Solving Time: About 45 minutes for this (or about three Magoos) which is quicker than average for me. Whether it is easier or not I don’t know, but there were a number of unusual words I actually knew, which helped.
There was talk on the crossword club forum of a nina.. I see that there are double letters in a pattern down the middle: KK NN SS OO.. it does look as if it’s deliberate, albeit it must count as one of the less exciting ninas of recent times
There was talk on the crossword club forum of a nina.. I see that there are double letters in a pattern down the middle: KK NN SS OO.. it does look as if it’s deliberate, albeit it must count as one of the less exciting ninas of recent times
In recent months I have put the clues in as well as the solutions. I thought it might interest some who don’t habitually attempt the Club Monthly. But there haven’t been any comments and now Livejournal, bless its little Russian socks, has done something strange to the formatting so that every line/word has to be highlighted and formatted individually instead of pressing ctrl and doing it all in one go. Life is too short for this, so unless someone has a bright idea I will go back to my trusty old Excel-driven solution-only template in future
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as *(–)
ODO = Oxford Dictionaries Online, OED = Oxford Dictionary, etc.
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Across |
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1. Stewed pears containing sweet apple over layers of fruit (8) exocarps – COX (sweet apple) rev. in *(PEARS). Cox is a dirty word to all the fruit farmers round here. It really winds them up when people buy them, just because they taste nice, in preference to the varieties they prefer, which are of a far more regular size, colour and shape, more disease resistant, heavier cropping, more resilient as to pesticides, enzyme treatments, cold storage etc etc etc. What on earth are these consumers thinking of? Don’t they understand modern farming methods at all?! |
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5. Woodland enclosure east of Djibouti’s centre (6) bocage – djiBOuti + CAGE (enclosure) |
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8. NZ parrot occupying reserves approved retrospectively, about a thousand, look (4,1,5) take a dekko – TA (reserves) + KEA (NZ parrot) + K (thousand) in OKED (approved) rev. I solved this clue on the basis that the def. will be at the beginning or the end.. won’t be a parrot with three words.. so def. must be “look.” Only fully parsed it now. |
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9. Yucatán native is allowed to answer phenomenal world (4) Maya – MAY (is allowed to) + A (answer). The setter will be pleased to know that although this was a write-in, (because whatever isn’t INCA is MAYA) I did spend a little more time worrying about the phenomenal world, but having read this wonderful book I soon remembered Maya, the Hindu Lord of Illusion. Never look down on SF, as a genre. Oh, and the OED has “Maya = Mayan,” so that’s all right too… |
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10. It is noon and France must reshuffle its civil servants (14) fonctionnaires – *(IT IS NOON + FRANCE). Another write-in, only because I’ve been to French Lessons (I mean, the ones where you actually learn the language 🙂 |
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11. Current conflict obtains backing of indigenous Africans (7) Sahrawi – I (current) + WAR (conflict) + HAS (obtains), all rev. Folk from the (usu. Western) Sahara |
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13. Maori sea monster somewhat hurt a NI whaler (7) taniwha – hidden in somewhaT A NI WHAler. The Maori language always seems a bit over-represented here, possibly because it has so many peculiar words.. at this rate I will be able to speak it soon 🙂 |
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15. Silk brocade from family of old Madam? (7) bawdkin – BAWD (old word for madam, sp. of a brothel) + KIN (family) |
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18. Sons and men repeated a line about female siblings (7) sororal – S (sons) + OROR (men, repeated) + A L(ine). Familiar from, eg, sorority houses that US colleges have |
| 21. Fungus survived around sheets’ edges, sufficient to fight (6,5-3) devil’s snuff-box – LIVED rev. (survived around) + S( |
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22. Learning centre preserves earliest of crochet hooks (4) unci – C( |
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23. Tree down under attack by unshorn ram? (Vague target of ridicule) (10) woollybutt – unusual clue. Either a cd (“attack by unshorn ram,” ie a woolly butt) or WOOLLY (vague) + BUTT (target of ridicule). The def. seems to be “tree” – it’s a species of eucalyptus – so, I’m not certain what the “down” is for. On edit.. of course, the def. is “tree down under.” |
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24. Divinity reduced grand old lady’s inconsistent word use (6) zeugma – ZEU( |
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25. Left helpless in threads? (8) stranded – a simple dd. |
| Down |
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1. Madeira’s aging stores like supporting drug paraphernalia mostly (7) estufas – E STUF( |
| 2. How a snake wriggles in a grove (9) |
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oakenshaw – *(HOW A SNAKE) 3. I’ve discovered it is punctured by slanting spike (7) acantha – CANT (slanting) in AHA (I’ve discovered it). Does slanting = cant, quite? Canted seems more accurate |
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4. I served up blood in ostentatiously good dumplings (7) pierogi – I, + GORE rev. (served up blood) in PI (ostentatiously good) for Polish dumplings. I’ve always felt that a national cuisine of which dumplings are the highpoint, has some explaining to do |
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5. IT problem, endlessly running a server, nothing that an Italian might wait for? (9) buonamano – BU(g) (IT problem endlessly) + ON (running) + A MAN ( server) + O. An Italian word for tip, gratuity apparently |
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6. Under-bodice covering support garment, where there was a clash with tank tops? (7) Cambrai – BRA (support garment) in CAMI (under-bodice) making a battle often wrongly described as being the first military deployment of tanks, the first large-scale ditto, or the first successful ditto… all wrong, as this good Wiki article explains |
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7. Coy sigh let out without a certain faith (7) goyisch – *(COY SIGH) |
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12. Evil in question of motive which curtailed Scottish blandishment (9) whillywha – ILL (evil) in WHY (question of motive) + WHA( |
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14. Unable to verbalise way bowled over sticks twisted (9) wordbound – RD (way) + B( |
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16. Help with contents of hair ball, say (7) aidance – (h)AI(r) + DANCE (ball, say) |
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17. Young imp doing deep research with lifted heart (7) devling – DELVING, with the heart (L) lifted.. |
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18. Spill the beans on rented underclothing (7) singlet – SING (spill the beans) + LET (rented) |
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19. Soaring away, skipping western island, hide money in the Maldives (7) rufiyaa – all rev. (soaring): A( |
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20. Adult ex thrown out of joint (7) luxated – *(ADULT EX) |
I thought the WOOLLYBUTT clue looked like an editorial query left behind after proofreading. Tree down under is surely the definition, and attack by unshorn ram is the grinworthy wordplay. The bracketed vague target of ridicule is just an alternative piece of wordplay, which is either unexpected generosity (cheers!) or stuffing that should have been deleted. Clue’s better without it.
Edited at 2014-12-26 12:10 pm (UTC)
RR
Typo: you need an extra O in WOOLLYBUTT.
I’m not sure from your comment how you do your blogs Jerry (visual editor?) but I do mine in an HTML template that Andy sent me and you don’t have to change any formatting: just copy the clues into the right places.