Wiktionary:Easter Competition 2014

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)

• 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

• 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

• 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"

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

• Vahagn Petrosyan -1 (ringbolt)
• Pingku 2

• 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

• 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

• 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?"

• 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)

• 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)

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

• Msh210 - 2 points

• 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)

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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."

• 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

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

• Vahagn Petrosyan 2 points
• Msh210 2 points

• 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

• 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"

• 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)

• 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

• 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)

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