Monday Prize Crossword/Jul 8
A pleasant puzzle by Falcon with quite a lot of charades, envelopes and anagram-based clues.
There were four clues in which one had to remove the first or last letter of a word. The word IN also crept up four times but one must give Falcon credit for not duplicating indicators or definitions (like for IN: elected, trendy, fashionable, wearing – but not: ‘at home’ 🙂 ). As always, elegant surfaces very similar to those one may find in the Observer’s Everyman. Which is not a coincidence, of course. Also not a complaint. I think, it’s actually quite a feat to write week in week out clues that appeal to so many solvers.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BRICKBAT | Critical remark made by stalwart at club (8) |
| BRICK (stalwart) + BAT (club) | ||
| What a coincidence to see the same word on the very same day in the Guardian’s Rufus with a similar construction. | ||
| 5 | THOUGH | Design incomplete, however (6) |
| THOUGH[t] (design, ‘incomplete’) | ||
| 10 | INFIDEL | Disbeliever, elected female, lied atrociously (7) |
| IN (elected) + F (female) + (LIED)* | ||
| 11 | HERBERT | Right book put in there, novel for a metaphysical poet (7) |
| {R (right) + B (book)} inside (THERE)* | ||
| George Herbert (1593-1633), famous Welsh (metaphysical) poet. Or is it perhaps Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648) by some also considered to be a metaphysical poet? Luckily, Falcon didn’t use just ‘writer’ as the definition because we would have had too many choices then (including Frank, James and Mary). | ||
| 12 | HEREAFTER | Hence, three fare badly (9) |
| (THREE FARE)* | ||
| 13 | MUNCH | Norwegian painter, one leaving German city (5) |
| MUNICH (German city) with the I (one) leaving | ||
| 15 | SHARP | Note coming from small musical instrument (5) |
| S (small) + HARP (instrument) – definition: musical note (that is raised a half step) | ||
| 16 | SEDATIVE | Tranquilliser used in extremely severe case (8) |
| S[ever]E + DATIVE (case, in linguistics) | ||
| 19 | WINDBURN | Complaint coming from wife and trendy daughter by small stream (8) |
| W (wife) + IN (trendy) + D (daughter) + BURN (small stream) | ||
| 20 | AORTA | Vessel from Tampa or Tacoma (5) |
| Hidden solution: [tamp]A OR TA[coma] | ||
| 21 | MASON | Society member, mother, and child (5) |
| MA (mother) + SON (child) | ||
| 23 | LANDSCAPE | Comes down on head causing a scene (9) |
| LANDS (comes down) + CAPE (head) | ||
| 25 | CHANCER | Opportunist in court, briefly (7) |
| CHANCER[y] (court, ‘briefly’) | ||
| 27,26 | TREAD ON AIR | Adore art in resort – it makes one feel exhilarated (5,2,3) |
| (ADORE ART IN)* | ||
| 28 | AGREED | A deadly sin, granted (6) |
| A + GREED (deadly sin) | ||
| 29 | VESTMENT | Purchase not fashionable, a robe (8) |
| INVESTMENT (purchase) minus IN (fashionable) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BLITHEST | Bishop, most flexible, and most cheerful (8) |
| B (bishop) + LITHEST (most flexible) | ||
| 2 | INFIRMARIES | Wearing, fixed sign indicating hospitals (11) |
| IN (wearing) + FIRM (fixed) + ARIES (sign, of the Zodiac) | ||
| 3 | KIDNAPPED | Novel child tipped as a certain winner? (9) |
| KID (child) + NAPPED (tipped as a certain winner, in horse-racing) | ||
| ‘Kidnapped’ is a novel by Robert Louis Stephenson who also enriched the world with Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. | ||
| 4 | ALLOT | Earmark a tax to be raised (5) |
| A + LLOT (reversal of TOLL (tax)) | ||
| 6 | HAREM | Damage around English women’s quarters (5) |
| HARM (damage) around E (English) | ||
| 7 | USE | Employ trick to get rid of head (3) |
| [r]USE (trick, ‘to get rid of head’) | ||
| 8 | HITCH | Snag affected church (5) |
| HIT (affected, like in ‘hit by’) + CH (church) | ||
| 9 | SHERIDAN | His read out – name dramatist (8) |
| (HIS READ)* + N (name) | ||
| One more literature-inspired solution: Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) of ‘The Rivals’ fame. | ||
| 14 | NEVER SAY DIE | Serenade Ivy, desperately – don’t give up (5,3,3) |
| (SERENADE IVY)* | ||
| 16 | SCULLERY | One rowing close to pantry in part of kitchen (8) |
| SCULLER (one rowing, a scull is a rowing boat) + [pantr]Y | ||
| 17 | TRANSIENT | Here today gone tomorrow in ten trains abroad (9) |
| (TEN TRAINS)* | ||
| 18 | HAZELNUT | Filbert produced by head girl at the start (8) |
| NUT (head) with before that HAZEL (girl) | ||
| 21 | MOCHA | Dark brown coffee, second, man’s not finished (5) |
| MO (second) + CHA[p] (man, ‘not finished’) | ||
| 22 | NICHE | Hotel in French resort aimed at a small specialised market (5) |
| H (hotel ) in NICE (French resort) – I took ‘niche’ as an adjective here | ||
| 24 | NITRE | Egg on sappers to bring out saltpetre (5) |
| NIT (egg) + RE (sappers) | ||
| 26 | See 27 | |
Only clue I couldn’t parse was 5a design =thought -really? I designed a ship-no doesn’t work. I had a thought about that -no doesn’t work. Any offers?