Some good clues here so I quite enjoyed myself. This doesn’t seem like a Quick breeze as there’s good surfaces and quite a lot of play in the word play. I usually struggle with flowers (the ones with petals rather than the rivers) but at least it was an anagram. The scientist I knew so don’t know why it took some time to get the answer from pretty clear word play. Flamande does seem to enjoy double definitions.
The definition/’whole thing’/’concise clue’ is underlined. The word or phrase which indicates an anagram is shown as (anagrind) and the words of the anagram (anag).
Across |
1 |
Take Flight – To escape, go by plane – double definition. |
8 |
Bag Lady – Homeless woman happy (GLAD) to settle in (inside) alcove (BAY). |
9 |
Reads – Studies concerning (RE) publicity (ADS). |
10 |
Task – After very little time (T), beg for (ASK) some work.
|
11 |
Camellia – This person (ME) cuts (inside) variety (anagrind) of lilac (anag), a flowering shrub – in the family Theaceae – maybe this is why I don’t like plant clues – too many vowels.
|
13 |
Tracer – One eventually finds (someone who traces) a kind of bullet – double definition. |
14 |
Yellow – Shout (YELL) ouch (OW), being cowardly. |
17 |
Well Done – My (WELL as in ‘My! Cryptic crosswords are fun!’) teacher (DON), first to express (E) words for encouragement. |
19 |
Mail – Letters man read aloud (MAIL sounds like male). |
21 |
Lathe – Machine produces articles for use on both sides of the channel (LA en France, THE in UK). |
22 |
Brownie – Cake for future Guide? – double definition. |
23 |
Rutherford – Scientist’s dull routine (RUT): woman’s (HER) cross (FORD)! Father of nuclear physics and a great experimentalist – would maybe have appreciated our efforts to fine tune these blog formats. |
Down |
2 |
Augusta – Distinguished (AUGUST) area (A) in US city. At the recent Master’s tournament, a friend of our non-skiing son – Matt Fitzpatrick – did really well but sadly missed the cut by a single shot. |
3 |
Exam – Test now in the afternoon? If it is no longer (EX) morning (AM) then it must be now in the afternoon. Nice clue! |
4 |
Layman – Amateur needed by pLAY MANager. The answer is in the clue – needed in the sense that the letters layman are needed to make play manager rather than pager. |
5 |
Gardener – Forest (ARDEN) kept by (inside) German (GER) horticulturalist. It’s easy to start with, to think that cryptic clues have answers you’ve never heard of – how many German horticulturalists do you know? But more often than not the setter is fooling you with a clever surface which needs to be looked through to find a simpler word like gardener. |
6 |
Trail – Track advertisement for future program – double definition. Can a trail (rather than a trailer) be an advertisement? Is advertisement a verb? |
7 |
Oscar Wilde – Writer so upset (OS) and angry (WILD) when taken into (inside) care (CARE). |
8 |
Bath Towels – Wash bottle (anag) out (anagrind) and dry with these, after soaking – in the bath say. |
12 |
Dead Beat – Lout is exhausted – double definition – we seem to be clocking these up – that’s 5 so far. |
15 |
Learner – Pupil left (L) to join person getting income (EARNER) – a nice twist as pupil in crosswords is usually L but here it’s the definition. |
16 |
Unable – Not fit, having polished off (anagrind) BUN with ALE (anag). |
18 |
Later – Person working on roof (sLATER) loses head (minus the first letter) subsequently. |
20 |
Loaf – Do very little to get bread – our final double definition making half a dozen in all. Nice follow on – ‘to get bread’ – from ‘earner’ above. |
TRAIL is OK as an alternative for “trailer”. I got caught on this a while back as I didn’t know it then. ODO’s example is:
“A recent television trail for ‘The Bill’”.
Instead of:
This person (ME) cuts (inside) variety (anagrind) of lilac (anag)
This person (ME) cuts (inside) lilac* (‘variety’)
One can keep the descriptions free of metalanguage such as anagrind and anagram by means of the asterisk, which is both common and easily assimilable, and inverted commas.
Up to you of course!
The example you have given is clear but it might not look so good when the anagrist consists of two or more words which presumably would then need to be in brackets. This in my opinion would confuse the eye when viewed alongside brackets indicating something else. And the subtle use of quotation marks inside brackets is one step too far for my poor brain to cope with!
Edited at 2014-04-15 05:37 am (UTC)
Edited at 2014-04-15 06:38 am (UTC)
Completed all but one clues in 23 with a bit of Z8ery, as it was late and I’d been at work. The LOI, dead beat, took 2 mins to figure out with Z8 and I looking at each other blankly. I would have thought a lout was a lot more proactive than a dead beat. COD was 22ac – I was both a guide and brownie in my past…
I guessed a couple of clues – gardener & Rutherford from cross- clues but Z8 refused to allow me to continue until I’d parsed them.. Nothing like being trained to do it correctly 🙂