Monday Prize Crossword / Dec 19, 2016
Started at midnight in bed, finished at breakfast the next day – but did a lot of sleeping in between!
Very easy but enjoyable.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PARASITE | Freeloader taking seat in procession, duke having departed (8) |
| {PARADE (procession) minus D (duke)} around SIT (seat) | ||
| 5 | GOSSIP | Small drink following function causes rumour (6) |
| S (small) + SIP (drink), together coming after GO (function) | ||
| 10 | LARAMIE | Mailer novel about a town in Wyoming (7) |
| (MAILER)* around A [* = novel] Not the capital and not that big either (population just over 30,000). |
||
| 11 | UNCLEAR | Not easy to make out relative, a Republican (7) |
| UNCLE (relative) + A + R (Republican) | ||
| 12 | TOTAL | Young child at a large comprehensive (5) |
| TOT (young child) + A + L (large) | ||
| 13 | ISHERWOOD | One’s golf club entertaining that female novelist (9) |
| I’S (one’s) + WOOD (golf club), together around HER (that female) Christopher Isherwood (1904-1981). |
||
| 14 | BREATHTAKING | Comic at the bar – card, extremely impressive (12) |
| (AT THE BAR)* + KING (card) [* = comic] | ||
| 18 | MIXED DOUBLES | Tennis game, then assorted large drinks (5,7) |
| MIXED (assorted) + DOUBLES (large drinks) | ||
| 21 | KING COBRA | Venomous type? Man has company support (4,5) |
| KING (man, in chess) + CO (company) + BRA (support) | ||
| 23 | DELTA | Greek character dealt deviously (5) |
| (DEALT)* [* = deviously] My first one in and perhaps the easiest of the bunch. |
||
| 24 | OCARINA | Instrument installed in radio car in addition (7) |
| Hidden solution [installed in]: radio car in addition | ||
| 25 | OVERALL | Comprehensive cover? (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | TESTER | One carrying out an examination on canopy (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | STITCH UP | Falsely incriminate small person at college after last of thefts (6,2) |
| TITCH (small person) + UP (at college), together after [theft]S | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | POLITE | Well-mannered European drinking vermouth (6) |
| POLE (European) around IT (vermouth) As in ‘gin and it’. |
||
| 2 | RARITY | Fish seen round mouth of river? It’s something else (6) |
| RAY (fish) around {R[iver] + IT} | ||
| 3 | SIMPLY RED | Alone, embarrassed band (6,3) |
| SIMPLY (alone) + RED (embarassed) Their debut album Picture Book goes back to 1985 but Mick Hucknall is still alive and kicking. |
||
| 4 | THE VICAR OF BRAY | Satirical song in chart – a fiver, boy negotiated (3,5,2,4) |
| (CHART + A FIVER + BOY)* [* = negotiated] New to me but that’s perhaps due to a generation gap. Here it is: The Vicar of Bray (song). |
||
| 6 | ONCER | In the past, with ruler’s head, a £1 note (5) |
| ONCE (in the past) + R[uler] Also new to me, a slang word according to Collins. |
||
| 7 | STEP ON IT | Hurry up, or set point lost (4,2,2) |
| (SET POINT)* [* = lost] | ||
| 8 | PARADIGM | Model soldier, like leader of militia? (8) |
| PARA (soldier) + DIG (like, as a verb) + M[ilitia] | ||
| 9 | PUSH THE BOAT OUT | What RNLI crew may do to celebrate? (4,3,4,3) |
| Double / Cryptic definition For our overseas viewers: RNLI = Royal National Lifeboat Institution. |
||
| 15 | AMENDMENT | A repair, by workers on time for a change (9) |
| A + MEND (repair) + MEN (workers + T (time) | ||
| 16 | SMOKE OUT | Reveal cure available (5,3) |
| SMOKE (cure) + OUT (available) | ||
| 17 | OXONIANS | May and Johnson, perhaps, may provide answer between noon and six, if broadcast (8) |
| A (answer) inside (NOON + SIX)* [* = broadcast] Despite everything that recently happened, I knew they would have something in common. They were both at Oxford University. Sounds a bit like Etonians, doesn’t it? |
||
| 19 | BLEACH | A chemical that’s partly unstable, a chloride (6) |
| Hidden solution [partly]: unstable a chloride | ||
| 20 | WALLOP | Whack barrier round front of palace (6) |
| WALL (barrier) + O (round) + P[alace] | ||
| 22 | CHILE | Uncomfortably cold, reportedly, in a South American country (5) |
| Homophone [reportedly] of CHILLY (uncomfortably cold) | ||
*anagram
In 14a I think you mean + king.
Thanks Falcon and Sil
Quite straightforward as per usual with this setter. Must confess that I did have to look up to see what the RNLI meant – made the clue quire simple then. Only found out after looking up iT to see that it is an abbreviation of Italian vermouth.
LARAMIE brought back memories of reading western books in the shearing shed on our farm when I was a young fella !!!
ISHERWOOD, PARADIGM and STEP ON IT were the last few in.
Oops, yes, oldham.
Not sure whether ‘I meant’ that but now corrected …..