Monday Prize Crossword / Jun 27, 2016
Crux back on the scoresheet with an enjoyable and not too difficult challenge.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ASPERSION | Doctor No praises character assassination (9) |
| (NO PRAISES)* [* = doctor] | ||
| 6 | BREAD | Uneven parts of barley and wheat product (5) |
| Odd letters [uneven] of BARLEY AND | ||
| 9 | HERON | Brave fellow by name of Fisher (5) |
| HERO (brave fellow) + N (name) Quite an original definition, our wading bird likes fish. |
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| 10 | PIMPERNEL | Baroness’s flowery creation, much sought after in France (9) |
| Double definition, although somewhat interwoven. Pimpernel is a plant of the primrose family. The Scarlet Pimpernel is a novel from 1905 by Baroness Emma Orczy (1865-1947), set during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. The title character is Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English baron who rescues individuals from the guillotine. With each rescue he leaves behind a little card showing a small flower, indeed a scarlet pimpernel. |
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| 11 | SIXTH SENSE | These sins (about ten) could be mere intuition (5,5) |
| (THESE SINS)* around X (ten) [* = could be] | ||
| 12 | WI-FI | Partner said to get one provided free on trains? (2-2) |
| Homophone [said] of WIFE (partner) + I (one) | ||
| 14 | TEDIOUS | Working outside can be boring (7) |
| (OUTSIDE)* [* = working] | ||
| 15 | SAURIAN | Lizard-like statuary oddly chosen by Scot (7) |
| Odd letters of STATUARY + IAN (Scot) | ||
| 17 | INSIGHT | Clearly evident wit, in a word (7) |
| IN SIGHT (clearly evident) plus INSIGHT [as one word] (wit) | ||
| 19 | AVERAGE | Normal standard of school-leaver? A genius! (7) |
| Hidden solution [of]: school-leaver a genius | ||
| 20 | ENVY | Sin of every normally virile youth, originally (4) |
| First letters [originally] of: every normally virile youth | ||
| 22 | DEPRESSION | Misery often associated with the deep Atlantic (10) |
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | DISCOMFIT | Sidney’s round sugared almond causes upset (9) |
| Reversal [round] of SID (Sidney) + COMFIT (sugared almond) | ||
| 26 | OWING | Outstanding old part of mansion (5) |
| O (old) + WING (part of mansion) | ||
| 27 | ROAST | Right sort of oven for Sunday lunch (5) |
| R (right) + OAST (sort of oven) | ||
| 28 | HORSEMEAT | Cook includes Rome’s ingredients in equine fare (9) |
| HEAT (cook) around (ROME’S)* [* = ingredients] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ASHES | What remains of a sporting trophy (5) |
| Double definition Nitpickers would argue that it is The Ashes and not just Ashes. |
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| 2 | PEROXIDES | They should lighten up non-U version of Oedipus Rex (9) |
| (OEDIP[u]S REX)* [* = version of] | ||
| 3 | RUN THROUGH | Practise to kill with a sword? (3,7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | IMPRESS | What the reporter said in Shanghai, perhaps (7) |
| I’M PRESS (what the reporter said) To shanghai, as a verb. |
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| 5 | NEMESIS | Goddess of deserts? (7) |
| Nemesis is the goddess of retribution and vengeance. I am happy to hear what ‘of deserts?’ has to do with it. See Rishi’s comment @1 (for which thanks). |
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| 6 | BREN | Songbird, black- not white-headed, shot with it? Surely not! (4) |
| WREN (songbird) with B[lack] replacing W[hite] A bren is a light machine-gun. One’s not going to shoot a bird with such a thing, surely? One should not shoot a bird anyway. |
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| 7 | ENNUI | Unseen nuisance is a source of tedium (5) |
| Hidden solution [is a source of]: unseen nuisance | ||
| 8 | DALLIANCE | Daughter’s marriage regarded as a casual affair! (9) |
| D (daughter) + ALLIANCE (marriage) | ||
| 13 | SUPERSTORE | Pressure to break up major retailer (10) |
| (PRESSURE TO)* [* = break up] | ||
| 14 | TAILENDER | Last man in, inexperienced, about to be sick (9) |
| TENDER (inexperienced) around AIL (to be sick) Think: cricket. |
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| 16 | ITALICISE | Type inclined to show stress (9) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 18, 23 | TWELFTH NIGHT | Play near the end of its second week? (7,5) |
| A week has 13/14 nights, so no.12 comes quite close to the end | ||
| 19 | AERATOR | A European rodent, or maybe a worm (7) |
| A + E (European) + RAT (rodent) + OR Oxford gives us as one of the meanings of ‘worm’: the coiled pipe of a still in which the vapour is cooled and condensed. That’s it, I guess. For a simpler explanation, see Hamish’s post @2. He may actually be right. |
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| 21 | VISTA | Panorama from the pass – about time! (5) |
| VISA (pass) around T (time) | ||
| 23 | See 18 | |
| 24 | ROOT | Heartless android gives cheer to Americans (4) |
| ROBOT (android) minus its middle letter B Chambers tell us that ‘root’ can be: to shout, applaud, support or encourage (a contestant, etc) [with for or on] Its usage is originally US, therefore Crux’s addition ‘to Americans’. |
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*anagram
As you might know, ‘just deserts’ (I will never use the wrong expression ‘just desserts’) means “a punishment or reward that is considered to be what the recipient deserved”.
When Nemesis catches up with us, I think we would receive punishment to match the dark deed that we perpetrated.
Isn’t then Nemesis ‘a goddess of deserts’?
Thanks Sil and Crux.
I had NEMESIS as Rishi and marked it as a favourite clue.
For 19dn, I think it’s just that worms actually help to aerate the soil – which can help to encourage root growth.
I did wonder whether the tense was right in 16dn, seems to suggest that the answer should have a D on the end. But not enough of a quibble to worry over.
PEROXIDE showed up in Guardian 15276 which I did on the same day.
Thanks Rishi and Hamish for your additions.
I wasn’t familiar with the expession ‘just deserts’ (but now I am).
Hamish, I thought about the tense in 16d too but I think it might just work if you see ‘type’ as a verb.
Thanks Crux and Sil
A gentle intermediary in between the backlog of hard ones that I’d left myself with and am now working through !! Even so, there were quite a few interesting clues sprinkled in it.
Parsed 5d and 19d as did the guys above and thought that they were both very nice clues. Had to do some research to see the connection between the Atlantic and DEPRESSION – still seems weird thinking of a tropical depression heading northwards. 🙂 It was my last one in after the unusual DISCOMFIT and the underground AERATOR.
Oh … I forgot to mention (and I know that its purely rhetorical at this stage), but I thought that TWELFTH NIGHT referred to the evening of January 5 which was near the end of the second week after Christmas.