Greetings, barred-grid fans
I thought this one was a little easier than recent John Grimshaw puzzles, though I didn’t solve it all in one sitting. It is a fun grid with the 12-letter answers around the outside and 90-degree symmetry – I’m surprised there are a minimum of obscure words in the grid.
I once told Paul McKenna that each puzzle he catches me at least once with an abbreviation for “A”. John Grimshaw might be going for a record of abbreviations for “E” in the one puzzle.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Aussie weed patch with wild spurges less acceptable (12, two words) |
| COBBLER’S PEGS – COBBLE (patch) and an anagram of SPURGES minus U (acceptable) | |
| 10 | Returned some caramelised old vinegar (5) |
| ESILE – hidden reversed inside caramELISEd | |
| 11 | Shout to horse carrying veteran highwayman (6) |
| HOLD-UP – HUP (shout to horse) containing OLD (veteran) | |
| 13 | Calico utilises partly cotton material (6) |
| COUTIL – hidden inside caliCO UTILises | |
| 14 | Regret about Liberal government (4) |
| RULE – RUE (regret) surrounding L (Liberal) | |
| 15 | Cold roll which may be served for pudding (7) |
| CRUMBLE – C (cold), RUMBLE (move with a rolling noise) | |
| 16 | Run away after European writ of execution (6) |
| ELEGIT – LEG IT (run away) after E (European) | |
| 17 | Prison camp for males outside Los Angeles (6) |
| STALAG – STAG (for males) surrounding LA (Los Angeles) | |
| 19 | Like a dirndl incorporating eastern fabric (7) |
| ALEPINE -ALPINE (like a dirndl) containing E (eastern) | |
| 22 | Losing pressure, flying Imperial planes cover this quickly (7, two words) |
| AIR MILE – anagram of IMPERIAL minus P (pressure) | |
| 26 | Earthy disgust about department director (6) |
| CLODDY – CLOY (to disgust) surrounding D (department) and D (director). I thought the abbreviation might have been in Chambers under DD, but it was not. | |
| 28 | Lava flow could cut ends off esplanade (6) |
| COULEE – COULD minus the last letter, then the external letters in EsplanadE | |
| 29 | East give assistance after Hungary’s exported fish (7) |
| EELPOUT – E (east), then HELP OUT (give assistance) minus H (Hungary) | |
| 31 | Indian employer sacking last local gardener (4) |
| MALI – MALIK (Indian employer) minus the last letter | |
| 32 | The Spanish poet goes back to positive subjects (6) |
| PEOPLE – EL (“the” in Spanish), and POE (poet) reversed after P (positive) | |
| 33 | Separate university in blunder losing billions (6) |
| UNGLUE – U (university) inside BUNGLE (blunder) minus B (billions) | |
| 34 | Abandoned English picked up in Spenser (5) |
| LEFTE – LEFT (abandoned), E (English) | |
| 35 | Surviving fire alone, artist gets academy to replace oxygen everywhere (12) |
| SALAMANDRIAN – SOLO (alone) and the artist Piet MONDRIAN with A (academy) replacing O (oxygen) every time it appears. This is a very fun clue to unravel. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | See red coucal wandering about some trees (12) |
| CEDRELACEOUS – anagram of SEE,RED,COUCAL | |
| 2 | Mouthlike aperture very large on tailless mosquito (6) |
| OSCULE – OS (very large) then CULEX (mosquito) minus the last letter | |
| 3 | Sad fool climbing tree (7, two words) |
| BLUE GUM – BLUE (sad) then MUG (fool) reversed. In my 25 years in Australia, I saw a lot more blue gums than I did cobbler’s pegs | |
| 4 | The French outing was uncontrolled (6, two words) |
| LET RIP – LE (the in French), TRIP (outing) | |
| 5 | Dialect wrongly used in an official order (7) |
| EDICTAL – anagram of DIALECT | |
| 6 | Free acknowledgment holds nothing for one (6) |
| SOLUTE – SALUTE (acknowledgement) with O (nothing) instead of A (one) | |
| 7 | Local swell — prince with a lot of capital (4) |
| PLIM – P (prince) and LIMA (capital) minus the last letter | |
| 8 | Instrument, small, introduced to upper throat (5) |
| GUSLA – S (small) inside GULA (upper throat) | |
| 9 | Spot old jelly — see in cooked pig, perhaps (12) |
| SPIEGELEISEN – SPIE (spot, old), GEL (jelly), then an anagram of SEE IN. Referring to pig iron | |
| 12 | Capital dress for fishing above waterfall (6) |
| DUBLIN – DUB (dress a fly for fishing) over LIN (waterfall) | |
| 18 | Poor labourer — key contributor to immature movement (6) |
| PROLEG – PROLE (poor labourer), then the key of G | |
| 20 | Eagle, say, in the place cited eating eastern seabird (7) |
| LECTERN – LC (loco citato, in the place cited) surrounding E (eastern), then TERN (seabird) | |
| 21 | Cushy for a thespian’s pad (7) |
| PLUMPER – PLUM (cushy), PER (for) | |
| 23 | Mental image I had over Scots headgear (6) |
| IDOLUM – I’D (I had), O (over), LUM (a chimney-pot hat) | |
| 24 | Striking after digging stick being found in mine? (6) |
| KOBOLD – BOLD (striking) after KO (digging stick) | |
| 25 | See Strictly’s setting up a dance number (6) |
| VELETA – V (see), then TELE (Strictly is a TV show that I have never seen) reversed, then A | |
| 27 | Lake near strange swamp (5) |
| LERNA – L (lake) then an anagram of NEAR | |
| 30 | African currency bond abandoned by company (4) |
| PULA – COPULA (bond) minus CO (company) | |
Left hand side went in relatively quickly then I hit a brick wall until SPIEGELEISEN was solved. After that the rest followed. I did find the RHS quite hard but overall rewarding to solve. SALAMANDRIAN was a lovey clue.
Nice puzzle, but the “NaN” in the online version after four of the clues had me overthinking, especially as their answer lengths all appeared in the printed version as ‘number of cells – 2.’ To be fair, it was corrected later the same day!
I found this one pretty hard, it took me just shy of an hour.
Like Brian I was puzzled by the ‘NaN’ after some of the clues, and the designation ‘mildly thematic’ in the puzzle title. Both had disappeared a few hours later.
I took ROLL and RUMBLE to be connected with thunder, but I suppose any noise will do.
Chambers just says ‘make a low heavy (…) rolling noise’ and ‘to move with such a noise’. No specific reference to thunder.
I didn’t look it up. (For once!) Just thought of roll of thunder and rumble of thunder.
Like Richard, I slotted in the left hand side pretty quickly and then slowed down a lot, apart from STALAG and DUBLIN (not that I knew DUB in that meaning, but I knew LIN). I’ve come across MALI at least once before, but just couldn’t remember it when I needed to – ditto the throwing stick! Loved the clue for SALAMANDRIAN; as it happened, I guessed at the “trick” quite quickly and solo=sala led easily to the answer, but I still enjoyed it.
Finished quicker than anticipated, on Tuesday. Never had the NaN but was momentarily thrown by wrong enumeration on 22, 3 and 4. I got to this puzzle as soon as it came out.
When the on line version is referred to frequently in the comments where is it. I joined the Times crossword club a number of years ago and paid a fee downloaded it and it didn’t work and my money was refunded. I assumed it had been discontinued.
Louis Shaw
This is the link: crosswordclub[dot]co[dot]uk
You won’t have to download anything (a Times app?), only subscribe.
I have an international subscription to The Times, which is quite inexpensive.
But it seems that now (finally) one can subscribe to just the puzzles.
https://www.thetimes.com/puzzles/undefined/crossword-club-grgvnj0kb
Thank you for the information Guy I will follow it up.
Louis
Hi Guy
This link just takes me to the usual puzzle club Home Page. I’ve checked in My Account, but I can’t see any way of paying for puzzles only. Presuming it’s cheaper, I would go for this, since I have no interest in reading any of the newspaper. (It’s views don’t align with mine, to put it mildly.)
Me too. I was paying €13.41 a month for an international subscription to The Times and Sunday Times when all I want is the puzzles—just €4.99. So I wrote to Customer Service (care @ thetimes …) and got the helpful reply, « Please reach out to us via Live Chat, and we’ll be happy to switch your subscription for you. »
Which I did the very next morning and it was changed in a twinkle.