Monday Prize Crossword/Jun 24
Another enjoyable Cruxword which may be found here. But as always (read: recently) I put some question marks to clues for which other solvers’ views are much appreciated.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOBILE | Press lie about the subject of hacking (6) |
| MOB (press) + (LIE)* | ||
| Very good clue to start the crossword. | ||
| 4 | CONVERSE | Communicate with husband, exchanging letters (8) |
| CONSERVE (husband) with two letters (S and V) exchanged | ||
| Another nice clue annex surface. Perhaps some might quibble about the fact that Crux doesn’t tell us which letters to exchange and how many. I’m not one of them. | ||
| 9 | RAGLAN | Scrap a short country coat with unique sleeves (6) |
| RAG (scrap) + LAN[d] (country, shortened) | ||
| 10 | FURNACES | Place for ashes in mugs and ovens (8) |
| URN (place for ashes) inside FACES (mugs) | ||
| 12 | GO HALVES | Good love has, potentially, to share all costs (2,6) |
| G (good) + (LOVE HAS)* | ||
| 13 | MYOPIA | It wouldn’t be a marksman’s fault, optically (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Well, I think it is. “Fault, optically” is as such a proper definition but the first part of the clue?? | ||
| 15 | TEES | Flower often damaged by drivers (4) |
| Double definition – ‘flower’ meaning river and ‘drivers’ as golf clubs | ||
| 16 | MY FAIR LADY | A musical may, without a blonde (2,4,4) |
| M[a]Y + FAIR LADY (blonde) | ||
| 19 | BREAK RANKS | Fall out of line, like classes after the holiday (5,5) |
| RANKS (classes) coming after BREAK ((the) holiday) | ||
| 20 | SPIN | Children put it on top – politicians too! (4) |
| Double/Cryptic definition – spinning tops & spin doctors | ||
| 23 | RATTLE | Conductor’s unpleasant noise (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Sir Simon Rattle, currently still at the helm of the Berlin Philharmonic. | ||
| 25 | COME TRUE | Happen to regret following a space traveller (4,4) |
| COMET (space traveller) followed by RUE (to regret) | ||
| 27 | INERT GAS | Angriest exchange provokes no reaction (5,3) |
| (ANGRIEST)* – strictly speaking quite a weak definition, isn’t it? | ||
| 28 | FINIAL | I come in last and get highest decoration! (6) |
| I inside FINAL (last) | ||
| 29 | HEDONIST | Fellow apprehended in robbery may be someone on 8 (8) |
| DON (fellow) inside HEIST (robbery) – again, while some consider the definition as playful, I think it is rather loose | ||
| 30 | ANANAS | Fruit without a starter remains a fruit (6) |
| BANANAS (fruit) without its starting letter (B) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MR RIGHT | Man of power possessing posh car – a maiden’s prayer? (2,5) |
| MIGHT (power) around RR (posh car, Rolls Royce) | ||
| The definition has, IMO, two separate components which can be merged into one (if one feels the need to). | ||
| 2 | BIG CHEESE | Large cake of Cheshire, perhaps, for a VIP (3,6) |
| BIG (big) + CHEESE (Cheshire, perhaps) | ||
| Where does ‘cake of’ come in – other than for the surface? | ||
| 3 | LIABLE | Inclined to misread braille right away (6) |
| (B[r]AILLE)* | ||
| 5 | ONUS | Duty, and where ours lies (4) |
| Our duty lies ON US | ||
| 6 | VINEYARD | Graves, for example, must have originated here (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Not ‘graves’ as on a cemetery but ‘Graves’ with a capital G, a region around Bordeaux producing wines of the same name. | ||
| 7 | RECAP | About to go over the top – go over again (5) |
| RE (about) + CAP ((the) top) | ||
| 8 | ECSTASY | Transport in the City stays a bit disorganized (7) |
| EC (the City) + (STAYS)* | ||
| 11 | NEW YEAR | We are involved in NY for this midnight celebration (3,4) |
| Surely an anagram of WE, ARE and NY | ||
| But I can’t make it work. I read it as either “(WE ARE)* inside NY” or “WE + {ARE inside NY}”. Perhaps it is because Crux wrote ‘involve in’ while he meant ‘involve with’? Which, as my PinC confirmed, is different. | ||
| 14 | BACK ROW | Rugby players’ love-seats? (4,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | ASPERSION | Slander exposed by a second Omar Khayyam, say (9) |
| A + S (second) + PERSION (homophone (‘say’) of PERSIAN of which Omar Khayyam is an example) | ||
| ‘Say’ seems to be doing double duty, something I am usually not very keen on. | ||
| 18 | SKELETON | Lots keen to work with such a tiny staff (8) |
| (LOTS KEEN)* | ||
| 19 | BURNISH | Polish sailors I encountered in the outback (7) |
| {RN (sailors, Royal Navy) + I} inside BUSH (the outback) | ||
| 21 | NEEDLES | Sewers are largely redundant (7) |
| NEEDLESS (redundant), largely i.e. minus the last S | ||
| 22 | DESIGN | Condescend to accept Spain’s first plan (6) |
| DEIGN (condescend) around S[pain] | ||
| 24 | TREAD | Walk-in centre – a disaster (5) |
| Hidden solution, ignoring hyphen and dash : [cen]TRE A D[isaster] | ||
| 26 | BATS | Cricketers could also be 30 with right opener (4) |
| The second part of the clue refers to 30ac which with the right opener could become BANANAS again. And BANANAS = BATS (= mad). I find the use of ‘right’ a bit odd but Crux probably means ‘choosing an appropriate starting letter’ – which in this case is exactly the one we deleted in 30ac. | ||
13a I think the idea is a marksman doesn’t have myopia.
2a Perhaps just as a bar of soap can be called a cake of soap, a large block of cheese can be called a cake of cheese?
Thanks for explaining 4a
Many thanks, Bamberger, for your comment (as ever).
Your suggestions about 2ac and 13ac did match my thoughts.
Yet, I am still waiting for an interesting view on 11d’s NEW YEAR.
Anyone out there?