A clever themed crossword which shows the ambiguity of the English language.
Most of the across clues and some of the down clues lead to words which have two conflicting definitions.
Time taken: about 7 mins.
ACROSS
1 BOLTED – first clue, first ambiguous word
4 PRO(O)FS
10 PHOTOGENIC – (got one chip)*
11 SCREEN
12 B-LESSING – Doris Lessing, Persian-born British writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature earlier this week.
13 TAXI-METER
15 AGED – hidden in “trAGEDian”
17 SENSITIVE – (<=IT IS) in (seven)*
21 CITATION
22 RAVELS
24 SANCTIONED
25 DRAW
27 CLEAVE
DOWN
1 BRESCIA – Br.+(case I)* – a city in Italy
2 LIT(eratu)RE
3 EX(PENS)E
6 OVERSIGHT
8 DOUBLE MEANING
14 INSTANCES – (incessant)*
16 BRIG-AND
18 STRUDEL – “removed from” “feaST RUDELy”
19 VIL(LAG)E
20 DIV(I’D)E
Terrific stuff, I thought. I love Brendan’s themed crosswords. In an ideal world, Brendan, Paul and Orlando would do two Guardian crosswords each per week.
I assume it was just happy coincidence that Doris Lessing made an appearance just after being awarded the Nobel Prize – or did Brendan have some insider knowledge?
Could Brendan/Virgilius be nominated for a Nobel Prize for crosswords?
8dn: Double Meaning, defined by ambiguous, makes a good theme. But could someone explain “It could be folded once, or twice”??
8dn: Took me ages to understand the cryptic for this. You have to read the clue ‘It could be’ (ie it could mean), ‘folded once’ or ‘twice’ (both of which mean ‘double’). Very clever.
Can anyone let us know what 9A is please?
9ac: LEFT
I think 9A is Left as it’s a double def, Shirley, but I could be wrong.
oops! Geoff beat me to it!
Thanks a lot
Further thought on the clue for 8dn. Brendan could have left off ‘- it’s ambiguous’ and just given: ‘It could be folded once, or twice’. That clues a double meaning of the word ‘double’ and makes it a even trickier &lit.
What about 16A? Is it BEST or BASE? And why?
Paul & Lin
16A: I wondered which it was – it’s BEST, because to worst someone means the same as to best them.