This, for me, was the most enjoyable Jeff Pearce puzzle that I can remember. Decidedly tricky in parts, several gorgeous surfaces, some very elegant cluing, plenty of wit and not much in the way of arcane knowledge being required. Pretty much a perfect Sunday package as far as I was concerned.
I’m sure I was not alone in finding 2d particularly tricky, and I only managed to fully parse it post-solve. 24ac also baffled me for a while. On reflection, I think what both of these clues had in common was that they were somewhat unorthodox in their structure (and nothing wrong with that as far as I am concerned) and brought home to me how easy it is to fall into the trap of adopting a convention-driven, somewhat formulaic approach to solving when in some instances more lateral thinking is required. At least, that’s my take on it!
Anyway, hats off to Jeff for a super puzzle – here’s how I think it all plays out.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted letters indicated by {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Endless material about radical plays (6) |
| DRAMAS – DAMAS{K} (endless material) goes around (about) R (abbrev. Radical) | |
| 4 | Bananas — excellent with marmite? (8) |
| CRACKPOT – CRACK (excellent – as in a crack shot) + POT (a marmite is a kind of cooking pot, from which the divisive spread originally took its name) | |
| 10 | Is it sweet to celebrate a fast finish? (6,3) |
| EASTER EGG – Very nice cryptic based on Easter marking the end of Lent (fast finish) | |
| 11 | Bloomer gets fearsome person beheaded (5) |
| ERROR – {T}ERROR (fearsome person beheaded) | |
| 12 | Girl embraces very loud one at start of company do (7) |
| SUFFICE – SUE (girl) goes around (embraces) FF (very loud) I (one) C (start of Company) | |
| 14 | Pick up note about show (7) |
| IMPROVE – MI reversed (note about) PROVE (show) | |
| 15 | Gardener’s hemp mixed with heroin makes one barking (6,8) |
| GERMAN SHEPHERD – *(GARDENERS HEMP) – with “mixed” as the anagram indicator – and H (abbrev. Heroin) also in the mix. Gorgeous surface! | |
| 18 | Organise long gun with tear gas for something trooper might use? (6,8) |
| STRONG LANGUAGE – *(LONG GUN TEAR GAS) with “organise” signalling the anagram. Troopers remain the standard simile benchmark for swearing, but in my experience wicketkeepers can eclipse them. | |
| 22 | Nearly twenty five quid in ship’s gold fund … (7) |
| SPONSOR – PON{Y} (nearly twenty five quid – said sum still being referred to as a ‘pony’ in some circles) inside SS (ship) OR (gold) | |
| 24 | … and get to tip of England by means of one (7) |
| GALLEON – The … device linking this to the previous clue is (unusually) critical to providing us with the definition, referring to the ship in 23a. The supporting wordplay is GALL (get to) E (tip of England) ON (by means of) – at least, I think that’s how it works. Very tricky… | |
| 25 | Vehicle leaves NW city to get fabric (5) |
| LISLE – {CAR}LISLE (NW city loses its vehicle) | |
| 26 | It’s harsh to hang one German — then another (9) |
| SWINGEING – SWING (to hang) + EIN (one in German) + G (another German) | |
| 28 |
Game making you love college after start of the working week (8) |
| MONOPOLY – O POLY (love college) ‘after’ MON (start of the working week) | |
| 29 | One tends to fire person having puff after school (6) |
| STOKER – TOKER (person having puff) comes ‘after’ S (school) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Arrange date for an Olympic event (8) |
| DRESSAGE – DRESS (arrange) + AGE (date – used as a verb to age / to date) | |
| 2 | Dashing around this beast may be troubling (3) |
| ASS – If you put HARING (dashing) around ASS (i.e. harASSing) then you have a word meaning “troubling”. Took me an age post-solve to see how this worked. Whilst “this beast” could be seen as the definition, I think the clue really needs to be read as an overall cryptic definition (or a set of instructions). | |
| 3 | On camera I made new drink (9) |
| AMERICANO – *(ON CAMERA I) with “made new” pointing to the anagram | |
| 5 | Music magazine — famous American one (7) |
| RAGTIME – RAG (magazine) + TIME (famous American one – viz. ‘magazine’). Elegant cluing. | |
| 6 | Budget car initially has great deal (5) |
| CHEAP – C (car initially) + HEAP (great deal) | |
| 7 | Female abandons large puma for naughty bit of fun (7,4) |
| PARLOUR GAME – *(LARGE PUMA {F}OR) – with “naughty” indicating the anagram and ‘female abandons’ telling us to omit the F from the mix | |
| 8 | Troy, an ancient city, important in this country (6) |
| TURKEY – T (Troy – the old measure used in weighing gems etc.) + UR (an ancient city) + KEY (important). The clue also ties up neatly on the basis that the city of Troy was situated in what is now Turkey. Took a while for the penny to drop regarding the T. | |
| 9 | Some men have no time for Rugby (6) |
| SEVENS – S{T}EVENS – the Stevens of this world (some men) lose T (have no time) | |
| 13 | Tree with scouts in worried relative (5,6) |
| FIRST COUSIN – FIR (tree) + *(SCOUTS IN) with “worried” pointing to the anagram. Something rather pleasing about the surface reading in a surreal kind of way. | |
| 16 | Something very good on Kindle to underline (9) |
| HIGHLIGHT – HIGH (something very good) + LIGHT (kindle). Cunning use of the capital K to send us up the garden path. | |
| 17 | Youth showing support in front of Harry and his gran (8) |
| TEENAGER – TEE (support – where a golfer rests his balls) + NAG (harry) + ER (Prince Harry’s gran). Lovely stuff. | |
| 19 | Overturn trunk containing exotic dress to reveal gem (7) |
| GIRASOL – LOG (trunk) ‘containing’ SARI (exotic dress) all reversed (overturn) | |
| 20 | England once again left beaten (6) |
| ANGLIA – *(AGAIN L) with “beaten” signalling the anagram, giving the old Roman name for England | |
| 21 | Shelter’s variable in a humble dwelling (6) |
| ASYLUM – Y (variable) ‘in’ A SLUM (a humble dwelling) | |
| 23 | Dust benches erected around start of evensong (5) |
| SWEEP – PEWS reversed (benches erected) ‘around’ E (start of Evensong) | |
| 27 | Ignoring the odds dislike class (3) |
| ILK – Every other letter (ignoring the odds) of dIsLiKe | |
I don’t think ‘Anglia’ is the Roman name for Britain – the Romans left before the Angles arrived.
My struggles were the Log in Girasol and the Galleon, which I still don’t really get. Gall, ok, E, ok, but then what?
Thanks setter for a fun one and blogger.
I also pondered the ON in Galleon for a while, but concluded it was given to us through “by means of” – as in “How did he get there? On (by means of) a bicycle”. Works for me…
On edit: sorry, looks like my reply pretty much coincided with Keriothe’s
Edited at 2017-05-14 06:19 pm (UTC)