Monday Prize Crossword/Nov 11
Just like last week for me a puzzle with two halves.
The left hand side went in rather smoothly and had a Dante feel to it, the other half stayed more or less blank for a long time. As always, when writing the blog I could not really see why. Many thanks to Crux for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
Wonderful 25/13/26/15/12/17/14/19/19, not even two years ago my sister in arms in search for justice – RIP. You really saved my future – unfortunately, no one could save yours when you fell from the sky last Sunday.
| Across | ||
| 1 | METEORIC | Spectacular sort of rise crack CEO merits (almost) (8) |
| (CEO + MERIT[s])* | ||
| 5 | STREAM | Course not taken in mixed-ability group (6) |
| Double/Cryptic definition | ||
| A mixed-ability group (in education) is not streamed, true, but I am not sure whether the word ‘not’ is in the right place here. | ||
| 10 | SPEED | Race in which horse loses time but gains power (5) |
| STEED (horse) minus T (time) plus replacing it P (power) | ||
| 11 | DEFENDERS | They support shelves around a central point (9) |
| DEFERS (shelves, as a verb) around END (point) which is ‘centrally’ positioned hence ‘a central point’ | ||
| 12 | AUTOGRAPH | Sign TA group has mostly reformed (9) |
| (TA GROUP HA[s])* | ||
| 13 | OUSEL | Parasite’s head attaches to tail of bird (5) |
| LOUSE (parasite) with its ‘head’ (L) moving to the end (‘tail’) | ||
| 14 | UTOPIA | More work actually impossible to find (6) |
| Double definition, although both are of course very much connected | ||
| In 1516 Sir Thomas More wrote a ‘work’ about a perfect society somewhere on an imaginary island. | ||
| 15 | NAMETAG | One helps identify suspect meat in a horse! (7) |
| (MEAT)* inside NAG (a horse) | ||
| 18 | ARSENAL | Side weapons are kept here (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| Side as in (football) team. | ||
| 20 | SUNHAT | A hunt’s lost in protective cover (6) |
| (A HUNT’S)* | ||
| 22 | COATI | Kind of raccoon jacket has one (5) |
| COAT (jacket) + I (one) | ||
| 24 | SHOEMAKER | Cordwainer who was also a snob (9) |
| Two definitions for the price of one | ||
| 25 | DOMINIONS | Party subordinates with sovereign powers! (9) |
| DO (party) + MINIONS (subordinates) | ||
| 26 | NOOSE | Presently rejected eastern method of execution (5) |
| NOOS (reversal (‘rejected’) of SOON (presently)) + E (eastern) | ||
| 27 | SUNDRY | Various fruit growers do it with tomatoes (6) |
| Double definition (perhaps my CoD because of its elegance) | ||
| 28 | PRESENTS | Bishop finally begrudges making donations (8) |
| [bisho]P + RESENTS (begrudges) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOSSAD | Secret agents furious, having nothing on arch-enemy? (6) |
| MAD (furious) around {O (nothing) + SS (arch-enemy, of the Jewish/Israelian people) | ||
| The Mossad is the Israelian secret service, founded in 1951. See Keeper’s comment @5. | ||
| 2 | THE STATES | America’s part in the Fourth Estate, say (3,6) |
| Hidden solution (‘part in the’): [four]TH ESTATE S[ay] | ||
| 3 | OLD AGE PENSIONER | Grandad’s brief role in Othello, apparently (3,3,9) |
| Hidden in (‘role in’) “Othello apparently” is OAP which is an abbreviation (‘brief’) for the solution – Grandad? Mwah | ||
| 4 | INDIANA | Native American once, a member of 2 (7) |
| INDIAN (native American once) + A – ‘2’ is referring to clue 2 (down) | ||
| 6 | TEN COMMANDMENTS | Lapidarian superinjunctions from on high (3,12) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Well, I think it’s a cd but don’t tell me how it works – or better: do tell me! Thanks, Musca, @3 for enlightening me. | ||
| 7 | EPEES | English soak up what can be seen on the piste (5) |
| E (English) + PEES (reversal (‘up’) of SEEP (soak)) | ||
| Initially, I was thinking of skiers but I learnt that ‘piste’ is also the place where those into fencing cross swords. | ||
| 8 | MISALIGN | Omit part of text, reportedly, being set out wrongly (8) |
| Homophone (‘reportedly’) of: MISS A LINE (omit part of text) | ||
| 9 | AFGHAN | Anglo-French country without a language (6) |
| AF (Anglo-French, abbreviation) + GHAN[a] (country without the A at the end) | ||
| 16 | TRACK DOWN | Seek out a path from the trig point? (5,4) |
| TRACK (a path) that goes DOWN (from the trig point) | ||
| 17 | BARCODES | Pub rules? A few lines in black and white (8) |
| BAR (pub) + CODES (rules) | ||
| 19 | LESSON | What’s clearly required for swimming class (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| I can swim with my clothes on ……. | ||
| 20 | SPONSOR | Poles stuck in trail for support (7) |
| N,S (poles, North and South) inside SPOOR (trail) | ||
| 21 | GREENS | You may be putting on these for a party (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | ADMIN | A kind of mind necessary for management (5) |
| A + (MIND)* | ||
I had misusage for 8d leading to the oasis bird at 13a.
Failed also on 21d.I’ve never heard the expression “put on greens” -what does it mean, please?
@Bamburger
Re 21d: I think it relates to golf. The green is the course and ‘putting’ on the green[s], as you would know, is “the activity of hitting a golf ball along the ground and into a hole”.
Of course, at a time one can be putting only on one green!
6d, I think,is an ‘erudite’ clue! ‘Lapidarian’ can mean ‘carved in stone’and ‘superinjunctions’ are order( from a judge) not to do things. ‘On high’ refers to the mountain top (or God). So it all makes sense!
Thanks Crux, and Sil for the comprehensive blog, as usual
I got fixated with putting on greens meaning wearing green coloured things!
Thanks for the blog, Sil. Minor quibble with 9d: I realize Chambers has “Afghan” as “the official language of Afghanistan,” but you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who calls it that (it’s almost always Pashto).
On 1d, I didn’t really like SS as arch-enemy; it ceased to exist in 1945, while Mossad wasn’t created until 1951. If anything, Mossad’s arch-enemies (currently) probably are Hizballah and/or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. An alternative could have been:
Secret agents furious, having captured former secret agents. (where former secret agents = OSS)
Hi Keeper, agree with you.
I wasn’t happy with MOSSAD either, for the very same reason you mention. However, I usually try to make my blog as objective as possible, starting off with with putting myself in the setter’s seat. Of course, I do add comments if I feel the need to.
In the case of AFGHAN I couldn’t be bothered. I thought, well, clear enough. But I should perhaps have gone somewhat deeper into the matter. It’s perhaps similar to ‘Belgian’. Also a language that doesn’t exist.