Monday Prize Crossword / May 15, 2017
One may think ‘another Monday, another Dante’ but I had a very different experience this time.
Quite a few answers came rather late, and there are even two solutions I cannot (fully) parse, I am afraid.
Even after asking my crossword partner for help.
So, any thoughts on, in particular, 9ac and 21d will be much appreciated.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AMIDST | Central roundabout poorly-lit in a way (6) |
| Reversal [roundabout] of DIM (poorly-lit) inside A ST (way, street) Not sure whether ‘amidst’ and ‘central’ are interchangeable. |
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| 4 | USURPERS | Wild pursuers of regal status (8) |
| (PURSUERS)* [* = wild] The clue as a whole is the definition, I assume. |
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| 9 | DANCES | Scandinavians hold a number – and so do we (6) |
| DANES (Scandinavians) around C (a number, 100) I guess this is the right solution but I haven’t got a clue how ‘and so do we’ might lead to some sort of definition. Help needed! Some commenters below have shone their light on this (with Niocti B thinking the solution might even be DANTES). |
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| 10 | DOUGHNUT | Sweet cookie, one with a head for money? (8) |
| One having a DOUGH (money) NUT (head) | ||
| 12 | BARN-DOOR | You can’t miss the entrance to this store (4-4) |
| A ‘barn-door’ is of course the entrance to a barn. It is also, figuratively, a target so large that it cannot be missed. |
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| 13 | ATTILA | He attacked the Romans but turned tail at first (6) |
| AT + (TAIL)* [* = turned] | ||
| 15 | EMMA | Novel companion for Nelson (4) |
| Double definition The famous novel by Jane Austen, an infamous crossword chestnut. Plus model and actress Emma, Lady Hamilton (born Amy Lyon), misstress of Lord Nelson. |
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| 16 | SEMIQUAVER | Very little music, but it makes the house shake! (10) |
| SEMI (house) + QUAVER (shake) A semiquaver is half a quaver, a quaver is half a crotchet,a crotchet is half a minim. Not that I knew all this, just read it somewhere. |
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| 19 | JUST THE JOB | Exactly what is needed in employment (4,3,3) |
| (Kind of) Double definition | ||
| 20 | SCAR | Wound bringing endless panic (4) |
| SCAR[e] (panic, without the last letter) | ||
| 23 | MOCKED | Phoney journalist made fun of (6) |
| MOCK (phoney) + ED (journalist, the editor) | ||
| 25 | RELIEVED | Thankful to have finished one’s duty (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | JUMPED-UP | Started at university, but appeared conceited (6-2) |
| JUMPED (started) + UP (at university) | ||
| 28 | SIERRA | One range held by a hosier ran out (6) |
| Hidden solution [held by]: a hosier ran out | ||
| 29 | TICKLISH | It is difficult being so sensitive (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 30 | PHRASE | Quietly share out a few words from a tourist guide? (6) |
| P (quietly) + (SHARE)* [* = out] From a tourist guide?? Yes, from ‘a tourist guide’: PHRASE is an anagram of ‘sherpa’, albeit an indirect one – hmm. Well spotted, Niocti B @5. |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | AUDIBLE | Release bail due in hearing (7) |
| (BAIL DUE)* [* = release] | ||
| 2 | IGNORAMUS | One is not intelligent or amusing, unfortunately (9) |
| (OR AMUSING)* [* = unfortunately] | ||
| 3 | STEADY | Stable companion (6) |
| Double definition ‘Steady’ can be a noun meaning boy- or girlfriend, think ‘going steady’. Theresa May would have had another six letter word as the solution, surely. 🙂 |
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| 5 | SHOP | Give away business? (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | RIGHTFUL | Terrible female removed from top position, as is proper (8) |
| FRIGHTFUL (terrible) minus the first letter F (female) | ||
| 7 | ENNUI | World-weariness of the French (5) |
| A straightforward definition … … perhaps made slightly cryptic by adding ‘of the French’ (just because it’s a French word?). |
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| 8 | SET FAIR | Favourable weather forecast, but fear it’s incorrect (3,4) |
| (FEAR IT’S)* [* = incorrect] | ||
| 11 | FORESEE | Anticipate materials being taken in payment (7) |
| ORES (material, plural of ‘ore’) inside FEE (payment) | ||
| 14 | BIGOTED | Refusing to listen to reason, I got put into bed (7) |
| I GOT inside BED | ||
| 17 | VICE VERSA | Eve’s vicar is upset when the order is changed (4,5) |
| (EVE’S VICAR)* [* = upset] | ||
| 18 | ETHEREAL | The brewed ale there is heavenly! (8) |
| (ALE THERE)* [* = brewed] | ||
| 19 | JUMP JET | Harrier, say, seen in spring stream (4,3) |
| JUMP (spring) + JET (stream) An aircraft that can take off and land vertically. This clue has the second appearance of ‘jump’ (after 27ac that crosses it!). |
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| 21 | RADIATE | Spoke out in broadcast (7) |
| Unless the solution is not right, I cannot explain this at all. So, once more, help needed! The definition is, of course, ‘broadcast’ (therefore now underlined). And I think that Hamish & others are rightby alluding to a ‘spoke’ in a wheel. |
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| 22 | FINISH | Polish, perhaps, or not, by the sound of it (6) |
| Homophone [by the sound of it] of FINNISH (which surely is not Polish) | ||
| 24 | COMIC | Funny business with farmhouse victims (5) |
| CO (business) + MIC[e] (farmhouse victims, mice with having their tails cut off) Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer’s wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife, Did you ever see such a sight in your life, As three blind mice? |
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| 26 | GUNS | Bangers provided up in the bar parlour (4) |
| Reversal [up] of SNUG (bar parlour) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Sil and Dante.
I’m afraid I couldn’t understand DANCES properly.
At 3D I took the “companion” part to be as in “going steady”.
21d I think is relating to the spoke of a wheel that radiates from the hub.
Same conclusions as Hamish@1. I assume 9a has something to do with dance numbers but don’t get it.
Thanks Dante & Sil.
In 21 down, in addition to Hamish’s interpretation of “spoke”, I think that “broadcast” may allude to the electromagnetic radiation from the transmitter.
Thanks for explaining “comic” in 24 down — one of those Dante clues that seems easy to solve by guesswork but has hidden meaning.
And in 9 across I suppose that “we” (the British?) “hold a number” of dances.
I think the answer to 9 across could be “Dantes” referring to Dantes circle? “And so do we” more than one Dante (the setter)?
30 “tourist guide” Sherpa
9. Forgot to say also a “T-number” measures cyclones.
Thanks to all who commented above.
21d: How on earth could I have missed ‘broadcast’ as the definition for RADIATE.
It leaves us with a ‘spoke’ bit that is almost certainly alluding to a wheel.
That said, I still don’t find the clue as a whole very convincing.
9ac: Surely an original idea, Niocti B, opting for DANTES.
But (a) it is not a proper word, and (b) I don’t think ‘a number’ for T is part of Dante’s vocabulary.
I’m probably with psmith @4 but does it convince me?
30ac: Well, that’s a surprise: PHRASE is an anagram of ‘sherpa’.
Unusual for Dante to put an extra layer into one of his clues.
Well spotted, Niocti B.
Blog tweaked where needed.
Still don’t like any of the explanations for 9a. Think we may have to put this down to yet another poor Dante clue (I bet a few of us still recall that awful cryptic clue for ‘grocer’ from some time back). Just to add to explanations I don’t like: how about ‘we’ referring to FT, or ‘foxtrot, tango’, which are dances. That would make it a cryptic definition followed by an even more cryptic one.
So pleased that for once the same 9a clue I too was unable to parse and I originally put sherpa in for 30a, until I realised didn’t fit and changed. Thanks for trying to sort out 9a, but don’t really understand the reasoning behind the answer. Well done Sil.
Thanks Dante and Sil
I reckon that this would be the hardest puzzle of Roger Squires that I’ve done in any paper, so it was no surprise that I ended up with a couple wrong. I had put in DESERVED in at 25a (DE-SERVED as in finished one’s duty (in the army)) and somehow thought that was close enough to ‘thankful’. This left only JEWISH to go down at 22 which was completely unparsed and as it turns out completely wrong !!! 🙁
Was another nearly tricked with the second wordplay of SHERPA at 30a initially, before seeing the light.
Struggled with the parsing of DANCES as well – eventually had is as Dante personifying DANCES as we (think of if he had used ‘they’ instead) so that a dance (in the sense of a ball or a social gathering where people dance) would hold a number (‘one of the separate offerings in a program of music or other entertainment’).
A tough solve that drew errors … and nice to have fellow posters for a Monday puzzle for once.