Monday Prize Crossword / Jun 29, 2015
This was perhaps my quickest Monday solve ever. Very easy puzzle for the more experienced, ideal crossword for beginners.
Everything’s absolutely fair and precise. Did we expect anything else from this setter? (rhetorical question)
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOSQUITOES |
Flies US painter across Ecuador’s capital (10)
MOSES (US painter) around QUITO (Ecuador’s capital) Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961), better known as Grandma Moses . |
| 7 | CROW |
Boast about work with the oar (4)
C (about, circa) + ROW (work with the oar) |
| 9 | OTTO |
German fellow, extreme leader of opposition (4)
OTT (extreme, over the top) + O[pposition] Otto von Bismarck, Otto Klemperer, Otto Preminger, Otto Frank, Otto Dix, Otto Flick (Herr Flick) – they’re not all German, by the way. |
| 10 | STEM GINGER |
Staunch redhead getting sweetmeat (4,6)
STEM (staunch) + GINGER (redhead) |
| 11 | PORTIA |
Shakespearean heroine’s father fencing unlikely trio (6)
PA (father) around (TRIO)* [* = unlikely] The Merchant of Venice. |
| 12 | VALENCIA |
Clive, an eccentric, reaching a Mediterranean port (8)
(CLIVE AN)* + A [* = eccentric] |
| 13 | HEAR HEAR |
I agree to pick up judge (4,4)
HEAR (to pick up) + HEAR (judge) |
| 15 | RAGE |
Changed gear in storm (4)
(GEAR)* [* = changed] |
| 17 | OPAL |
Chum after ring and gem (4)
PAL (chum) coming after O (ring) |
| 19 | HATE MAIL |
Horrified, initially, at message in hostile letters (4,4)
H[orrified] + AT + EMAIL (message) |
| 22 | PRIMROSE |
Tedious talk about border plant (8)
PROSE (tedious talk) around RIM (border) |
| 23 | ESCAPE |
European on tricky space flight (6)
E (European) + (SPACE)* [* = tricky] |
| 25 | QUADRANGLE |
Gang, without leader, argue audibly in court (10)
[s]QUAD (gang, without leader, ie minus its first letter) + RANGLE (homophone (‘audibly’) of WRANGLE (argue)) Quadrangle, often shortened to Quad, a court as in courtyard . |
| 26 | MASH |
Wood by motorway provides food for animals (4)
M (motorway) + ASH (wood) |
| 27 | IDOL |
One pretty woman, almost the object of worship (4)
I (one) + DOL[l] (pretty woman, almost) |
| 28 | EXTRA COVER |
Additional clothing fielder required (5,5)
EXTRA (additional) + COVER (clothing) The solution is ‘a fielding position between cover and mid-off’ (I let Collins do the talking!), also the player itself (as it is here). |
| Down | ||
| 2 | OUTCOME |
Result published? To follow (7)
OUT (published) + COME ((to) follow) Come = Follow as in: ‘it comes from’ / ‘it follows from’. |
| 3 | QUOIT |
Ring round during leave (5)
O (round) inside QUIT (leave) |
| 4 | IN SPADES |
Extremely fashionable black suit (2,6)
IN (fashionable) + SPADES (black suit) |
| 5 | ONE OVER THE EIGHT |
Merry individual in charge of rowing crew? (3,4,3,5)
ONE (individual) + OVER (in charge of, higher in rank than) + THE EIGHT (rowing crew) If one doesn’t want to break the clue down into separate pieces, I have no problem with just: Cryptic definition. |
| 6 | SAGELY |
Speak about set wisely (6)
SAY (speak) around GEL (set) |
| 7 | CONUNDRUM |
Recording involving old sister with drink problem (9)
{CD (recording) around O (old) NUN (sister)} + RUM (drink) |
| 8 | OPENING |
First hole (7)
Double definition |
| 14 | ROLE MODEL |
Good example to follow part way on line (4,5)
ROLE (part) + MODE (way) + L (line) |
| 16 | ST HELENA |
Small article girl got from Atlantic island (2,6)
S (small) + THE (article) + LENA (girl) Where Napoleon met his maker. |
| 18 | PURSUED |
Followed translation of EPs? Urdu (7)
(EPS URDU)* [* = translation of] |
| 20 | IMPASSE |
Deadlock caused by one male behind the times (7)
I (one) + M (male) + PASSE (behind the times) ‘Passé’ with acute accent , ‘impasse’ without. |
| 21 | FORAGE |
Anger after Foreign Office supplies food for horses (6)
FO (Foreign Office) followed by RAGE (anger) |
| 24 | CAMEO |
Hitchcock’s role in Psycho, say, amounted to nothing? (5)
CAME (amounted (to)) + O (nothing) |
I have solved in full many a Falcon but not this one.
My main problem was in the NW where for 1a all I had was ????i?o?s. Now the only certain thing is that the capital of Ecuador will be E and not whatever Ecuador’s capital city is…..As it happens if you had asked me true or false if Quito was the capital, I would have said “false” -never heard of it. Ditto Moses -I’d be interested to hear if anyone else had heard of her.
For 9a with no crossers to go on, I assumed it must be D??? meaning opposition.
25a I think gang =squad is tough and wrangle also .
Without a leading q, quoit would never have come to mind,
2d Out = published is not the first thing that would come to mind .
Finally I didn’t know animals ate mash
Very tough in places , I think .
Thanks Falcon and Sil
Agree that this was certainly on the gentler scale for Falcon with only MOSQUITOES and QUADRANGLE (my last in) providing a little resistance.
Falcon and Armonie are the two setters that I recommend to Aussie friends to start with English crosswords – they are generally straightforward, have elegant and precise clues and rarely require much local knowledge.
What a joy to do an Allan Scott crossword again after struggling with the Everyman puzzles in The New Zealand Herald for the past few months. I solved this one. Loved the clues and the way he writes them. Everything makes sense. Thanks Falcon.
Bamberger dare I say that your General Knowledge is a bit lacking. Surely you’ve heard of Grandma Moses, the naive painter and Capitals of South American countries are always coming up in Trivial Pursuits Quizes etc.
Thanks Sil for pointing out the way to these FT crosswords for we Kiwis.