Lovatts December Big No.154- The Demon

Love it, Dutchy!

Hi Dutchy,





That's great news! Thank you for letting us know and for putting my mind at ease, that is definitely one for the 'black book'!

Hope you're enjoying your new Sunday crossword. Post if you get stuck.

Have you been following the 'cycling' event in Adelaide over the last several days?

Hope today is not as hot for you as the forecast has predicted and that you're not in any bushfire danger!

Have a good day and enjoy watching the cricket this afternoon!
Talk to you soon. Take care Dutch.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Lmur,

It's lovely to hear from you! Hope you are well my friend.

Hope to talk to you again soon.
Take care Lmur.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Butterfly

My Sunday puzzle has another tricky one today, need your expertise to define correct answer.

Q = time of hostilities (7 letters) . I have "w?r?i?e".

Both "wartime" and "warlike" will fit. Which of the two words do you think is the most appropriate one?

Look forward hearing from you, also, see previous post.
Talk to you soon.
Regards Dutchy

Hi Butterfly

Forget about previous post. I had not checked the main thread and didn't know you had answered my message from this morning. Again a2k did not notify me, perhaps the thread is dead

Yes, another scorcher today, 40.5 degrees, but now, 7pm, it has dropped to 31 but with a very high humidity content. The sky is covered with smoke from the bushfires around us, luckily no danger to where I live.

In between doing the Sunday puzzle watched the Tennis Championships in Melbourne, a bit of the tour "Downunder" and the cricket. A bit more of the same tonight.

Talk to you soon.
Regards Dutchy.

Hi Dutchy,

Glad to hear you're not in any bushfire danger! My heart goes out to all of the poor firemen that have been battling the blazes in the 40+ degree heat- it must be dreadful trying to do their jobs under such extreme conditions!


Re: E-mail updates ( I hope I worded this in a way that makes sense! )
For you to receive an e-mail update from me, I have to post directly after your post on the thread, or you won't be sent an alert for my message.

eg. Dutchy Butterfly- when I post directly after your post on a thread, you will receive an e-mail update of what I have posted.

eg. Dutchy Lmur Butterfly- you won't receive an e-mail update of my message because I didn't post directly after you. The only way for you to then read my post is by going to the thread and reading through the messages that have been posted since your last post.
In the above example, you would receive an e-mail update of Lmur's post, Lmur would receive an e-mail update of my post, and I would receive an update from whoever were to post directly after me.

I always go to the 'speed dial' thread when I have signed in to A2K, and read through the last couple of posts- just to be on the safe side.
Hope this helps you Dutch.

'Time of hostilities' (7)
W?R?I?E
I think 'wartime' would best define the clue out of the two possible answers.

Collins English Dictionary 4th Australian Edition definitions:
Wartime n A period or time of war
Warlike adj 1. Of, relating to, or used in war. 2. Hostile or belligerent. 3. Fit or ready for war.

Oxford Dictionary Of English definitions:
Wartime noun [mass noun] A period during which a war is taking place.
Warlike adjective. Disposed towards or threatening war; hostile: a warlike clan
*(of plans, preparations, or munitions) directed towards or prepared for war.

Hope this helps you Dutch. Let me know what you think.

Talk to you soon. Take care Dutch.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Butterfly

Thank you for your "clear" information about the workings of a2k, will check the "speed dial" first in future!

As far as the Sunday puzzle go I have settled for your choice "wartime". What threw me in the first place was the word "time" in the clue given, I didn't think they would use that as part of the answer.

Butterfly you convinced me otherwise, thank you for your powers of persuasion.

Today I will start on the People magazine and Lovatts variety puzzles, this will tie me over till Lovatts Codecracker 12 and February Big are on the shelves next Thursday.

Have a nice day. Talk to you soon.
Regards Dutchy.

Hi Dutchy,

Hope you had a much cooler day today!



When I first read the clue, the first word that came to mind for the answer was 'warfare', but it didn't fit in with the 'i' of the available letters.

I agree with you Dutchy- of the two answers that fit, 'wartime' does match the clue, but the word 'time' being present in the clue, and forming part of the answer does seem a bit iffy- you would surely think they would have worded the clue differently if 'wartime' is the answer!

Could you tell me the clue that crosses that part of the grid at the 'i'? It might be a big help.

I would have posted you a reply much sooner than this, but we had a power 'outage' here today from 8am-4pm, as some major work was being carried out on the power grid- so this is the first chance I've had to go online, sorry Dutch!

Hope to hear from you soon. Have a nice cool evening
Take care Dutch.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Butterfly

Much cooler today, a pleasant 27 degrees......but warming up again towards the end of the week.

Sorry to hear about your "black-out", I had a feeling something was haywire as there were a couple of Cryptic questions at a2k which I answered only, no explanations.......

Regarding "wartime" I give you the crosswords so you can see for yourself if our finding is correct.

Q = Portray for which my answer is "show". Last letter is first letter of wartime.

Q = Having colour, answer "coloured". R is 3rd letter of wartime.

Q = Long slender shape, answer "slimline". Second I is 5th letter of wartime.

Q = Stopping devices, answer "brakes". E is last letter of wartime.

So what I have is: w?r?i?e . or WARTIME or WARLIKE.

Hope you can follow me sofar.

Thanks for having another go at it, although I feel your original choice fits the bill.

Talk to you soon. Enjoy the rest of the night.
Regards Dutchy.

Hi Dutchy,

'wartime' must be the way to go! I wish you the very best of luck in your 'Sunday' competition!

Not long to wait now for the new 'Big' issue, hope your People magazine and the Lovatts Variety Puzzles are tiding you over.

Glad to hear you're enjoying some much cooler weather now after all that extreme heat of the last several days!

Have a good afternoon. Talk to you again soon.
Take care Dutch.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Dutchy,

Got my copy of Lovatts 'Big' in the mail this morning and am about to make a start on the Demon. Will probably have to call on you soon for assistance!

Hope you're having a nice day.
Talk to you soon.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Butterfly

Lovatts must have been very efficient this time as the February Big issue was on the shelves here yesterday.

As you already know, completed the "Demon" and now working on the DIY.

The whole of Adelaide is covered in smoke from the Victorian bushfires, you can even smell it inside.

Hope you have a nice day. Talk to you soon.
Regards Dutchy.

Good morning Dutchy,

Hope your DIY is going well!

I have just completed the Demon and was wondering if you could double check some of my answers?

13A. Hitler's Soviet invasion, Operation...
I have 'Barbarossa'

23A. Chinese manned spacecraft
I have 'Shenzhou'

42A. Ancient Scottish tribe, the...
I have 'Picts'

132A. Trial-and-error learning
I have 'Heuristics'

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Hope you have a great Australia Day and enjoy watching the cricket this afternoon!
Talk to you soon. Take care Dutch.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Butterfly

Your answers are all spot on. Have exactly the same.

Bit blurry eyed this morning after watching the tennis last night, Roger finds the going pretty tough this year, lucky to survive.

Another "stinker" here today, heading for the 40 mark again, so a good day to stay indoors and watch the cricket, unfortunately only the last 2 hours, as it is being played in Adelaide.

Have a nice day also, talk to you soon.
Regards Dutchy

Hi Dutchy,

Thank you for confirming those answers so quickly for me, you've put my mind at ease yet again! You're an absolute angel!

I'm sorry to hear you're heading up into the 40's again today- hope you manage to stay cool and comfortable!

Take care my friend.
Talk to you again soon.
Warm regards and many thanks, Butterfly

Hi Butterfly

How are you this morning?

Have a query for you. I've finished with the "two-way teaser" in the February Big but am not happy with the answer. Have you completed that one?

My final solution comes out to "racky our brains". I can't define "racky" anywhere and suspect I have fluffed somewhere?

The answers for my "racky" word are as follows:

10a = grandpiano
11a = coqauvin
7d = take
12d = density

I'd be please if you can throw some light on this one my dear.

Looking forward to your reply.
Have a nice day.
Regards Dutchy.

Hi Dutchy,

Hope you are well and enjoying your weekend!

All of your shaded letters for the Two-Way Teaser are right Dutch, you've just placed the 'Y' with the wrong word, thats all! Re- 'Rack Your Brains'.

Cluewords and Findawords out next week. Get ready Dutch- Speed Dial will be running hot!

Are you still getting the smoke through from the bushfires? Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be in favour of the poor firefighters this weekend and help to make their jobs a little easier- they've all been doing it so tough and must be absolutely exhausted!

It's wonderful to hear from Farkha again- was wondering why we hadn't heard from him in so long! I hope he had a lovely time away!

A2K was taking ages to load each page when i went in some time after 9pm last night, (on a go slow). I came out of it and waited a good while, then went back in and everything was back to normal speed again, thank goodness

Can you let me know tomorrow if 'wartime' was correct for last week's Sunday crossword? The suspense is killing me!

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Take care Dutch, and have a good afternoon.
Warm regards, Butterfly

Hi Butterfly

How embarrassing, it never clicked.....

Thank you for putting my brain into gear.

Smoke is all gone from here, had a bit of rain this morning, which cleared the air and did some good for the garden. More to come I believe.

Sent a few replies to another thread at ak2 just for a bit of fun and came across lmur. Have a look at the "Alphabet Game", you figure in it somewhere too I think.

Looking forward to the Cluewords & Findawords next week. I had the same experience with ak2 last night, just took ages to load, so gave up in the end. This morning it was back to normal. At times like that, you think something has gone wrong with your own computer....

Oh yes, will report on "wartime" first thing tomorrow as I will be away all day.

Have a nice weekend Butterfly.
Talk to you soon.
Regards Dutchy. :wink:

Hi Dutchy,

Glad to hear the smoke is gone and that you've had some rain!
Hope the wet weather continues for you there.

Good luck with this weeks Sunday crossword- post if you get stuck and I'll do my best to help you!

I was so glad to see you on the 'Alphabet Thread' recently- the word game threads can be a lot of fun. Looks like you're enjoying it!

I always think there must be something wrong with my computer too, when A2K won't let me in or is slow to load!

Talk to you again soon.
Take care and have a nice evening Dutch.
Warm regards, Butterfly

PS- Have a great day out tomorrow!

Hi Butterfly

Good morning. Just received my Sunday paper and checked the solution for last week. You did it again, "wartime" was the correct answer.

Will work on the new one tonight. They don't give you much time, entries have to be in, last post on Wednesday! So you really have only two days to complete the puzzle, and they are pretty tough, real little "stinkers".

Have a nice day. Talk to you soon.
Regards Dutchy.