Monday Prize Crossword/Jan 5
Excellent crossword from Falcon that I found a bit more challenging than his average output (including the Observer’s Everyman).
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | STAND PAT | Resist change in partnership? Precisely (5,3) |
| STAND (partnership, of any two batsmen at the wicket) + PAT (precisely) | ||
| 5 | ICARUS | Legendary character, singer, shunning love on island (6) |
| I (island) + {CARUSO (singer, Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)) minus O (love)} | ||
| 9 | MOT JUSTE | Appropriate word recently found in foreign tome (3,5) |
| JUST (recently) inside (TOME)* [* = foreign] | ||
| Nice clue as the solution may perhaps indeed be found in a foreign (ie French) book. | ||
| 10 | BRIDLE | Bishop and rook not employed in check (6) |
| B (bishop) + R (rook) + IDLE (not employed) | ||
| 12 | LARGE | Generous lager poured out (5) |
| (LAGER)* [* = poured out] | ||
| 13 | CHAPERONE | Shepherd in timeless novel’s beginning? (9) |
| CHAPTER ONE (novel’s beginning) minus T (time) | ||
| 14 | GAMBLE | US film star embracing maiden in punt (6) |
| GABLE (US film star, Clark Gable (1901-1960)) around M (maiden) | ||
| 16 | ON THE GO | Gone hot in resort, being very active (2,3,2) |
| (GONE HOT)* [* = in resort] | ||
| 19 | EMERALD | Stone, green and red, male unexpectedly produced (7) |
| (RED + MALE)* [* = unexpectedly produced] | ||
| Bit of a long anagram indicator, ‘produced’ would have been enough, I guess. | ||
| 21 | BARRIE | Writer’s block? No end (6) |
| BARRIER (block) minus the R at the end (‘no end’) – JM Barrie (1860-1937) | ||
| 23 | CRACK SHOT | Marksman needs two attempts (5,4) |
| CRACK (attempt #1) + SHOT (attempt #2) | ||
| 25 | CAUSE | Give rise to lawsuit involving university (5) |
| CASE (lawsuit) around U (university) | ||
| 26 | ANTHEM | Song from worker on border (6) |
| ANT (worker) + HEM (border) | ||
| 27 | MERCUTIO | Shakespeare character wounded – in Rome, I suspect (8) |
| CUT (wounded) inside (ROME I)* [* = suspect] | ||
| Character from Romeo and Juliet (tbc in 22d). | ||
| 28 | THRUST | Push one’s way through American street (6) |
| THRU (through, American) + ST (street) – perhaps, I should underline “Push one’s way through” but I don’t like double duty | ||
| 29 | IN CAMERA | American involved kept secret (2,6) |
| (AMERICAN)* [* = involved] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SAMPLE | Small enough specimen (6) |
| S (small) + AMPLE (enough) | ||
| 2 | ALTERNATE | Every other substitute (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | DEUCE | Two infer one duke should leave (5) |
| DEDUCE (infer) minus one D (duke), the second one actually | ||
| 4 | ARTICLE | What journalist writes may make it clear (7) |
| (IT CLEAR)* [* = (may) make] | ||
| 6 | CARPENTER | Woodworker has to find fault with log (9) |
| CARP (to find fault) + ENTER (log) | ||
| I liked the elegance of this clue. | ||
| 7 | RODEO | Cycled round in riding competition (5) |
| RODE (cycled) + O (round) | ||
| 8 | SKELETON | The smallest possible number in a set of bones? (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| I wasn’t familiar with the first meaning but Oxford told me that there might have been “only a skeleton staff on duty”. | ||
| 11 | SAGO | Second answer to be given is a staple food (4) |
| S (second) + A (answer) + GO ((to) be given) | ||
| It took me a while to understand the GO bit, therefore not fully confident to enter SAGO as the solution. ”Go” as in “the prize for this crossword goes to ….”. | ||
| 15 | BLACK BESS | Unlucky on Elizabeth’s famous mare (5,4) |
| BLACK (unlucky) + BESS (Elizabeth) | ||
| Infamous highwayman Dick Turpin’s horse, featured in William Harrison Ainsworth’s novel Rookwood. It was published in 1834, almost a 100 years after Turpin’s death by hanging. | ||
| 17 | ETIQUETTE | Form quite unpredictable – better ignoring both sides (9) |
| (QUITE)* + [b]ETTE[r] [* = unpredictable] | ||
| 18 | PENCHANT | Liking priest’s initial charm (8) |
| P[riest] + ENCHANT (charm) | ||
| 20 | DAHL | Author had upped and left (4) |
| DAH (reversal (‘upped’) of HAD) + L (left) – Roald Dahl (1916-1990) | ||
| 21 | BITTERN | Bird from extremely cold north (7) |
| BITTER (extremely cold) + N (north) | ||
| 22 | VERONA | Where 27 was killed in Dover, on arrival (6) |
| Hidden solution (‘in’): [do]VER ON A[rrival] | ||
| Romeo’s friend Mercutio (27ac) was killed in Verona (and not Dover, of course), rather sudden in Act III of Shakespeare’s play. | ||
| 24 | ACTOR | Player’s agent overlooking fine (5) |
| FACTOR (agent) minus F (fine) | ||
| 25 | COCOA | See two Commanding Officers over a drink (5) |
| CO (Commanding Officer …) + CO (… and another one) + A | ||
Thanks Falcon and Sil
Nice blog, Sil – very precise and clear.
Actually did this on the day it was published – a rare thing and like you, thought that it was a bit harder than the usual Falcon. Didn’t parse MOT JUSTE, so thanks for that.
I thought that the surface reading of nearly every single clue was the highlight in the puzzle.
Last in was BARRIE.