Monday Prize Crossword / Apr 10, 2017
Dante: all rather familiar (and enjoyable), still enough to discuss.
That said, there won’t be many solvers around here to join in, I fear.
I can’t even join in myself as I am out of the country without access to the Internet!
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WEDDING MARCH | Union demonstration? (7,5) |
| Cryptic definition, or just WEDDING (union) + MARCH (demomstration) But if you go for the charade then there is no definition. |
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| 10 | ENTRANT | Competitor in event ran terribly (7) |
| Hidden solution [in]: event ran terribly | ||
| 11 | IMAGINE | Fancy a Lennon song (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | IDAHO | State in which I had returned with love (5) |
| I + a reversal [returned] of HAD + O (love) | ||
| 13 | SENTINEL | Guard despatched to breached line (8) |
| SENT (despatched) + (LINE)* [* = breached] | ||
| 15 | EXTRA-MURAL | The kind of learning that is beyond the pale (5-5) |
| Cryptic definition I can’t say I liked this one very much. |
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| 16 | STEW | Puts water back in dish (4) |
| Reversal [back] of WETS (puts water in) To make it really work in a cryptic sense the words ‘back’ and ‘in’ should be swapped. That would give us a very odd surface, so I can see why Dante did it like he did. |
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| 18 | READ | Not quite willing to study? (4) |
| READ[y] (willing, not quite i.e. minus the last letter) Not sure why Dante chose to have a question mark at the end. |
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| 20 | ROUND TABLE | Did King Arthur’s knights ever get a square meal at this? (5- 5) |
| Cryptic definition That wasn’t too hard, was it? |
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| 22 | NEATHERD | Stockman working here and there (8) |
| (AND THERE)* [* = working (here)] A bit of an awkward one as the word ‘here’ seems to be out of place (when taking the obvious ‘working’ as the anagram indicator). If you add ‘here’ to the indicator, it might well work. |
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| 24 | NEWEL | Sounds like a strange letter in the post (5) |
| Homophone [sounds like]: NEW (strange) EL (letter, the L) I guess that’s how it works. Initially, I was thinking of the Greek ‘nu‘ as the ‘strange letter’ but then we would be missing something. |
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| 26 | ABANDON | . . . and the sailor is first on leave (7) |
| AND preceded by AB (sailor), then + ON | ||
| 27 | UTOPIAN | An ideal description (7) |
| Cryptic definition Easy but is the grammar right? |
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| 28 | THERE AND THEN | Instantly, but not here and now (5,3,4) |
| THERE (not here) AND THEN (not now) – doubly negative | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EXTRACT | Passage taken out of religious pamphlet (7) |
| EX ((taken) out of) + TRACT (religious pamphlet) | ||
| 3 | DIAGONAL | Help over a long wiggly line (8) |
| Reversal [over] of AID (help) + (A LONG)* [* = wiggly] | ||
| 4 | NETT | New tent free of all charges (4) |
| (TENT)* [* = new] How easy can an anagram be? |
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| 5 | MAIDEN AUNT | Relative to help people out, a social worker around university (6,4) |
| {AID ((to) help, again!) without MEN (people) outside of it} + {ANT (a social worker) around U (university)} | ||
| 6 | ROAST | Give a real telling-off to cook (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | HAIRNET | Cover for the head from the rain (7) |
| (THE RAIN)* [* = from] | ||
| 8 | MEDITERRANEAN | Versatile men are trained for the sea |
| (MEN ARE TRAINED)* [* = versatile] | ||
| 9 | FELLOW-FEELING | Don’s touching sympathy (6-7) |
| FELLOW (don) + FEELING (touching) | ||
| 14 | OUT OF RANGE | Too far away from the cowboy’s sphere? (3,2,5) |
| Double / Cryptic definition Johnny was dreaming about a home on the range. |
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| 17 | STAND OUT | To be conspicuous, don’t sit inside (5,3) |
| STAND (don’t sit) OUT ((don’t be inside) – doubly negative | ||
| 19 | ADAMANT | A hindrance to a worker in firm (7) |
| A + DAM (hindrance) + ANT (a worker, again!) | ||
| 21 | BOWLINE | Painter in a knot (7) |
| Double definition No artist here nor an anagram (as ‘in a knot’ could be an indicator). A ‘painter’ can be a rope for fastening the bow of a boat to whatever. The solution is also a kind of knot: a simple knot which makes a loop that will not slip at the end of a rope (Chambers). |
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| 23 | HEDGE | Sit on the fence, or something similar (5) |
| ‘To hedge’ is a bit like ‘to sit on a fence’ [to avoid making a choice], and a fence is perhaps somewhat similar to a HEDGE as it may separate you from your neighbour The first time that, as a non-Brit, I came across the expression above was in 1966 when Twice As Much sang Sittin’ on a Fence into the charts. The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. |
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| 25 | RUIN | Game at home results in defeat (4) |
| RU (game, Rugby Union) + IN (at home) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Dante and Sil
A pretty typical Dante that went in without too many problems apart from EXTRA MURAL (which I didn’t know and which was made more difficult with that cryptic definition).
Did initially write in PROTEST MARCH across the top which was invalidated almost immediately with the easy 4d anagram.
Finished with MEDITERRANEAN and NEATHERD as the last couple in.
Thanks Dante & Sil. The grammar of 27 across suggested to me that the solution must be A[something ideal]. A hazy recollection of Oscar Wilde’s novel, and the accommodating crossers, gave the adjective ADORIAN, which the Urban Dictionary defines as adorable, kind, sweet, or charming. 25 down was then a bit tricky, but I settled on FAIN – where FA is the game Football (Association). My computer dictionary gives one definition of fain as compelled by the circumstances; obliged – which is a mild defeat I concluded!
EXTRA MURAL was the first clue I got on the other hand. Pale = boundary or fence most famously in the pale of the settlement in Tsarist Russia where Jews could live. Hence beyond the pale.
For once I completed this in under an hour, so concluded it must be one of Dante’s easier puzzles. Thank you Dante and Sil.