Monday Prize Crossword / Dec 5, 2016
Nothing to be afraid of in this Falcon crossword.
Ideal for those new or relatively new to crosswords.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PUFFED-UP | Pompous page by posh female, bored (6-2) |
| P (page) + U (posh) + FED UP (bored) | ||
| 6 | GARISH | Flash Gordon’s head hairs curled (6) |
| G[ordon] + (HAIRS)* [* = curled] | ||
| 9 | PETREL | Cherished touching lake bird (6) |
| PET (cherished) + RE (touching) + L (lake) The third time I encountered this bird recently ….. |
||
| 10 | NEWSPEAK | Latest on summit in the language of politicians, perhaps (8) |
| NEWS (latest) + PEAK (summit) The style of English described in George Orwell’s 1984. |
||
| 11 | EDIT | Course over? Correct (4) |
| Reversal [over] of TIDE (course) | ||
| 12 | WHITSTABLE | With new firm in Kent town (10) |
| (WITH)* + STABLE (firm) [* = new] | ||
| 14 | CHARTRES | French city map on centre of dresser (8) |
| CHART (map) + RE (on) + [dre]S[ser] A city especially famous for its Gothic cathedral. |
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| 16 | TO A T | Adult feeding toddler perfectly (2,1,1) |
| A (adult) inside TOT (toddler) My first one in, and the only entry in the various dictionaries with enumeration (2,1,1). |
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| 18 | OGRE | Giant in fairy tale therefore returned (4) |
| Reversal [returned] of ERGO (therefore) | ||
| 19 | ABOVE ALL | Notably meat in a bolognese? (5,3) |
| VEAL (meat) inside {A + BOL (bolognese)} My last one in as I was not familiar with ‘bol’ for ‘bolognese’. Apparently it is used as part of ‘spag bol’, and therefore I am not sure whether it is an abbreviation in its own right. |
||
| 21 | SKYSCRAPER | Tool for removing ice on broadcaster’s building (10) |
| SKY (broadcaster) + SCRAPER (tool for removing ice) | ||
| 22 | OMEN | Sign of ladies losing weight (4) |
| WOMEN (ladies) minus W (weight) | ||
| 24 | SCORPION | Venomous creature in house? Any number! (8) |
| SCORPIO (house, i.e. one of the signs of the Zodiac) + N (any number) The actual clue had a typo (‘venemous’) which I corrected for this blog. |
||
| 26 | AGENDA | Old article about knight’s schedule (6) |
| AGED (old) + A (article), together around N (knight, in chess) | ||
| 27 | PSYCHE | Mind seeing short film by head of Ealing (6) |
| PSYCH[o] (film, shortened) + E[aling] Psycho, 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on Robert Bloch’s novel of the same name. |
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| 28 | REDSTART | Bird reportedly studied by celebrity twitcher originally (8) |
| Homophone [reportedly] of READ (studied), + STAR (celebrity) + T[witcher] | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | UPEND | Overturn winning goal (5) |
| UP (winning) + END (goal) | ||
| 3 | FOR STARTERS | To begin with, English novelist’s describing craft (3,8) |
| FORSTER’S (English novelist’s) around ART (craft) E.M. Forster (1879-1970), renowned for A Room with a View and A Passage to India, to name two of his works. |
||
| 4 | DELAWARE | A leader, inaccurate about western US state (8) |
| (A LEADER)* around W (western) [* = inaccurate] | ||
| 5 | PENCIL SHARPENER | Article used by writer to make a point (6,9) |
| Cryptic definition Easy to get and for some perhaps hardly cryptic. All three nouns (article, writer, point) have a meaning in the surface of the clue, different from the one in the solution. That is why I liked this clue very much. |
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| 6 | GO WEST | Game actress, Mae, in comedy film (2,4) |
| GO (game) + WEST (Mae, the actress) I assume Falcon is referring to the Marx Borthers film from 1940. |
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| 7 | RAP | Sharply criticise a type of popular music (3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | SNAIL MAIL | The conventional postal service in Manila is bad, close to awful (5,4) |
| (MANILA IS)* + [awfu]L [* = bad] | ||
| 13 | AT THE MOMENT | That memento, lost now (2,3,6) |
| (THAT MEMENTO)* [* = lost] Easy anagram but for some reason one of my favourites in this crossword. |
||
| 15 | HIGH KICKS | What chorus girls did, providing great thrills (4,5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | GOURMAND | One who enjoys eating, guy tucking into fruit (8) |
| MAN (guy) inside GOURD (fruit) | ||
| 20 | PRAISE | Quiet lift gets approval (6) |
| P (quiet) + RAISE (lift) | ||
| 23 | EIDER | Deer curiously circling one duck (5) |
| (DEER)* around I (one) [* = curiously] | ||
| 25 | ROC | Gem cut for fabulous bird (3) |
| ROC[k] (gem, cut off) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Falcon and Sil
Yep … all pretty straightforward with this one, full of nice neat clues throughout. Liked unravelling the word play of PUFFED UP.
Finished in the SE corner with GOURMAND, ABOVE ALL (assume that the ? identifies that BOL is probably not a word in it’s own right) and AGENDA the last few in.