Monday Prize Crossword/June 3
A pleasant puzzle by Crux which contained a bit more cryptic-flavoured definitions than usual. But as my best friends know, it is perhaps my favourite device …….. 🙂 [is it?]. That said, I fear here there (but not everywhere) I can do with a little help from my friends.
Definitions are underlined wherever appropriate and/or possible.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHARTERHOUSE | School teacher hours subject to revision (12) |
| (TEACHER HOURS)* | ||
| Charterhouse is a famous public school in Surrey founded in 1611 by Thomas Hutton on the site of a Carthusian monastery. | ||
| 10 | NOMADIC | Travelling with foreign coin bearing central cross (7) |
| (COIN)* with MAD (cross) in the centre | ||
| 11 | GRIMACE | Forbidding one to make a face (7) |
| GRIM (forbidding) + ACE (one) | ||
| 12 | FLEET | Fast-moving ships, lots of them (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | SCHEDULE | Dodge back after school for the timetable (8) |
| SCH (school) + EDULE (reversal of ELUDE (dodge)) | ||
| 15 | REFERENDUM | Whistle-blower working under me gets popular vote (10) |
| REF (whistle-blower) + (UNDER ME)* | ||
| 16 | VERA | Average woman gets taken in (4) |
| Hidden solution: [a]VERA[ge] | ||
| 18 | HOCK | Ham with German wine (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | BEDCLOTHES | Bet he’s getting terrible cold without these (10) |
| BET HE’S around (COLD)* | ||
| Nice clue even if the definition is somewhat loose. | ||
| 22 | RUN SHORT | Start to get exhausted, so don’t finish race? (3,5) |
| When you RUN SHORT (either in time or in distance) you might not finish the race | ||
| 24 | ERROR | Dread taking time off – it’s not right (5) |
| TERROR (dread) minus T (time) | ||
| It’s only a few weeks ago that I asked myself (in this place) how many Variations on the Theme of Error there were left. Well, here’s another one with the same over-familiar construction. | ||
| 26 | APOSTLE | One in twelve has a job with the French (7) |
| A + POST (job) + LE (the, French) | ||
| 27 | CHINOOK | Australian hen shelters in a hot wind (7) |
| CHOOK (Australian hen) around IN | ||
| 28 | MILITARY BAND | Soldiers barred, we’re told, but top brass welcome here! (8,4) |
| MILITARY (soldiers) + BAND (homophone of BANNED (barred)) | ||
| Fine surface with a definition that is cryptic. It didn’t fool me, I thought rightaway of ‘brass’ as musical instruments. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | HIMSELF | Someone a man isn’t when out of sorts, bizarrely (7) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| I don’t think there’s more to this clue, am I right? What is the role of ‘bizarrely’ here? [See comment @1] | ||
| 3 | REDSTART | Bird predicting bad weather at dawn? (8) |
| Double/Cryptic definition | ||
| As to the cryptic bit, ‘red start’ describing ‘bad weather at dawn’ is unfamiliar to me. I can see the ‘dawn/start’ link but surely someone else will explain the ‘bad weather/red’ connection. [Thanks, Muffyword @1. On second thoughts, I have heard of the expression ‘red skies at night’ (but only through a pop song by 80s band The Fixx)] | ||
| 4 | ETCH | Make designs and such like with end of brush (4) |
| ETC (and such like) + [brus]H | ||
| 5 | HIGH-CHURCH | Anglo-Catholic building with tall spire (4-6) |
| A building with a tall spire might be a HIGH CHURCH | ||
| 6 | UNITE | Set up partial market in US to pool resources (5) |
| Backward hidden solution: reversal (‘set up’) of [mark]ET IN U[s] – the definition must probably be seen as ‘to combine’ or ‘to put together (resources)’, I guess | ||
| 7 | ERASURE | Period certain to result in wipe-out (7) |
| ERA (period) + SURE (certain) | ||
| 8 | ONE FOR THE ROAD | Final draught ready to go? (3,3,3,4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | GENERAL STRIKE | Workers go all out to ensure its success (7,6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 14 | ENDEARMENT | Strangely tender name, appropriately (10) |
| (TENDER NAME)* – semi &lit | ||
| 17 | FORELIMB | Leading member of the quadrupeds (8) |
| FORE (leading) + LIMB (member) | ||
| Quadrupeds are four-footed animals so one can see the whole clue as the definition when read in a literal way, so not like ‘leading members’ as in ‘important beings’ – which then, however, is not very cryptic. | ||
| 19 | CONFORM | Run with the pack, like Conservative at his best (7) |
| C (Conservative) + ON FORM (at his best) | ||
| 21 | HARPOON | Marx brother takes on Lance (7) |
| HARPO (one of the Marx Brothers) + ON | ||
| 23 | HOTEL | Where to stop mentioned in letter (5) |
| The solution must surely be HOTEL but I fear I cannot give a satisfying explanation. A ‘hotel’ is a place for an overnight stop and ‘Hotel’ is also the letter H in the NATO alphabet. Is that it? | ||
| 25 | SCAR | Headless statuette, reminder of sword-fight? (4) |
| OSCAR (statuette) minus its first letter (‘headless’) | ||
Hi Sil,
Thanks for the entertaining blog and to Crux for a nice crossword.
Re 2: I thought bizarrely was pointing out the parodox of being not HIMSELF.
Re 3: REDSTART – Red sky in the morning shepherd’s/sailor’s warning, red sky at night shepherd’s/sailor’s delight. An old and relatively inaccurate meteorological theory.
I parsed HOTEL as you did.
Apart from 16a where ?e?a wasn’t enough to enbale me to spot the hidden, my problems were in the SW.
26a I had a?????e and could only think of months, hours , signs of the zodiac. I don’t think I even knew there were 12 apostles.
23d Good grief
28a I wrote in “officers mess” at the start thinking that the ordinary squaddies woudl be barred from it while the officers would be very welcome.
17d meant I couldn’t be right but I had forefoot for 17d so t?n? meant I still couldn’t get it.