Oink fooled me a few times this April Fools Day
Rabbit/Rabbit, Surgeon/Sturgeon, and Starling/Startling are all chestnuts where a T is added. Two came up today.
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | Might one leave you simmering for a bit? (8) |
| CANNIBAL – Cryptic definition
THis was tough for 1A, and was my LOI. I saw that CONVIVAL fitted, but that didn’t make a lot of sense. I didn’t really like this cryptic definition. |
|
| 5 | Greek God is brave enough to sacrifice daughter (4) |
| ARES – d{ARES} [is brave]
Surprisingly my FOI, even though I’ll admit its a toughie. Ares is known as Mars in the Roman world. And the planets got Roman names, even though they were of course known to the Greeks. So we could have had Hermes, Aphrodite, Ceres, Ares, Zeus and Demeter. |
|
| 9 | Grant leads to applicants discovering American university (5) |
| ADMIT – A{pplicants} D{iscovering} + MIT (American University)
MIT and YALE seem to be the main US universities with handy letters. The ETONs of the US, if you will. |
|
| 10 | Scared of Capone possibly carrying gun? (7) |
| ALARMED – AL (Al Capone) + ARMED (possibly carrying gun) | |
| 11 | Gesture indicating approval of Mafia boss’s return (3) |
| NOD – DON (Mafia boss) reversed
Struggled here as I thought the Mafia boss was the Capo. |
|
| 12 | Painting of crude lap dances (9) |
| LANDSCAPE – (LAP DANCES)* [crude] | |
| 13 | Communication from estate agent? (6) |
| LETTER – One who lets, an estate agent
LEASE, LET are common crossword tricks. |
|
| 15 | Servant out of bed, you say? It’s not true (4,2) |
| MADE UP – Sounds like “Maid up” | |
| 17 | Bird getting hold of cat’s tail? Astonishing (9) |
| STARTLING – STARLING (bird) contains {ca}T | |
| 19 | Drop long story with no conclusion (3) |
| SAG – SAG{a} (long story) | |
| 20 | Describe former plot to capture island (7) |
| EXPLAIN – EX (former) + PLAN (plot) contains I{sland} | |
| 21 | Dim-witted Henry bitten by bloodsucker (5) |
| THICK – H{enry} contained in TICK (bloodsucker) | |
| 22 | Quickly look in both directions (4) |
| PEEP – Palindrome [in both directions] | |
| 23 | Doctor eating last bit of halibut — or some other fish? (8) |
| STURGEON – SURGEON (doctor) contains {halibu}T | |
| Down | |
| 1 | A little pouch Anne left in vehicle (7) |
| CHANNEL – Hidden in pouch Anne left | |
| 2 | Traveller of sound mind, according to Glaswegian? (5) |
| NOMAD – No’ Mad (Not mad, with the scottish “Not” abbreviated to “No”) | |
| 3 | Erudite uncle a little the worse for wear (12) |
| INTELLECTUAL – (UNCLE A LITTLE)* [the worse for wear]
I spent ages looking at “erudite uncle” as the anagram, with “a little the worse” as the indicator. |
|
| 4 | Kitchen range fashionable once more (5) |
| AGAIN – AGA(Kitchen Range) + IN (fashionable)
Other ranges are available. |
|
| 6 | Run wild in anger about an MP (7) |
| RAMPAGE – RAGE (anger) contains MP
This leaves the A unaccounted for? Does “an MP” become “a MP”? |
|
| 7 | Creep left in team (5) |
| SIDLE – L{eft} contained in SIDE (team) | |
| 8 | Male’s merriment causing serious offence (12) |
| MANSLAUGHTER – MANS (Male’s) + LAUGHTER (merriment)
My first thought was MANSPLAINING, a very serious offence these days. |
|
| 14 | Tiring journey of a priest abroad (7) |
| TRAIPSE – (A PRIEST)* [abroad] | |
| 16 | Hide from oinking creature? (7) |
| PIGSKIN – ?
Don’t understand this one. Is there a word missing for KIN? Hide from oinking creature’s family? (7), works better. |
|
| 17 | Zest returns after small nap (5) |
| SLEEP – S{mall} + PEEL (zest) reversed | |
| 18 | Local extremely ignorant, don’t you think? (5) |
| INNIT – INN (local) + I{gnoran}T
INNIT is a colloquial British English contraction that derives from the phrase “isn’t it?” Can even be used as a filler word, like “like”, or “you know”, as in the wildly ungrammatical “I’m going down the shops, innit” |
|
| 19 | Arrest of witnesses announced (5) |
| SEIZE – Sounds like [announced] SEES (witnesses) | |
Having sharpened my wits on the 15×15 I flew through this at first, dreaming of a sub 15 min PB. But alas seize, channel & cannibal took be to a 20+ min finish. Saw no problem with 1ac clue once the penny dropped. Thanks Oink and Merlin
DNF. Seemed to lack brainpower today and gave up after a few holdups and started revealing answers. Oh well, see what tomorrow brings.
17:33 held up substantially by the crossing of LOI CANNIBAL and POI CHANNEL. I still don’t like the latter as ‘vehicle’ but never mind, it went in eventually having been considered a long time previously but not entered until I saw that it was very well hidden! Thanks, all.
Finished in a little over 23 mins with 1ac taking 5 of those and was my COD.
3 short on the 15*15 today and when I saw plusjeremy had failed in the QC I was thinking I might have a tough time of it so am quite relieved not to have 2 fails today.
Thanks Oink and `Merlin.
50 minute DNF.
An absolute nightmare from start to finish, topped off with 20 mins staring at 1ac and being unable to fill it in.
Utterly pathetic performance. Why do I bother when I am so useless? Rhetorical question – replies are not required!
I enjoyed that. Just tricky enough. I seem to be following the same pattern as many others with CANNIBAL first read but last in. I had to do an alphabet run.
Liked EXPLAIN, ADMIT and ARES.
Is HONG MAI on the second row a Nina? I was expecting something quirky on April 1st. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Mai
As above! DNF in about 15 minutes, courtesy of the maneater at 1a 😅 Lots to giggle at though – MANSLAUGHTER, INTELLECTUAL and THICK all got smileys.
FOI Nomad COD Landscape made me laugh
So despite not finishing, I still enjoyed this. Thanks Oink and Merlin
Short by one on 15 x 15 again!!! I never catch a break when I attempt this.
One day all this suffering may bear fruit, but somehow I doubt it.
To Merlin, a pig skin ( from an oinking creature) is a hide. I had to think about it a while before the penny dropped