Originally published Friday, January 2, 2009 in the Daily Telegraph
Introduction
It is gratifying to see that at least one person has discovered this blog. Welcome xwd fiend. You proved to be absolutely right about BINGO being the solution to 23d in yesterday's puzzle. And your other comment is also "bang on", as I do recall that the phrase "at university" appeared in the clue in question.
I didn't write the blog yesterday as I doubted anyone was reading it and was thinking to discontinue it. However, knowing that someone is reading it has motivated me to keep it going for a bit longer. Today, I will catch up with the missing puzzle in addition to today's puzzle.
British References and Slang
As these puzzles come from the UK, they are full of British references and slang that may be quite unfamiliar to those of us from this side of the pond. Several examples are found in today's puzzle. In 6ac, the setter makes reference to REFORM, a UK think tank (not the former Canadian political party). In 12ac, reference is made to Rag Week (a charity event at British universities). In 26ac, we see duck (a score of nothing in cricket) representing the letter "O" (which, of course, looks like a zero). While I have become fairly adept at tracking these down, every so often I come up against one that totally flummoxes me. Some of the more difficult ones are found in "sounds like" clues where things that sound alike to the British ear, bear little or no resemblance to my ear.
Links
Here are links to sites discussing today's puzzle:
Crossword Ends in Violence (5)
AnswerBank
Today's Puzzle
Across
6ac REFORM|A|TORIES - Reform is a UK think tank
8ac AB|BESS - AB is sailor (able bodied)
9ac S(H)INGLES
11ac KIDD|IE - Captain KIDD + IE (that is)
12ac VIC(A|RAG)E - Rag Week is an event in which British university students raise money for charity (analogous to Shinarama here in Canada)
14ac SW(ED)ISH
16ac ACE|TATE - Tate (art gallery in London)
20ac P|RED|A|TOR - quietly [P (musical notation)] left [RED (political leaning)]
23ac STAFFS - short for Staffordshire
24ac EFT - departed [LEFT] with no lake available [-L (remove L)]
25ac DEMERARA - I found this to be a toughy, and is the only clue I couldn't solve on my own.
An unusual sea [A RARE MED (Mediterranean)] {seen on westward trip? (reversed)} [{DEM|ERAR|A}<] /\ That's sweet (Demerara is cane sugar) "Westward" indicates right-to-left which is a reversal of the order of the letters for an across entry. 26ac AFL(O)AT - note [A FL^AT] {about (outside)} a duck [O] (a "duck" is a score of nothing in cricket)
27ac {SIMPLE-HEARTED}< - HARD TIME SLEEP {being disturbed (anagram)}
Down
1d OF|F|ENDED - associated with [OF]
2d CRESSETS - I have not been able to figure out the wordplay for this clue, and suspect there may even be an error in the puzzle (as others also surmised in posts when the puzzle originally appeared in the Telegraph).
Beacon baskets [CRESSETS] /\ SET {into (inside)} hill tops [CRES^TS] (8)
But the right hand side would produce [CRES(SET)TS] which has an extra "T". It only works if SET replaces T, but I see nothing in the wordplay to justify this result.
3d C|ASS|AVA
4d ZODIAC - this is a bit of a play on words, Belt up (in the heavens)
5d LING|ER - ling is a variety of heather
6d RABBIT WARREN - play on words
7d {SLEIGHT OF HAND}< - HOLDING FAST HE {could show (anagram)}
13d A|X|E - {A cross [A^ X]} {over (before - because this is a down entry)} {far end of (last letter in)} aislE
15d IDA - {odd parts of (odd letters in)} InDiA
17d CAST|AWAY
18d {TEA CLOTH}< - HOTEL CAT {wrecked (anagram)}
19d WREATHE< - {nasty (anagram)} WEATHER
21d DREAMY< - MY DEAR, {it's silly (anagram)}
22d TRAILS< {cases in court [TRIALS]} {in which there's a twist (anagram)}
That wraps up today's puzzle. If you would like to see this blog continue, please leave a comment.
Sunday Toughie 147 (Hints)
8 hours ago
There's a page on my xwd-related website, listing some of the local references found in British cryptics.
ReplyDeleteThere's also another Telegraph cryptics blog, which will duplicate your efforts after you've done about 30 more puzzles - Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog, which took over from the 'ends in violence' one. There's no harm in having two blogs about the same puzzle (there are lots for the NY Times one after all), but for cryptics where fairly detailed explanation is needed, there seems less appeal in repeating what's already been done. After the overlap, you might want to link to the reports there and just add specific points for National Post solvers.
Thanks xwd fiend. Actually, I am already aware of Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog. My intent in starting this blog was more to be an aggregator of information than to be an author. Of the blogs that I have been following, two seemed to be fairly short-lived, and it looked like the same thing was about to befall Crossword Ends in Violence (5). However, it looks like fans of that site managed to encourage the author to keep it going until he could hand the torch to Big Dave.
ReplyDelete