Following yesterday’s puzzle by Audreus, we are today presented by one compiled by Audreus’s son. This was a similar kind of challenge, with a few unusual words which were attainable through working out the wordplay. One or two of the surfaces don’t read particularly well, but, all in all, a fair puzzle.There is a loose sporting theme to the puzzle, with references to rowing, drag racing, hunting, tennis, horseracing, fishing (5ac)? and yachting.
Solving time – 8 minutes (plus time taken to check some of the answers)
ACROSS
9 – BEGUNK – a Scots word for “to trick”. Despite being Scottish myself, have never come across this word.
11 – DRAG – liked this one. Came across “drag hunt” in another puzzle recently, so this was still fresh in my mind, making the clue a little easier to solve.
12 – MAKEWEIGHT – MA(KEW)EIGHT – where MA=”master” (Master of Arts) and EIGHT=”rowers” (eight being the number of rowers in the type of boat used in the University Boat Race, amongst others)
13 – SEMPITERNAL – (rest in maple)* – “syrup” is the anagram indicator.
18 – CONTRABAND – CO(NT-RABAN)D – NT=books, as in New Testament, and Jonathan Raban is a travel writer who sometimes contributes to the Guardian.
21 – GLEE – a word meaning joy, but can’t see “dance”?? Chambers and a few online dictionaries have “glee” being a song, but I can’t find a dance. Anyone?
24 – ESTATE – “in France is” = EST (i.e. “is” in French)
DOWN
1 – STRUGGLE – ST-RU(GG)LE – wher ST=”way” (street) and GG=”horse”. Gee-gee is a childish name for a horse, but yet to be convinced that you can use GG to mean the same thing.
2 – BUNKUM – B(‘UNK)UM
3 – DEFLOWER – DEF(fed<=)-LOWER. I like overstuffed to indicate the reversal of “fed”. Lower is standard crossword fare for “cow” (i.e. one which makes a lowing sound)
4 – SATORI – reversal of I(ROTA)S. The wordplay and the checked letters make the word easy to work out, even if you have never heard of the Buddhist state of enlightenment that is Satori.
8 – MARKET RASEN – (tar, arms, knee)* Market Rasen is a racecourse in Lincolnshire.
14 – PLAYMATE – clever.
15 – ARGONAUT – ARGO(NAU)T – although “no seasickness” is a wonderful way of indicating NAU (nausea with no sea, geddit?), I don’t think the surface reads well.
17 – SERENA – (rasen)* involving E (“end of Tennessee”), referring to Serna Williams, American tennis player, sister of Venus.
I wondered about GLEE as well. I found several “glee dance” googles meaning apparently “dance with joy” (in the schadenfreude sense). So maybe it’s an emerging neologism.
Can someone let me know the clue for 18 ac. as it appeared in the Guardian? (CONTRABAND). Best I can do is “Illegally imported fish swallows me along with my books.”
Are you implying that you wrote the New Testament, Jonathan?
Surely “…along with some books” is closer to the mark.
Or that he thinks he’s Jonah.
18D: “Illicit cargo of fish concealing books by travel writer “(10)