Wiktionary:Easter Competition 2014

Intro

This is to announce the forthcoming Easter/Spring competition, which will take the form of a crossword.

The answers will be either in English or a foreign language that uses the same script. Case is ignored, and so is the presence or absence of diacritics.

English clues will mostly be cryptic; foreign clues will mostly be straightforward. I shan't tell you which is which. Some will be difficult, some trivial.

For each daily round I shall show you the grid so far and provide one or two clues. You submit your entries by the now-fashionable means of email in a form such as:- Day 7: 2 across - rabbit; 3 down - bribery.

One point will be awarded for a correct solution to a short word (up to 4 letters) and two points for a longer one. One point will be deducted for an incorrect entry.

Each day, before I give the next clues, I shall reveal the previous answers, explain any mysterious cryptic clues and show the scores so far.

Thanks go to Kenny for help in designing the grid.

From time to time during the competition I shall also have an "invention test" - I shall select a word and you will be asked to provide a cryptic clue. I shall award a bonus point to the person who I feel supplies the best one.

Round one will start on Wednesday, March 26th.

If, when the crossword is complete, there is a dead heat then I shall run "invention tests" until we have a winner. SemperBlotto (talk) 08:00, 25 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Grid so far

¹B

²R

A

³S

S

⁴T

A

C

K

⁵S

|

⁶B

|

⁷R

I

|

T

|

I

|

T

|

⁸A

T

|

N

|

⁹E

L

M

¹⁰O

|

¹¹O

A

¹²T

S

|

G

|

A

|

¹³O

R

¹⁴A

N

G

E

S

|

¹⁵S

T

E

M

A

|

¹⁶B

R

A

|

X

|

O

|

I

|

S

|

¹⁷S

E

¹⁸F

|

N

|

¹⁹N

A

²⁰S

C

E

N

T

|

I

|

²¹E

²²G

G

|

O

|

E

|

R

|

O

|

²³F

I

²⁴T

|

²⁵M

A

T

E

R

|

²⁶P

A

²⁷T

E

L

²⁸A

|

R

|

B

|

²⁹A

L

A

N

|

³⁰O

L

M

I

|

O

|

³¹I

T

|

L

|

B

|

N

|

³²M

³³I

|

E

|

³⁴C

R

U

C

I

V

E

R

B

A

Day 1

1 across - alloy nails make nuts and bolts (5,5)
- BRASSTACKS - brass tacks - brass is an alloy; tacks are nails; brass tacks = nuts and bolts

Pingku 2 points
DTLHS 2 points

Day 2

4 down - Italian thyme (4)
- TIMO - timo - simple translation
6 down - beer featured in "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" (4)
- BASS - Bass - see the bottles with red triangles in the picture on Wikipedia

Pingku 2 points
DTLHS 2 points
Vahagn Petrosyan 2 points
msh210 2 points

Day 3

1 down - British evil-smelling liquid
- BR - Br. = British; Br = bromine
7 across - laughed in French
- RI - ri simple translation
Invention test - supply a cryptic clue for the word catatonic

Pingku 2 points (Notice a contestant loses ten stone, turns immobile.)
Msh210 3 points (Still, a Tic-Tac? No dice.)
Wikitiki89 2 points (print out a gin counterpart)
DTLHS 2 points (what a lion drinks)

Note: My choice of the best clue is totally subjective. Other people may have chosen another.
- My entry would have been "Puss has a gin mixer - dead to the world"

Day 4

2 down - elemental disruption causes phone to wake up (8)
- RINGTONE (ringtone is an anagram of nitrogen)

Vahagn Petrosyan -1 (ringbolt)
Pingku 2

Day 5

5 down - honest agent hides a horned beast
- STAG - stag in "honeST AGent"
8 across - There's a snail in the collation
- AT - in "collATion". @ is sometimes termed "at"

Pingku 2 points
Msh210 2 points

Day 6

9 across - helmet
- ELMO - elmo is Italian for helmet
11 across - breakfast cereal, broken toast and no tea
- OATS - anagram of toast minus the "t"; oats, in the form of porridge, is a breakfast cereal

Wikitiki89 2 points
Pingku 2 points
Msh210 0 points (-1 point (gems) +1 point (oats))
WonderfoolatEaster 1 point

Day 7

17 across - Central European chef or boss
- SEF - séf is Hungarian for chef or boss
Invention test - supply a cryptic clue for the term "skeleton key"

Wikitiki89 0 points -1 point (Don) +1 point (Macabre in D minor)
Vahagn Petrosyan -1 point (ban)
Pingku -1 point (cap) (Framework Home, perhaps, grants universal entry)
Msh210 0 points (Subway closure? Sleek token, bent, opens doors) (anagram of "y" + "sleek token")

My clue would have been "Used to unlock an ossuary?"

Day 8

12 down - weave!
- TEXE - texe is the Latin imperative (NOTE: Similar imperatives in other languages also fit - Any of these are allowed)
17 down - fatty break in mathematical function
- STEARINE - tear within sine

Pingku 2 points (teje)
Vahagn Petrosyan 0 points +1 (texe), -1 (sinusoid)
Wikitiki89 1 point (țese)
Msh210 1 point (texe)

Day 9

22 down - eastern game with added metal scores
- GOAL - go + Al
26 across - two girls, one on each knee
- PATELLA - patella = Pat + Ella

Pingku 2 points
Msh210 1 point (goal)

Day 10

26 down - meat spread on the head?
- PATE - pâté and pate
31 across - computing is that certain something
- IT - also it

Msh210 - 2 points

Day 11

23 across - convulsion among profiteers
- FIT - proFITeers
23 down - marshy ground in East of England
- FEN - oF ENgland
27 down - first alcoholic drink yields soft mineral
- TALC - firsT ALCoholic

I accidentally revealed 29 across (ALAN - which would have been "He comes from a Lancashire town") - I shall assume that both of the following would have got it.

Msh210 4 points
Vahagn Petrosyan 2 points (fen)

Day 12

24 down - ground fought over in the Balkans
- TLO - tlo is Serbo-Croatian for ground
32 across - 1001
- MI - Roman numeral

Wikitiki89 1 point (MI)
Pingku 2 points
Vahagn Petrosyan 1 point (tlo)
Msh210 2 points

Day 13

Invention test - supply a cryptic clue for the French adverb malheureusement. The clue may be in English or French.

Pingku 1 point - The leaner museum suffers, sadly, in France. (the only entry)

Day 14

10 down - globe is first in orbit
- ORB - first in ORBit
16 across - support the broken bar
- BRA - anagram of bar

Vahagn Petrosyan 1 point (orb)
Pingku 2 points
Msh210 2 points

Day 15

3 down - southern beverage in old china seems to be hot
- STEAMING - S + tea + Ming
21 across - food item concealed in begging
- Egg - in bEGGing

Vahagn Petrosyan 1 point (egg)
Pingku 3 points

Day 16

15 across - coat of arms made from rotten meats
- STEMA - anagram of meats
Invention test - supply a cryptic clue for the word sausages

Pingku 3 points (1 for "Wise man in America? Not at all!" "Hot dog!")
Wikitiki89 0 points (0 for "old gravy train")

My clue would have been "South Africa - United States - then a long time for bangers."

Day 17

11 down - she, her, it
- ONA - see ona
13 across - supposedly unrhymable fruit
- ORANGES
14 down - getting behind in the tarsectomies
- ARSE - in tARSEctomies

Vahagn Petrosyan 4 points
Wikitiki89 4 points

Day 18

19 across - no northern smell when newly born
- NASCENT - na + scent

Vahagn Petrosyan 2 points
Msh210 2 points

Day 19

20 down - dirt from nasty oils
- SOIL - anagram of oils
30 across - elms
- OLMI - Italian translation of elms

Vahagn Petrosyan 2 points
Wikitiki89 2 points

Day 20

Invention test - supply a cryptic clue for the word bush

Vahagn Petrosyan 1 point (the 43rd of the great satan) (a reference to George W Bush)
Pingku 0 points (Wheel hubs outback)

My clue would have been "Australian outback covers the pudenda"

Day 21/22

25 across - archaic mother is mixed up umlaut (no entries on day 21)
- MATER mater is anagram of trema
28 down - white
- ALBI albi is white in Latin (other forms wouldn't fit the next clue!)

Vahagn Petrosyan 0 points (alba)
Pingku -2 points (täppi; alum)
Wikitiki89 0 points (albo)

Day 23

34 across - if this was Italian
- CRUCIVERBA - cruciverba is Italian for "crossword"
33 down - it's almost in the Basque country
- IA - ia is Basque for "almost"

Vahagn Petrosyan 3 points

Day 24

18 down - supply the correct answer without any clue for 4 points; supply a cryptic clue for it and maybe get another point. (If nobody supplies the correct answer I shall give a cryptic clue tomorrow)

Vahagn Petrosyan - firebomb - Soviet foreign minister's favourite drink (Soviet foreign minister = Molotov; his favourite drink = Molotov's cocktail = firebomb)

Final scores

Pingku 23 points
Vahagn Petrosyan 22 points
Msh210 21 points
Wikitiki89 12 points
DTLHS 6 points
WonderfoolatEaster 1 point