Monday Prize Crossword / Jul 25, 2016
While I more or less, just like others, breezed through the same day’s Rufus, this puzzle by his alter ego I found quite hard.
A puzzle with no less than 10 (!) double definitions and some cryptic definitions that weren’t very helpful.
It might have been just me.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ORANGE | Fruit – a round variety (6) |
| O ((a) round) + RANGE (variety) | ||
| 4 | BACKLASH | Violent reaction against a flogging? (8) |
| Double definition The first of many! |
||
| 9 | IN SITU | Unit is possibly Roman, naturally placed (2,4) |
| (UNIT IS)* [* = possibly] Dante adds ‘Roman’ to help the surface. It gives us also an addition to the definition as the solution is a Latin term. |
||
| 10 | APHORISM | Saying or mishap, perhaps (8) |
| (OR MISHAP)* [* = perhaps] | ||
| 12 | TURNED ON | Suddenly attacked by a state of ecstasy (6,2) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | THIEVE | Take things the wrong way (6) |
| Cryptic definition I could only find the solution after having all the crossers. The idea was clear but there surely must be other six-letter words that would make a perfect solution. |
||
| 15 | STEM | Staunch supporter of the wine glass (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | SKINFLINTS | Pirate hides out among Scrooge-like people (10) |
| FLINT (pirate) with SKINS (hides) on the outside The pirate here is Captain J Flint, a character created by Robert Louis Stevenson and appearing in Treasure Island. |
||
| 19 | KETTLE-DRUM | Two containers for a musical instrument (6-4) |
| KETTLE (a container) + DRUM (another container) | ||
| 20 | AGOG | Excited about grand ring set in silver (4) |
| G (grand) + O (ring), together around AG (silver) | ||
| 23 | ARROWS | They may be all in a quiver (6) |
| Cryptic definition If you know that one of the meanings of ‘quiver’ is ‘a case for arrows’, then this is hardly cryptic. If you are not familiar with it (like me), then this clue was almost impossible to solve. The W saved me! |
||
| 25 | DECLARED | Announced how innings was closed (8) |
| Double definition The second definition is a cricket term: ‘to declare’ = ‘to end an innings voluntarily before 10 wickets have fallen’. |
||
| 27 | OBDURATE | Throw out bread that’s hard (8) |
| (OUT BREAD)* [* = throw] | ||
| 28 | HORACE | Name for a house competition (6) |
| HO (house) + RACE (competition) This clue may perhaps evoke reactions similar to Rufus’ DANIEL (on the same Monday in the Guardian) . That was simply clued as ‘he’, giving room to many solvers for having deeper thoughts on which Daniel he could mean. Here we have a man’s name, just clued by ‘name’ – and again that’s all there is, I’m afraid. Not a problem for me but some may find it unsatisfactory? |
||
| 29 | SEND DOWN | Expel from university and convey to prison (4,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 30 | REASON | Debate the cause (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | OPIATES | A poet is affected by drugs (7) |
| (A POET IS)* [* = affected] Having O?I in the beginning, I was so focused on Ovid that the penny dropped much later than it should have. |
||
| 2 | ABSORBENT | Sailor told to go round the globe taking things in? (9) |
| AB (sailor) + SENT (told to go) around ORB ((the) globe) | ||
| 3 | GATHER | Conclude contract (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | AMPS | Word understood by an electrician – or [a word understood by] a chemist (4) |
| Double definition My last one in. I guess this is about an electrician understanding electric current (‘amp’ being short for ‘ampere’), while AMP can also mean ‘adenosine monophosphate’, stuff for a (bio)chemist. |
||
| 6 | KNOTHOLE | Part of the deal, perhaps, sounds incomplete (8) |
| Homophone [sounds] of: NOT WHOLE (incomplete) ‘Deal’ as in ‘wood’. |
||
| 7 | ALICE | Celia turned out to be a young Victorian heroine (5) |
| (CELIA)* [* = turned out] Alice in Wonderland etc. |
||
| 8 | HAMPERS | Impedes with large baskets (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | COCKADE | Capital investment as a status symbol, perhaps (7) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 14 | INSURED | If I get nursed incompetently, I’m covered (7) |
| I + (NURSED)* [* = incompetently] | ||
| 17 | NIGERIANS | Africans resign in a reorganisation (9) |
| (RESIGN IN A)* [* = reorganisation] | ||
| 18 | GLOWERED | Looked furious when note was reduced in pitch (8) |
| G (note) + LOWERED (was reduced in pitch) | ||
| 19 | KLAXONS | They may act as warnings (7) |
| Cryptic definition Unless there is more to this clue, I assume that there might be more suitable solutions. I had to wait for the K to get this right. |
||
| 21 | GUDGEON | Fish with a pin, possibly (7) |
| Double definition The last of many! |
||
| 22 | ALCOVE | Opening vocal variation to Elgar’s First (6) |
| (VOCAL)* + E[lgar] [* = variation] | ||
| 24 | RODIN | Stick in a sculptor as the answer (5) |
| ROD (stick) + IN | ||
| 26 | STOW | Cram for a sound public school (4) |
| Homophone [sound] of: STOWE (public school) Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, part of the Rugby Group. Old Stoics include: Sir Richard Branson, Roger Hodgson (of Supertramp fame), David Niven and Lord Sainsbury. |
||
*anagram
Thanks Sil and Dante.
Much the same feelings as you Sil except I did look up to see if MPS at 5dn had more meaning – and it does, Member of the Pharmaceutical Society (a chemist). But surely the definition could have been better than “word understood by an electrician”.
I know Dante likes his surfaces but sometimes with Dante they detract from the clue rather than adding to it – such as the “a” in 1ac and the “among” in 16.
But I have learnt that a COCKADE is a ribbon worn in a hat and that a Gudgeon is also a pin in a piston ring.
So always worth it.
Couldn’t get 3d or 5d . The chemist bit is obscure to me.
Thanks Dante and Sil
I can’t remember too many harder Dante puzzles than this one – even this many months after it was published. Thoroughly enjoyed it though – even with the high number of double definitions presented, his subtle use of some of the definitions made them not gimmes and still very gettable.
Had the most problems with 19A and 19D – had originally written in KETTLE DRUM but then convinced myself that 19d could only be BEACONS and changed it to BOTTLE DRUM. Could find no convincing instrument for it … and had to look a bit harder to find KLAXON and revert back to my original entry at 19a.
He’s an interesting setter with his unique style and when he makes them a little harder like this one, his puzzles are much, much better I think.
Finished with that tricky AMPS and like Hamish had to look up the MPS chemist society to fully understand the second part of the clue.