | PACER – “recap” reversed. |
| 20/2 down | (TO PUT NORTH THREE)* – THE HUTTON REPORT. “N3 in full” is NORTH THREE and “to the sword” is the anagram indicator. |
| 23 | NY,A,LA – a large antelope. |
| 24 | FRIED,RIC[-e],H – excellent clue, loved the surface reading. |
| 26 | (I SEAL ID CARD)* – RADICALISED. |
| 27 | KEY – a double def I think. A KEY is a way into something, and tonal music is that which is in a certain key. |
| Down | |
| 1 | STAB – “go” is the definition, “mad, getting strung up” the wordplay. |
| 3/17 across | COME WHAT MAY – another way of saying “attend in the spring of which year”. |
| 4 | B(ITCHER)Y |
| 5 | ON(AMISS)ION |
| 7 | MI(D)G,E |
| 8 | (SOD IT IS AN)* – SOI-DISANT. |
| 12 | FOR OPENERS – not really sure how this one works: “more than one 27 [key]” could be OPENERS but is “reason” FOR? And why “is cut?” |
| 13 | (GENIUS MRS)* – GUM RESINS |
| 16/9 | RI(CHAR)D,ART< in SUSS – RICHARD STRAUSS. Not really sure how SUSS can mean “arrest”. |
| 17 | WAR DANCE – cryptic def. |
| 21 | UND,ID – I think “German joiner” is UND because it’s the German word for “and”. |
| 22 | T,RICKY – cleverly done. “East Ender” is T (the end of east) and RICKY Butcher was (maybe still is) a character in Eastenders. |
| 24 | [-o]F,OLD |
| 25 | H,I[-n],Y,A |
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 13th February 2009
On my last blog, Inquisitor 106, Pared Down by Kea, I commented that I was lucky to have to blog only twenty-one clues. I shouldn’t have celebrated so much as I have lurched to the other extreme with this offering by Schadenfreude which boasts a grand total of fifty-three clues.
Posted in Inquisitor | 3 Comments »
Posted by tilsit on 13th February 2009
Apologies for the delay. i had been waiting for someone to put me wise on formatting, but I haven’t heard anything back.
Posted in Azed | 6 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 13th February 2009
There is no point in repeating or paraphrasing the preamble here because solvers and any other interested parties will have already read it. I made slow but steady progress with this puzzle though a few clues were solved only after determining the quotation given by the extra letters. Finding the originator of the quote in the grid was no problem but locating the word to be substituted took a little longer because, though I scanned the grid for ‘B’s, I initially missed the one at 26.
Posted in Enigmatic Variations | 3 Comments »