Monday Prize Crossword/Oct 1
Last Monday, in the Guardian’s blogosphere, some solvers found it – once more – necessary to heavily criticise Dante’s alter ego Rufus for setting puzzles that are too easy (or even inferior). In my opinion, these solvers only appreciate one kind of crossword: the one that suits them. I really hope they didn’t tackle this Dante crossword, otherwise I might get a record amount of posts ……. 🙂
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MODEST | Diffident in two ways (6) |
| MODE (way) + ST (one more way, street) | ||
| 4 | BOLD FACE | Type showing impudence? (4,4) |
| Cryptic definition – a nod to something called “typeface” in eg Word (like bold) | ||
| 10 | GERMINATE | Men involved with a tiger shoot (9) |
| (MEN + A TIGER)* | ||
| 11 | FLORA | Plants I’d removed from state (5) |
| I’D removed from FLORIDA (state) | ||
| 12 | ARCH | Cunning chief (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | REPRIMANDS | The donna is in tears from these rebukes (10) |
| PRIMA (the donna) inside RENDS (tears) | ||
| “Prima” doesn’t work for me (and certainly not in lower case). However, nice to have here ‘tears’ that should be pronounced as ‘tears’ :). | ||
| 15 | TRIDENT | Dire disaster – trapped by highexplosive missile (7) |
| (DIRE)* inside TNT (high-explosive) | ||
| 16 | NOTICE | Mark breaks into church (6) |
| (INTO)* + CE (church, Church of England) | ||
| 19 | INTENT | Steadfast purpose (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | STRANGE | Odd way to go from place to place (7) |
| ST (way, street (again!)) + RANGE (to go from place to place, to rove freely, as a verb) | ||
| 23 | APOSTROPHE | Sign for a missing letter (10) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 25 | NUDE | Having nothing on a dark horse, back the favourite finally (4) |
| NUD (reversal of DUN ( a horse of greyish brown colour, a dark horse)) + [favourit]E | ||
| 27 | RULER | It’s made to measure (5) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 28 | TEMPERATE | Self-restrained – or consumed with anger? (9) |
| TEMPER (anger) + ATE (consumed) | ||
| 29 | TAPESTRY | Hanging picture is a nuisance – attempt to get round it (8) |
| TRY (attempt) around A PEST (a nuisance) | ||
| 30 | CELERY | Plant in haste, losing it (6) |
| CELERITY (haste) minus IT | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIGRANTS | Around the end of spring martins may be these (8) |
| (MARTINS)* around [sprin]G | ||
| This was my Clue of the Day. Perhaps I should have underlined the whole clue. | ||
| 2 | DIRECTION | Management course (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | STIR | Act as an agitator and get jail (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | OVERRAN | Went through and overwhelmed the enemy (7) |
| Double defintion – the third in a row! | ||
| 6 | DEFAMATORY | Fed up before morning, a politician became abusive (10) |
| DEF (reversal of FED) placed before {AM (morning) + A TORY (a politician)} | ||
| Just two days ago we had the same word in a Puck puzzle, also using ‘a Tory’ – my PinC found Puck’s clue just a bit better, but Dante was first! | ||
| 7 | ADORN | A party with sailors below deck (5) |
| A + DO (party) + RN (sailors, Royal Navy) | ||
| 8 | ELAPSE | Slip by England’s opener, run out (6) |
| E[ngland] + LAPSE (slip) | ||
| 9 | TALENT | Story book is a gift (6) |
| TALE (story) + NT (book, New Testament) | ||
| Normally, NT is ‘books’ (plural) as, I think, it should be. That said, I have seen setters using the singular form before. | ||
| 14 | DEBENTURES | Shares exist in false teeth (10) |
| BE (exist) inside DENTURES (false teeth) | ||
| 17 | CONSULATE | Cleans out jumble in diplomat’s residence (9) |
| (CLEANS OUT)* | ||
| 18 | CEMETERY | Dead centre? (8) |
| Cryptic definition – a bit macabre | ||
| 20 | TROTTER | Food for man or horse (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | SCHEME | Hatch a plot (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | GARRET | Slip up in the gun room (6) |
| RRE (reversal of ERR (slip)) inside GAT (gun) | ||
| 24 | ORLOP | A deck or dock (5) |
| OR + LOP (dock) | ||
| 26 | FETE | Shuffling feet in the bazaar (4) |
| (FEET)* | ||
| How an extremely simple anagram still can be very elegant (because of the indicator). | ||
I couldn’t get 18d and 30a. I think 30a is hard -haste =celerity is not something that would ever have sprung to mind.
Sil
I agree with you. I found this Dante very difficult. Sometimes he uses double definitions which are hard to see as being double. e.g. overrun. But even when his puzzles are easy I enjoy them because he is clever and cheeky.
I hope I am not too late with this comment because I wanted to point out that Dante has made a mistake in 17D. A consulate is not a diplomat’s residence. It is his place of work.
And what do you think of 29D? A tapestry is not a picture is it?
Well, John, the tapestry/picture ‘identity’ indeed crossed my mind as being ‘not identical’. But then I thought, there will possibly be something in one of the dictionaries to change my view. Chambers says: “An imitative representation of an object on a surface” – on a surface, so there we are.
As to your ‘residence’ query, (again) Chambers tells us that it is not only the place where someone lives, but also “The office, residence, jurisdiction, government or time of a consul or consuls”.
Those *&^%$ dictionaries ….. 🙂
BTW, nice to read something positive about Mr Squires’ contributions to Crosswordland (which – at another place – is not always the case nowadays).
Thanks for your response Sil.
I have to say I keep getting amazed at what I am told is in Chambers. I am a diplomat and when I saw the clue I thought to myself what on earth can this be? Our Ambassadors’ residences are all called The Residence or The Head of Mission Residence. Our Consul-General in Hong Kong for example lives in The Residence. All the rest of us just live in Staff Residences. I was lucky in Hong Kong as I lived in a great old apartment overlooking Repulse Bay.
But I must say I have twice noticed the French Ambassador having a plaque up outside his home saying L’Ambassade de France”. I mentioned this to the French Ambassador in Port Moresby saying that he had the wrong sign and he just said “Oh, I didn’t notice”. But he didn’t ever take it down. So maybe Chambers has something. But not the case for us Australians.
cheers