The first was 9ac, where I could see what was required but it took me a while to sort the anagram fodder into the right places. Obscure words clued by anagrams are a bit of a pet peeve of mine, but it seemed reasonably clear where the letters were supposed to go in this case.
My second problem was 16ac, where I saw immediately that the clue was ambiguous and spent a few minutes agonising over which might be the required answer. The last time this happened I managed it by picking the definition that was at the end of the clue, but that wasn’t possible here, since both possible definitions are at the end. On reflection I decided that “bouncer, say, heard” was a marginally more natural reading for a homophone than “heard to cry”, and put in BAWL. In reality though this a coin toss: either answer is perfectly valid so a discussion about which is marginally more valid is pointless.
If this puzzle was test-solved (which I assume it was) I confess I’m rather surprised that this got through, since the ambiguity is so glaring. But we’re all human, including crossword setters and editors, so no matter. Whichever answer you put in, I suggest you award yourself a successful completion and stop worrying about it. You have a Dean Mayer puzzle waiting for you and it’s not going to solve itself.
Across | |
1 | Linen flower on short American entertainer |
CAMBRIC – CAM (river = flower), BRIC |
|
5 | Summon gang during drink |
SCREW UP – S(CREW)UP. Chambers defines this as ‘to summon up (courage, etc)’: I can’t think of an etc. | |
9 | Drunk ape drinks aromatic liquid |
SPIKENARD – (APE DRINKS)*. An essential oil, apparently. | |
10 | One cuts a device that supports front of rusty pipe |
BRIAR – BR(I)A, R |
|
11 | Greek Island imports American produce |
CREATE – CRE(A)TE. | |
12 | With no idea how this puzzle started |
CLUELESS – conjuring up an image of the setter contemplating a blank grid. | |
14 | Drive to tour? |
WANDERLUST – a CD cunningly disguised as a DD. | |
16 | Bouncer, say, heard to cry |
BALL – sounds like ‘bawl’, or… | |
16 | Bouncer, say, heard to cry |
BAWL – sounds like ‘ball’. Harrumph. | |
18 | Kit — second for Manchester City |
RIGA – RIG, |
|
19 | Expressionist movie plot is more complicated |
METROPOLIS – (PLOT IS MORE)*. I’m not sure I’d have been able to tell you that this was an expressionist movie, but I knew it was a (very early) movie, and that was enough. | |
22 | New statue I’d located |
SITUATED – (STATUE I’D)*. | |
23 | Perhaps Rip Van Winkle’s cure? |
KIPPER – what you do to a herring to produce, er, a KIPPER. I like them a lot but I have never understood why anyone would want to eat them for breakfast. | |
26 | Follow first of tourists to bar |
TRAIL – T |
|
27 | Game nobleman has drink |
COUNTDOWN – COUNT (nobleman), DOWN (drink, usually in the context of a pint). A game played on the telly that I have never watched and still associate with Carol Whatsername. | |
28 | On the whole it protects clothes |
OVERALL – DD. I’m more used to seeing the clothing version in the plural, but the singular is also in use and seems to denote something slightly different: a protective coat rather than a boiler suit. In the plural it’s also what North Americans call dungarees. | |
29 | Shorten a spanner |
ABRIDGE – because to span is to BRIDGE. |
Down | |
1 | Carbon residue on Jersey, perhaps, is a money-spinner |
CASH COW – C (Carbon), ASH (residue), COW (Jersey, perhaps). Not the most precise of definitions for those of us familiar with the BCG matrix, but close enough. | |
2 | Tall grass labyrinth I entered |
MAIZE – MA(I)ZE. | |
3 | Opening information about old physicist |
ROENTGEN – R(O)ENT, GEN. Willem Röntgen, discoverer of X-rays and winner of the first Nobel Prize in Physics. | |
4 | Gas a bird |
CHAT – DD. | |
5 | The gall of the rider! |
SADDLE SORE – CD. One of the meanings of ‘gall’ is a ‘sore due to chafing’ (Chambers). It can also be a ‘painful swelling’ in a horse, coincidentally. | |
6 | Material part of 29 tournament? |
RUBBER – I don’t know what RUBBER is in the context of bridge, but I know it’s a thing. | |
7 | Halt while changing admin staff here |
WHITEHALL – (HALT WHILE)*. I’m not sure all the denizens of WHITEHALL would appreciate being called ‘admin staff’, but you get the idea. | |
8 | Fighters look around for shade |
PARASOL – PARAS, then LO reversed (around). | |
13 | Censor? Presumably Picasso had one for a period! |
BLUE PENCIL – because Picasso famously had a blue period. | |
15 | Punk German hit is an awful experience |
NIGHTMARE – (GERMAN HIT)*. | |
17 | Bolt, say, front of stapler to machine in an office |
SPRINTER – S |
|
18 | Is Roman Emperor following right Italian course? |
RISOTTO – R, IS, OTTO. | |
20 | One leaves Tangiers resort for rum |
STRANGE – (TANG |
|
21 | Girl after dad is a dish |
PAELLA – PA, ELLA. Our tour of the rice dishes of Southern Europe continues. | |
24 | Boastful United in bar at conclusion of championship |
PROUD – |
|
25 | Bath with a bit of brass |
TUBA – TUB, A. |
You could be right about Macbeth: you can find sources that will tell you that Lady M’s expression, ‘screwing up’ and ‘plucking up’ courage all derive from the tuning of a stringed instrument. Of course you can also find sources telling you that each of them derives from something completely different.
One might argue that the punctuation in 16ac makes it clear that the answer has to be BALL, but for the fact that punctuation in clues is often deliberately misleading and one of first tips worth learning about solving cryptics is to ignore it completely. Thankfully on this occasion I didn’t follow that advice and I got to the intended answer without even considering the alternative.
Edited at 2016-01-17 07:17 am (UTC)
Didn’t really warm to this puzzle, but did get some entertainment thinking about opening a Times for the Times restaurant, serving only dishes featured in the crossword. Risotto and paella would certainly be menu stalwarts. The wine list would be great, if a bit heavy on the asti.
Not so sure about today’s special: kippers on a bed of maize with a jus of spikenard.
Edited at 2016-01-23 04:48 pm (UTC)
Sorry, but did anyone else have trouble with this?
ODO has SADDLE-SORE as a hyphenated noun.
I’m not an expert on riding and horses but can the noun form apply to a person? I would have said that this is something that only applies to horses. You might say that you are saddle-sore from riding, but you wouldn’t say you have a saddle-sore. ODO seems to agree with me, but Collins doesn’t. Chambers is unclear on the matter.
Nouns for the following ailments are:
Saddle-sore (hyphenated)
Cold sore (not hyphenated)
Bedsore (all one word).
English language. Nothing if not wildly inconsistent.
Thank you.
‘Bouncer, say, heard’ indicates a homophone of this.
Then ‘to cry’ is the definition.
There is no valid reading of the clue in which ‘say’ is a homophone indicator.
Thanks to all the bloggers for helping us learn the way of thinking of the setters.
Jan and Tom.
keriothe: In the dear dead days beyond recall, I found a kipper with scrambled eggs and a gin and tonic a master cure for a hangover. But it’s all a matte of taste as the woman said when she kissed the cow.
Tom.
Shortly after writing that comment I did have a kipper for breakfast, with a poached egg, and very enjoyable it was too. But it was about 10.30am, which is brunch really.