Guardian 24199/Orlando – four Ms.

A good puzzle with consistently high quality defs and wordplay (the latter providing clear direction to answers in some cases even when the def was unknown to me). Incidentally had I not known it was by Orlando I would have guessed Paul given the slyness in some cases (e.g. 24A, 11A). Dick Emery is a name I’ve heard of though couldn’t begin to tell you what he’s been in. Mold, Manchester, Menton and Motown are four far-flung and different towns.

Across

1	RAM,IF,Y – First Paulianism: “playback” producing Y. Also my only quibble: “hard disk” defining RAM is rather loose, while it is true that a hard disk does provide random access services, you would never use RAM in place of “hard disk”.
4	S(CUTTLE)D – the wordplay is clear, so I didn’t even bother confirming that there is indeed a fictional Captain CUTTLE (there is I hope).
9	WALES,A – Ref. Lech. Sort of paired with its intersecting 2D.
11	DOUBLE NEGATIVE – this as solvers say is a good clue.
14	ERSE – hidden in “AlexandER SElkirk” who unfortunately is Scots (unless ERSE is more than Irish and includes the Scottish variant??). Incidentally the possessive “’s” is the minimal hidden operator here.
18	PRE(BEND)ARY – BEND in prayer*.
21	MANCHESTER CITY – (synthetic cream)* and it’s a football “side” too.
23	TRIM,ARAN – ref. the ARAN islands, to which the ferries no longer run in October as I found out last Oct.
24	MO(TO)WN – elegant economical clue, ref. the epicenter of late 60s soul music (Supremes et al)

Down

2	MOLD,OVA – must be a MOLD in Wales: 9A’s twin.
3	FAST,BACK – FAST as in to “hold FAST”.
6	T(H)E WAR – H in water*: not to be mentioned especially when you have German guests at Fawlty Towers.
7	LOO,PIER – LOO is a card game beloved of cryptic setters.
8	DICK,EMERY – Brit TV personality – which is all I know.
12	EMPIRE, STATE=”say” – but I do know that this is the nickname of New York (state) which is where I live now. Ref. the EMPIRE cinema (movie “theatre”) in London.
15	KNOCKOUT – KO=rev(OK): nice clue.
17	MENT(I)ON – ref. MENTON in the Riviera.
19	AR(TWO,R)K

6 comments on “Guardian 24199/Orlando – four Ms.”

Colin Blackburn

#1 - Thu 4th Oct 07, 10:46

Dick Emery did his own multi-character sketch comedy show. He is very much a seventies antecedent to Harry Enfield, Catherine Tate and Little Britain.