Monday Prize Crossword/Aug 27
It’s Monday, it’s D-Day again. Giving us one those Dante crosswords that are heavily leaning on cryptic and double definitions (or a combination of the two). Surfaces were good as ever, but devices too limited (to my taste).
Definitions are underlined wherever possible/appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOWLINES | Painters’ knots? |
| Double definition | ||
| A ‘painter’ is a line attached to a ship, while a ‘bowline’ is also a type of knot. | ||
| 5 | STIR UP | Excite with a bit of spooning? |
| Double/Cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | G-STRINGS | They’re rarely worn out on violins |
| Double/Cryptic definition, alluding to a minimal piece of underwear and the lowest string on a violin (that’s all I can make of it, Bamberger (@6)) | ||
| 10 | TIGGER | Row about a horse, say, a friend of Pooh |
| TIER (row) around GG (a horse, say – gee-gee) | ||
| 12 | ARRAY | Right to go in a light dress |
| R (right) inside A RAY (light) | ||
| 13 | ELONGATES | Use of sole agent possibly lengthens the process |
| (SOLE AGENT)* | ||
| We saw exactly the same clue in last Monday’s Rufus, so – for me – it was a write-in there. | ||
| 14 | VIEWED | Watched United compete to get the lead |
| VIE (compete) coming before WED (united) | ||
| Good example of a nice surface. | ||
| 16 | GYMNAST | He may resort to clubs and bars, but should be fit |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 19 | REELING | Dazed US general in retreat and encircled |
| Reversal of LEE (US general) inside RING (in (a) ring, therefore ‘encircled’) | ||
| 21 | DRYADS | Boring commercials for spirits |
| DRY (boring) + ADS (commercials) | ||
| 23 | CHASTISED | Charles Edward is found in hiding, beaten |
| IS inside {CHAS (Charles) + ED (Edward)} | ||
| 25 | SWELL | A puffed-up VIP? |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | ELIXIR | Miracle drug for back side entrapped by nettle |
| IX (side, eleven players) inside ELIR (reversal of RILE (nettle)) | ||
| 27 | NEW ISSUE | Stamps to commemorate a recent birth? |
| Double/Cryptic definition | ||
| 28 | SCENES | Embarrassing moments in parts of a play |
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | INDIRECT | The sort of speech that gets reported |
| Double/Cryptic definition | ||
| Indirect speech comes through to you with the help (reports) of someone else. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BEGGAR | He has no choice, poor chap |
| Double/Cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | WATERSIDE | Abnormal tides wear the river bank |
| (TIDES WEAR)* | ||
| 3 | ICILY | Mediterranean island’s toplessness observed frostily |
| [s]ICILY (Mediterranean Island (SICILY) minus its first letter) | ||
| 4 | EGGHEAD | Cracked intellectual? |
| Double/Cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | THINGUMMY | Skinny, toothless what’s-his-name |
| THIN (skinny) + GUMMY (toothless) | ||
| 7 | RIGHT | Not left any entitlement |
| Double definition – if I’m in a good mood I will take ‘any’ for granted, but am I? | ||
| 8 | PARASITE | Wild parties a host has to put up with |
| (PARTIES A)* – the definition’s in fact, “something that a host has to put up with” | ||
| 11 | LONG | Sustained hunger |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | WAISTLINE | Going crazy with a wine list may effect this |
| (A WINE LIST)* – I have underlined ‘this’, but the definition needs the rest of the clue too | ||
| There was an FT typo in this otherwise fine clue: ‘Gong’ instead of ‘Going’. | ||
| 17 | ADDRESSEE | Letter-opener? |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Clues like this always make me think of Paul/Mudd. Although it is the other way around here, in a playful mood he would perhaps have clued ‘Letter-opener’ as just ‘L’. | ||
| 18 | PROCEEDS | Continues to make money |
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | GIST | The point in running is to win |
| Hidden solution: [runnin]G IS T[o win] | ||
| One of the better clues in this puzzle. | ||
| 21 | DUDGEON | Anger when a counterfeit coin has gone into circulation |
| DUD (a counterfeit coin) + (GONE)* | ||
| 22 | ALBERT | Keep watch on this chap |
| Double/Cryptic definition – an “Albert” is a short kind of watch chain, according to the dictionaries (and a name, of course) | ||
| 24 | AGILE | Get the one-fifty in time, being nimble |
| {I (one) L (fifty)} inside AGE (time) | ||
| 25 | SCI-FI | Fanciful stories cut short |
| Allusion to SCI-FI being short for ‘Science Fiction’ | ||
(C)DDs are the bane of my solving life especially when one or both is obscure and there looks like wordplay, Dante/Rufus specialises in these alas. Letter opener=Dear/SirAlpha?
Give me Io anyday, ok perhaps not.
Thanks Sil.
Hmm the Saturday prize is missing…
Sil, I think 18D should be “proceeds”. Otherwise good blog
Thanks Sil.
A couple of these I didn’t get. Unlike you I like the cryptic clues. I stick to Cincinnus and Dante and occasionally Mudd, so I like Dante’s humour as a variation to the clinical style of the others. But in this puzzle I don’t like INDIRECT and SWELL. I agree with you about GIST. A good clue in which I simply did not see the hidden word.
Thanks, POS.
Typo now corrected.
I always like to start to at the beginning so 1d was confidently entered as Hobson.
For 9a B strings was fine by me.
Then the problems srarted …
Couldn’t get
22d, 25a/25d, 26a (too clever for me), 27a
Just one query why g on 9a? Do violins not have many notes played on that string or do they just not have them at all (I’m not musical)