Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Cryptic Crossword

I had an idea for an amusing (to me) cryptic theme the other day, and then yesterday I found this program and downloaded the demo. So here's my first attempt at a complete puzzle:


Dirty Scrabble
By tps12
Entries at 1- and 23-across, and 6- and 7-down, are valid Scrabble words that nevertheless do not appear in the Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary. The reason for their absence is explained by a two-word phrase (7,7) that describes them, and which appears in the circled squares in anagram form.
Clued answers include one foreign word. As always, mental repunctuation of a clue is the key to its solution. 


Across
1.       Remove hydrogen from coin, releasing pressure. (7)
7.       Lite-Brite cheese? (4)
8.       Donuts, says conservative. (4)
10.     Austere podium holds spokesperson. (3)
11.     Final letter in adze end. (3)
12.     Breathes in, disappoints. (5)
15.     Reeds out by old eerie stream, initially. (5)
17.     Cinder has got knocked around. (3)
19.     Polish end of water board. (3)
21.     Fashion demo. (4)
22.     New York alien is no Russian. (4)
23.     Good-for-nothing ruined showing, offensively just like a foreigner. (7)


Down
2.       The art of the English bum. (4)
3.       Cropped misguided steer. (5)
4.       Item: motherless disciple. (3)
5.       Rearrange Korg, understand? (4)
6.       Loser gets scoop with runaway success. (7)
7.       Emeril refrains, puts game preserve inside for breasts. (7)
9.       The French love the lion. (3)
13.     It sounds like you sing on drugs. (5)
14.     Train part in middle of l'escargot. (3)
16.     Second rank, below forehead. (4)
18.     Calls in jailhouse escape. (4)
20.     Arranged EKG for quantity of beer. (3)

1 comment:

Leona Raisin said...
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