Monday Prize Crossword/Jan 14
A not too taxing, but very well written Dante crossword that one can find here. Some typical nautical references (25ac, 5d), one or two great anagrams (16ac, for example), not too many cryptic definitions and some cheekiness (1d). Many thanks to Dante for a puzzle published on a day that Guardian solvers surely must have missed his alter ego.
Definitions are underlined wherever appropriate and/or possible.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BRAHMS | Composer of number in brash arrangement (6) |
| M (number, 1000) inside (BRASH)* | ||
| 4 | HARD UP | Being without cash is difficult at university (4,2) |
| HARD (difficult) + UP (at university) | ||
| 8 | CARAVAN | Moving home (7) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | CARCASE | Body found in the motorist’s boot, perhaps (7) |
| CAR CASE (motorist’s boot, perhaps – a case in a car) | ||
| 11 | BERNADETTE | Possibly end a better woman – even a saint! (10) |
| (END A BETTER)* – two definitions here, I think | ||
| 12 | IDEA | An almost perfect concept (4) |
| IDEAL (perfect) minus the final L, making it ‘almost perfect’ | ||
| 13 | OUTER | Poor shot at route-planning (5) |
| (ROUTE)* – the definition refers to the outer ring in archery (or darts) | ||
| 14 | NEST EGGS | They’re intended to encourage laying in a little money (4,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | GET RID OF | Got fired, sadly, so sack someone else? (3,3,2) |
| (GOT FIRED)* | ||
| Very good anagram! The second part of the clue has a bit of padding, but still. | ||
| 18 | RIPER | More mature, so given rent and key, right? (5) |
| RIP (rent) + E (key, musical note) + R (right) | ||
| 20 | ADAM | A mother for the first orphan? (4) |
| A + DAM (mother) | ||
| I won’t start any discussion on the definition here. | ||
| 21 | TASKMASTER | Disciplinarian marks a test harshly (10) |
| (MARKS A TEST)* | ||
| 23 | TSUNAMI | Chap comes back in new suit, gets big wave (7) |
| NAM (reversal of MAN (chap)) inside (SUIT)* | ||
| 24 | ALLEGRO | Fast scoring rate (7) |
| Cryptic definition – think music | ||
| 25 | SHEETS | Bedclothes used as ropes (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| One of these nautical references from Dante: “A rope attached to the lower corner of a sail for securing or extending the sail or for altering its direction” (ODE). | ||
| 26 | ADORED | Worshipped bustle and colour (6) |
| ADO (bustle) + RED (colour) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BRAVE | It could be a noun, adjective or a verb, perhaps (5) |
| (A VERB)* | ||
| An unusual clue. A ‘brave’ could be a noun (an Indian warrior) or an adjective (courageous). Very nice of Dante to use ‘a verb’ for the construction. | ||
| 2 | AGAINST | Opposed to making a profit – good man! (7) |
| A + GAIN (profit) + ST (good man, Saint) | ||
| 3 | MEANDERED | Wandered, heading Middle East instead of west (9) |
| WANDERED (the definition!) with W (west) replaced by ME (Middle East) | ||
| 5 | AWAKE | A backwater that’s far from sleepy? (5) |
| A + WAKE (backwater, water in the slipstream of a ship) | ||
| 6 | DECLINE | Refuse to go through all the cases (7) |
| Double definition, the second one a bit cryptic | ||
| ‘To decline’ as in declinations, referring to grammatical ‘cases’ (adjective, accusative etc). | ||
| 7 | PASSENGER | Person who makes little effort to move (9) |
| Cryptic/Double definition definition | ||
| A ‘passenger’ is, of course, someone on the move but also someone in a group who does far less work than others in that group. | ||
| 10 | STAND FAST | Either rise quickly or don’t budge (5,4) |
| STAND (rise) + FAST (quickly) | ||
| 13 | OVERDOSES | Love poems are about the same – too much of a good thing (9) |
| {O (love, zero) + VERSES (poems)} around DO (the same, ditto) | ||
| 15 | SCRAMBLED | It’s not clear how the eggs may be cooked (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | ROMANCE | Could it lead to an Anglo-Catholic marriage? (7) |
| A combination of ROMAN (Catholicism) and CE (Church of England, hence ‘Anglo’) | ||
| 19 | PASTEUR | French chemist late on his way up (7) |
| PAST (late) + EUR (reversal of RUE (way, in French – his (Pasteur’s) way) | ||
| I liked this clue very much because of ‘on his way up’, a familiar expression with the crucial word ‘his’ embedded here in a natural, er, way. | ||
| 21 | TEMPT | Persuade agency girl to start task (5) |
| TEMP (agency girl) + T[ask] | ||
| There are also male temps, I presume. | ||
| 22 | ERRED | Embarrassed after some hesitation went wrong (5) |
| RED (embarrassed) following ER (some hesitation) | ||
I agree with you Sil. Some really clever clues. Like you I thought PASTEUR was particularly clever. I also like ADAM, DECLINE, ROMANCE, and ALLEGRO.