Monday Prize Crossword / Dec 11, 2017
A quick reappearance of Armonie in the Monday prize slot perhaps suggests he’s up for becoming a Monday regular.
All fair and relatively straightforward, perhaps lacking ‘adventure’ but then, not every setter is a Goliath, a Redshank or a Rosa Klebb [alphabetical order].
Usually this setter is very precise and therefore I was somewhat surprised to see what happens at 18d.
There were some duplications in this crossword (in answers and clues): twice ‘flat’, ‘late’, ‘L’ and ‘one=I’, and ‘and’ was used even three times.
Funny enough, last Thursday in The Guardian, Armonie’s alter ego [Chifonie] had repetitions too.
In that puzzle he had ‘drug’, ‘fabric’, ‘Bob’ and ‘journalist’ twice.
New strategy?
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | NEARLY | Namibian capital undeveloped? Just about! (6) |
| N[amibian] + EARLY (undeveloped) | ||
| 4 | ACHILLES | Pains gripping sick old Greek (8) |
| ACHES (pains) around ILL (sick) | ||
| 10 | PETUNIA | Favourite university – one found in Beds (7) |
| PET (favourite) + UNI (university) + A (one) | ||
| 11 | NITRATE | I natter irresponsibly in the compound (7) |
| (I NATTER)* [* = irresponsibly] | ||
| 12 | TURN | Go off act (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | DETERMINED | Try to stop my old Dutch being resolute (10) |
| DETER (try to stop) + MINE (my, old i.e. archaic) + D (Dutch) | ||
| 15 | SCALED | Climbed like a snake (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | SPIDERY | Quick to catch fish that’s straggling (7) |
| SPRY (quick) around IDE (fish) | ||
| 20 | DEVILRY | Charged back into abstemious surroundings to make mischief (7) |
| Reversal [back] of LIVE (charged) inside DRY (abstemious) | ||
| 21 | STAPLE | Prince enters flat that’s basic (6) |
| P (Prince) inside STALE (flat) | ||
| 24 | TIDDLYWINK | Counter drunken amorous gesture (10) |
| TIDDLY (drunken) + WINK (amorous gesture) | ||
| 26 | TIRE | Exhaust and wheel fitting (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | FLATTEN | Apartment number and floor (7) |
| FLAT (apartment) + TEN (number) | ||
| 29 | ISOLATE | One very recent divorce (7) |
| I (one) + SO (very) + LATE (recent) | ||
| 30 | APHORISM | Saw him as pro-revolutionary (8) |
| (HIM AS PRO)* [* = revolutionary] | ||
| 31 | BANDIT | An outlaw’s born with it (6) |
| B (born) + AND (with) + IT | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | NEPOTISM | Partiality gets me in post improperly (8) |
| (ME IN POST)* [* = improperly] | ||
| 2 | ALTERNATE | Winger in a last-minute switch (9) |
| TERN (winger, a bird) inside A LATE (a last-minute) | ||
| 3 | LAND | Apprentice joiner in dock (4) |
| L (apprentice, learner) + AND (joiner) | ||
| 5 | CONTEMPT | Cheat, seduce and scorn (8) |
| CON (cheat) + TEMPT (seduce) | ||
| 6 | INTIMIDATE | One disease initially harboured by friendly cow (10) |
| I (one) + D[isease], together inside INTIMATE (friendly) | ||
| 7 | LEARN | Understand student’s to be paid (5) |
| L (student, learner) + EARN (to be paid) | ||
| 8 | STEADY | Girlfriend foolishly dates Yankee (6) |
| (DATES)* + Y (Yankee) [* = foolishly] | ||
| 9 | BARED | Exposed a scholar with Leninist sympathies (5) |
| BA (a scholar) + RED (with Leninist sympathies) | ||
| 14 | LEGISLATOR | MP makes riots legal (10) |
| (RIOTS LEGAL)* [* = … makes …] | ||
| 17 | REPRIMAND | Soldier’s stiffly formal and incurring censure (9) |
| RE (soldier) + PRIM (stiffly formal) + AND | ||
| 18 | DRAWINGS | Yanks accept success of artworks (8) |
| DRAGS (yanks) around WIN (success) The cryptic grammar here is not right. ‘A accept B’ doesn’t work, could easily have been avoided using ‘A should accept B’, for example. |
||
| 19 | TENEMENT | Housing of canon entertaining people (8) |
| TENET (canon) around MEN (people) | ||
| 22 | STAFFA | Workers on a Scottish island (6) |
| STAFF (workers) + A | ||
| 23 | INDIA | Not out raising support in the country (5) |
| IN (not out) + reversal [raising] of AID (support) | ||
| 25 | DEATH | Curtains some made at home (5) |
| Hidden answer [some]: made at home | ||
| 27 | SODA | Fusses over drink (4) |
| Reversal [over] of ADOS (fusses) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Armonie and Sil
As you say quite straightforward and set up for someone starting out in this game.
See where you are going with 18d, but it was a gimme type clue with a nice smooth surface – am obviously a lot more lenient on the technical correctness than you are.
DEVILRY was the last one.