Thursday, 16 September 2010

Clue Challenge: Annotate These Answers!

annotate-clues The clues below are from my weekly blog at fifteensquared, in which my parsing was off the mark and had to be set right by the commenters (the brilliant Gaufrid, most often).

The clues are reproduced here with their answers. Your challenge is to work out how to get the answer from the clue. Enjoy!

[Update (17 Sep 2010): Annotations added.]

1. FT 13203 (Falcon): What may appeal to a diner with love for eastern cooking? (8) TANDOORI
Annotation: Anagram of (TO A DINER) with O (love) substituted for E (eastern), an almost &lit.
…and I had too quickly assumed this was a weak cryptic definition.

2. FT 13119 (Bradman): Whisky island ditching litres? Gosh! (1,3) I SAY
Annotation: ISLAY (a Scottish island, famous for producing malt whisky) – L (litres)
…and I had thought: Is this really “Whisk YISLA ‘nd ditching L?”

3. FT 13415 (Viking): Italy provided backing to most of financial centre making loss (7) DEFICIT
Annotation: I (Italy) provided (FED) reversed, CIT[y] (most of 'financial centre')
…and I had been bent upon equating 'provided' with IF and said to myself - if only the clue had Germany (country code DE) instead of Italy, I wouldn’t still be scratching my head.

4. FT 13361 (Viking): It's irritating when letter H is ignored at start (4) ITCH
Annotation: AITCH (the letter H) – the start removed.
Many of you fell into the same trap as I did! I had read this as HITCH (start) – H, and added that the clue is ambiguous since it doesn't clarify which H to remove from the two in HITCH. Turned out the clue was perfect, the parsing was wrong.

5. FT 13355 (Falcon): Key article about prisoner finally appearing in dock (6) MARINA
Annotation: [prisone]R in MAIN (key) A (article)
I was in a hurry when I had solved this puzzle. MAIN = key didn't strike me at all, I kept thinking of musical keys.

6. FT 13308 (Viking): Retaliation turning fray into a bit of a laugh? (3,3,3) TIT FOR TAT
Annotation: TATTER (fray) becomes TITTER (bit of a laugh) when you have TIT FOR TAT
I had been close! I took this as TIT[ter] (bit of a laugh) FOR TAT (fray).

7. FT 13233 (Bradman): GP dealt with kindred but not 4 (6,6) FAMILY DOCTOR
   (The answer to clue#4 was LIMITED EDITION)
Annotation: Remove ED (limited 'edition') from KINDRED and you are left with KIN DR, or FAMILY DOCTOR.
…one of those clues that make you want to kick yourself for not being able to understand!

8. FT 13143 (Bradman): This centre of government may be noxious at the outset (6,3) NUMBER TEN
Annotation: 'noxious' at the outset = NO X or NUMBER TEN, the centre of British government (10 Downing Street).
…and here I'd been unsuccessfully trying to fit in the old agent noun trick: noxious = something that numbs, so NUMBER!

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16 comments:

  1. Anonymous16 September 2010 at 12:45

    My guesses:

    1. &lit: [TO A DIN(+O-E)R]* [lOve instead of Eastern.

    2. IS[-L]AY

    3. [Italy + provided] = I FED backing [DEFI] + most of [CIT]I to give loss.

    4. [-A]ITCH

    5. Key article = MAIN + A; last of prisoneR goes in.

    6. Not sure about this one. Retaliation is the definition no doubt. And the way to turn fray [TATTER] into a bit of a laugh [TITTER] is if you substitute TIT for TAT.
    Kind of a stretch, but let me know.


    7. GP (def) dealt with kindred (FAMILY) - not sure how DOCTOR came about: I guess LE or LTD ED went away from some word. Or perhaps DR (ltd. ed. for DOCTOR) from kinDRed. Not convinced. Waiting for the correct answer.

    8. Terrific clue, and my favorite in this one!
    Center of govt. = "Number 10" (Ten Downing); [No.X]ious at the outset.

    Very nice! Will still think about TIT FOR TAT AND FAMILY DOCTOR in the meantime.

    -gauri

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amrith16 September 2010 at 16:26

    4) Hitch - H.
    5) port = main. article = a. prisoner finally is 'r'.
    8) Number 10 refers to 10 downing = Center of govt. Noxious anagram indicator for some anagram of 'at the outset' is my guess.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous17 September 2010 at 02:34

    Ok, I think I got #8:

    GP (def), [KIN(family) DR(doctor) -(ED.)]

    Phew! I can focus on work now :D

    g

    ReplyDelete
  4. Balaji17 September 2010 at 03:20

    I can only do 2 now.

    2. I (-L) SAY , ISLAY = Scottish Island (Thanks to Google)

    3. MA(R)INA, Key = Main, R from Prisoner finally

    ReplyDelete
  5. VJ17 September 2010 at 12:02

    TANDOORI *

    love (0) in place of eastern E in AF "to a diner)

    (-H) ITCH

    When = HITCH, where letter H is ignored

    MA(R)IN A, key = MAIN, article = A, prisoner finally = R

    kindred, but not 4 = not limited edition = not "ed" = kindr = kin dr = FAMILY DOCTOR

    ReplyDelete
  6. VJ17 September 2010 at 15:44

    Tried again during lunch. Clueless on 3, 6 and 8. Really curious to see your annos.

    Googled "whiskey island" and got 2. I S(-L)AY

    ReplyDelete
  7. VJ17 September 2010 at 16:47

    noxious at the outset = nox = no x = no 10 = NUMBER TEN (center of government, UK)

    I ain't too happy with this one. It's kinda random that we gotta pick first three letters. Why not just the just the first (or second)?

    ReplyDelete
  8. VJ17 September 2010 at 16:53

    Italy provided backing = I FED in reverse = DEFI and most of financial center = CITY without Y

    DEFICIT (loss)

    ReplyDelete
  9. VJ17 September 2010 at 17:06

    fray = TATter

    laugh = TITter

    If fray is to be turned into a bit of a laugh, you gotta do "TIT" FOR "TAT."

    Awesome!!!

    Titter's a new word for me. Checked all thesaurus entries for the word laugh and found "titter" there. That helped.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Senthil17 September 2010 at 19:41

    1. To + A + Diner -E+O = tandoori (eastern cuisine )

    2. islay (type of whisky ) loses l = i say (gosh)

    3. IT(aly )+FED (provided )+FC = DEFICIT (making loss )

    4. [H]ITCH. hitch = start and loses H. itch =irritation

    8. ERNM (center of government ) + BE + NUT (noxious ) = number ten (symbolizes evolution )

    incomplete
    5. prisoner is MIA. Article is A or AN. Dock is marina. Dunno how RN or R comes

    6. retaliation is tit for tat. bit of a laugh is ROF[L]. fray is tatter. Now lost

    7. GP is general practitioner so doctor and kindred is family. dunno what to do with limited edition

    ReplyDelete
  11. anokha17 September 2010 at 20:23

    Shouldn't have "provided" or "fed" the answers. Easy to work backwards. Should have tested both the answers and annos .......

    1. FT 13203 (Falcon): What may appeal to a diner with love for eastern cooking? (8) TANDOORI

    {TO A DINER (+O)(-E)}*

    2. FT 13119 (Bradman): Whisky island ditching litres? Gosh! (1,3) I SAY

    {IS(-L)AY} -- know a friend who loves Laphroig from ISLAY.

    3. FT 13415 (Viking): Italy provided backing to most of financial centre making loss (7) DEFICIT

    FED<-I CIT(-Y) -- without answer and grid crossings whould have been tough to get FED for provided and would have toyed with NYC for financial center!

    4. FT 13361 (Viking): It's irritating when letter H is ignored at start (4) ITCH

    (-A)ITCH -- this was easy with letter H!

    5. FT 13355 (Falcon): Key article about prisoner finally appearing in dock (6) MARINA

    MA(R)IN A

    6. FT 13308 (Viking): Retaliation turning fray into a bit of a laugh? (3,3,3) TIT FOR TAT

    Fray - TATter & Laugh - TITter

    7. FT 13233 (Bradman): GP dealt with kindred but not 4 (6,6) FAMILY DOCTOR
    (The answer to clue#4 was LIMITED EDITION)

    KIN DR (-ED) -- Impossible without clue #4 but simply BRILLIANT with clue #4 -> ED from Limited EDition!

    8. FT 13143 (Bradman): This centre of government may be noxious at the outset (6,3) NUMBER TEN

    From NO X in NOXious

    ReplyDelete
  12. Shuchi17 September 2010 at 21:00

    Bravo! I'm totally impressed!

    @gauri: Congrats for the clean sweep. I wonder if 'gau' in the name has some effect on clue solving abilities :P The admin of fifteensquared is called Gaufrid, and he is an amazing solver too.

    @Amrith: I had thought of the same explanations as you!

    @VJ: Great solving. And you're quite right that 'at the outset' isn't specific enough but I think the clue is clear enough for that not to cause a problem. I thought it was an excellent clue, in fact.

    @Balaji: Perfect answers both.

    @Senthil: Loved your parsing for #8 and #6 :D

    @Anokha: Don't rub it in, Sir/Madam (when are you going to tell us more about yourself?) :) I had not found it so easy even to work backwards! That's some outstanding solving! Great to have you around this space after so long.

    ReplyDelete
  13. VJ17 September 2010 at 21:36

    Wow!! my ignorance amazes me LOL.

    I had my doubts on HITCH - H, but AITCH? It just flew over my head. Never knew that H could be written/ spelled that way.

    Here's another one I learned today. This is a shocker. "10 Downing street" is not just the name of a bar in Chennai.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Deepak Gopinath17 September 2010 at 23:08

    Good ones,
    Though I didn't put in my answers here the only one that I didn't get was TIT FOR TAT.
    Nice to see the mysterious Anokha after a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  15. anokha18 September 2010 at 21:34

    Hi Shuchi,

    Inspired by this (and bored by The Hindu), just finished FT 13,494 by MUDD but found out that today's is a prize puzzle so not publishing.

    Thanks for introducing me to FT!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Amrith19 September 2010 at 09:48

    Holy cow! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Tit for tat was just absolute genius.
    Fantastic education. Thanks a lot, ma'm :)


    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete