Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 006
Air Travel by Radler
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Welcome to the sixth in our series of weekly puzzles.
This is the second by Radler – another of our rising stars.
The puzzle by Radler is available here
Feel free to leave comments about this puzzle.
This is hard! Got a few answers. Liked 10a very much. I’ve had a go on the interactive version, but it’s too tempting to cheat!
For the moment I am stumped with about 7 clues done, but I’ll try again later!
Thanks, Radler!
Boy this is tough! – Can’t get into it at all. Thanks for the challenge Radler but I fear I will end up cheating!
Mark & Claire, thank you for your comments. It does seem that I’ve made this a little tough, so perhaps it’s time for a hint. The unchecked letters around the perimeter of the grid spell four related words. If you can solve (or reveal) enough to work out what these are, then you’ll have many of the initial and final letters of the answers.
Good luck!
Thanks Radler! I am going to persevere. One problem I had was that I thought 13d was “coins” (mislead by the idea that coin in French means corner).
Anyway …
Thought I’d offer some hints!
7d Think about St. Nick!
10a is an anagram of “make sure” with the initial letters (“heads”) left out (“scratching”).
25d If you know who wrote the Adrian Mole books, you’ll get this by doing the same thing to her name as Radler did to her character’s
Thanks both of you – only managed a few clues yesterday – will persevere today. St Nick was the first one I got!! Also got 10a but didn’t know why until I read the hint above. Onwards and (hopefully) upwards!
Regrettably, I gave up on this one after two long sessions. I got 8a (a homophone), 1d (an anagram), 10a (I guessed Archimedes has something to do with it) and 25d (which I particularly liked). The rest was as clear as lentil soup. Oh well…
Father Brian, if you’re still around, here are a few more hints…
14a is something close to Jupiter (by Jove). 16a is a type of pain relief, which is a word meaning “under pressure” less the letter “e” (drug). 26a are bones in the wrist. 3d is a hidden answer. 15d is an anagram, where the anagram indicator is “swirling elements to”. 22d means to “surprise”, particularly if planning an attack.
And of course – see comment 3 – the completed grid will spell a word along each side. Once you crack those you’ll have some useful initial and final letters.
I am persevering – mainly because I am using these puzzles as training to try to get better than my mother-in-law at the DT cryptic!
Thanks for the hints Radler.
I enjoyed 15d – didn’t see it for ages :)
There are some I have got, but I don’t know why. (17d for instance!)
mark
Mark
17d is B (the IVR code for Belgium) + a word meaning missing or short of + a pronoun (the person being addressed in the answer). The definition (reflex response) is what someone may say if you sneeze.
Thanks Gazza. I had got the answer and now I know how it works. :oops:
mark
I have finally given up and used the interactive puzzle to get the last few clues. Don’t really understand 4d & 18a.
Is there a review of this, or have I missed it?
Thanks Radler – a really good puzzle!
mark
I’m writing it at the moment, in between doing other things!
4d/18a. The 13 is a reference to 13d. Put TORS (rocks) around (boxes) an anagram (rocky) of AND and O (round).