Monday Prize Crossword/Nov 3
After last week’s tour de force by Gaff, back to normal. Normal? I thought this puzzle was clearly at “the easier end of Dante’s spectrum”, that is, if there is such a thing. Others may disagree but I breezed through this at a, for me, unusually high speed.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | START OFF | Main swell to begin moving (5,3) |
| The ‘main swell’ might be called the STAR TOFF | ||
| 5 | RHYTHM | Beat in run to hospital, exploding myth (6) |
| R (run) + H (hospital) + (MYTH)* [* = exploding] | ||
| 9 | HARDWARE | Computer equipment difficult to wear out (8) |
| HARD (difficult) + (WEAR)* [* = out] | ||
| 10 | SPIDER | Leg-spinner’s pride’s hurt (6) |
| (PRIDE’S)* [* = hurt] | ||
| 12 | STAIR | Part of flight in latest aircraft (5) |
| Hidden solution (‘in’): [late]ST AIR[craft] | ||
| 13 | SEMICOLON | Half an organ stop? (9) |
| SEMI (half ) + COLON ((an) organ, part of the digestive system) | ||
| Quite a clever clue as an organ stop is also something that exists. | ||
| 14 | PLEASE | Oral entreaties find favour (6) |
| Homophone (‘oral’) of: PLEAS (entreaties) | ||
| 16 | NOTCHED | Nicked when seen around the church (7) |
| NOTED (seen) around CH (church) | ||
| 19 | OEDIPUS | Complex King of Thebes (7) |
| Double definition, though closely connected | ||
| 21 | SPHINX | Ancient Greeks were riddled by it (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 23 | MONSIGNOR | After the battle, almost disregard the priest (9) |
| MONS (battle, August 1914) + IGNOR[e] (disregard, almost) | ||
| 25 | AISLE | Beer is found in the passage (5) |
| IS inside ALE (beer) | ||
| 26 | REVEAL | Show how a lever works (6) |
| (A LEVER)* [* = works] | ||
| 27 | DINOSAUR | Is around? That’s odd, it disappeared a long time ago (8) |
| (IS AROUND)* [* = odd] | ||
| 28 | ERRATA | Corrective readings (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 29 | AESTHETE | He appreciates the exquisite tea these provide (8) |
| (TEA THESE)* [* = …. provide] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCHISM | A division of the church (6) |
| (Not so) Cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | AIRMAILED | Sent flying! (9) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 3 | TOWER | We must invade hill fort (5) |
| WE inside TOR (hill) | ||
| 4 | FORESEE | Anticipate report of third-stream class (7) |
| Homophone (‘report of’) of: 4C (third-stream class, like perhaps Year 4 – stream C) | ||
| 6 | HOPSCOTCH | Jump to end the game (9) |
| HOP (jump) + SCOTCH (to end) | ||
| 7 | TIDAL | A word for currency’s ups and downs (5) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| I seem to remember a discussion from a while ago about a setter mixing up ‘currency’ and ‘current’. | ||
| 8 | MARINADE | Notice serviceman outside in a pickle (8) |
| MARINE (serviceman) around AD (notice) | ||
| 11 | OMEN | Topless females – a bad sign (4) |
| [w]OMEN (females, topless) | ||
| 15 | APPLICANT | One hoping not to miss the post, wanting endless fruit one cannot supply (9) |
| APPL[e] (fruit, endless) + I (one) + CAN’T (cannot) | ||
| 17 | HANDSHAKE | Workers given fish – a gesture of goodwill (9) |
| HANDS (workers) + HAKE (fish) | ||
| 18 | COMMERCE | Business award in force (8) |
| MM (award, Military Medal) inside COERCE (force) | ||
| 20 | SING | Warble wrong note (4) |
| SIN (wrong) + G (note) | ||
| 21 | SARDINE | A diner’s ordered fish (7) |
| (A DINER’S)* [* = ordered] | ||
| 22 | GEORGE | He flies automatically, some swear by him (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| George is a nickname for ‘automatic pilot’, the second part of the clue is about ‘By George!”. | ||
| 24 | NEVER | Nerve broken? Not at all (5) |
| (NERVE)* [* = broken] | ||
| 25 | ABORT | Unpleasant smell in craft – cancel space flight (5) |
| BO (unpleasant smell) inside ART (craft) | ||
| Good surface [one of many] with ‘craft’ and ‘space flight’ nicely connected. | ||
For 20d I had tone ie an anagram of note and had no reason to think this was wrong. As I couldn’t get 15d, I had o?d???t so I wasn’t going to get oedipus. In any case King of Thebes didn’t mean anything to me. Sure I could google it but what is the point in that? Basically not a crytic clue just general knowledge.
15d was just too hard for me and I just couldn’t see 28a,
Even with ?e?r?e I couldn’t get it . I have come across george for autopilot before but it was forgotten
Thanks for blog
Thanks Dante and Sil
Actually did this one on the published date (unusual for me – prefer to normally do them closer to the following Wednesday, so i dont have to remember them 10 days on when coming here! 🙂 )and remember it being quite straightforward as well (<20 mins).
Nothing especially to note, except that it got the numbers of completed puzzles going again after being stuck on a couple of hard ones at the time.