From Monday Prize Crossword 18 August 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Dante aka Roger Squires has the sleekest and slickest style of clueing smooth surfaces. All his clues, albeit quite too easy to solve, read so effortlessly polished.
Across
1 REPAST Ins of PA (pop) in REST (the others)
4 LAY LOW dd
8 STARDOM *(smart do)
9 GAS BILL Cha of gas (talk) bill (William)
11 GROUNDWORK Another simple cha of land and labour
12 TASK Odd letters of T h A t S o K
13 SERAI *(raise) caravanserai n esp formerly in some Eastern countries, a kind of unfurnished inn or extensive enclosed courtyard where caravans stop (aka khan). The other meaning of serai is much more interesting; a harem
14 NOTARIES not Aries, the Zodiac sign
16 ATHLETES Ins of LET (allowed) in *(heats) What a smooth topical clue while the Beijing Olympics is still going on
18 DEBUT Rev of TUBED (it’s rolled)
20 TANG tang (o)
21 VANITY FAIR Vanity (Pride ) Fair (without prejudice) Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray that satirises society in early 19th-century England. Dante is able to use the title of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice in a very Ximenean way.
23 PICTURE dd
24 OBVERSE Cha of OB + verse (lines of poetry) The opposite side of the coin is reverse
25 NARROW NAR (rev RAN) ROW (disturbance)
26 TEA SET Ins of EASE (comfort) in TT (Tee-totaller or abstainer from alcoholic drinks)
Down
1 ROTOR Chestnut palindrome
2 PURSUER What a beauty of a cd. My favourite clue of the lot
3 SNOWDRIFT Another good cd
5 ALACK
6 LOBSTER An excellent cd alluding to the fact that a lobster pot is a basket for trapping lobsters
7 WELL SPENT Well (water supply) + spent (exhausted)
10 COGNISANT *(son acting)
13 SITUATION dd
15 TIDE TABLE cd
17 LIGHTER *(the girl)
19 BUFFERS dd
21 VIRGO Ins of R (resistance) in Vigo, port in North-West Spain
22 INSET in set