Monday Prize Crossword on 14 June 2010
Mr Smoothie is here again to tease us with his unique brand of slick surfaces.
ACROSS
1 BEHIND Van is short for vanguard (in front); dd?
4 CROSSBAR CROSS (angry) BAR (lawyers) The cross beam atop the two uprights forming the goal at each end of a football field
9 ARMADA cd alluding to Sir Francis Drake, famous for finishing a game of bowls whilst waiting for the weather to change before sailing to meet and defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588
10 HAUNTING “A show of spirit” What a cheeky way to introduce haunting
12 CITATION *(A tonic it)
13 JETSAM JETS (fast movers) AM (ante meridiem, before noon or morning)
15 TRUE Ins of T (junction) in RUE (French for road)
16 REFRACTION A phenomenon in physics where a rigid object appears to bend due to refraction of light; like a spoon half in water
19 SIGNET RING cd
20 STYE Cha of ST (street or way) YE (olden way of saying THE)
23 RAFFIA *(AFFAIR)
25 UNCOUPLE *(upon clue)
27 PARTICLE P (piano) ARTICLE (piece)
28 BEGONE BEG (ask) ONE (individual)
29 ETERNITY Self-explanatory
30 PERMIT dud
DOWN
1 BEARCAT *(CABARET)
2 HAMSTRUNG HAM (substandard player or louse actor) STRUNG (suspended)
3 NUDITY *(UNTIDY) Mrs Grundy, a character from Thomas Morton’s play Speed the Plough (1798), was considered by English-language authors to be the personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety.
5 ROAD Ins of A in ROD (switch)
6 SENTENCE dd many words form a sentence.
7 BRIGS B (note) RIGS (arrangements of sails) two-masted, square-rigged vessels
8 REGIMEN REGIMENT (troops) minus T (first letter of Turkey)
11 FOREARM Ins of EAR (attention) in FORM (class)
14 IRONING dud
17 IN TOP FORM cd
18 DECISION *(I CONSIDER minus R)
19 SCRUPLE dd
21 ELEMENT cd
22 COHERE Ins of HE in CORE (middle)
24 FORCE dd
26 SLOT cd
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Thanks very much, Uncle Yap.
Another Monday morning treat from Dante. I thought 10ac was excellent too.
I had PLANING for 14dn. Collins dictionary gives ‘to glide’ for the verb ‘plane’.
If that’s correct, 16ac would have to be REFLECTION!
I too had PLANING (my last answer) and REFLECTION but had considered REFRACTION as a possibility.