Monday Prize Crossword / Jul 18, 2016
Armonie (aka Chifonie at another place) is for many solvers the ideal person to take the Monday (or Tuesday) slot.
No devious constructions, with everything far off the borders of Crosswordland.
That said, there was still some work to do!
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DEARTH | Shortage of spun thread (6) |
| (THREAD)* [* = spun] | ||
| 4 | DISCUSES | Record employs sports equipment (8) |
| DISC (record) + USES (employs) | ||
| 9 | MACRON | Stress has sovereign tucking into wine (6) |
| R (sovereign, i.e. king or queen) inside MACON (wine) | ||
| 10 | STAMPEDE | Headlong rush crammed into corner (8) |
| TAMPED (crammed) inside SE (corner, i.e. south-east) | ||
| 12 | SALE | Deal is small beer (4) |
| S (small) + ALE (beer) | ||
| 13 | CHARGEHAND | Supervisor gets help after assault (10) |
| HAND (help) coming after CHARGE (assault) | ||
| 15 | INDEPENDENCE | Nine needed PC corrupted to get freedom (12) |
| (NINE NEEDED PC)* [* = corrupted] | ||
| 18 | INTIMIDATION | I had been taken in by hint of browbeating (12) |
| I’D (I had) inside INTIMATION (hint) | ||
| 21 | CONGREGATE | Get together to trick Greek and force entry (10) |
| CON ((to) trick) + GR (Greek) + E (force) + GATE (entry) Personally, I do not like E = ‘force’ very much but the dictionaries tell us that E can mean ‘electromotive force’ (a term in Physics). |
||
| 22 | CLUE | What you see is left in potter’s equipment (4) |
| L (left) inside CUE (potter’s equipment, i.e. of a snooker player) | ||
| 24 | OMISSION | Oscar’s calling for exclusion (8) |
| O (Oscar) + MISSION (calling) | ||
| 25 | DOWNER | Developed wonder drug (6) |
| (WONDER)* [* = developed] | ||
| 26 | THE ENEMY | Satan has people holding energy workers back (3,5) |
| THEY (people) around { E (energy) + a reversal [back] of MEN (workers) } | ||
| 27 | SEE RED | Sibyl and Edward become angry (3,3) |
| SEER (Sibyl) + ED (Edward) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DOMESTIC | Benedictine cites unruly servant (8) |
| DOM (Benedictine) + (CITES)* [* = unruly] ‘Dom’ is a title given to members of some monastic people like e.g. the Benedictines. Dom Benedictine is also a very nice (well, in my opinion) liqueur, in which D.O.M. means Deo Optimo Maximo. |
||
| 2 | ACCOLADE | Recognition for master quaffing drink with duke (8) |
| ACE (master) around { COLA (drink) + D (duke) } | ||
| 3 | TOOL | Device for mounting rifle (4) |
| Reversal [mounting] of LOOT (rifle, as a verb) | ||
| 5 | INTERMEDIATE | Bury Lawrence without news channels? That’s mean! (12) |
| INTER (bury) + TE (Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia), together around MEDIA (news channels) | ||
| 6 | COMMERCIAL | Lucrative publicity (10) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | SEE-SAW | Notices a cow’s tail swing (3- 3) |
| SEES (notices) + A [co]W | ||
| 8 | SPEEDY | Quick to become unwell carrying priest (6) |
| SEEDY (unwell) around P (priest) | ||
| 11 | CHANGING ROOM | Caught droppin’ curry in the sports pavilion (8,4) |
| C (caught) + HANGIN’ (droppin’) + GROOM (curry) | ||
| 14 | OPEN PRISON | Nick the honest priest is working (4,6) |
| OPEN (honest) + PR (priest) + IS + ON (working) This setter is usually precise and therefore I wondered why he included ‘the’. Also, ‘Nick’ is not really a perfect definition for the solution. Somehow, I found this messy. |
||
| 16 | MILLINER | Prospector harbours sick retailer (8) |
| MINER (prospector) around ILL (sick) | ||
| 17 | ENDEARED | Finished receiving attention and charmed (8) |
| ENDED (finished) around EAR (attention) | ||
| 19 | ACCOST | A conservative asking price for buttonhole (6) |
| A + C (Conservative) + COST (asking price) | ||
| 20 | UNRIPE | Green and out of sorts in Peru (6) |
| (IN PERU)* [* = out of sorts] | ||
| 23 | MOLE | Causeway in beauty spot (4) |
| Double definition The first is in all dictionaries (as is the second) so no complaints. For me, as one living in Cambridge, Causeway is the Fen Causeway. Immortalised in High Hopes, the final song of Pink Floyd’s 1994 album The Division Bell. (actually, t’was long before I came to the UK) |
||
*anagram
14a: ‘the’ merely helps in improved surface reading but as you have noted it does not have any role in wordplay. As ‘the honest priest’ is in apposition, I might expect commas after ‘Nick’ and ‘priest’ but then nowadays people don’t seem to pay much attention to commas, hyphens and other punctuation marks.
I too thought every nick is not an open prison; so the def leaves something to be desired.
Is there a school of thought that definitions need not be too accurate – if they are, subsidiary indication becomes superfluous.
Thanks Sil and Dante.
A nice steady puzzle.
I also had a mild question mark over 14dn but there’s nothing that makes it unfair. Because it stands out from the other clues, do I detect an editorial hand at work?
Defeated by the intersecting 9a and 3d.For 3d I was fixated with rifle being a firearm and never thought of the other meaning. Never heard of a macron
Thanks Armonie and Sil
This took a little longer than normal from this setter – maybe caused by the definitions that needed to be stretched a bit – 5d, 6d, 14d and the tricky 22a (my last one in).
Parsed 10a wrongly having STAMPED (crammed, hmm not really) – E (which is a side rather than a corner).
Always look forward to an Armonie and Dante to provide an easier challenge in between some of the more difficult ones that come along … and their ability to find a variation of the definition of a common word is good.