Monthly Prize Puzzle 084 – Review
May 2019
A Puzzle by Prolixic
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This month’s winner of a Telegraph Puzzles Book of their choice is Roland Rance.
He correctly answered the question Nine solutions form a grammatical sequence. What is its majestic description? The answer being The Royal Order of Adjectives – determiner, opinion, size, age, shape, colour, material, origin and qualifier
Across
9a Frame army regulation about independent soldiers (5)
AIRER – AR (Army regulation) goes ‘about’ I (independent) RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers)
10a Maybe some Iraqi fuel is processed (9)
QUALIFIER – An anagram (is processed) of IRAQI FUEL
11a Reportedly welcome support making meal (4,3)
HIGH TEA – A homophone (reportedly) of HI (welcome) and TEE (golf support) [Not how I remember high tea from my childhood ‘an early evening meal of a hot dish followed by cakes’ but Mr Google doesn’t provide any pictures of such a thing]
12a View over wing (7)
OPINION – O (over) PINION (wing)
13a Looks for adult to stand in for husband’s relatives (5) AUNTS – Change the H for Husband in HAUNTS (looks for) for an A for Adult
15a American lawyer’s firm about appointments (5)
DATES – DA (District Attorney, American lawyer) followed by a reversal (about) of SET (firm)
17a Female taking part in white wedding (3)
EWE – Lurking in part of whitE WEdding
18a Trendy new bar (3)
INN – IN (trendy) N (new)
19a Miller oddly returns wood (3)
ELM – Lurking in reverse (returns) in the odd letters of MiLlEr
21a Attending area draw (7)
ATTRACT – AT (attending) TRACT (area)
22a Wilt Indian spinach (3)
SAG – A verb meaning to wilt or one of the ways of spelling the Indian name for spinach
24a A moderately quiet form of electronic equipment (3)
AMP – A (from the clue) MP (mezzo-piano or moderately quiet)
25a Animal found in case after sides removed (3)
RAT – Remove both sides from a cRATe (case)
26a Eastern kings working in ancient Israeli city (5)
EKRON – E (eastern) K (King in chess notation) R (Rex – King) ON (working) – an ancient Hebrew city
27a Run over MP after daughter departs (5)
RECAP – Remove the D (daughter departs) from REDCAP (Military Policeman)
29a Take part in sport in rocky safari park, far away (4-3)
PARA-SKI – An anagram (rocky) of SA(far)I PARK – “far away” indicating the need to ignore those three letters
31a Play about everyone is frivolous (7)
SHALLOW – SHOW (play) ‘about’ ALL (everyone)
34a Most fashionable Zulus seen in Staines dancing (9)
SNAZZIEST – Z Z (Zulus plural in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet) in an anagram (dancing) of STAINES
35a Interest in a source of inspiration (5)
AMUSE – A (from the clue) MUSE (source of inspiration)
Down
1d Affectionate term in Wales for barman (4)
BACH – An affectionate term of address in Wales or a composer of musical ‘bars’
2d Source of equipment at home (6)
ORIGIN – O (of) RIG (equipment) IN (at home)
3d Briefly transcribe court document (4)
WRIT – Truncated (briefly) WRITe (transcribe)
4d Water found in extract taken from banned weedkiller (4)
AQUA Part of parAQUAt (banned weedkiller)
5d Wanting oar fixed for transport (5,5)
WAGON TRAIN – An anagram (fixed) of WANTING OAR
6d Small road over part of New Zealand (4)
MINI – MI (road) NI (North Island, part of New Zealand)
7d Tzar is in secret manoeuvring to get this arrest (8)
CITIZENS – Compound anagram time – TZAR IS IN SECRET rearranged gives us CITIZENS ARREST
8d Edge of hoop bound with iron (6)
FRINGE – RING (hoop) ‘bound’ with FE (chemical symbol for iron)
13d Ripen herb after trimming top (3)
AGE – Trim the top or remove the first letter of sAGE (herb)
14d Woman holding a parking form (5)
SHAPE – SHE (woman) ‘holding’ A (from the clue) P (parking)
15d Retired men constructed conclusive argument (10)
DETERMINER – An anagram (constructed) of RETIRED MEN
16d Take Aramaic instrument (5)
SITAR – SIT (take, an exam for example) AR (Aramaic)
20d Important substance (8)
MATERIAL – An adjective meaning important or a material
23d Mike leaving umbrella in shop (3)
GAP – M (Mike in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet) ‘leaving’ GAmP (umbrella)
25d Subject verbally declined meal (6)
REPAST – RE (on the subject of) and a homophone (verbally) of PASSED (declined)
28d Standard appearance (6)
COLOUR – Standard here referring to a flag
30d Extent of heavy breathing on the phone (4)
SIZE – Another homophone (on the phone) of SIGH (heavy breathing)
31d Place in Kent bottling Vermouth (4)
SITE – IT (Vermouth) ‘bottled’ by SE (South East, where Kent is to be found)
32d Rebel missing Dawn on holiday (4)
AWAY – Remove BREAK (dawn) from BREAK AWAY (rebel)
33d Architect seeing old lady on boat (4)
WREN – Sir Christopher the architect or a member of the Women’s Royal Navy Service – ‘old’ because it no longer exists having been integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993
For the second time today – many thanks for the review, CS!
Particularly grateful for the unravelling of 32d and for the confirmation of 26a, which seemed to have Mr Google somewhat flummoxed.
Congratulations to Roland, perhaps your win will encourage you to become a regular commenter on the blog.
Thanks CS – how I wish I went to a better school and studied English. I was offered a place at St John’s school in Leatherhead, but my parents objected because they thought a working class boy would feel out of place with the posh lot. I wouldn’t have cared a hoot.
Congrats to Roland – well done, I was clueless, so to speak.
Congratulations Roland and many thanks, Sue, for the review.
CS, I took the answer to 26a to be the ancient Israeli city of EKRON.
Thank you – now amended
Congratulations Roland.
From memory, the hardest part was sorting out the answer rather than solving the puzzle. A earning experience for me.
Thanks again Prolixic and CS for the review.
Congratulations, Roland. Very well done!
I never did manage to sort out the answer, but I loved solving the puzzle — that is, all except 1d and 6d. Oh dear!
My thanks to Prolixic for a most enjoyable crosssword and to CS for the enlightenment. All much appreciated.
Well done Roland – way beyond my pay grade.
I wonder how many correct answers were entered in the draw?
Thanks to everyone and especially Prolixic for a completely frustrating 2 weeks!
Heartiest congratulations to Roland Rance. Thanks to crypticsue for her review and, of course, once again thanks to Prolixic for the extraordinary presentation. Incidentally, in this splendid entertainment, my answer was ‘Order of Adjectives’, just short of the majestic description.