Monday Prize Crossword / Oct 9, 2017
Safe & Sound offering from Falcon, ideal for those learning the game.
I’m afraid I found this crossword a bit run-of-the-mill.
Or am I too harsh now?
I liked 18ac (in particular), 15d and 27d for various reasons but all in all there was too much of the obvious.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 9 | CONTRALTO | Singer, trained at control (9) |
| (AT CONTROL)* [* = trained] | ||
| 10 | ROGUE | Profligate pinching grand, the scoundrel (5) |
| ROUE (profligate) around G (grand) | ||
| 11 | APROPOS | A rugby player – very large, incidentally (7) |
| A + PROP (rugby player) + OS (very large) | ||
| 12 | RETINUE | Body of aides always keeping one back (7) |
| E’ER (always) around UNIT (one), then reversed [back] | ||
| 13 | RAP | Mean to return for a conversation (3) |
| Reversal [to return] of PAR (mean) | ||
| 14 | COLLABORATE | Join forces with colonel and hold forth about Labour (11) |
| COL (colonel) + ORATE (hold forth), together around LAB (Labour) | ||
| 17 | RODEO | Drive in Beverly Hills – stick on Wilshire, ultimately heading for Olympic (5) |
| ROD (stick) + [Wilshir]E + O[lympic] | ||
| 18 | DUE | Expected to be paid enough (3) |
| Triple definition | ||
| 19 | COMET | Celestial body to arrive by end of August (5) |
| COME (to arrive) + [Augus]T | ||
| 21 | MOONLIGHTER | Medical Officer on barge, one doing a second job (11) |
| MO (Medical Officer) + ON + LIGHTER (barge) | ||
| 23 | SOP | Like this parking concession (3) |
| SO (like this) + P (parking) | ||
| 25 | MALLARD | Duck taken from arcade – charge wife denied (7) |
| MALL (arcade) + {WARD (charge) minus W (wife)} | ||
| 27 | SKID ROW | Argue after small child brings one to squalid part of town (4,3) |
| ROW (argue) coming after {S (small) + KID (child)} | ||
| 28 | ENTER | Come in to register (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | VELODROME | Loved racing on capital racetrack (9) |
| (LOVED)* + ROME (capital) [* = racing] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ECLAIR | Alice crumbling up last of layer cake (6) |
| (ALICE)* + [laye]R [* = crumbling up] | ||
| 2 | INTREPID | I printed anyhow, being fearless (8) |
| (I PRINTED)* [* = anyhow] | ||
| 3 | PREP SCHOOL | Source of early training? Piano salesman’s reportedly unenthusiastic (4,6) |
| P (piano) + homophone [reportedly] of REP’S COOL (salesman’s unenthusiastic) | ||
| 4 | PLUS | In addition, luxurious hotel omitted (4) |
| PLUSH (luxurious) minus H (hotel) | ||
| 5 | TOURNAMENT | What we’re called in explosive contest? (10) |
| OUR NAME (what we’re called) inside TNT (explosive) | ||
| 6 | WRIT | Intelligence needed to secure right legal document (4) |
| WIT (intelligence) around R (right) | ||
| 7 | AGENDA | Old article about northern programme (6) |
| AGED (old) + A (article), together around N (northern) | ||
| 8 | SEVEREST | First to scale mountain, most dangerous (8) |
| S[cale] + EVEREST (mountain) | ||
| 15 | LADY GODIVA | Gay old eccentric eager to come up with a fiver in Bow? (4,6) |
| (GAY OLD)* + reversal [to come up] of AVID (eager) [* = eccentric] | ||
| 16 | OSCAR WILDE | Award presented to fantastic English playwright (5,5) |
| OSCAR (award) + WILD (fantastic) + E (English) | ||
| 17 | REMEMBER | Don’t forget about constituent (8) |
| RE (about) + MEMBER (constituent) | ||
| 20 | MUSHROOM | Grow rapidly in Greek character’s hot chamber (8) |
| MU (Greek character) + H (hot) + ROOM (chamber) | ||
| 22 | OF LATE | Old apartment put on sale, finally, in the recent past (2,4) |
| O (old) + FLAT (apartment) + [sal]E | ||
| 24 | POWDER | Explosive duke in command (6) |
| D (duke) inside POWER (command) | ||
| 26 | AURA | Gold artist used to create atmosphere (4) |
| AU (gold) + RA (artist) | ||
| 27 | SOLE | Only one type of music on the radio (4) |
| Homophone [on the radio] of SOUL (type of music) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Falcon and Sil
I’m certainly no racer when doing crosswords, but this was all over in a little more than 10 minutes, so agree that it was at the very beginning of beginner’s puzzles. No bad thing when I remember back to when I first started doing these things – this would’ve been a good one to keep one coming back!
SKID ROW was the last one in … probably cos it was in the SE corner where the clues in order took me to.