Monday Prize Crossword/Dec 22
As in previous years Dante [aka Rufus] gave us a Carte Rosée, a crossword without black squares and clue numbers, the clues lacking enumeration too. Although Dante didn’t tell us, the clues were given in order of appearance.
The remark that ‘the final grid is symmetrical if turned through 180 degrees’ was not unimportant. I saw the last Across clue and the last Down clue right away. Therefore 1ac had to be an eight letter word and 3d a five letter word. I deduced that there was also a 1d, also that 5ac had to have six letters. All this started the ball rolling. But to be honest, as a blogger of most of Dante’s puzzles I am familiar with the grids he uses which was really useful too …..
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EXERCISE | Use a drill |
| Double definition (see comment 1 below – I first saw this as a Cryptic definition) | ||
| 5 | PASS UP | Neglect Dad’s drink |
| PA’S (Dad’s) + SUP (drink) | ||
| 9 | TRESPASS | Spring a lock outside and make an entry |
| SPA (spring) with TRESS (a lock) outside of it | ||
| 10 | FLORAL | Free for-all sort of arrangement |
| (FOR ALL)* [* = free] | ||
| Shouldn’t there be an extra hyphen: Free-for-all? | ||
| 12 | ABHOR | Shrink from hunting initially with wild boar around |
| (BOAR)* around H[unting] [* = wild] | ||
| 13 | IRRITATES | Annoys girl with awkward tries to embrace |
| RITA (girl) with (TRIES)* around it [* = awkward] | ||
| 14 | ADRIAN | Fresh air – and that’s essential for this man |
| (AIR + AND)* [* = fresh] | ||
| I find “that’s essential” rather annoying. The surface needs something extra after ‘and’ but it’s padding, isn’t it? | ||
| 16 | BOOK-END | Literary prop |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 19 | COWBOYS | Unscrupulous operators involved in Western films |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | SYSTEM | Method of betting trying to avoid betting slips? |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Some might see this as not so cryptic, perhaps. | ||
| 23 | ALLOWANCE | A cut limits inadequate grant |
| {A + LANCE (cut)} around LOW (inadequate) | ||
| 25 | HARPO | Silent comedy film-star |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Harpo Marx, of course. | ||
| 26 | PAPERS | Press for identity documents? |
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | MALINGER | Stay well away from work |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 28 | DEPOSE | Put down for PE, does work-out |
| (PE + DOES)* [* work-out] | ||
| 29 | CANISTER | Container crates in bad state |
| (CRATES IN)* [* = bad state] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENTRAP | Catch the blame after net is damaged |
| RAP ((the) blame) after (NET)* [* = damaged] | ||
| 2 | EYESHADOW | Cosmetic watchdog? |
| EYE (watch) + SHADOW (dog) (see comment 1 below – I took this as a Double / Cryptic definition but PB’s parsing is undoubtedly correct) | ||
| 3 | CAPER | Saucy thing to cut |
| Kind of double definition | ||
| A caper can be a ‘saucy thing’, and there’s the expression ‘to cut a caper’. | ||
| 4 | SESSION | A parliamentary term? |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | ABLUTIONS | Fussy aunt boils her washing, perhaps |
| (AUNT BOILS)* [* = fussy] | ||
| For once, no Usain Bolt here! | ||
| 7 | STRUT | It supports parade with conscious pride |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | PALISADE | Friend with odd ideas for defence |
| PAL (friend) + (IDEAS)* [* = odd] | ||
| 11 | GRUB | Street food? |
| The weakest clue of the set by a mile, in my opinion. Perhaps, I should change my opinion after reading the comments 3 and 4 below (I wasn’t familiar with Grub Street) | ||
| 15 | IRONWORKS | Foundry club doesn’t go on strike |
| IRON (club) + WORKS (doesn’t go on strike) | ||
| 17 | EYES RIGHT | This military order looks fine |
| EYES (looks) + RIGHT (fine) | ||
| 18 | SCRAPPED | Came to blows – no longer retained |
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | SAND | It may run out in time |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 21 | SMETANA | Composer lifts manuscript with a neat amendment |
| SM (reversal (‘lifts’) of MS (manuscript)) + (A NEAT)* [* = amendment] | ||
| The brilliant ‘setter’ from Litomysl that gave me my pseudonym. | ||
| 22 | POORER | More unfortunate choice in the marriage ceremony |
| … for richer or for poorer … | ||
| 24 | LAP UP | Sort of dancer at university to enjoy drink? |
| LAP (sort of dancer, lap dancer) + UP (at university) | ||
| 25 | HAITI | A hit I made in Caribbean republic |
| (A HIT I)* [* = made] | ||
Thanks Dante and Sil
1ac: I took this as a double definition: use and drill being somewhat different meanings of the answer.
2dn: This one I took as one of those clues involving the splitting of a clue word: EYE (watch) + SHADOW (dog, as a verb).
Thanks to Dante & Sil. This was not as hard as one might have imagined, so I’m glad I persevered and completed it.
I automatically made the assumption that 1d & 1ac shared the first same letter – and was lucky that this assumption proved correct. Had it not been, the whole thing would have been far more difficult to get started on.
I agree with you about 11dn, Sil.
11dn: I took this as a reference to Grub Street, given by Chambers 2014, as “a former name of Milton Street, Moorfields, London, once inhabited by booksellers’ hacks and shabby writers generally; the milieu of hack writers or activity of hack writing”. It is true that the informal meaning of grub as food appears under the same headword, but they are substantially different meanings.
11d Grub is a proverbial street as in “Grub Street”: where hacks work (since 18th century at least). So very fair double definition.
Easier than it looked – especially as it was same grid as last years carte rosee i believe!
Enjoyed it and my family wrongly concluded i must be some genius to complete it.
thanks Dante
Thanks Dante and Sil
Dodged this one last year and it stayed on a back log pile. Took heart after completing his Carte rosee from Christmas Eve last year and actually really enjoyed this sort of challenge.
Similarly to Sil, I saw CANISTER and HAITI first of all and was then able to deduce DEPOSE which then opened up a bit of the grid pattern and I was off.
Made a slight mess of 5a by confidently writing in POP as the second word and struggled to find what flavour of pop it might be. All of the rest went in pretty smoothly – taking as much time colouring all of the blocked part of the grid as filling the solutions into the gaps.
Finished with SYSTEM (which I had as a dd – the actual system of selection and the automation of the online betting process where one doesn’t receive a betting slip any more), COWBOYS (don’t know what was the blocker, but there was) and SAND (just needed the checkers to ensure that it was the answer). Look forward to his next rendition of it !