Monday Prize Crossword / May 9, 2016
It’s Dante. So, mostly easy-ish. And also ‘that last one in’…. Today it was 15ac.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ALCOTT | Rural cottage providing home for a writer (6) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by ‘home for’: [rur]AL COTT[age] Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), American novelist. Want to know more about her? Look here . |
||
| 4 | PROCEEDS | Advances total sums (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | RARITY | Uncommon thing you won’t come across very often (6) |
| (Not so very) Cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | STAMPEDE | Running out of stock, all at once (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 12 | PROLIFIC | Being fertile for most of one’s life – I will be near 100 (8) |
| PRO (for) + LIF[e] + I + C (100) ‘Most of one’s life’ = LIF? |
||
| 13 | VOODOO | Sorcery makes five ducks go to five hundred ducks (6) |
| V (five) + O,O (ducks, zero plus zero) + D (five hundred) + O,O (ducks, again) | ||
| 15 | SEAL | Bull or cow to make an impression (4) |
| Double definition My last one in. A male seal (the marine animal) is called a bull but I cannot justify ‘cow’, I’m afraid. Probably a female seal. |
||
| 16 | DEAD SECRET | Wrongly desecrated something very private (4,6) |
| (DESECRATED)* [* = wrongly] | ||
| 19 | DETERMINES | Deem rent is not right, but settles (10) |
| (DEEM RENT IS)* [* = not right] | ||
| 20 | ESAU | Use a different name for Jacob’s twin brother (4) |
| (USE A)* [* = different] | ||
| 23 | POPLAR | Timber producer of high standing, well-liked until found to be heartless (6) |
| POP[u]LAR (well-liked, with the central letter missing) | ||
| 25 | MANDARIN | Chinese official in loose jacket (8) |
| Double definition A mandarin can be a citrus fruit with a loose yellow-orange skin. That may explain the second part of the clue. As Hamish says below, a mandarin jacket is a collarless jacket. That was possibly what Dante had in mind. I did consider that but wasn’t very keen on it for the reason mentioned in my comment @5. |
||
| 27 | REQUIRED | Ordered 24 sheets in colour (8) |
| QUIRE (24 sheets) inside RED (colour) | ||
| 28 | DENIER | He refuses a measure of silk (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | SWEPT OUT | Did a menial job but made a grand exit (5,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 30 | NETTLE | It grows painful to touch (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | APROPOS | A Rugby player, too fat to be fit (7) |
| A + PROP (Rugby player) + OS (too fat, over sized) | ||
| 2 | CORMORANT | Bird, bulb or insect (9) |
| CORM (bulb) + OR + ANT (insect) | ||
| 3 | TITBIT | Two birds, not the tern, make a tasty morsel (6) |
| TIT (a bird) + {BITTERN (another bird) minus TERN} No particular reason to use the word ‘the’. |
||
| 5 | RATS | Sun rising? Nonsense! (4) |
| Reversal, indicated by ‘rising’, of STAR (Sun, for example) | ||
| 6 | COMPOSED | Made up a number (8) |
| (Not so very) Cryptic / Double definition | ||
| 7 | EMEND | Putting me in goal is right (5) |
| ME inside END (goal) | ||
| 8 | STEP OUT | Leave the ranks and increase the pace (4,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | LIBERIA | Country ruler caught in false alibi (7) |
| ER (ruler) inside (ALIBI)* [* = false] | ||
| 14 | ADRENAL | Notice and learn about one sort of gland (7) |
| AD (notice) + (LEARN)* [* = about] | ||
| 17 | RESTRAINT | Teach the others about self-control (9) |
| TRAIN (teach) with REST (the others) around it | ||
| 18 | ORGANIST | Player given an awful roasting (8) |
| (ROASTING)* [* = awful] | ||
| 19 | DEPARTS | Sets out from French territory (7) |
| DE (from, in French) + PARTS (territory) I would be happy if someone could tell me why ‘territory’ is a good description of ‘parts’. |
||
| 21 | UNNERVE | Make someone unsettled – even run away (7) |
| (EVEN RUN)* [* = away] | ||
| 22 | ADHERE | Stick unusually hard with twice initial efficiency (6) |
| (HARD + E[fficiency] + E[fficiency])* [* = unusually] | ||
| 24 | PIQUE | Resentment shown when card game is unfinished (5) |
| PIQUET (card game) minus its last letter T | ||
| 26 | BEAU | Live with a university boyfriend (4) |
| BE (live) + A + U (university) | ||
*anagram
Hi Sil
The online Oxford has:
Parts – (informal) a region, especially one not clearly specified or delimited.
I had the initial reservations as you did.
Yes, in Scotland we refer to ‘airts and pairts’, broadly meaning other territories. But I thought some of the clueing was really tepid even by Dante’s standards. Eg. 9ac, 15ac, 20ac, 25ac, 30ac. Still fun to do, though, as ever.
Thanks Sil and Dante.
As far as I am aware, a female seal is known as a cow, and a young seal is a calf.
A mandarin jacket is collarless.
I seem to recall that the French often shorten their word Departments (e.g. Pas de Calais) to “Departs”.
Agree with you that “the” in 3 is superfluous as is the “one’s” in 12. I just put this down to the usual Dante smooth surface at the expense of precise clueing.
Whilst not usually a fan of Dante’s cryptic clues, I thought that 10 was excellent.
Thanks Dante and Sil
Found this at the medium – harder end of Dante’s range with the SW corner holding out stubbornly at the end. Eventually finished with SWEPT OUT, POPLAR and the tricky DEPARTS.
Some classic Dante economically clued words such as CORMORANT and the well hidden ALCOTT, but there were some of Hornbeam’s aptly called tepid ones.
Hamish, ‘mandarin’ meaning ‘a collarless jacket’ was my first association, too.
However, I was not sure whether the jacket itself should be called ‘mandarin’.
I decided to reject this option because of Dante then using the wrong part of speech.
Which, probably, is actually what he meant?
I left 15a blank even with s?a?.
No problem with 19d “I’m off to foreign parts next week”.
I took 25a to be the item of clothing.
Thanks Dante and Sil.
I was happy with “parts” (“parts unknown”, “round these parts” and so on — maybe it’s a regional thing? No pun intended).
For 5d I had assumed RATS from the wordplay but I don’t see how it means “nonsense”.