Not The Saturday Prize Puzzle – 019
A Puzzle by Prolixic
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Evening All!. For the 19th in our NTSPP collection we have a very entertaining puzzle from Prolixic. I found this much more balanced than his earlier offerings and the difficulty level should appeal to all. Enjoy!.
As ever you can leave you assessment via the stars at the bottom and you can check the answers between the curly brackets
Across
1a Kent urban authority welcomes the return of game’s international body (8,7)
{SECURITY COUNCIL} – A fairly complicated wordplay to start and we are looking for an international body. Take the Cardinal point description of the Kent and London area, follow that with a phrase for an urban authority but in this we need to reverse the abbreviation of the rugby code played with 15 men, not thirteen.
9a Part of street artist’s new suit (6)
{STRAND} – A charade of abbreviations for street, artist, new and a suit (in cards) gives a word for a long fine piece of e.g. hair or straw.
10a Excellent support (8)
{CHAMPION} – A fine double definition. The first is more associated with the North of England and for the second think knights in armour at a joust.
11a Herb’s patron to a gallery (8)
{ANGELICA} – A charade of a word for patron (like Patronus for you Harry Potter fans) and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
14a Indispensable element of information on old axes (6)
{OXYGEN} – This element that we could not do without is another charade of a three letter word for information/dope placed after Old and the two principal Cartesian axes on a graph.
17a Funny liberal comic’s one getting on in the world (6,7)
{SOCIAL CLIMBER} – This go-getting individual is an anagram (funny) of LIBERAL COMICS.
20a Clumsy pair connected with play (8-5)
{ACCIDENT-PRONE} – Another anagram, this time of PAIR CONNECTED (playing) leads to a phrase for someone who is always getting into scrapes.
23a Family adopts Internet provider’s remedy? (6)
{KAOLIN} – An anti- diarrhea treatment with absorbent properties. Place a three letter abbreviation of an unpopular Internet Service Provider inside a word for family.
25a Language of love? (4,4)
{BABY TALK} – A cryptic definition of the gooey words that people in love say to each other to keep each other happy (also works on small children).
28a Biblical hero’s glee over finding such bachelors (8)
{ELIGIBLE} – Its compound anagram time people, so take a friend and a pen and paper!. The way it works is this: There is a phrase here (BIBLICAL HEROES GLEE) which contains an anagram (over) of our answer plus bachelors (indicated by such bachelors). The answer also makes sense of a type of bachelor with flipping great wadges of cash who wants to get married (not me)!.
29a Whole or some joint actions (6)
{INTACT} – A word meaning whole or unbroken is found (is some of ) joint actions.
30a Samuel ceded this propagated deadly fungal growth (5,3,7)
{DUTCH ELM DISEASE} – This fungal growth is notorious for killing a type of tree and is an anagram of SAMUEL CEDED THIS.
Down
2d Surviving without thanks to conservationists (6)
{EXTANT} – A charade of the Latin for without, thanks (informally) and a group of conservationists gives a Latin word meaning surviving or still living.
3d Custom of American generation (5)
{USAGE} – A custom or way of employing something is a charade of a common abbreviation for American and a word for generation or time.
4d Spindrift covers a lemur (5)
{INDRI} – I got the hard version of this but Prolixic has relented and given you the word for ‘Windblown Sand’. A type of lemur is found in the first word here.
5d Accountant briefly returns to support your odd plant (5)
{YUCCA} – A household and outdoor plant with varieties such as Adam’s Needle and Spanish Bayonet. Place the reversed abbreviation of an accountant (not quite the usual one) under (supporting – this is a Down clue) the odd letters of ‘your’.
6d Continued success in rearranging floor plan without leaders (2,1,4)
{ON A ROLL} – If you are enjoying continued success you could be described thus. Rearrange FLOOR PLAN without the first letters of each word (the leaders).
7d Niggardly one’s very quiet in the Big Apple (5)
{NIPPY}- A synonym for niggardly (that I was not aware of) is found by placing I (one) and the musical abbreviation for very quiet into the abbreviation for the city known as the Big Apple.
8d England and Ireland ravaged Russian city (9)
{LENINGRAD} – One of my favourites in this puzzle. A ravaged anagram of ENGLAND and IR for the Irish Republic leads to a Russian City.
12d Interleaved display with user interface initially found to be clear (5)
{LUCID} – A nice surface reading here for a synonym of clear (thinking). Interleave the letters of an acronym for a type of display screen with the abbreviation of User Interface.
13d Feature about a group (5)
{CHAIN}- The group in question might describe a group of islands or mountains that are linked. Place a facial feature around A.
15d Good skillful old actor (5)
{GABLE} – This old actor, and Mum’s favourite, is a charade of Good and word for skillful or adept.
16d Reportedly a period of time to want a lack of will power (4-5)
{WEEK-KNEED} – My favourite clue. A lovely homophone (reportedly) of period of time and also want or dearth. The definition is lacking willpower.
17d Thus described, Headless Nick’s a pervert (5)
{SICKO} – Take a short word for thus and put it around (thus DESCRIBED) ‘ICK’ (headless Nick) to get an informal word for a pervert.
18d Capture gunner’s source of oil? (5)
{COPRA} – This is the flesh of the coconut and is a good source of oil. We have a charade of an informal word for capture or arrest (very fair!) and the abbreviation for the Royal Artillery.
19d Affair on yacht has unperceived significance (5)
{IRONY} – A smooth surface reading here conceals an unperceived significance with wry or humorous overtones.
21d Entitle the Parisian to support the return of his maid (7)
{ENNOBLE} – ‘The’ in French again supports (goes under) another French word for maid or girlfriend (indicated by ‘the Parisian ‘in the clue – this is not however double duty as such).
22d On board ship want informal clothes (6)
{SLACKS} – We have had one synonym for ‘want’ and if you find another and place it inside SS for ship you will find a word for a (mainly) men’s garment that can be both stylish and durable.
24d See soldier about sound reasoning (5)
{LOGIC} – Our final charade of LO for see, one of Crosswordland’s abbreviated soldiers and Circa (about) gives a word for sound reasoning.
25d Ray swallows a bit of rock fish (5)
{BREAM} – A shaft of light with the first letter of Rock inside leads to a type of fish.
26d Jewellery I swap for good pancake (5)
{BLINI} – The definition is another name for a pancake or crepe. Take a slang word for flashy jewellery and replace the final I with a G (I swap for Good).
27d Article about software tax (5)
{TITHE} – An old tax (equal to a tenth of one’s earnings) can be found by placing a definite article round the abbreviation for software or computer systems in general.
A very enjoyable puzzle, Prolixic – not too hard but many great clues. Many Thanks! My favourite among many was 16d
Thanks to Prolixic for the enjoyable crossword and to gnomethang for the informative blog.
Hard to choose, but I think 19d was my favourite.