Nothing too obscure, but a bit of general knowledge (literature, movies) needed and a few worthwhile anagrams, making this at the harder end of Quick Cryptic offerings in my view; it took me about 12 minutes.
Across | |
1 | WAFFLES – FF (more than one female) inside WALES (part of UK); def. speaks vaguely. |
7 | ADAMANT – ADAM (chap in Eden) ANT (worker); def. determined. Nothing to do with the 80s pop star who is still touring. |
9 | TERRAIN – (TRAINER)*, def. ground. |
10 | DERANGE – (GRANDEE)*, def. confuse. |
11 | ROWS – Def. argues; first letters of (kicking off) Regularly Often With Spouse. |
12 | SPLASH OUT – Def. pay a lot; to splash could mean to go swimming, and here ‘out’ means abroad, as in out and about. |
14 | GOLDENEYE – GEN (information) around OLD, then EYE sounds like I; the 17th Bond movie, released 1995, the first with Pierce Brosnan, Judy Dench as M, and IMO one of the best. |
16 | BREW – Barmen regularly seen = BaRmEn, or BRE, then W = with; def. drink. |
17 | ON PAPER – Cryptic def. |
20 | ITALIAN – I (island) TA (soldiers) LIAN = NAIL (secure) reversed; def. European. |
21 | EMERSON – EN (in, French) with (MORSE)* inside, E(MERSO)N; def. American who wrote. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, the chap who formulated the philosophy of Transcendentalism, whatever that may be. Cool middle name, though. |
22 | GRAVELY – GRAVEL (small stones), Y (last letter (‘close’) of rockerY); def. seriously, as in ‘gravely ill’. |
Down | |
1 | WATERING HOLE – Clever anagram time. (THE WRONG ALE I)* ordered, def. pub. |
2 | FAREWELL – FARE (food), WE’LL (we shall); def. see you around. |
3 | LEAN – Jack Sprat ate no fat and Mrs S ate no lean. Sir David Lean, voted 9th best film director of all time in a 2002 BFI poll; IMO better than that. |
4 | SANDAL – LADS (boys) upset about AN, S(AN)DAL, def. item of footwear. |
5 | LACROSSE – sport, hidden in al(L ACROSS E)urope. |
6 | PAIN – PA (personal assistant), IN, def. bother. |
8 | TWENTY-TWENTY – A score is twenty; 20/20 vision is ‘normal’ acuity although many people have better than that and mine is worse. |
12 | SHEEPISH – Witty double def’; rather embarrassed, and like a sheep. |
13 | OVERTIME – OVERT (evident), I’M, E(energy); def. extra working hours. |
15 | ERRING – HERRING loses its H, def. going astray. |
18 | PEEP – To peep means to look, and is a palindrome, it goes up and down. |
19 | LAMA – A Buddist priest, hidden in Is(LAM A)pparently. |
COD for 5d – a neat hidden word.
IMO I would go for an early Bond: From Russia with Love as the best – it’s got a tension that is unique in the Bond canon (as well as Robert Shaw – one of may favourite actors.)
Edited at 2014-10-17 07:56 am (UTC)
And there’s a lot of them about…
Huge congrats to Flamande & Pip.
My COD was SHEEPISH – lovely wordplay & LOI was GOLDENEYE.
I’m afraid I only like Sean Connery & Daniel Craig as Bond – even dear Roger was far more the Saint.
I’ll be looking out for people at the Guofan Tower tomorrow – Z8’s competing in the 2nd stage & I’m along for the (wheelchair) ride!
But they’re all trumped by my Matt Damon. A review – of sorts – of The Bourne Ultimatum here: http://www.ulaca-es.com/2008/01/putting-asset-on-standby-until.html
Excuse the shameless self-promotion…
I’m never happy with the ON PAPER definition for theory, although it’s common parlance. Theory is usually a mental/logical process and only put down on paper to explain the theory to others…. But that’s the scientist in me I guess.
Edited at 2014-10-17 05:43 pm (UTC)
Rest was pretty straightforward, but elegantly clued in many cases. Particularly liked the WATERING HOLE anagram (well I would, wouldn’t I…?)
Thanks for nice blog Pip