Monday Prize Crossword / Oct 17, 2016
Some Dante puzzles are harder than others.
Let’s put it this way: it didn’t find this the easiest of crosswords.
I had some trouble to complete the South, an area full of cryptic definitions.
Last one in: 13ac, after two days of thinking (and asking my solving partner and googling).
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PARCEL | Quietly clear for development, making a packet (6) |
| P (quietly) + (CLEAR)* [* = for development] | ||
| 4 | RELATION | Story of never-ending euphoria (8) |
| [neve]R + ELATION (euphoria) | ||
| 9 | TASSEL | It hangs with not so much at back (6) |
| LESS (not so much) + AT, then reversed [back] | ||
| 10 | WEDGWOOD | Josiah, we hear, is a two-club man (8) |
| Homophone of WEDGE (a golf club) + WOOD (another golf club) The famous Potter (Not That One), for more see: Josiah Wedgwood. |
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| 12 | ENDS | Ambitions for the finals (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | DEPTH | At sea, these charges may be dropped if war breaks out (5) |
| Cryptic definition Now this was my last one in and it took me quite a while to see what Dante meant. ‘Depth charges’ are anti-submarine bombs that can be dropped from a vessel (during wartime). I don’t think the solution (just DEPTH) is very well defined but I don’t like weaponry anyway. |
||
| 14 | FAIR | Equitable market (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | THE PIED PIPER | He had a youthful following (3,4,5) |
| Cryptic definition Saw this one straightaway. And reminded me of Crispian St Peters’ (who left us six years ago) 1966 classic of the same name. |
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| 20 | TRANSFERRING | Making a side to side movement in soccer, perhaps (12) |
| Cryptic definition If you do not have many crossers, this one is not easy. I was initially thinking of a double definition but, after I wrote the solution down, everything’s so obvious. |
||
| 23 | AEON | A long time, and a bad one (4) |
| A + (ONE)* [* = bad] | ||
| 24 | AFORE | A word of warning to golfers in the past (5) |
| A + FORE (word of warning to golfers (when someone’s in the path of a golfball)) Could only find this after getting the F. Golf is my handicap. |
||
| 25 | OPUS | Music is nothing to a Manx cat (4) |
| O (nothing) + PUS[s] (cat without it tail (Manx) i.e. without the last letter) OPUS = music? Well, OK then, just about. But a ‘magnum opus’, for example, doesn’t have to be music. Which reminded me of Baldrick calling it a ‘magnificent octopus’. |
||
| 28 | LEAP YEAR | Springtime (4,4) |
| Cryptic definition, or just a charade: LEAP (spring) + YEAR (time), with a missing definition? | ||
| 29 | AMPERE | It has a certain current value (6) |
| Cryptic definition Well, OK then, just about (again!). |
||
| 30 | COCONUTS | Growing source of food and drinks (8) |
| (Not so very) Cryptic definition | ||
| 31 | PISTOL | Shakespeare character may be fired (6) |
| Double definition Ancient Pistol is a character in Henry IV, part 2 (where he made his first appearance), The Merry Wives Of Windsor and Henry V. All Shakespeare, of course. |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | PATIENTS | The ill-cared-for neckwear found among underwear (8) |
| TIE (neckwear) inside PANTS (underwear) | ||
| 2 | RESIDUES | University settles without balances (8) |
| U (university) with RESIDES (settles) around it | ||
| 3 | EWER | Almost drain a pitcher (4) |
| SEWER (drain) minus the first letter [almost] | ||
| 5 | ELECTRIC FIRE | There’s an element of heat in it (8,4) |
| Cryptic definition The ELECTRIC bit was clear from the start but what next? I toyed with ‘oven’ before the penny finally dropped – remember that for a long time I didn’t have 20ac. |
||
| 6 | ARGO | Famous ship lacks note initially for freight (4) |
| CARGO (freight) minus the C (note) at the front [initially] | ||
| 7 | ISOBAR | Boris takes a strangely pressurised line (6) |
| (BORIS + A)* [* = strangely] | ||
| 8 | NADIRS | Drains designed to reach the lowest depths (6) |
| (DRAINS)* [* = designed] | ||
| 11 | WEDDING FEAST | Serving for the match? (7,5) |
| Cryptic definition Here’s another one in which the first part (WEDDING) flew in – but what next? And another one that left quite a few blanks in the South. Nice cd, by the way! |
||
| 15 | DIARY | Daily record of dairy manufacture (5) |
| (DAIRY)* [* = manufacture] | ||
| 16 | BEARD | Feature of barley used to make bread (5) |
| (BREAD)* [* = used to make] | ||
| 18 | SIMPLEST | Word possibly misspelt – though the easiest! (8) |
| (MISSPELT)* [* = possibly] | ||
| 19 | EGGSHELL | Container of food originally produced in layers (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 21 | GARLIC | Plant the Italian found in rock-climbing (6) |
| IL (the, in Italian) inside CRAG (rock), then reversed [climbing] | ||
| 22 | MOSAIC | Piece-work of a law-giver (6) |
| Double definition The law-giver being Moses – think: The Ten Commandments. |
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| 26 | HYMN | An air of sanctity (4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 27 | IMPI | They weren’t fair fighters (4) |
| A definition plus a cd-like extension IMPI were Zulu fighters with a skin colour that wasn’t fair [but dark – thanks Bruce for pointing out something that I forgot to say and that was surely Dante’s intention]. Wikipedia tells us about their final moments: The demise of the impi came about with the success of European colonisation of Africa – first in southern Africa by the British, and finally in East Africa as German colonialists defeated the last of the impi-style formations under Mkawawa, chief of the Hehe of Tanzania. The Boers, another major challenger to the impi, also saw defeat by imperial forces, in the Boer War of 1902. In its relatively brief history, the impi inspired both scorn (During the Anglo-Zulu War, British commander Lord Chelmsford complained that they did not ‘fight fair’) and admiration in its opponents, epitomised in Kipling’s poem “Fuzzy Wuzzy”: We took our chanst among the Khyber ‘ills, The Boers knocked us silly at a mile, The Burman give us Irriwady Chills, ‘An’ a Zulu Impi dished us up in style. |
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*anagram
Thanks Sil van den Hoek and Dante.
About half left undone and gave up 🙁
– even after multiple sittings. Just could not get into it.
Thanks Dante and Sil
There was a bit more grist in this puzzle than normal from Dante, although I didn’t have the same problems as you – DEPTH was about my third or fourth entry without crossers – not quite sure where I would have known about ‘depth charges’ but am guessing it was from a television wartime series, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, that was on in my youth.
Finished in the bottom half with IMPI (which I assumed was referring to them being dark / black rather than fair coloured), AEON (I don’t know why it took as long as it did) and GARLIC as the last one in.
Hopeless. Gave up too many CDs which I did not get. Thanks for your explanations Sil.
10a Got the wood but not the wedg(e)
21& 22d Too hard
27d Never heard of
30a Would never have got
By contrast 13a was one of my first in .