For me, DA’s been pretty difficult over the past few weeks.
The trend probably continues, so have all your confusions sorted out right here.
For me, DA’s been pretty difficult over the past few weeks.
The trend probably continues, so have all your confusions sorted out right here.
Seems hard this week. Only about ten clues written in over breakfast.
I already had to have Google confirm one agricultural term.
I enjoyed it muchly today. About an hour from go to woohoo. Don’t get the wordplay for 21D.
All done bar 1A & 1D! Clues anyone?
Keith Re 21D: dictator is homophone indicator operating on raised (in the sense of being reared or brought up)
Okay, got the poet. Now for 1A.
Still stupid over here. Got a few more over lunch.
1A must be a rugby term, as in “put on the grass”. The herbivore isn’t small.
Thanks Rupe. It came to me in the shower! Small is s and the animals in reverse. I recall DA played for Gordon R U, but I’ve never heard the term used in that context.
4d last one in. (had to confirm with google)
10A Help!! Must have missed something…….
10A: Def is the first four words. “ran into” as in at the supermarket. “bright” as in outlook. “block” as in the tide.
17A, 18D & 27A to go.
Not sure if intersection of 17 & 18 is P or S (or am I completely off)
AJ, I think 18 d starts with something other than P or S.
Thanks Peta.
Going for N.
I worked out 27a now.
I think I’m complete. Will know for sure tomorrow.
Ah thanks Mike H. I was looking up when I shouldn’t have at all.
Today’s has taken me a while – not finished yet. Could I have a hint for 5 Down please?
And could someone explain the ‘make hay’ or the first 3 letter word of 1D?
10A ‘here’ in Paris is not ‘ici’. Why here? Is DA currently in Paris? I knew the first word, and figured out the rest. Wiki tells me there are 160 or so 10As in the world.
3D Should be ‘the French drink in French’, n’est ce pas?
28A I imagine irked Rupert a little .. not his favourite type of clue. Can really only get it from the definition and the cross letters.
14A had me going for blackholes and Black Caviar. Liked it once I got it.
1D: It’s an old word for making hay. There are hay making machines called “ders”
10A: I was looking for ICI, too. I think “here” is just a nice bit of misdirection.
3D: It’s “the drink” in French. The French drink in French would be La Manche.
28A: I was indeed irked. I’m still not sure I’ve got it right.
14A: Is the only one I haven’t got. Online wordfinder has let me down.
Please explain the wordplay in 12A, 13D (nag = E?), and 21D.
5D: These generally happen when an enemy of the government needs to be sent to prison, but is too prominent to simply disappear. Changed is the anagrind, and applies to the words before it.
Re14: think……….the Gaul!
Re13:common nag equals cockney horse; mentioned peer sounds like duke; popular is in; definition: eventually.
Re21D: see above
Re12:anagram of saloon flirt minus “f o r”, which have skooted off somewhere!
Got to the puzzle much earlier than usual this week. Have really been enjoying it but now stuck with four to go. I feel that I would enjoy DA’s recent puzzles more If I’d studied French in Paris. A little ticked off about the ICI misdirection. Bordering on unfair even for DA.
Please help me with:
5A: I have an answer but my answer is an animate object (whereas a match is inanimate). So not sure about it. My answer is a football (soccer) forward who (hopefully) kicks goals.
8D: My guess is that it’s an answer that appeared last week, but I don’t understand the wordplay at all. I ran through a number of capitalists in my head and tried the five letter ones.
21A: Once again I have an answer, but not sure about it. My answer is similar to the nickname of a former Australian fast bowler, but not sure of how the clue works.
18D: Have all the non-unches but guessing the second word. Is this a double def clue?
Au reservoir.
@Rupert, re 14D:
the def is “Used stars”. Not film stars or celestial stars. Galloper (a trusty one) gives letters 2,3,4,9,10. One sense of wager gives letters 5-8. This one puzzled me for quite a while too.
IPuzzled, thanks finally got 14d! 21a is Aussie rhyming slang
Thanks, got 14D. I have 21A wrong. Pretty sure I have the first word – a boy’s name and a camp saucepan. Is the second word the element Sn?
5A: Yes, it’s the position formerly known as centre forward. It’s a match because of how you light a match.
8D: Yes, it was in last week’s puzzle, too. Think of the saying “When in , …”
18D: Yes, it’s a double def. One type of person who’d always be at fault in a game of tennis, and one piece of computer kit (I’d usually expect it to be a piece of hardware, but in a broad sense it could also be software).
It is, this morning in Ballarat, ‘Cold enough to permanently prejudice the paternity prospects of a brass monkey’ , a more polite (?) version of a well-known saying invented by Arthur about a decade or so ago.
Haven’t checked above yet, have exactly half finished, depite temperature hovering around zero. Time now to put dinner on. CU later.
@Rupert, @Chamollie
Thanks with your help with those clues.
Re 21@: I’m not familiar with the Australian rhyming slang that Chamollie is referring to, so I can’t help. I think I’ll do some digging around.
Rupert. Sorry to trouble you again. Once again our paper didn’t come (we’re in a small rural area) – would really appreciate it if you could email us a copy again- do you still have our email address from last week? Thanx Doug & Gwyn
I started well for me this week, got a bit further with hints above. Think I have it all now
Rupert thanks for 18d hint, see how it applies to the surfing program but Tennis scroflaw?? Not quite sure what the answer would mean in tennis terms, seems a bit strained to me.
24 d family phase? Family connection would be more accurate, how is it a phase?
28A Grrrr…
It’s OK Rupert – it just arrived – Midday. Thanx D & G
Thanks Rupert for 5D. I was looking at ‘short’ and not ‘changed’ as indicator. Groan, much simpler.
21A My father almost invariably used that rhyming slang for ‘Aussie child’. Rupert’s right about the camp saucepan.But I can’t quite get ‘suppressing’ for the second word or the grammar.
I think the Sn version is English? 3,3? And is also the name of a band of the (then) children of Jimmy Barnes’ and his wife.
I’m with iPuzzled on 8D and 21A .. don’t fully get the wordplay.
And no idea about 17A. Ohhh, just got it.
@nn,
24D: I thought ‘phase’, on its own, was one half of the clue.
thanks iPuzzled, hadn’t thought of it that way, I was looking at it as a double def, but it would appear it is triple.
Re 24d, I can see the phase, but where’s the family?
Brian, it’s a subsequent ie second family – think Cinderella
Ahh, and so I keep learning…
All done now, I think, but there are some doubts. If 6d is about colours, I don’t really fully get the connection with either the first or the last word of the clue.
I’m with Rupert in not liking 28 much. To have six-sevenths of the answer picked at random out of a fairly general grouping seems a bit much – or am I still missing something?
Don’t like 18 much, either – the surfing bit is usually hardware not software, unless it’s meant to be a particular brand-name, and the tennis connection seems a bit weird, too – any explanations available?
Mary 6d I’m guessing that is the colour they use in the navy, the Squidgygate thing was a sort of (second word in the answer) involving members of the first word in the answer. Took me a while to get this one. I was playing around with phone hack and phone taps at first but couldn’t get a naval connection with these.
I too am lost on what 18 would mean in terms of tennis, all I can come up with is if you did the second word from a position at the first word, it would be illegal in tennis, therefore tennis scofflaw (where did he get that word from ???). Not his best clue this week, although I would put 28a as his worst “put down dead, bullshit start (end?) included” might be a more appropriate clue.
Ah – I didn’t know the second word of 6d as an Aussie slang noun. But doesn’t it mean ‘fight’ rather than ‘scandal’, which is what I would have expected? Also navy —- and —– —- are quite different colours, navy —- being much darker, almost black.
Hmm – number of dashes came out all wrong when posted!
Really enjoyed this week’s cryppie, especially 6D, such a great clue. Also liked 18D, due to the tennis / computer relationship.
And loved 28A, Put Down was the definition, the top of spinning is S, and the DEBAED are some of the musical keys
blue could also refer to some of the language on the recording??
I read ‘blue’ as an ‘oopsy..sorry’…
I’m done but I’d love an explanation of 28a. Loved 5a, simply because it was published in the strike edition of the SMH. I made a point of photocopying without purchasing. Solidarity.
28A: Spinning top = S. All the other letters are notes, or keys on a piano. DA likes this mechanism for some reason, but I think it’s incredibly lazy.
Rupert, I agree. In effect, without having the crossers, what you have to do to solve the wordplay bit is ‘take the letter s and put it somewhere in the middle of any combination of six out of the seven first letters of the alphabet”, which is a bit much! In fact, come to think of it, it’s not even any combination, but any permutation, because any of the seven letters can be used more than once.
Some help with wordplay for 9A and 8D please.
Thanx again Rupert – you are a life-saver!
We ususally only come here when we have finished, or are completely STUCK! – as is the case this week.
Nobody mentioned 4D – is it an acronym for a group to do with aliens? – if so, don’t get the S & E.
Also competely stuck with 22A. A capo is a gang-boss, but…………??????????. Could only come up with CAPOTE, which is a cloak or overcoat. Give up!
9a, def is dull in the sense of boring, quack as in medic.
8d, inhabitant of a city where visitors are advised to do as the locals do.
Doug & Gwen, 4d is hidden in ‘zaps it hitting’ and the aliens are from Star Wars.
22a, first 3 letters are ‘kid’s ammo’, next three are ‘a’, whole is a gang boss eventually arrested for tax evasion.
Thanks Mary.
Thanx Mary – we should have seen both of those – Some people have awkward kids don’t they?
A bit late for the conversation this weekend. I have found it tough, and only had short periods available to think it through.
I am still having trouble with 17a, despite having all the cross letters. Any help out there?
Got it, after looking at word finder. Was thinking expert was part of word play and wasted the def. Finally thought about it the other way around.
22a is a VERY famous gang boss. Doug and Gwen, you were one letter off with one of your guesses. Look at the word play. What a kid puts in his gun followed by a synonym for “a”.
What with visitors, football, pool, church, have hardly looked since midday yesterday. I did try and post here last evening, but I note it isn’t above? Strange. I’m still baffled by 1A and 3D, and though I’ve filled in 18D, can see no real connection with clue. And 27A? I’ve put a name there, a chap who played doubles against 20A. So unless someone can help with clues, I’ll finish at least three short, not absolutely sure of one or two others (how unusual)! CU.
@Arthur C.
I heard an awesome talk about Genesis 11 at church this morning. We’re going through the book of Genesis at the moment, and I’ve learned heaps.
1A: The def is “grasses”. Not in the sense of kikuyu or spinifex. It is a term that might be used by a rugby commentator.
Letters 1-3 are a common animal backwards.
Letters 4-6 are a large North American herbivore backwards.
Small gives letter 7.
I hope this helps.
27A
Chicago, 1920s. I think they got him on tax evasion in the end.
Doh! That last post was about 22A.
Thank you, iPuzzled. I was trying to think of a trhree letter herbivore to put in there, but cow and gnu weren’t helpful. And I didn’t connect the French ocean with the clue either. Ah well, all squares filled in, but I’m most unsure of the others I mentioned. All will be revealed tomorrow.
Genesis 11 is interesting, it gives the impression God meant Terah was to go, but he only got as far as Haran, Abraham left him there and went on to the promised land. Terah died in Haran 75 years later, if you put the various threads together.
Arthur,
27a not a name, but could be in front of a name, perhaps in the guy out front at church this morning. In this case it has the same sense as Aussie slang verb ‘gun’ (think the old hotted up FJ). As for 20a, not a current player, her name being ‘constantly’ against the close of ‘defeat’.
PS. Arthur and iPuzzled, I heard a great sermon on Ezekiel 28 (a tough passage well handled). And a nice break from preaching for me ( yes I can have 27a in front of my name too).
Arthur C, 3D I see as a double def. French word for (colloquial) ‘drink’ = ‘sea’ which is feminine in French.
18D has been explained by others above .. so I’ll give it a miss .. not happy with it anyway.
27 ‘gun’ in the sense of gun an engine by hitting the accelerator pedal. I can see the reversal in 20A (perversely) but can’t explain the grammar in ‘holstered by 20-across’ .. holstered in 20-across? Or is it all a distraction?
Gayle, the word is ‘holstered’ (ie container clue) in 20a and then reversed.
Gayle, 21a supersede as in “put a lid on it”. I just can’t get 18d, 13d, 20a or 27a. I finished last weeks after finding this site, so I’ll keep trying !
Supress not supersede.
18 down – the job is done by software and hardware, but its the software that is specific to the task. Got it – thanks clever persons.
Biblical scholars abound. Perhaps there should be a separate forum! Sandy, not a —- tide surname by any chance?
Well, I was right, ie, I had two wrong. I had put Rod for 27 across, synonym for gun. As I suggested, Rod Laver had played against Chris Evert in mixed doubles, at Wimbledon, I think. But that made 18D impossible, I ended up with Net Bender, which is someone breaking the laws of tennis. Not bad substitutes, but not ‘right’.
AG, you may have as point. But Biblically literate cruciverbalists are such a small minority in this country in AD 2012, probably not worthwhile.
CU next Saturday, DV. DV is appropriate for an octogenarian, currently suffering pill-poisoning. Was prescribed a prostate medication last September (Duodart), ended up with sore, and still growing (though I stopped the Duodart mid-December) breasts. Latest is that the Lipitor I’ve been taking for ages has given me sore and aching leg-muscles. GRRRRHHH.
Note sure what a ––tide surname is AG, but that probably means I don’t have one.
I had “Frail” for 3D. Works don’t you think? French FR drink ALE sounds like “not as strong”