My Times subscription expired last week though my Crossword Club sub didn’t, leaving me in the situation where I can access all the puzzles … except the one that I need to blog. As such, I will have to buy the paper first thing in the morning in order to access/solve/blog the puzzle. I should be able to get something out before 9AM UK time but my apologies in advance to the early birds. I suspect that by the time my next blogging stint rolls around I will have renewed my Times subscription.
Edit: Many thanks to jackkt for saving me a plod through the mean streets of early morning Northallerton.
This is Joker’s ninth puzzle and his/her previous offerings have generally met with approval from solvers old and new. I would rate this as being harder than average (and in fact arguably harder than today’s main cryptic), with none of the long answers (bar 19A) immediately springing to mind and some of the constructions being relatively complex – please ask in the comments if any of the explanations aren’t clear. I’ll award my COD to DEATH BLOW, with an honourable mention to INDUSTRIALIST.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fool has trouble following attack (6) |
| ASSAIL – AIL (trouble) after (following) ASS (fool) | |
| 4 | Eccentric map includes a federal area for Washington (6) |
| MADCAP – MAP around (includes) A + DC (District of Columbia, i.e. federal area for Washington). It took me a while to see this, as even though it seemed likely that DC must be in there somewhere, it’s not a common letter combination | |
| 9 | Makes a loud noise with lorry being severely shaken (13) |
| THUNDERSTRUCK – THUNDERS (Makes a loud noise) + TRUCK (lorry) | |
| 10 | Send back rotten fish (3) |
| DAB – reversal (Send back) of BAD (rotten). Similar to a plaice and often found in the seas surrounding Crosswordland | |
| 11 | Mixed school’s PE displays a Greek character (9) |
| SOPHOCLES – anagram (Mixed) of SCHOOL’S PE. Usually such a definition would mean one of the letters of the Greek alphabet but in this case it refers to the playwright who specialised in tragedies, in particular crossword setter’s favourite Antigone | |
| 12 | Light in the sky – gold in atmosphere (6) |
| AURORA – OR (heraldic term for gold) inside AURA (atmosphere). Perhaps best known in combination with either borealis or australis to refer to the Northern or Southern Lights respectively, auroras are caused by charged particles colliding with the upper atmosphere to create astoundingly colourful displays in the sky. One of nature’s most impressive phenomena | |
| 13 | Church celebration that is held during fast, strangely (6) |
| FIESTA – IE (that is, or i.e.) inside (held during) an anagram of FAST. I wouldn’t have objected if “Church” had been left out of the clue, as “fiesta” is often used simply to mean a (secular) party of some description | |
| 16 | Lab heater running to produce hot infusion (6,3) |
| HERBAL TEA – anagram (running) of LAB HEATER. You might want to have your herbal tea with some sliced bread, which was first sold this day in 1928 | |
| 18 | Supernatural creature nearly flew over (3) |
| ELF – reversal (over) of most of (nearly) FLEw | |
| 19 | Polite woman working in restaurant trade – one serving the Queen (4-2-7) |
| LADY-IN-WAITING – LADY (Polite woman) + IN WAITING (working in restaurant trade). A helpful enumeration | |
| 21 | Some swarm that appears for summery weather (6) |
| WARMTH – hidden in (Some) sWARM THat | |
| 22 | Take in with humorous effect that’s pronounced (6) |
| INGEST – homophone (that’s pronounced) of IN JEST (with humorous effect) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | A small part is suitable (3) |
| APT – A + PT (small part, i.e. abbreviation for part) | |
| 2 | Move slowly and awkwardly following small sleep (7) |
| SLUMBER – LUMBER (Move slowly and awkwardly) after (following) S (small) | |
| 3 | Pakistan’s river experiment is on time for manufacturer (13) |
| INDUSTRIALIST – INDUS (Pakistan’s river) + TRIAL (experiment) + IS + T (time) | |
| 5 | Inflexible writer needs IT in a particular house for March-April (6) |
| AUTHORITARIAN – AUTHOR (writer) + IT + ARIAN (in a particular house for March-April, i.e. of the sign of the zodiac Aries, 21st March to 19th April) | |
| 6 | Regret cutting first half of clue, causing distress (5) |
| CRUEL – RUE (Regret) inside (cutting) CL (first half of CLue) | |
| 7 | Old handle for blade of voracious fish workers (9) |
| PIKESTAFF – PIKE (voracious fish) + STAFF (workers). Literally the staff (handle) of a pike (old spear-like weapon), though perhaps more commonly encountered nowadays in the expression “plain as a pikestaff” to mean “perfectly clear” | |
| 8 | Have hallucinations with eastern food (5) |
| TRIPE – TRIP (Have hallucinations) + E (eastern). Though I’ve blogged tripe twice in recent times, I’ve only eaten it once in real life, courtesy of seeing the symbol for lamb on a menu in a town in northwest China and not bothering to dig out my dictionary to figure out what all the other symbols meant | |
| 10 | Fatal buffet dished up old wheat, black inside (5,4) |
| DEATH BLOW – anagram (dished up) of OLD WHEAT with B (black) inside. The buffet referred to here is not of the all-you-can-eat variety, but a word meaning a strike with the hand or fist. Very deceptive surface reading | |
| 14 | Moving set with needle is unproductive (7) |
| STERILE – anagram (Moving) of SET + RILE (needle) | |
| 15 | Cooks sweets up half-heartedly (5) |
| STEWS – anagram (up) of SWEeTS (sweets … half-heartedly, i.e. with only one of the two Es at the centre) | |
| 17 | Surprise attacker has lost a horseman (5) |
|
RIDER – R |
|
| 20 | Turning over towing vessel in a narrow strait (3) |
| GUT – reversal (Turning over) of TUG (towing vessel). I’m maybe missing something here but even though Chambers has “a narrow passage; a strait or channel” among its definitions for gut, I can’t say that’s a usage I’ve ever heard before, though it certainly justifies the surface reading. I originally thought the reference was to the alimentary canal but strait seems an odd word to use for that, especially in a Quick Cryptic. | |
12ac was a bit tricky to solve and parse with both AU and OR as possible abbreviations for gold and only one of them applicable. GUT for “narrow strait” is way out of Quickie league and possibly a bit obscure even for a 15×15 I’d have thought. I had to check that FIESTA had religious connotations as I didn’t know that. I assume LADY for “polite woman” refers to the manner of address rather than suggesting that a Lady is necessarily polite as I’d certainly have some doubts about that!
Edited at 2014-07-07 07:00 am (UTC)
I had a rummage on Google for gut and found this real-world example though I would definitely agree that it’s an obscure usage.
Look forward to tomorrow…K
As an aside, is anyone else having trouble with Chrome browser on Android making this blog text too small to read easily?