Spectator 1982 Thursday September 16th 2010

[mintyman99]

http://www.spectator....6273108/crossword.pdf

[cruciverbali]

Thanks mintyman - have a great day !

[tenflags]

Yes thank you very much

[zita-green]

Thanks, Mintyman

[kayakamina]

Thanks mintyman for the PDF link.

It was harder than last week but not as disasterous as it could have been.

[bearboy]

I have almost filled the grid but have ground to a halt now - could i have some help please?
21a Sacred city that's cede power? DE??E (4th letter possibly a "U")
38a mineral water , holding davy jones back A?A???E If it's a mineral I can't see how "Davy Jones" fits in??
31d What's primarily gaudy, bright and variable? GL???
All help/hints gratefully received

[roslyn251254]

bearboy for 38a - it's a mineral, davy jones (synonym) backwards in the middle of synonym for water (2 letters)

[roslyn251254]

bearboy for 31d gaudy is the definition, 4letter synonym for bright + variable (1 letter- think of variables in algebra)

[roslyn251254]

bearboy - I think 21a may be a place in Ethiopia

[roslyn251254]

Wow! I'm feeling very smug having finally got there! This must be the hardest speccie since I started them in Feb!

[turnerjmw]

Well done roslyn. Are you sure about 21ac? I'm in a different continent . . .

[roslyn251254]

Thanks turnermjw - thought that first, but then misspelt 19d and changed it. That'll teach me!

[Graudian]

After a long, & not very enjoyable struggle, I think I have finished but now cannot find the anagram.

Any hints would be appreciated.

[kayakamina]

It is a proper name of 8 letters!

[bathtub]

I don't think it was particularly hard, just boring and unsatisfactory. The second name may be 'even more significantly relevant', but what he devised was in another language and there is no standard, agreed translation I'm aware of - eg in some versions the equivalent of 4d is 'cataclysmic'. I've yet to find a source that verifies 36a, though I'm 'quite' sure there will be one.

[crucifernz]

Mr Magoo is a newish setter and I find his clueing is not so 'streamlined' as the old hands. However, the theme was very easy to discover - particularly as we in NZ (though not in Auckland where I live) have recently experienced a 27 ACROSS one.

[barrybutler]

@ bathtub. All of the 'degrees of severity', including 36ac. are verified in Chambers. In the reference section at the back.

[Marmozetti]

I have completed the grid with a great deal of struggle but need help to find the anagram. K. has given a hint that the word has 8 letters -does this mean it is anagrammed from a 3 and 5 letter word? If that is the case I must have gone wrong -cannot find anything relevant.This is a hard case to crack. Can anyone help please?

[Marmozetti]

No worries - I've solved it now!

[Steveresz]

I think I have completed the puzzle, but can't see where the last five letters of 19 D come from.

[tenflags]

steveresz
food = FUEL with (U)pper class missing within AS (from the 'only when' part of the clue) .....AFELS
the rest you seem to have / get.