Independent 7,387 by Anax (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 19/06/10)
Posted by Simon Harris on June 24th, 2010
I had just been thinking we must be due for a Saturday Anax, and here we are. I wonder if being able to predict setters several weeks running is an early sign of having spent rather too much time on crosswords.
I must admit I couldn’t really get into this one, thought I can’t put my finger on why. Some of it was very easy and in other parts it was just very hard to see the reasoning. Thus there were a few guesses, and there will be one or two gaps in my explanations, so feel free to jump in.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FLORA – (A ROLF)<, I guess, though the def. seems stranded in the middle of the clue. |
| 4 | LANDS END – L AND SEND. |
| 8 | STEADY ON – STEAD + YON. |
| 9 | ROOTS – R[eveal] O[ne] O[f] T[his] S[pecies]. |
| 10 | TALC – [me]TAL C[oating]. |
| 12 | UNECONOMIC – ON in (UN + COMIC). |
| 13 | ESCULENT – UNCLE’S* in ET. |
| 14 | COHORT – CO + (R in HOT). |
| 15 | STATUE – U in STATE. |
| 17 | CHARNECO – CHAR + ONCE*. |
| 19 | LARYNGITIS – ANGRILY* + T[r]I[e]S. |
| 21 | SUCK – S[t]UCK. |
| 22 | EXILE – (I + L) in EXE, as in an executable file, thus computer program. |
| 23 | PROHIBIT – PRO + (BI in HIT). |
| 25 | UNDERTOW – (ROUND WET)*. |
| 26 | MAYBE – (BY A)< in ME. |
| Down | |
| 1 | FATWAHS – FAT + SHAW<. |
| 2 | OVA – roughly a hom. of “over”. |
| 3 | AS YOU WERE – (SEE OUR WAY)*. |
| 4 | LONGEST – dd. |
| 5 | NARCO – A R in NCO. |
| 6 | SHOW OF HANDS – cd. |
| 7 | NASTIER – N + (E in ASTIR). |
| 11 | COUNTRY LIFE – complete guess, something to do with “sticks”=COUNTRY and, well, it has pages at least. Sticks pages together. |
| 14 | CLASSROOM – CLAS[h] + MOORS< |
| 16 | TRADE IN – DE in TRAIN. |
| 17 | CATS-PAW – CAT + (P in SAW). |
| 18 | COCAINE – C[igarette] + O + Michael CAINE. |
| 20 | GWENT – W in GENT. |
| 24 | IVY – I[celandic] V[olcano] + hom. of “why”. |
June 24th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
I’d love to jump in, Simon, but I only got about five clues altogether! After an easyish run of Prize puzzles, back to the normal standard with this one.
June 24th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Simon, I think 11d is COUNTRY SIDE (although I would have thought page = sides together, not vice-versa). Also, I normally think of “countryside” as one word
June 24th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Er… Put brain in gear before posting comments. Strictly speaking a side is is the same as a page so “page = sides together” doesn’t make any more sense than vice-versa. I’ll leave it to others to suggest an explanation.
June 24th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Country life…..as in the magazine…and also a very good folk song….which may help you with other clues…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Y7cBLJWgI&a=x2vnMBHh4Ow&playnext_from=ML
June 24th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
I thought this was a really first class puzzle with generally brilliant surfaces masking the fact that we are in the wonderful world of Anax where nothing is what it seems – top marks for deviousness. The two I had most problems with were 6 down, where I filled in SHOW OF HANDS because nothing else seemed to fit and it seemed to work with “digital” but else left me perplexed; and 11 down where I couldn’t really come to terms with COUNTRY SIDE (if that is what it is) being two words. 2 minor corrections to the blog: 12 across “une” not “un”; and a typo at 14 across (should of course read COHORT).
June 25th, 2010 at 8:31 am
A very devious one indeed. I struggled to complete, couldn’t fully understand the wordplay of a dozen clues and got several wrong! And call me a dope or a charlie, but I think Anax has made a hash of 18d: according to my Oxford DoE ‘blow’ is slang for cannabis, not cocaine, and surely they are made from entirely different stuff.
June 25th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Yes, it was new to me too, but Chambers does define ‘blow’ as US slang for cocaine, as well as British slang for cannabis.
June 25th, 2010 at 10:04 am
And funnily enough I didn’t even refer to the dictionary (naughty boy). My memory of BLOW=COCAINE was thanks to the old rap classic White Lines by Grandmaster Flash, which is all about cocaine and uses “blow” as a refrain in several parts of the song.
June 25th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Yes, this was v good, quite tough, tho not as hard as some Anax Indys in the past. Favourite clues, STEADY ON, COUNTRY LIFE, MAYBE.
June 25th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
And not forgetting the book/film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow_%28film%29
I struggled with this one and certainly didnlt finish it. Enjoyed every clue that I did solve though!
June 25th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
so was it country life or country side (or even country file?)
And pardon my ignorance but where were are the nurses in cohort?
June 25th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Solution’s not appeared yet but I think it’s COUNTRY LIFE (magazine, with ‘pages’ giving the idea). ‘Nurses’ is a v trickily misleading containment indicator. Sexy = HOT CO = Fellow as in eg copilot. Hope this helps.
June 25th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
A very tricky one, I guessed at country file in the end as in a file of papers and a TV programme. Still don’t get what anax was after. Thought cohort was a clever use of nurses I’ve not seen before and was a chuckle audible moment.
June 25th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
was happy with hot and co but must say i missed that sense of nurses but appreciate it now.
I’m with flashling on the country file answer but thought anax might elucidate.
a demain.
June 26th, 2010 at 10:50 am
@ redddevil
COUNTRY LIFE indeed. “Sticks pages together” refers to the countryside often being referred to as “the sticks”; COUNTRY LIFE is a magazine whose pages are a collection of items concerning our rural bits. Not a classic CD, although COUNTRY LIFE is a classic song by 6d; other good ones are 1a, 4a, 9a, 22a, 25a, 26a, 3d and 18d.
June 26th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
The online puzzle confirms “country life”
Too convoluted for me – many of my answers were pure guesswork, confirmed by the “check” button without understanding why. Others, though I got them from the word-play, I’ll have to look up now – what on earth is “esculent”?
June 26th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
ESCULENT, maybe not on the tip of everyone’s tongue but I managed to work it out from the wordplay and dicts confirm it means ‘eatable’.
June 30th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I struggled with this and gave up with a couple unsolved – 21, where I crossed out SUCK as I wasn’t sure enough that it matched ‘drain’, and 18 where I didn’t know about “blow”, though the rest of it now seems perfectly gettable from C?C?I?E.
July 1st, 2010 at 11:16 pm
What really gets me is I’ve seen 6dn loads of times and it actually stopped me putting it in the grid for a while as I couldn’t see the link to the duo. Steve and Phil are good but I completely missed the songs till Anax pointed them out.