Monday prize Crossword / Jan 11, 2016
It’s been a while since we had Tuesday regular Armonie (aka Chifonie at another place) on the Prize spot. Concise clueing, good surfaces, mostly simple devices.
Enjoyable and relatively easy – although I had some trouble finishing the NE.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | THEBES | Most of the elite in ancient Egypt (6) |
| THE BES[t] (the elite, mostly) I always thought that Thebes was a city in Boeotia (Greece), one that was destroyed by Alexander the Great. But there’s also one in Egypt, an old capital and the site of the temples of Luxor. As one may know, I do not like half-definitions like ‘in ancient Egypt’ very much. |
||
| 5 | GATEPOST | Impose a curfew on office of proverbial confidant (8) |
| GATE (impose a curfew) + POST (office) ‘Between you and me and the gatepost’. |
||
| 9 | INFORMER | Sneak in late (8) |
| IN + FORMER (late) | ||
| 10 | BLEARY | Exhausted by restraining king (6) |
| BY around LEAR (king) | ||
| 11 | VANDAL | Museum student is a delinquent (6) |
| V AND A (museum, Victoria and Albert) + L (student) | ||
| 12 | THE ASHES | She hates breaking sporting trophy (3,5) |
| (SHE HATES)* [* = breaking] | ||
| 14 | ON THE REBOUND | Working and, at that point, certain to be emotionally distressed (2,3,7) |
| ON (working) + THERE (at that point) + BOUND (certain) | ||
| 18 | OLD MAN’S BEARD | Traveller’s joy seeing damn bad loser upset (3,4,5) |
| (DAMN BAD LOSER)* [* = seeing …. upset] | ||
| 22 | TAILSPIN | A state of panic dogs Spike (8) |
| TAILS (dogs, as a verb) + PIN (spike, lower case) | ||
| 25 | ORACLE | Ordinary people entertaining Latin soothsayer (6) |
| {O (ordinary) + RACE (people)} around L (Latin) | ||
| 26 | MUTANT | Dog eats an oddity of nature (6) |
| MUTT (dog) around AN | ||
| 27 | SCANTIES | Check straps of women’s underwear (8) |
| SCAN (check) + TIES (straps) | ||
| 28 | DEATH ROW | Delaware atomic project? That’s the last place to live! (5,3) |
| DE (Delaware) + A (atomic) + THROW (project) | ||
| 29 | EARNER | Hesitation about composer being a breadwinner (6) |
| ER ((sign of) hesitation) around ARNE (composer) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | HANGAR | Execute Arab in large building (6) |
| HANG (execute) + AR (Arab) Not a very nice imagery. |
||
| 3 | BROADLOOM | Carpet the street in blossom (9) |
| ROAD ((the) street) inside BLOOM (blossom) | ||
| 4 | SIMPLETON | Initially shrewd young rascal spilled the beans? Wally! (9) |
| S[hrewd] + IMP (young rascal) + LET ON (spilled the beans) | ||
| 5 | GAROTTE | Deterioration in opening of throttle (7) |
| ROT (detoriation) inside GATE (opening) | ||
| 6 | TABLE | Lie about second-class food (5) |
| TALE (lie) around B (second-class) | ||
| 7 | PRESS | Trouble in Shanghai (5) |
| Double definition In what sense is PRESS = ‘trouble’? |
||
| 8 | SERGEANT | Russian worker becomes a soldier (8) |
| SERGE (Russian) + ANT (worker) | ||
| 13 | ALB | Devotional vestment is a weight (3) |
| A + LB (weight, pound) | ||
| 15 | ELABORATE | Ostentatious cheer when wild boar is captured (9) |
| ELATE (cheer) around (BOAR)* [* = wild] | ||
| 16 | OLD MASTER | Star model modelled for painter (3,6) |
| (STAR MODEL)* [* = modelled] | ||
| 17 | PLEASURE | Request certain to give enjoyment (8) |
| PLEA (request) + SURE (certain) | ||
| 19 | ABS | Sailor’s muscles (3) |
| AB’S (sailor’s) | ||
| 20 | BANDSAW | Crew spotted a cutter (7) |
| BAND (crew) + SAW (spotted) | ||
| 21 | ALLEGE | Claim supporter tucked into the booze (6) |
| LEG (supporter) inside ALE ((the) booze) | ||
| 23 | LEAST | Lowest point in race (5) |
| S (point, South) inside LEAT (race) ‘Race’ as in a watercourse conducting water to a mill. |
||
| 24 | PETER | Man of principle is safe (5) |
| Double definition |
||
*anagram
Thanks Armonie and Sil
Found this a lot tougher than normal for Armonie, although the solving time didn’t really reflect that.
Thought that 24 referred to the management concept – the Peter Principle, where people are promoted to their level of incompetence. Had to look twice at PRESS … but think of ‘guilt pressed on his conscience’ as the trouble definition.
Didn’t know LEAT. Enjoyed the extra challenge here,
7d To Press gang someone aka to Shanghai them
Thanks Sil and Armonie.
I also was thinking of the Peter Principle at 24dn and shared your qualms over Trouble = Press at 7.
Needed your help to understand 23dn – LEAT is another new word to commit to memory.
Didn’t really get Serge for Russian in 8dn although the answer was obvious enough.
Serge – to me – is a French name. The Russian (derivation or basis?) is usually Sergei/Sergiy – as exemplified by the Meerkat.
“Simples!”
Sil, could I press you for an answer?
Sil, could I trouble you for a receipt?
Mike
Thanks Everyone.
Especially re our friend Peter @24d.
Hamish, I fully agree about SERGE but didn’t want to mention it this time.
LEAT was new to me too but as a blogger I had to get advice from one of the dictionaries.
And Bruce, perhaps you’re right.
At my first go, there was more left blank than usual with this setter.
However, my second attempt speeded up things considerably.