Monday Prize Crossword/Dec 15
Crux was clearly in a double and, to a lesser extent, cryptic definition mood. As ever, elegant surfaces and medium level of difficulty.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BLOWN AWAY | Really impressed by Gone With the Wind (5,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | KNOLL | Wise guy, ignoring Washington, achieves some eminence (5) |
| KNOW-ALL (wise guy) minus WA (Washington) | ||
| 9 | CAPER | Bound carbon copy needs cover, finally (5) |
| C (carbon) + APE (copy) + [cove]R | ||
| 10 | LOW SEASON | Seaside in Winter, for example, from the Blue Period (3,6) |
| LOW (blue) + SEASON (period) – the definition is a cryptic one | ||
| 11 | SISTER SHIP | She may well have her twins at sea! (6,4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 12 | OTTO | A few guiding words (not a thousand) in German (4) |
| MOTTO (a few guiding words) minus M (a thousand) | ||
| 14 | PATRIOT | Loyalist Irishman joins the fray (7) |
| PAT (Irishman) + RIOT (fray) | ||
| 15 | GOES OFF | Blows up leaves (4,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | NOSTRUM | No way drink is an answer to all problems (7) |
| NO + ST (way, street) + RUM (drink) | ||
| 19 | BIG BANG | Initial report, you might say, quite literally! (3,4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| My LOI (and a thank you to Gaufrid!) | ||
| 20 | TICK | Instant sign of approval (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | MISFORTUNE | It’s more fun arranging an accident! (10) |
| (IT’S MORE FUN)* [* = arranging] | ||
| What a nice anagram! | ||
| 25 | INCOGNITA | Unknown woman in love with acting, possibly (9) |
| IN + (O (love) + ACTING)* [* = possibly] | ||
| 26 | EAGER | Persuade a German to show willing (5) |
| Hidden solution (‘to show’): [persuad]E A GER[man] | ||
| 27 | EMEND | Correct English leads to modest employment, no doubt (5) |
| E (English) + first letters (‘leads to’) of: M[odest] E[mployment] N[o] D[oubt] | ||
| 28 | GLOSSITIS | In Polish it is an impediment to clear speech (9) |
| GLOSS (polish, lower case!) + IT IS | ||
| Glossitis is an inflamation of the tongue. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BUCKS | County money, commonly (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | OPPOSITES | They’re said to attract rich and poor, for instance (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | NERVE FIBRE | It transmits messages, never brief, unfortunately (5,5) |
| (NEVER BRIEF)* [* = unfortunately] | ||
| 4 | WELL-SET | Spring collection probably wouldn’t suit such figures (4-3) |
| WELL (spring) + SET (collection) | ||
| 5 | YAWNING | Very wide, like Lowry’s last colourful canvas (7) |
| [lowr]Y + AWNING (colourful canvas) | ||
| 6 | KEEN | Weep and wail, signifying 26 (4) |
| Double definition (26 = 26ac = EAGER) | ||
| 7 | ONSET | Start where films are made (5) |
| Films are made ON the SET | ||
| 8 | LONDON FOG | Former contributor to the big smoke (6,3) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| For some reason I made a mistake here, leaving me with an unsolvable 19ac – until Gaufrid came to the rescue! London is sometimes called The Big Smoke (capitalised, that is!), and well, fog looks like smoke. | ||
| 13 | KEW GARDENS | Botanical site showing various dangers on line, say (3,7) |
| KEW (homophone (‘say’) of QUEUE (line)) + (DANGERS)* [* = various] | ||
| 14 | PINSTRIPE | What nudists do in long business suit (9) |
| STRIP (what nudists do) inside PINE (long) | ||
| 16 | ON A BUDGET | Foreign double-agent the French let go, cutting down (2,1,6) |
| (DOUB[le] AGENT)* , the deleted LE being ‘the, French’ [* = foreign] | ||
| 18 | MAILING | Letter delivery with Mike not well represented (7) |
| M (Mike, in radio communication) + AILING (not well) | ||
| 19 | BUFFALO | One of the herd in New York city (7) |
| Double definition (here, New York is the state of that name) | ||
| 21 | CACHE | Hidden treasure, sounds like 23, perhaps (5) |
| Homophone (‘sounds like’) of: CASH (23 perhaps, i.e. EUROS) | ||
| 23 | EUROS | Thus regret returning the money (5) |
| Reversal (‘returning’) of: SO (thus) + RUE (regret) | ||
| 24 | AGED | Old French master turned up briefly (4) |
| Reversal (‘turned up’) of DEGA[s] (French master, briefly) | ||
All correct quickly apart from 8d and 12a which I spent ages looking at on and off and never got.
Good luck with the Christmas Dante- even if you gave me all the solutions, I wouldn’t know where to start fitting them in the grid -and without numbers of letters and crossing letters I doubt if I’d get more than a handful anyway.
Thanks Crux and Sil
This took a lot longer than usual for this setter, particularly the NE corner where LONDON FOG and OTTO were my last couple in as well.
Originally from country Victoria, where we referred to all large cities (especially the capitals) as the ‘big smoke’, I didn’t have the same issue as Sil with 8d. I hadn’t seen the term LONDON FOG before all the same.
I thought that the surface reading of many of the clues were very good, especially 1a, 10a (my clue of the day), 28a and 4d.