Monthly Prize Puzzle – 035
April 2015
A puzzle by Radler
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Congratulations to Rabbit Dave who wins his choice from the range of Hamlyn Telegraph Crossword Books, having correctly worked out the anagram of the letters round the outside of the crossword and knew that the answer to the question in the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: ‘What is the meaning of “Life, the universe and everything?’ is forty-two, the solution to 12a in Radler’s tricky Monthly Prize Puzzle for April. BD informs me that before Mrs BD delved into the electronic hat, he included entries with forty-two, “forty two”, 42, 12, 12a, 12ac, 12 across or any combination thereof as correct answers.
Across
8a It’s used in signs, any we’re told (4)
NEON ‘any’ sounds like (we’re told) the chemical symbol for Neon – NE.
9a Identify and arrest following hard tip (10)
FINGERNAIL FINGER (slang term meaning to identify a criminal) followed by NAIL (informal term for arrest or catch).
10a Ruler applied Euclid’s Elements (2,4)
IL DUCE An anagram (applied) of the ‘elements’ or letters of EUCLID.
11a General de Gaulle’s to go first, this’ll provoke a reaction (8)
ALLERGEN de Gaulle spoke French so you need ALLER, the French word for to go first and then GEN, the abbreviation for general.
12a A number speaking extremely loudly out of turn (5-3)
FORTY-TWO A homophone (speaking) of TOO FORTE (too loudly), the words being swapped over (out of turn).
14a Went and scraped bed? (6)
WEEDED WEED (went) and bED (scraped indicates the removal of the top or first letter).
16a Change egg supplier that dropped egg (4)
VARY The letter that resembles an egg is dropped from an OVARY (egg supplier).
17a Solution needs one dimension but has three (5)
SOLID has three dimensions – SOL (solution) and ID (one dimension)
18a Deal out capital assets after takeover (4)
PACT Hidden and reversed (after takeover) in ouT CAPital.
19a Becoming witness, relating to me stealing pound (6)
SEEMLY SEE (witness) and MY (relating to me) with L (pound) inserted.
21a Fat Patty’s a whopper (5,3)
PORKY PIE PORKY (fat) PIE (patty).
23a Hospital failed man, dead from manual labour (8)
HANDMADE H (hospital) followed by an anagram (failed) of MAN DEAD.
26a Flyer, last to complete circle, bear to the left (6)
HOOPOE E (last letter of complete) O (circle) POOH (bear) all reversed (to the left).
27a 0.5 ___________ is half breach (10)
INFRACTION If you express 0.5 IN [a] FRACTION it would be a ½ (half).
28a Little pressure towards posh car (4)
TORR A unit used in physics to express very low pressures – TO (towards) RR (Rolls-Royce, posh car).
Down
1d True position appropriate to another (10)
REALLOCATE REAL (true) LOCATE (position).
2d I’d adopted name Rusty Rogue in business (8)
INDUSTRY ID (from the clue) ‘adopts’ N (name) and is followed by an anagram (rogue) of RUSTY.
3d Impression of fresh coffee? Duck out for sip of tea (6)
EFFECT An anagram (fresh) of COFFEE once you have removed the O (duck in cricket scoring) and replaced it with a T (a sip of or one small part of the word tea).
4d Woman called Karen in a meeting (4)
ANNA If you merge together (in a meeting) KAREN IN A , you get the surname of the ANNA, the title character of the novel by Leo Tolstoy. Brilliant!
5d Cry in pain, he’d head off bruised perhaps (8)
YELLOWED YELL OW (cry in pain) and ED (he’d without its first letter or head).
6d A street in Paris, making Earl time to be unfaithful (6)
UNTRUE UNE RUE (the French word for street is feminine so needs the E at the end of UNE) then change the E (earl)at the end of UNE for a T (time).
7d Climbing evergreen ivy plant (4)
VINE Reversed (climbing) and hidden in (a plant) evergreEN IVy
13d Old conjurer s finish cut deck at the bottom (5)
ORLOP O (old) R (the finish of conjurer) LOP (cut).
15d Secretary of State imprisons Conservative during violent riots (10)
ESCRITOIRE A secretary here being a type of desk – EIRE (state) imprisons C(Conservative) and an anagram (violent) of RIOTS.
17d Condiment provided that yummy initial freshness (3,5)
SOY SAUCE SO (provided that) Y (the initial letter of Yummy) SAUCE (freshness).
18d Hot, lumpy stew and port (8)
PLYMOUTH An anagram (stew) of HOT LUMPY.
20d In second place, run into home (6)
MODERN MO (moment, second) DEN (home) into which is inserted R (run).
22d Suspended, again for hunger breaks (6)
REHUNG An anagram (breaks) of HUNGER.
24d Broken care homes brought about problem for teenagers (4)
ACNE is hidden and reversed (brought about) in brokEN CAre.
25d The last big thing, now on the way out? (4)
EXIT EX IT (the last big thing?)
Thanks once again to BD, Mrs BD and Radler too.
Thanks to Radler and to CS for the review.
Little problem on 24d. You wrote Acre instead of Care.
Thank you – I did stare at it when I did the ‘preview’ check but couldn’t see what was wrong.
Many thanks to Radler for a great puzzle and to CS for the parsing of several clues which eluded me at the time of solving.
Congratulations, Rabbit Dave. Very well done indeed.
As I have already commented prior to this review, suffice to say thank you again to Radler for a most challenging and enjoyable MPP.
Thank you very much, Crypticsue, for your review. I had all the correct answers, but I didn’t understand the wordplay of three. An especial thank you for explaining the parsing of 4d. As you say, an absolutely brilliant clue!
Congratulations RD. Why not have a Twix to celebrate?
Thanks CS. I am amazed I figured out the mechanics of most clues in the end but did need your explanation of the scraped bed.
Radler: So long, and thanks for all the fish :).
Well done indeed, Rabbit Dave – hope that Twix is suitably impressed!
Many thanks for the review, CS, I certainly needed it for the wordplay of quite a few (about 7 if I’m being honest) but that didn’t detract from the enjoyment of this excellent puzzle from Radler.
Seem to recall that my 42nd year was quite a good one but I’m not altogether sure it brought me the meaning of ‘life & everything’!
42 isn’t the meaning of life, the universe and everything, Jane. It’s the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything. Which might be illuminating if we only knew what the question is.
Well that’s OK then.
According to my local Chinese restaurant, No.42 is Fried Chicken with Beansprouts – does that help?
Hi Jane,
That made me think of:
Congratulations Rabbit Dave.
I have just retrieved the puzzle from where I had carefully filed it away and enjoyed going through it all over again with Sue’s excellent review. It really was a most enjoyable challenge.
Thanks again Radler and Crypticsue.
Just remembered that I wanted to mention 4d. I did so want to make the answer NINA as the answer, and it is in there included in the clue, …. KareN IN A ….However it would not fit with 9a or the anagram fodder so I had to rethink. As Sue says, brilliant.
Me too, KiwiColin.
Thanks to Radler for an excellent puzzle and to CS for all the explanations. Congratulations to Rabbit Dave on the win.
Congratulations to Rabbit Dave, and of course to everyone else who completed it.
I wrote this after I discovered I’d submitted a puzzle that coincidentally had the same theme as one of Alchemi’s MPPs. After half-an-hour or so of head-scratching, I realised that Life, the Universe and Everything had the right number of letters to go around the perimeter, (and had an “f” for forty-two) so settled on that.
My thanks, as always, to CrypticSue for the review and for her earlier test solve and to Big Dave for preparing it for publication.
Thank you as well to all of you who have provided feedback
Thanks to everyone for your kind comments. I transgressed (only slightly I hope) by commenting about this puzzle on today’s blog for ST2792. Here is a link:
well done rabbit dave and thanks again Radler for a fun puzzle