TIB#13 – Friday The Thirteenth
Online version available here.
Across – Diogenes
1 Bare ballet he danced in turns (5,3,5)
9 Saw 10:10 in the morning (5)
10 Great deal of air strike on a show of excessive action (9)
11 Name the organic gas (7)
12 Dressed oneself before quarter final outside (7)
13 Is a round in order for one that’s old and bulky? (8)
15 Grave of Pasternak (5)
17 Dictionary’s first mistake missing from corrigendum information (5)
19 Many a good shape one’s lost to stupidity (8)
22 Ends tenure, eyes name in the centre (7)
23 Music makers with pluck? (7)
25 Spooner’s chief collector – one gets lots of new business (9)
26 Dismissed point not entirely best (5)
27 Victory lap for a group of achievers? (7,6)
Down – Cryptonyte
1 Cramps both sides of muscles at health clubs (6)
2 One goes to a party with a tee shirt – a fool (5)
3 Lug endlessly, go to the doctor with back pain (7)
4 Lick and stimulate model going for sensationalism at first – a symbol in red street? (6,3,6)
5 Guesses players on the field? (8,7)
6 Nowadays clothes do the talking (7)
7 Bare essentials without a bit of extravagance for virgin (9)
8 A diner’s cooked this? (7)
14 Put away sentiment when questioning (9)
16 They may screen movies (7)
18 Would his study be a correspondence course? (7)
20 Scot backs Reserve Bank of India (though it has nothing) for capital (7)
21 Mineral residue found first on land (6)
24 Joke is an irritation (5)
Solutions to TIB#12
Across
1 SPILL THE BEANS: (BALLET HE)* in SPANS: Very elegantly done mix of wordplay styles.
The 10:10 is very intriguing!
9 AXIOM: A X IO M – This is one of those clues – you HAVE to crack them, until then you can’t have peace
10 MELODRAMA: MELOD(-y) RAM A
11 METHANE: (NAME THE)* – I’ve seen a very similar clue for METHANE recently in a UK crossword I think – but it used more words than this!
12 PREENED: PRE EN(E)D
13 DINOSAUR: (IS A ROUND)*
15 STERN: pa[STERN]ak
17 DATUM: D (-err)ATUM
19 DAFTNESS: D A F(-i)TNESS – I love the epigrammatic surface.
22 TERMINI: TERM I(N)I – Similar comment as for the old ‘kosher’ clue
23 GUITARS cd
25 RAINMAKER: spoonerism of ‘main raker’ – Refreshing to see a Spoonerism, a LOL-inducing one.
26 OUTDO: OUT DO(-t) – Not the smoothest surface but nice wordplay, with an unexpected DOT for ‘point’ instead of the usual NESW, and the clever pun on ‘best’.
27 WINNERS CIRCLE cd
Down
1 SPASMS: SPAS M(-uscle)S
3 LUMBAGO: LU(-g) MB AGO – Good one!
5 BALLPARK FIGURES d&cd – Another good one, and my ballpark figure is it’ll make to the fav. list of at least 3 comments here.
6 ADDRESS: AD DRESS – Great surface, it’s nice to see freq occurring words clued so well.
7 STAINLESS: (ESSENTIALS – E)*
8 SARDINE: (A DINERS)*
14 INTERVIEW: INTER VIEW – Very well written clue – evocative surface, nicely misleading wordplay and the nuance of an -ING definition not leading to an -ING answer.
16 EDITORS cd
18 My answer is MAILMAN cd, Aleem’s answer is YESSSSS.
20 NAIROBI: IAN<- R(O)BI – This clue reminded me of Neyartha.
21 ASHORE: ASH ORE
24 ANTIC: AN TIC
Shuchi
July 31, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Further thoughts on our conversation about placement of verbal anagrinds (7D). I think we need to differentiate between these two kinds:
1. Those that indicate ordering the fodder – such as break, compose, mould, modify, scramble…these take the fodder as the object of the verb.
2. Those that suggest that the fodder, when transformed, leads to the solution – such as becomes, divulges, gives out, reveals, shows …these take the fodder as the subject of the verb.
The first kind, clearly, would be placed before the fodder, but the second kind would come after the fodder. The second kind is also more controversial – by a strict yardstick they’re weaker anagrinds. They’re fine by me – as long as placed after the fodder!
Makes sense?
Shuchi
July 31, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I think bare, reveal, unravel, disclose etc. fit both the categories you’ve mentioned. When we say “bare fodder”, we are advising the solver to expose what’s there in the fodder by unjumbling it. I agree that there are anagrinds which belong only to category 2, like dance, cavort, gyrate, swirl etc. We obviously can’t dance something or swirl something. The something dances or swirls.
diogeneb
August 4, 2009 at 9:20 am
Great compilation…Specially loved 1,23,27 Ac and 16,20 Dn.
BTW reg “We obviously can’t dance something or swirl something” …would it mean that a clue like “swirl the water to get damp soil (wet earth)”( ignore the clunky clue for the sake of argument)is wrong or am i missing something??
anish madhavan
August 5, 2009 at 5:58 am
Thanks Maddy. You’re absolutely right about “swirl”. I checked the dictionary, and it certainly can be used the way you did. It was a poor example on my part, but I hope I was able to get my point across.
diogeneb
August 7, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Really good one this time
I got all EXCEPT:
9 across
26 across and sadly
7 Down
My favorite clue was 1 across I think!
Aruna
August 3, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Oh and cryptonyte: would love to know WHAT you were thinking of when you clued 4 down
Aruna
August 3, 2009 at 6:45 pm
heh heh
cryptonyte
August 10, 2009 at 9:31 am