Author Topic: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread  (Read 111280 times)

Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #250 on: 10 August, 2012, 09:50:54 am »
Bar of soap (6,6)

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #251 on: 10 August, 2012, 09:58:19 am »
Correct!

Pingu

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Wowbagger

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #253 on: 12 January, 2013, 11:22:05 pm »
That's sad.

He is to crosswords what Muhammad Ali was to boxing.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

nicknack

  • Hornblower
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #254 on: 12 January, 2013, 11:55:24 pm »
Back in the days when I used to buy the Grauniad he was always my favourite crossword compiler.
There's no vibrations, but wait.

Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #255 on: 13 January, 2013, 12:05:25 am »
He's the favourite in our house, too.  A quick look at the clue indicates that it is a particularly pernicious one.  Here's hoping he beats it.

HTFB

  • The Monkey and the Plywood Violin
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #256 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:11:02 pm »
Navigator's instrument, under sea not each is still in existence (7)
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Wowbagger

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #257 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:17:15 pm »
Sextant?
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

HTFB

  • The Monkey and the Plywood Violin
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #258 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:19:59 pm »
Yes. Sea (missing ea.), followed by extant. Hurrah! Probably a down clue.
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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #259 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:42:30 pm »
How funny that a word I've not previously seen on the forum should appear twice in the same day in threads on the same board.

Sextant.

See also here.
Rust never sleeps

Wowbagger

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #260 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:46:53 pm »
I suspect that one thing inspired another.

Hippo go baa for fear of cold weather and its henchmen. (10)
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #261 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:49:22 pm »
Something ..phobia.
Rust never sleeps

Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #262 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:52:50 pm »
pagophobia

Wowbagger

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #263 on: 19 January, 2013, 02:58:33 pm »
Yes. Isn't "hippo go baa" a lovely anagram?
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #264 on: 19 January, 2013, 05:55:34 pm »
It is!  They are not that docile off the page!  I'll see if I can come up with something soon.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #265 on: 22 January, 2013, 05:41:15 pm »
In the meantime, here's one that came to me on the train this morning...

Poisonous, tailless parasite swallows bullock. (5)
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Snakehips

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #266 on: 22 January, 2013, 05:48:43 pm »
Poisonous, tailless parasite swallows bullock. (5)

toxic
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #267 on: 22 January, 2013, 07:05:35 pm »
Yup. Not difficult but a neat surface, I thought.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Wowbagger

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #268 on: 22 September, 2013, 06:54:00 pm »
Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12)

Shamelessly nicked, but so brilliant I had to share it. Please have a go before googling.

Edit: it's one of Araucaria's.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Basil

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #269 on: 22 September, 2013, 07:15:23 pm »
I'm afraid I had to Google. 
Just as well I did, as I'm afraid the solution meant nothing to me at all.
*shamed*
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

HTFB

  • The Monkey and the Plywood Violin
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #270 on: 23 September, 2013, 07:53:29 am »
Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12)

Shamelessly nicked, but so brilliant I had to share it. Please have a go before googling.

Edit: it's one of Araucaria's.
Some, it may be, can get in touch
With Nature there, or Earth, or such;
And clever modern men have seen
A Faun a-peeping through the green
And felt the Classics were not dead
To glimpse a naiad's reedy head
Or hear the Goat-Foot piping low:
But these are things I do not know.
I only know that one may lie
Day-long, and watch the Cambridge sky,
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur...

No googling needed. As you say, a perfect clue.
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Wowbagger

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Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #271 on: 23 September, 2013, 10:48:45 am »
Another of Araucaria's, whilst not quite so perfect from a purist's point of view, is nonetheless a sign of sheer genius. It's from a Christmas puzzle.

O hark the herald angels sing the boy’s descent which lifted up the world. (5, 9, 7, 5, 6, 2, 5, 3, 6, 2, 3, 6)

Edit: the whole thing is an anagram.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #272 on: 23 September, 2013, 12:41:20 pm »
Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12)

Shamelessly nicked, but so brilliant I had to share it. Please have a go before googling.

Edit: it's one of Araucaria's.

An oldie but still a goodie.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

HTFB

  • The Monkey and the Plywood Violin
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #273 on: 29 September, 2013, 09:11:08 am »
This belongs here too:
Just been reminded of a bit from Geoff Scarr, a Yorkshire (hmm mmaybe not yorkshire thinking about it) comedian I had the pleasure to see many years ago, resulting in buying his LP http://www.discogs.com/Geoff-Scarr-Cumalot-And-Other-Bawdy-Ballads/release/4914630

Anyone else remember him?

Anyway, he came up with what was probably the best crossword clue ever:

Clue:

Hearken to a sexual deviation, 5 2 4 4

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HTFB

  • The Monkey and the Plywood Violin
Re: The Cryptic Crossword Clue Thread
« Reply #274 on: 10 December, 2013, 07:58:48 pm »
Unconventional to give the answer first, then the clue, but I think this works:
twat in a white audi
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Twat! You heard: where it should be white, lacking "Vorsprung", and unspecified "Technik". Goes without saying? (9)
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