Monday Prize Crossword / Mar 30, 2015
An enjoyable puzzle with Crux back in the saddle.
Good variety of devices and a tad more adventurous than, say, a Dante or a Falcon. However (or I should say ‘once more’) I was not greatly impressed by some of the cryptic definitions. But I can’t have it all, can I?
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DEFECT |
Failing to change sides (6)
Double definition |
| 4 | FORMIC |
Antacid? (6)
Cryptic / Double definition ‘Antacid’ has nothing to do with ants but ‘formic’ has. ‘Formic’ has two meanings in Collins: ‘of, relating to, or derived from ants’ and ‘of, containing, or derived from formic acid’. And ‘formic acid’ is a liquid found in some insects esp. ants. On the other hand ‘antacid’ is a substance to neutralise acidity (anti-acidity). Punning on Ant and Anti, looks enough to call this a cryptic definition? Others like ernie @1 may see this as double definition: ant/acid. |
| 8 | IMPETUS |
Little 1 down with French and American energy (7)
IMP (little demon (1 down)) + ET (and, French) + US (American) |
| 9 | BEACHED |
Like a hapless whale, feel pain when lying down? (7)
ACHE (feel pain) inside BED, i.e ‘in bed’ (when lying down) My penultimate one in, made harder by my lack of confidence to enter ‘Macadam’ in 6d. |
| 11 | UNAGITATED |
A Spanish entry clinches it – crowd finally relaxed (10)
UNA (a, Spanish) + {GATE (entry) around IT} + [crow]D |
| 12 |
See 13
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|
| 13, 12 | NOTRE DAME |
Gothic edifice that’s remote and out of place (5,4)
(REMOTE AND)* [* = out of place] |
| 14 | CUCUMBER |
Front half of bird of an earthy colour that’s proverbially cool (8)
CUC[koo] (bird, half of) + UMBER (an earthly colour) ‘Cool as a cucumber’. |
| 16, 18 | PIECES OF EIGHT |
The GI regarded as source of old money (6,2,5)
T,H,E,G,I may be regarded as ‘pieces of EIGHT’ – kind of reverse anagram I liked this one even if I saw the solution only recently in another crossword. |
| 20 | VERB |
Part of speech omitted these days for another [part of speech] (4)
ADVERB (part of speech) minus AD (these days) |
| 21 | OYSTER BOAT |
Possibly a pearl-fisher’s craft? (6-4)
Cryptic definition |
| 23 | REUNIFY |
Bring back together rare upper-class finery (7)
(U (upper-class) + FINERY)* [* = rare] |
| 24 | FORELEG |
Leading member of the quadrupeds (7)
Cryptic definition |
| 25 | SATIRE |
Start diaries, oddly, to produce writing like Swift’s (6)
Odd letters of the first two words: S[t]A[r]T [d]I[a]R[i]E[s] |
| 26 | JET SET |
Rich gadabouts showing off spring collection (3,3)
JET (spring) + SET (collection) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEMON |
Made money exhibiting a monster (5)
Hidden solution (‘exhibiting’): [ma]DE MON[ey] |
| 2 | FREIGHT |
French go on 18 types of trains (7)
FR (French) + EIGHT (which is 18ac) Freight trains. |
| 3 | COUNTLESS |
Noble lady recruits half-century for a Roman legion (9)
COUNTESS (noble lady) around L (half-century for a Roman, 50) |
| 5 | OREAD |
Nymph or Guide left out (5)
OR + {LEAD minus L (left)} |
| 6 | MACADAM |
Highwayman (so to speak) we associate with leading seaman (7)
MACADAM is a homophone (‘so to speak’) of McAdam (1756-1836), a Scottish surveyor who advocated the use of what today we know as ‘tarmac’, albeit in a modified form. The latter is short for ‘tarmacadam’ which equals our solution plus TAR (sailor) in front of it (‘leading’). The definition (‘Highwayman’) is cryptic but only for the person, not for the solution. I don’t think this a great clue. |
| 7 | CREAMIEST |
It may describe the best Neapolitan ice-master in a spin (9)
(ICE MASTER)* [* = in a spin] ‘Ice’ is doing double duty which is ultimately a thing I don’t like. Still, a very nice and appropriate surface. |
| 10 | STICK FAST |
Stopwatches initially gain time, then get jammed (5,4)
S[topwatches] + TICK FAST (gain time) |
| 13 | NOISELESS |
Silent without a hooter – put one in! (9)
NOSELESS (without a hooter, no nose) around I (one) |
| 15 | CREPE SOLE |
Sort of pancake only used for part of shoe (5,4)
CREPE (sort of pancake) + SOLE (only) |
| 17 | CABINET |
Can it be reshuffled? Indubitably (7)
(CAN IT BE)* [* = reshuffled] Nice perhaps topical clue. Hard to underline the exact definition – kind of semi-&lit. |
| 19 | GIBBETS |
Large inverted stakes on which felons died (7)
GIB (reversal of BIG (large)) + BETS (stakes) |
| 21 | OFFER |
Cold leaves chest tender (5)
COFFER (chest) minus C (cold) |
| 22 | ALERT |
Real struggle to get time on the ball (5)
(REAL)* + T (time) [* = struggle] Even with Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale? |
For 4 across I thought that the single word clue (antacid) needed to be split into two words ‘ant acid’ to give a double definition.
Thanks to Sil and Cruz
ernie, initially I had written down ‘Double definition’ in 4ac for the same reason you give.
Then I saw (in the dictionary, I’m not a biologist or chemist) that FORMIC is a kind of acid possibly related to ants.
FORMIC might even be defined by ‘ant acid’ perhaps.
So, I thought “how double is that?”.
As ‘antacid’ is something completely different I decided to focus on ‘ant’ versus ‘anti’.
But whatever I call the device, we both agree about how it works and what Crux did.
Thanks Crux and Sil
Got caught out with the tense of STUCK FAST and lazily didn’t put the effort into the parsing of it – hence made the error. This can happen to me with these ‘easier’ puzzles.
There were a number of clues where I wasn’t 100% comfortable – MACADAM (for the same reasons as Sil – althouh thought the term ‘highwayman’ for John McAdam was quite clever ), OYSTER BOAT (a loose definition – was hard to find a specific entry in the dictionaries that I searched) and CREAMIEST (had assumed that Neapolitan was an abbreviated term for Neapolitan ice cream, but again couldn’t find it). Hadn’t seen the term CREPE SOLE before.
I did like the ‘Antacid’ clue and similarly to ernie had it as a double definition.