Jumbo General Knowledge Crossword (4 Sept)
1st pass: Across 10, Down 18
2nd pass: Across 6, Down 2
3rd pass (after checking Across answers): Down 2
This wasn't too bad an effort, helped by an astonishingly good run of Down answers on the first pass, although at 6d I was surprised that I'd never come across Botticelli's first name (SANDRO, as it turned out). The only one I got wrong first time was 18a, which I assumed was TOM DALEY from the enumeration but turned out to be SKY BROWN. 15a had to be ETON something, but DORNEY escaped me. At 27d I got CINCINNATI from the crossers but BENGALS was a total surprise.
The ones that I really should have known were MATTERHORN (32a) and CASANOVA (56a); the one I was most surprised to get was RICHARD SCARRY (53/48d). It's amazing what's lurking at the back of one's mind sometimes!
Cryptic by Hoskins (#3289, 23 Aug)
"I was able to complete this puzzle and I thought a few clues were quite good," says Willow in the comments on idothei. Well it was the first day after the new edict requiring commenters to keep their comments brief, I suppose...
I was also able to complete this puzzle - albeit with one wrong answer - and I thought a few clues were quite good as well. Saboteur gave it two stars, which seems exactly right, and there were a number of witty clues with pleasing bits of misdirection. A few of the definitions could even have stood on their own as cryptic definitions: "Christian-minded folk" in 17d (chosen by Saboteur as Clue of the Day), "pork pie delivery" in 24d, and my personal favourite, "exercise restraint" in 4a. Other clues I enjoyed were 19a, 23a, 25d (for the bizarre surface) and the carefully constructed inclusion in 15d.
There were a couple I couldn't parse; in 20a, I could only get POT, and the actual solution was a bit of a disappointment. I was thrown by 7d because I thought LOCKE was a bishop (he wasn't), and couldn't see how "the can" could possibly give BDUP. And 18d was the only one I got wrong; I guessed FETTERED from the definition and the crossers, and could see RED = "Corbyn", but had no idea about the rest of it. The actual solution doesn't seem to fit the definition as well as FETTERED does, but at least the wordplay works.
My analysis of 1a was rather different from the one on Fifteensquared: "C[ompartment], AB. + IN, and a nice &lit". I didn't see it as an "&lit" at all; I had "compartment" as the definition, and then C ("bow", from its shape) + AB ("sailor") + IN ("home") as the wordplay. Admittedly my interpretation of C was a little unusual, but I'm not aware that C is a recognized abbreviation for "compartment" either, so I'm not sure who's right here; no one else seems to have commented on the clue, on either site. I guess we shall never know!
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