Monday Prize Crossword/Dec 9
An enjoyable and typical Monday offering by one of the regulars.
This wouldn’t be a proper Crux blog if I hadn’t something to say about one or two (or three) of his clues. To do me a favour, there were no (or hardly any) cryptic definitions today. Many thanks to the setter.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COHERE | Hang together, present company to go first (6) |
| CO (company) coming before HERE (present) | ||
| 4 | STONE AGE | First one a German locked up long, long ago (5,3) |
| Hidden solution (‘locked up’): [fir]ST ONE A GE[rman] | ||
| 9 | NAPLES | Seems to be the last place you would visit! (6) |
| “See Naples and die” (Goethe) – that’s why! | ||
| 10 | DEMONIAC | Diabolical alternative comedian (8) |
| (COMEDIAN)* | ||
| 12 | EVACUATE | Send to the country girl with acute jitters (8) |
| EVA (girl) + (ACUTE)* | ||
| Isn’t this a bit of a strange definition? | ||
| 13 | WHINGE | Moan and moan about the end of smoking (6) |
| WHINE (moan) around [smokin]G | ||
| 15 | TOAD | Ancestral hall on River Bank, not found in Ireland (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| This is an unusual clue. The first part refers to Toad Hall, the River Bank (Riverbank?) and “The Wind in the Willows” (Kenneth Grahame, 1908). Now, the second one is more peculiar. The common toad is a creature that is not found in Ireland. Unfortunately, the natterjack toad is. Not found in Ireland? There’s a lot that fits that definition, I guess: elephants, tigers, volcanoes, WMD ….. 🙂 | ||
| 16 | END IN TEARS | Stop crying, as children’s fights are apt to do (3,2,5) |
| END (stop) + CRYING (in tears) | ||
| 19 | BED OF ROSES | Comfortable situation needs flowers, not nails (3,2,5) |
| As opposed to a ‘bed of nails’ which is not so comfortable | ||
| 20 | HASH | Money required to swap cold for hot food (4) |
| CASH (money) with H (hot) replacing C (cold) | ||
| 23 | NARROW | A posh car, in at the moment, can be cramped (6) |
| A RR (posh car, Rolls Royce) inside NOW (at the moment) | ||
| 25 | UNCLE SAM | Masculine version doesn’t need one in the US (5,3) |
| (MASCUL[I]NE)* with the deleted I the “one that’s not needed” | ||
| 27 | SPENDALL | Prodigal son’s gloom about death (8) |
| S (son) + {PALL (gloom) around END (death)} | ||
| 28 | MALIGN | Slander an African country’s good name (6) |
| MALI (an African country) + G (good) + N (name) | ||
| 29 | NOSEDIVE | One side crazily welcomes very steep fall (8) |
| (ONE SIDE)* around V (very) | ||
| 30 | ITCHED | Being tied up, topless, may get you irritated! (6) |
| HITCHED (tied up) minus its starter (‘topless’) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CONVERT | Change name in secret (7) |
| N (name) inside COVERT (secret) | ||
| 2 | HAPHAZARD | Erratic fellow loses head over wager (9) |
| {CHAP (fellow) minus its starter (‘loses head’)} + HAZARD (wager) | ||
| 3 | RHESUS | Often a positive factor in man and monkey (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | TEEM | Swarm heads off towards Europe every minibreak (4) |
| Starting letters (‘heads off’): T[owards] E[urope] E[very] M[inibreak] | ||
| 6 | NEOPHYTE | Beginner one trained to box, say (8) |
| (ONE)* + PHYTE (homophone (‘say’) of FIGHT (box)) | ||
| 7 | ALIEN | Outsider who has a right to property (5) |
| A + LIEN (right to property) | ||
| 8 | ESCHEWS | Avoids church going in multiple directions (7) |
| CH (church) inside E,S,E,W,S (multiple directions, East South East West South) | ||
| 11 | STENTOR | Way tenor becomes man with loudest voice (7) |
| ST (way) + (TENOR)* | ||
| I can see that ‘becomes [something]’ may be an anagram indicator but here it feels uncomfortable to me as ST plus (TENOR)* gives us the answer. I mean, “tenor becomes” for just (the undefined) “entor” doesn’t feel fully OK as a stand-alone device, in my opinion that is. | ||
| 14 | PIGEONS | Meat supplier takes ages to supply traditional pie filling (7) |
| PIG (meat supplier) + EONS (ages) | ||
| 17 | ADAM SMITH | One checks on University Hospital for the Economist (4,5) |
| A (one) + DAMS (checks) + MIT (University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) + H (hospital) | ||
| Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (1723-1790), one who stood for private enterprise and free trade. | ||
| 18 | AFFORDED | A force crossed the river, all paid for (8) |
| A + F (force) + FORDED (crossed the river, ie went through a ‘ford’) | ||
| 19 | BENISON | Thanksgiving that requires British meat, mostly (7) |
| B (British) + {VENISON (meat) minus its starter (‘mostly’)} | ||
| 21 | HOMINID | Ancient man’s brief clothing discovered inside trough (7) |
| MINI (brief clothing) inside HOD (trough) | ||
| 22 | PLIANT | Factory needs one to be flexible (6) |
| PLANT (factory) with I (one) inside | ||
| Crux didn’t tell us where to put the I, although we had not much choice in search for a proper English word. | ||
| 24 | REELS | Parts of film showing folk dances (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | SLAV | A Russian, say, has to toil endlessly (4) |
| SLAVE (toil) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’) | ||
Re def in Clue 12. I don’t think there is any problem if we take “to the country” to mean “to the rural districts as distinct from city”.
I have heard from my elders that during wartime when there was a threat of bombing of the port city of Madras, people moved to the interior parts – mostly rural. The countryside with less population and no facilities that can be targeted must have been safe.
Sil
Anent your Comment against 15a, I am reminded of Frederick Forsyth’s short story “There are No Snakes in Ireland”.
Sil, I am surprised at your comment against 22d. (Am I missing something?) Do container-contents clues ever tell us where the insertion is to be made?
Well, ‘needs’ itself is an unusual inserticator. Could it also be a juxtaposition indicator?
[PS: I had to multiply 5 by just 1!)
I dislike clues like 20a. I could not make up my mind whether the answer was cash or hash. In the end I opted for cash.
Rishi, my point about 22d is exactly as you mention @3. The way Crux put it, “needs” doesn’t have to indicate an insertion. In my opinion, it can also tell us to put the I at the end (even at the start, although that is less plausible).
But I am happy with it as it stands.
I agree, ernie, ambiguous clues should be avoided.
However (and I thought about it too), for me 20ac leads to HASH.
I read “to swap cold for hot” as “change C into H”.
Moreover, if it were the other way around the fact that there’s no link word between ‘hot’ and ‘food’ would be very inelegant.
But I know setters do it, so I share part of your reservations.
Many thanks Sil & Crux
I really must take issue with 9a – I saw Naples many years ago and I’m still around.
Otherwise very enjoyable.
A Survivor
I couldn’t get
1d -Just didn;t think of covert
11d Even with ?t?n?o? I couldn’t think of anything and as I’d never come across stentor, that did not help.
21d Simply hadn’t come across
9a I thought it was going something like hospice.
15a I thought it was only snakes that you would expect to find but didn’t.
27a Too hard for me I’m afraid
30a
Not bad for me, really