Greetings, barred-grid fans
Another spicy fun puzzle from Robert Teuton with tricky wordplay and a little dash of smut to make someone like me giggle. Now let’s hope I don’t break the blog by making parsings read like SQL code.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Old age turning round stone trail (7) |
| DRAGGLE – ELD (old age) reversed surrounding RAGG (stone) | |
| 6 | Oriental jacket and trousers together with short coat (5) |
| SAMFU – SAM (together) and FUR (coat) missing the last letter. Surprised there is no mention of Spenser in the SAM part | |
| 10 | Pound joint with intramuscular protein pushing top of leg back (12) |
| JIMMY-O’GOBLIN – J (joint), then IM (intramulcular) and MYOGLOBIN (protein) with the first letter of Leg moved down | |
| 11 | Character facing exhaustion spread over a day’s march (5) |
| ETAPE – the first letter of Exhaustion and PATE (spread) reversed | |
| 12 | Preparing element of script to be injected? (6) |
| DOSING – DOING (preparing) containing the first letter of Script | |
| 13 | One scrambling racehorse liking heavy going crossing line (7) |
| MUDDLER – MUDDER (racehorse liking heavy going) surrounding L (line) | |
| 14 | Old savings account’s funds possibly doubling (5) |
| TESSA – ASSET (funds) reversed. Think doubling over for a reversal indicator. | |
| 17 | Mischievous Costello maybe, “What’s on second?” (6) |
| ELVISH – the singer/songwriter ELVIS Costello, then H(the second letter in WHAT). My apologies – I fluffed up on the parsing last night (I put an S at the end for some inexplicable reason) and this clue lit up the comments section! It is an unusual way of indicating the H, but it is a reference to a classic Abbott and Costello sketch, that may not be well known in the UK. I ran into a similar situation once when I wrote a clue that was only lyrics to a song from Fiddler on the Roof and clued DAY as “Sunrise, sunset”. I like clues that are references! | |
| 18 | Sybil perhaps one of Cleese’s creations? (6) |
| PYTHON – double definition, of one who spouts oracles and a reference to the comedy troupe Monty Python. Clue possibly in honor of the recently departed Prunella Scales, who Enigmatist once told me was an avid crossword fan. | |
| 19 | Spinning wheel to scorch statue of one departed (6) |
| CHARKA – CHAR (scorch), KA (statue of one departed) | |
| 21 | First product in smelting delivered tincture (6) |
| SPEISS – homophone of SPICE (tincture) | |
| 26 | Omen’s following a little tetchy after part of film’s cut (5) |
| FREET – F (following) and the first letter of Tetchy after REEL (part of film) minus the last letter | |
| 27 | Stalwart actor, curt unpleasant sort, to perform without cast (7) |
| TROUPER – remove the last letter from TROUT (unpleasant sort) then PERFORM minus FORM (cast) | |
| 28 | Auntie’s releasing advanced new music app (6) |
| ITUNES – anagram of AUNTIE’S minus A (advanced) | |
| 29 | One wrestling attention seeker nicking Russian con (5) |
| OZEKI – OI! (attention seeker) containing ZEK (Russian prisoner) | |
| 30 | Want learned judge to be cast hollow-faced? (12) |
| LANTERN-JAWED – anagram of WANT,LEARNED,J (judge) | |
| 31 | Uncovered striking offensive (5) |
| ALIEN – remove the external letters of SALIENT (striking) | |
| 32 | Edible marine plant boiled as a leek (7) |
| SEAKALE – anagram of AS,A,LEEK | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Drum and bass hosted by deejay Earl and myself (6) |
| DJEMBE – B (bass) inside DJ (deejay), E (earl) and ME (myself) | |
| 2 | Cracked urinal — time for new lavabo? (6) |
| RITUAL – anagram of URINAL with T (time) replacing N (new) | |
| 3 | One tweeting “fleet’s passing close to war”. Keir (8) |
| AMADAVAT – ARMADA (fleet) minus the last letter in waR, then VAT (Keir) | |
| 4 | Doctor having yen to enter historic hall (5) |
| GYELD – GELD (castrate, doctor) containing Y (yen) | |
| 5 | Very elf-shot as these hit? (10) |
| LOVE-SHAFTS – anagram of V (very), ELF-SHOT, AS | |
| 6 | Largely flatter in truth (5) |
| SOOTH – remove the last letter from SOOTHE (flatter) | |
| 7 | One missing being moved into a labour co-operative? (8) |
| ABSENTEE – SENT (moved) inside A, BEE (labour co-operative) | |
| 8 | Fivers on floor hide boot (6) |
| FINSKO – FINS (fivers), and KO (floor) | |
| 9 | Early signs of lung pain not appearing as unpleasant as before (6) |
| UNGAIN – remove the first letters of LUNG and PAIN | |
| 12 | Pen erred so suspect Milton’s blindness? (10, two words) |
| DROP SERENE – anagram of PEN,ERRED,SO | |
| 15 | Overture from troubador in verse performing? (8) |
| SIRVENTE – anagram of the first letter of Troubador, and IN,VERSE | |
| 16 | Whip cape off Native American (8) |
| CHIPPEWA – anagram of WHIP,CAPE | |
| 19 | Caravan shaft once locked by drive in Scotland (6) |
| CAFILA – FIL (shaft) inside CAA’ (drive in Scotland) | |
| 20 | Boycott in India almost fit retaining technique (6) |
| HARTAL – remove the last letter from HALE (fit) and inside ART (technique) | |
| 22 | Izzard appearing in sleek dicky, one from Transylvania (6) |
| SZEKEL – Z (izzard) inside an anagram of SLEEK | |
| 23 | Both sides of single covering Mud recalled jazzer’s style (6) |
| STRIDE – the external letters of SinglE containing DIRT (mud) reversed | |
| 24 | Earthenware container having fruit cut from garcinia tree (5) |
| STEEN – remove MANGO (fruit) from MANGOSTEEN (garcinia tree) | |
| 25 | Hindu festival motions Indian ascetic dropping in (5) |
| POOJA – POO (motions, faeces) then JAIN (Indian ascetic) minus IN | |
I did solve this, but I don’t remember much about it. There were a lot of answers I couldn’t parse, so I’m glad it’s not my blog. Fortunately, answers like Chippewa and lantern-jawed were write-ins for me, so I got a lot of crossing letters early on. The pooja clue was really good, once I figured it out – back in the day, when I was at the big bank, one of my co-workers was a Jain.
I found this very hard going particularly because the grid turned this into four corner puzzles with very little interconnection. In the end perseverance paid off after much laborious wading through Chambers. I managed to parse everything this time — always a pleasing outcome.
A tough one, and there were quite a few answers I couldn’t or didn’t parse. I still don’t understand ELVISH, where the H is unaccounted for in your parsing George and I don’t see how “what’s on second” indicates it.
Agree with the toughness level. I assumed that “What’s on second?” was the indicator for H. A bit dodgy, IMHO.
More than a bit, unless we’re all missing something.
My best (or only) thought about ELVISH is that H is the second letter of What. If that’s it, the clue is rather poor; “what’s second” would have been better. I found this a mixture of write-ins (eg Lantern-jawed, Sea-kale) and tough ones; I had to check the dictionary for 10ac, as I’ve never heard the term and wasn’t going to come up with Myoglobin for “protein” unaided, even though I could see how the clue would be parsed.
That was my thought but as far as I can see “what’s on second” cannot mean what it needs to mean!
It needs to be “What’s on second?” because of the sketch, and the misdirection to make the solver think of Lou rather than Elvis, which I admit to doing.
Not familiar with Lou, so I wasn’t misled – but that doesn’t excuse dodgy wordplay! If that’s what it was…. If the wordplay isn’t accurate and fair, it really should be changed, no matter how much the surface appeals to the setter. (Just my opinion, obviously.)
I agree. Now that I’ve seen George’s explanation I can understand the temptation to use the reference but the wordplay is nonsense as far as I can see.
Thanks Robert and George. I found it quite tough too- although all very clear after reading the blog. Intrigued to learn that Charka is also a wheel as well as the better known Chakra (the Ashoka Chakra in the Indian flag- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka_Chakra). Thanks Keriothe for telling me about the Chambers phone app for only £9.99- so easy to look up Chambers now for Mephistos rather than troll through the big tome!
I just now finished this! Was half-finished, nigh exactly (mostly on the right), earlier in the week, tackled again last night but the SW (save for LANTERN-JAWED, an early one) held out till the end. Glad I persevered.
I’ll throw in my two-penn’orth on ELVISH. If you were asked what the second letter in the sequence “what’s on”, would your answer be anything other than H? Caused me far less anguish than most of the rest of the puzzle!
Jonathan Crowther (aka Azed) set out some rules for good crossword setting (in the context of barred grids). I believe one was on the lines of “there should be no extraneous words in the wordplay”. “On” is definitely extraneous here. Yes, H is the second letter of the sequence, but this is a slippery road – how long a sequence is acceptable? For instance, if a clue read “What’s on BBC1 at 7pm on Tuesday December 2nd”, would you say that was an acceptable way to clue H?
Well, that’s obviously too long, and in any case, my Radio Times doesn’t go that far ahead! I’d probably blink at “What’s on fifth?” or “What’s on seventh?” for APOSTROPHE and SPACE respectively.
“On” may indeed be superfluous, but in the context of the surface reading and the comedic reference, it’s at least better in than out.