Another cracker of a crossword. Coming in at just under 38 minutes this was one of my slower solves. I don’t know whether this was down to devious clueing or that I’m not suited to early morning solving. Lots of clever deviousness, lots of requirement to “lift and separate”, a fair old bit of Britishism, a couple of “never heard of it” but hardly any quibbles at all. Sorry for the lateness of this report but I’ve got a new computer and it has taken ages to get eveything installed and transferred and all that .
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | THWACK – H W in TACK. Great word for starters |
| 5 | JERICHO – JeEp RICH O. Excellent subterfuge using “rolling” for RICH |
| 14 | ALDERNEY – YEN RED LA all reversed. “Article of Zola” for LA is a welcome change from “the French” |
| 15 | USELESS – US around SELE[ct]S |
| 16 | SAPPED – the 2nd definition is why those favourite soldiers of crossword compiling, the RE (Royal Engineers), are known as sappers. |
| 20 | HEAVEN FORBID – “on the tender side” = FOR BID is fantastic |
| 23 | HOKI – another crossword favourite, this time coming from the fish world. It’s the alternate letters of SILK MOTH reversed |
| 24 | FAR FLUNG – F,RAF rev + LUNG[e] |
| 26 |
LADETTES – (TEST DEAL)* Easy anagram, brilliant definition. Ladettes are that strange breed of women who struck a blow for feminism by taking the worst aspects of young male behaviour and emulating it. |
| 29 | MONKEY PUZZLE – M,ON,(KEY),PUZZLE |
| 32 | CINCINNATI – CNN around INCI[dent] + AT,I |
| 36 | STEAMS UP – lift and separate! “South” = S and “Down slowly” = SUP around TEAM. Very minor quibblet – I’m not sure that “slowly” is absolutely necessary |
| 38 |
EXACTORS – EXACT + first letters of One Radio Show. Beautifully crafted clue requiring more lifting and separating. “They demand spot on one’s radio show, initially”. Here, “spot on”= EXACT |
| 41 | STELLENBOSCH – (BETS ON SELL)* + C,H. It’s a town in South Africa that I think I’ve met before in a crossword. |
| 46 | REDCOAT – RAT around (CODE)*. Its welsh as in cheat, not Welsh as in a nation of people to whom the word cheating doesn’t apply |
| 48 | AGRICOLA – AGRA around 1,COL. A general responsible for much of the roman conquest of Britain and brother of Cocacola, generally irresponsible invader of Britain and the world. |
| 52 | MAN YEAR – MANY EAR. This took a ludicrously long time to get and was my last one in. |
| Down | |
| 2 | HOTEL – “the last before coming to India” . Hotel is H in the phonetic alphabet and India is I. Very clever |
| 3 | A BONE TO PICK – hidden in “Grab one topic known” |
| 4 | KOH I NOOR – (IRON HOOK). The Koh-I-Noor is a huge diamond in the Queen Mother’s crown. |
| 5 | JOKEY – JO[C]KEY – my second quibblet – can “by” be justified in “caught by fleeing horseman”? |
| 6 | RESCUER – RES[t],CUER |
| 7 | COFFEE HOUSE – cryptic definition that I’m not too keen on. “Establishment needing, perhaps, instant hot running water”. Thanks to kororareka for pointing out that it’s “perhaps, instant”=coffee, hot=H and “running water”=OUSE. That makes it an excellent clue, apologies to the setter |
| 8 | OLLIE – [c]OLLIE[r] |
| 10 | OASIS – A,S[ustenance] in O,IS. &lit – have we found a better term than &lit yet? |
| 11 | EXASPERATED – hidden backwards in “cadet a rep’s axed” |
| 12 |
SALIERI – (ISRAELI)*. According to Wikipedia he was “one of the most important and famous musicians of his time.” What time was that then? I’ve never heard of him. |
| 18 | UFOLOGIST – sounds like “you follow gist”. Biggest smile of the day |
| 22 | FIDDLIER – FIDDL(I)ER. Another that took far too long to get. I wonder why it is that sometimes the easiest clues take the longest to get. |
| 25 | FUZZINESS – FUZZ, I(NES)S. “Fuzz” and “Bill” are both slang terms for police. NES is SENator backwards. |
| 27 | ELEGISING – E,LEG is “European section”, leaving “I go” for I SING. Am I missing something here? I can’t see how this works. Thanks to NMS for pointing out that it’s elegiZing. It all makes perfect sense now |
| 28 |
LYONESSE – obviously an anagram of SEES ONLY but I needed all the checkers to work out the answer. It’s a country of Arthurian legend. See here |
| 31 | PIT PROP – IT PRO in PP |
| 33 | CHARLES’S LAW – or CHAR-LESS LAW. Ha Ha |
| 35 | UNFLINCHING – U,N,FL,INCHING |
| 37 | PUB CRAWLS – UP rev B(C)RAWLS. “Multiple round trips” is a cracking definition |
| 40 | DRY RISER – Another excellent clue. “TT racer is replacing a carbon pipe”. TT=DRY then RACER has A,C replaced by IS |
| 42 | TOE NAIL – TO(ENA)IL. More clueing excellence |
| 47 |
DURUM – U in DRUM. The Pink Panther’s favourite wheat. Altogether now ….durum, durum, durum, durum,durum,durum,durummmmmmmmm,d-d-d-d-d |
As for 7D, I think it’s: perhaps, instant = coffee, hot = h and running water = (the river) ouse; so very clever again.
The “by” in 5D is OK in my reckoning. The “c” in “c. Spofforth b. Grace” can be read as “caught by”.
My puzzle is marked with many arrows, asterisks and exclamation marks. HEAVEN FORBID, EXACTORS, UFOLOGIST are all brilliant. There’s even a reference to Araucaria in MONKEY PUZZLE.
Salieri was Mozart’s arch nemesis in Milos Forman’s Amadeus, a film which didn’t let the truth stop the creative flow of the story.
Thanks again for an excellent blog and to the setter another “Chapeaux!”
My favourite was DRACULA (Blood count rising at night).
Regarding DRUM/KITCHEN – the percussion section of an orchestra is sometimes referred to as ‘the kitchen’.
Paul S.
Re DRACULA, I personally thought it was one of the weakest and easiest clues, so omitted it from the blog. Each to his/her own I suppose.