ShopFantastical! Puzzle Collection Contests 63
November 10, 2009 by The Judge
Filed under The Judge Sums Up
Cryptic clues have the ability to take you into a fantasy world where ageing can be reversed, where Sue keeps her horse in a backstreet and where Eisenhower put a ban on floral art. What fun!
In the Giant Cryptic contest ‘Why age son, when it can be reversed with a bouquet?’ at 7ac gave you NOSEGAY (‘y age son’ reversed).
The horse at 31ac was a gee-gee (GG) which is kept by Sue (SUGGE) on southern (S) backstreet (St going back =TS). SUGGESTS is the answer to ‘Proposes’ – the straight part of the clue.
IKEBANA is a type of floral art from Japan. US President Dwight Eisenhower was known as IKE and ‘put BAN on A’ gives you the rest at 29dn.
Over to the Stinker and at 19dn TROPE was the answer to ‘Figure of speech’. TROVE doesn’t seem to exist as a word on its own – rather it is short for treasure trove.
A ‘Knight’s armour tunic’ 78dn was a SURCOAT (not SIRCOAT). This calf-length garment was a fashion item worn in the Middle Ages by men and women. For knights the surcoat had the added purpose of showing the coat of arms – important when you need to tell friend from foe!
Nimbus is Latin for cloud and the plural can be nimbi or nimbuses. In the Stinker at 142dn ‘Dark rain clouds’ were NIMBI not NYMBI of NIMBY.
Over at 239ac the ‘Elixir’ was PANACEA not SAGETEA or SPIRAEA. Crossing at 217dn ‘Collect and compare’ was COLLATE but a couple of entries had COLLECT.
MONSIGNOR at clue 72dn is an ‘Ecclesiastical title’ conferred on some Roman Catholic priests. It means ‘my lord’. If by a slip of the pen you had your G and N transposed (MONSINGOR) you also had 104ac incorrect. The ‘Indian loincloth’ is a LUNGI not LUGNI or LUGGI.
The Stinker took us into the world of divination at 148ac. Divination is the attempting to foretell the future by reading omens or signs, such as the position of the planets, the flight of birds, tea leaves or Tarot cards.
GEOMANCY describes systems of scattering pebbles, sand or earth and interpreting patterns and positions. It was the answer to ‘Divination using scattered dirt’ at 148ac. MYOMANCY is divination involving rats and mice. GEOMANCE was simply incorrect.
Moving down to the bottom of the grid where 268ac didn’t seem to give much of a clue, but most of you worked out FELDSPAR was the answer to ‘Common mineral’. A few incorrect spellings were noted including FELLSPAR and FELLSTAR.
