From
Luciano Ward@lcnward@gmail.com to
rec.puzzles.crosswords on Wed Apr 28 07:13:13 2021
From Newsgroup: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Repeated thanks to all entrants. My comments are below. The result is belowest. Luciano
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Rob:
Upright is tougher when realigned (9)
ISTOUGHER anag: def = upright
-- 'tougher' seems a bit of a slightly odd way to describe what I presume is now (after realignment) a *stronger* upright. That aside, all is good, here. (PS: in my experience, most uprights (at least in the sense of football/soccer goalposts) are very sturdy and unrelenting, not least when you collide with them legs apart and at some speed on a raw Saturday morning in February.)
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David:
Lofty pull! Flying grouse hit! (9)
GROUSEHIT anag; def = lofty; not sure what 'pull' is doing
-- David refers to a sort of person as justification for 'lofty pull' being his definition. However, the answer is an adjective. I could, just, go along with 'the righteous' (as in righteous people), but that still really wouldn't justify 'lofty pull' (not people, but a person) as a definition. To be honest, without the word 'pull', I think this could have been manipulated into a winner: I like the 'lofty' and 'grouse' association.
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Duke:
American leader Tiger (oh, so sad) is excellent (9)
TIGEROH anag + US; def = excellent
-- The indication that the anagram fodder should be placed in front of US (that indication being the word 'leader') doesn't seem acceptable to me. Also: for me, the definition ('excellent') doesn't have that moral thrust to it.
Singing brothers fighting against sin (9)
Double def; ref The Righteous Bothers
-- Apart from the rather odd surface reading (though you might have a movie, there), this is just fine.
Perhaps surprisingly, huge riots become justified (9)
HUGERIOTS anag; def = justified
-- I would perhaps have left 'perhaps' out: it doesn't really help. That aside, this works pretty well, with a definition that just scrapes in there with its moral tenor.
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Kevin:
Noble doth beseech beloved maiden endlessly to return (9)
SUETH with O (love) inside (= 'beloved') + GIR(l) all rev; def = noble
-- Very good with the 'sueth' business. I would argue that to be 'beloved' does not mean that you contain love, but, rather, that you are the object of love (which of course does not necessarily mean that you contain love).
Just fix most of dwelling Lawrence inhabits (9)
RIG + [TE in HOUS(e)]; def = just
-- All good, here, besides the small complaint that it's not a terribly thrilling surface reading.
Retrogressively said anger of this kind is moral (9)
'SUCH IRE' said backwards; def = moral; ref 'righteous anger'
-- Homophones can be risky. Not every source I looked at confirmed, for example, that the last syllable of 'righteous' corresponds to 'such' backwards (some did). The Glaswegian in me says that 'righteous' and the backwards 'such ire' are not so similar: the vowel sounds 'i' in 'ire' and the 'igh' in 'right' are quite different to my ear (and mouth), and I also distinctly pronounce that 't' in 'righteous'. Parochial of me, I know. However, for some speakers (and some sources), this a good find.
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I'm going to be a bore and declare Kevin's Lawrence clue the winner. There were more adventurous clues, but I had my quibbles about them all. The runner-up is Rob because of somewhat painful nostalgia.
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