Crossword N°15 – by Patricia Cerrone
TIPS When you’ve been solving puzzles in one particular newspaper or magazine for a while, you come to recognise certain tricks or words which appear fairly regularly. One useful little word which often pops up is “Ur”, often slipped into religious crosswords. Ur was a city-state founded in 3,800 BC in Mesopotamia and so has well-earned its crossword-clue description of “old town”. Other biblical references and quotations here will help to fill quite a few spaces around the grid, and act as convenient starting points.
This puzzle contains several “subtractive” clues, where letters are to be removed; very often it is the word-ending which is cast aside – such as “short service” in 15 Across. “Endless”, “tailless”, “incomplete”, or even “retired” can also be indicative of this type of clue.
Similarly, people described as “small”, “young”, “tiny”, etc can expect to be represented by only a curtailed version of their full name.
ACROSS
1. Ride by around old town to Cathedral City (10)
6. Trim young bird with no tail (4)
9. Open area for cow’rin tim’rous beastie – creature of the countryside (5,5)
10. Are men said to have the final word? (4)
12. Indistinct image of Ahab lurking (4)
13. Get uncle involved with folk-dancing initially, to flex his knee (9)
15. Short service attended by young Alfred in the evening (8)
16. Solution to get rid of dangling security device (3,3)
18. Updated home for Noah in N. J. city? (6)
20. Crustacean clinging to bra – clean vigorously! (8)
23. Keenly locate little refuge in good time (9)
24. Responsibility placed upon you and me (4)
26. “And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me ……” [AV: Hosea Ch.2] (4)
27. Comforting sayings of Christ, promising true happiness, recorded in Matthew, Ch.5 (10)
28. Sort of lettering (4)
29. Church furniture revealed as I deal tarot cards (1,4,5)
DOWN
1. Place of refreshment for original couples fleeing from Calvinist fervour (4)
2. Goads with pointed instruments (7)
3. Sounds like Presbyterian official conceals dark fruit (12)
4. Bishop has difficult morning with old vehicle (8)
5. Fault in structure intensifying (6)
7. “Therefore the Lord ………. shall give you a sign” [AV: Isaiah Ch.7] (7)
8. Paintings seized by policemen (10)
11. Preparing one treat of an elegant meal (9,3)
14. Gospel-writer doubling as itinerant preacher (10)
17. Greek sculpture discovered in apothecary at Idlewild (8)
19. Word mostly linked with vessel for religious ceremony (7)
21. Was not able to count surrounding peaks of Lake District (6’1)
22. In a tizzy, hasten to where 17 Down originated? (6)
25. Manipulator starts undercutting Spain’s euro reserve (4)
Answers to Clarion Crossword N°14
ACROSS
1. HOT CROSS BUNS 9. HALTING 10. DEAD SEA 11. OXEN 12. FLOCK 13. VISA 16. ESTUARY 17. ROSTRUM 18. UNCTION 21. CHANCEL 23. SINS 24. STOOP 25. PLEA 28. ASEPTIC 29. AIRMAIL 30. ASH WEDNESDAY
DOWN
1. HOLIEST 2. TWIN 3. REGALLY 4. SIDECAR 5. BEAD 6. NASTIER 7. SHROVE TUESDAY 8. SARAH MULLALLY 14. DAVID 15. ISAAC 19. CONFESS 20. NOTICED 21. CHORALE 22. CALVARY 26. STEW 27. PROD
