Solving Time: This is the second of the puzzles in the first preliminary round of the 2012 Championships. I solved it on the day in about 20 mins, but in such a rush and with so little care for the wordplay that blogging it now, it’s as if I’d never seen it before. It strikes me as just a tad harder than average, though there was only one word new to me (13ac). There are a lot of fine, and in some cases rather intricate, clues to enjoy.
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–).
ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online
Across | |
---|---|
1 |
tipsiest – end = TIP + short nap = SIEST( |
5 | random – well, you can have RAM = random access memory, so there is a connection there. But still this clue seems a bit random to me. Is it just a cd? |
10 | Barcelona – little nipper = CRAB, rev., + *(ALONE). What’s with the “little?” Even down the road from me, in Whitstable say, you can find crabs that you would not want to meet in a dark alley |
11 | mason – motorway = M + for instance = AS, + working = ON. |
12 | sofa – ShOw FlAt |
13 | madrasahs – curry = MADRAS + expressions of surprise = AHS. A madrasah is an Islamic indoctrination centre, a new word for me but not hard to find. |
15 | leafcutter – field = LEA, + footballers = FC, + say = UTTER |
17 | stir – dd |
19 |
oath – ( |
20 | journalese – cd, a reference to the Daily Mirror |
22 |
sea nettle – port = SEATTLE containing ( |
24 | exam – former = EX + morning = AM |
26 |
ounce – strike = ( |
27 | nectarine – “drink say” = NEC + seaman = TAR + favoured = IN + energy = E |
28 | throne – THE containing fellow = RON. |
29 | dead beat – *(DEBATE) containing bill = AD. |
Down | |
1 | toby – play = TOY containing B, presumably equating to the second row, row B. I was not sure about man = toby either.. according to Chambers, toby is either a mug or highway robbery. Maybe strict accuracy has been sacrificed, in the interests of a beautifully neat surface reading – anyway, it was my first in..or maybe not.. it’s just a man’s name, thanks Jackkt |
2 | personal trainer – gym = PE + shoe = TRAINER, containing runs = R + *(SALON) |
3 |
ice dance – *(ACCIDEN( |
4 |
storm – ( |
6 | aims at – top = A1 + marks = M + SAT, conventionally the end of the (christian) week |
7 | distant relative – I confess I didn’t even try to parse this at the time. It’s *(INVITED AT LAST) containing about = RE. A very finely constructed clue |
8 | miniseries – bombs = MINES containing one’s = I’S, + anger = IRE rev. |
9 | Landseer – countryside = LAND + view = SEE + R. Best known for the Trafalgar Square lions, and cheesy pictures of stags etc. |
14 | blood sport – family relationship = BLOOD + sport, an Australian alternative to Bruce |
16 | trotting – time = T + going off = ROTTING |
18 | face card – following = F + wicked = ACE + character = CARD |
21 |
demean – squalid room = DEN containing M( |
23 | emcee – sounds like MC, Roman for 1100. A horrid word, emcee.. if you can’t be bothered using the full Master of Ceremonies, or the proper abbreviation MC, there is still compère to fall back on |
25 | jest – spout = JET containing small = S |
1dn: TOBY is simply a man’s name.
It’s a shame that whenever one of these puzzles appears we STILL lose the puzzle number on printing it out. It might also be useful to state what the time limit is when informing us that only 39% of competitors achieved a correct solve within it.
I think it’s 30 minutes, in which case I would have failed by 6 minutes as 13ac, 1ac and 1dn delayed me a little right at the end.
I didn’t know, or had forgotten that SEA NETTLE is a jellyfish. I never heard of MADRASAHS and it doesn’t come up in the LJ search so it appears to be something new around here. The google crossword blogs search lists it as having appeared quite recently in an Independent Inquisitor puzzle in which I’d not even heard of about half the answers.
Edited at 2012-10-31 01:53 am (UTC)
Another who doesn’t like the word EMCEE, but easily got as former goalkeeper for the European Travellers who got chucked out of the Perth Seniors League for insisting on wearing roman numerals. (Nothing in the rules forbade it but.) Natch: I was MC, in memory of my old Dad’s Austin.
Ounce occurs, besides in crosswords, in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound: ‘as hooded ounces cling to the driven hind’.
I imagine this might be might be a reference to the Eurasian lynx, which preys on deer among other animals.
Edited at 2012-10-31 02:59 am (UTC)
I made one mistake: cards are a serious blind spot for me and I didn’t know FACE CARD, which I’ve no doubt is extremely common. The best I could come up with was BASE CARD.
MADRASAH, on the other hand, caused no problems: this word has appeared in the news quite regularly in recent years. The accepted definition for TV purposes appears to be “an institution for training terrorists”.
RANDOM I think (with Jack) is R and OM, the components of ROM, though during solve I blinked at least as much as Jerry.
NECTARINE I misunderstood because I went all the way with nectar as the drink and couldn’t fathom the rest. Is there another LEAFCUTTER beside the ant?
CoD to the cheeky THRONE – is this a British or more universal euphemism?
On the matter of spelling, madrasah is an arabic word so is transliterated in all sorts of ways. As well as its five definitions, Chambers gives a catch-all “etc”. I
didn’t have a clue how to spell itwas aware of this ambiguity so paid attention to the wordplay.Edited at 2012-10-31 12:07 pm (UTC)
I had complete brain freeze here. Journalese was left blank, I just couldn’t see it, missing the obvious hint at the newspaper.
I also failed to put anything for the fairly easy emcee. In mentally fumbling for abbreviations for 1000 I stopped after discounting G and K. What a muppet.
The other blank was sea nettle. I’d considered it but without the final E hadn’t the confidence to go for it. Foolishly I couldn’t see beyond the port being sea- something (sea harbour, sea dock etc) and sea ttle didn’t look too likely for that!
Where I lost the 4th mark I’ve no idea. Probably a typo down to lack of checking time.
I would second the proposal to delete EMCEE from all dictionaries. We have CEO not CEEEEOH and MP not EMPEE so why is EMCEE a word?
You’re in good company. On the day some contestants went for vent and appealed (unsuccessfully).
Monarch of the Glen