Monday Prize Crossword/May 20
It’s been a while since we had a Crux puzzle on a Monday.
I found this once more an enjoyable puzzle (with many fine surfaces) from this setter. However, for some reason I found the cluing on the whole less clean than usual. I am left with some uncertainties (eg in 19d) and wasn’t taken by a few constructional devices (13ac, 16ac, 21ac).
Definitions are underlined wherever appropriate and/or possible.
| Across | ||
| 1 | OLD HAT | Starts off cold? That means it’s obsolete (3,3) |
| [c]OLD [t]HAT (starts off ‘cold’ and ‘that’) | ||
| This is a device that, as Guardian solvers may have noticed, Arachne has really made her own (that is, if such a thing exists in Crosswordland). Deleting the initial letters of a sequence of words. | ||
| 4 | COURTS | Tries to win love in royal circles (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | TITANIC | Giant bird with a partial collar (7) |
| TIT (bird) + A + NIC[k] (collar (as a verb), partial ie incomplete) | ||
| 9 | FRISIAN | Father is Scot’s closest English relative (7) |
| FR (Father) + IS + IAN (Scot) | ||
| FRISIAN is the West-Germanic language spoken by Frisians, a language most closely related to English. In the Dutch province Friesland they speak this language and many times I have heard people say that it sometimes sounds like English. Unfortunately, I never understood what they were talking about, the linguists nor the Frisians themselves ….. 🙂 | ||
| 11 | BED OF NAILS | Uncomfortable situation when roses are replaced! (3,2,5) |
| Cryptic definition (is it?) | ||
| Others might see this as a Double definition with the second one Cryptic. | ||
| 12 | LOOT | Spoils toilet training at first (4) |
| LOO (toilet) + T[raining] | ||
| The definition is not a verb but a plural noun meaning ‘stolen goods’. | ||
| 13 | BASTE | Bottom needs little time to put on fat (5) |
| BASE (bottom) around T ((little) time) | ||
| Not sure whether I like ‘needs’ to indicate that something goes inside. | ||
| 14 | CATHETER | Tube to opening of Camden theatre, perhaps (8) |
| C[amden] + (THEATRE)* | ||
| Nice surface for something not so very nice. | ||
| 16 | CASSETTE | Hospital patient given wrong test recordings (8) |
| CASE (hospital patient) around (TEST)* | ||
| Also not sure whether I like ‘given’ to indicate that something goes inside. | ||
| 18 | ARENA | Ring made from ironware, naturally (5) |
| Hidden solution: [ironw]ARE NA[turally] | ||
| 20 | SKIP | Leave out container for rubbish (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| I first entered here ‘dump’ (which I think can be justified, although SKIP is better) only to find out that it couldn’t be right leaving me with the impossible B?A?U?A?L at 13d. | ||
| 21 | CHINSTRAPS | Small country bands that keep helmets on (10) |
| CHIN[a] (country, small ie reduced) + STRAPS (bands) | ||
| ‘Small’ indicating that a word ends early? Another one of which I am not sure whether I like it or not. But ‘small’ = ‘short’ is probably OK. Furthermore, I wasn’t very keen on the double duty of ‘bands’. | ||
| 23 | BALONEY | Tripe, smoked sausage or rhubarb (7) |
| Triple definition | ||
| Some might call this a Double definition as both ‘tripe’ and ‘rhubarb’ represent the same (ie nonsense). | ||
| 24 | DIARIST | He makes entries with one in the amazing Tardis (7) |
| I (one) inside (TARDIS)* | ||
| 25,26 | LITTLE PEOPLE | In Brobdingnag Gulliver was one of them (6,6) |
| Cryptic definition (is it?) – see Brobdingnag | ||
| Perhaps I am missing something, but this is hardly a cryptic crossword clue, in my opinion. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | OLIVE | Female duck not recorded (5) |
| O (duck, ie no score in cricket, zero) + LIVE (not recorded) | ||
| 2 | DRAGONS | Menacing women doctors welcome endless pain! (7) |
| DRS (doctors, plural of DR) around AGON[y] (pain, endless ie not the last letter) | ||
| 3 | ALIGNMENT | A line intended, say, to signify union (9) |
| Homophone of A LINE + MEANT (intended) | ||
| ALIGN sounds like A LINE, but does MENT (as part of the solution) sound like MEANT? | ||
| 5 | ORRIS | Iris’s old car fails to start (5) |
| MORRIS (old car) minus its first letter (‘fails to start’) | ||
| Being a new word to me, ORRIS is any of various species of iris having a fragrant rootstock – in particular, Iris Germanica Florentina. | ||
| 6 | RESOLVE | Courage required to repeat all this (7) |
| To repeat SOLVE (all this) leads to RE-SOLVE | ||
| ‘All this’, that what we were working on, can be called a SOLVE. | ||
| 7 | SOAP OPERA | Alcoholics Anonymous propose changing addictive programme? (4,5) |
| (AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) + PROPOSE)* | ||
| 10 | DISCREDIT | Tired out after recording “Shame” (9) |
| DISC (recording) followed by (TIRED)* | ||
| 13 | BLACKBALL | Reject Potter’s last objective (9) |
| A Potter, ie a snooker player, has as his last objective to pot the BLACK BALL | ||
| 15 | TRANSPIRE | Lose water vapour like terrapins at sea (9) |
| (TERRAPINS)* | ||
| 17 | SUPPORT | Drink wine for comfort (7) |
| SUP (drink) + PORT (wine) | ||
| 19 | EARDROP | No pressure with this sweet little pendant (7) |
| PEAR DROP (sweet) minus the P (pressure) at the start | ||
| I am not an expert on earrings but I know that an EARDROP is an earring with a pendant that hangs from it. Alternatively, according to Chambers, a pendant can also be the earring itself. |
||
| 21 | CREEL | Caught river fish in suitable container (5) |
| C (caught) + R (river) + EEL (fish) | ||
| ‘Suitable’ because a CREEL is a fish basket. | ||
| 22 | POSSE | Body of constables, only half in custody! (5) |
| Only half of POSSE[SSION] (custody) | ||
Thanks Sil
The wordplay in 19dn is [p]EAR DROP (no pressure with this sweet).
I failed on 4a, 9a which I would never have got,16a, 23a , 5d which again I had never come across and with only ????s no chance of a guess & 6d .
On the other hand I did get eardrop quite early on.
Thanks Sil