17:54. A lot of fun – including a couple of first-class long anagrams – in this week’s puzzle from Harry, which for some reason I found decidedly tricky. It all seems perfectly straightforward now but it is generally easier when you know the answers. How did you get on?
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | “Giant-killer” chants circling large pitch |
| SLINGSTONE – S(L)INGS, TONE. The giant in question being Goliath, of course. | |
| 7 | Chef half-heartedly eating up cold chicken |
| COCK – CO |
|
| 9 | Sadly, I’m no persevering late bloomer |
| EVENING PRIMROSE – (I’M NO PERSEVERING)*. Lovely anagram. | |
| 10 | Spot politician visiting Chequers, say |
| PIMPLE – PI(MP)LE. | |
| 12 | English ministry for energy on the way out? |
| EMISSION – E, MISSION. | |
| 13 | Books of plants |
| ANNUALS – DD. | |
| 15 | Catch a break in detention |
| ARREST – sounds like ‘a rest’. | |
| 17 | Pictures porcine masseuse puts up |
| CINEMA – contained in ‘porcine masseuse’. | |
| 18 | Don’t start indiscriminate blubbing |
| WEEPING – |
|
| 19 | Leader with long excuse for prorogation of Congress? |
| HEADACHE – HEAD, ACHE. Ooh err. | |
| 21 | Maroon sweet a son polished off |
| DESERT – DES |
|
| 22 | When and how to litter horses about to leave the field? |
| THROW IN THE TOWEL – (WHEN HOW TO LITTER)*. Nice anagram indicator, nice anagram! | |
| 24 | Some nasty, erupting red swelling |
| STYE – contained in ‘nasty erupting’. | |
| 25 | Helmet and arms distributed in prison |
| THE SLAMMER – (HELMET ARMS)*. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Ladies’ man, after ET’s demise, gets upset |
| LAV – reversal of VAL |
|
| 3 | Coppers chasing one-over-the-eight idiot … |
| NINEPENCE – NINE (one more than eight!), PENCE (coppers). I didn’t know this term but the wordplay was clear. | |
| 4 | … after function collared Conservative |
| SINCE – SIN(C)E. | |
| 5 | Underworld figure old pusher sorted out |
| ORPHEUS – (O PUSHER)*. In this case a visitor to the underworld rather than a resident. | |
| 6 | Expel priest that’s popular in China |
| ELIMINATE – ELI, M(IN)ATE. | |
| 7 | Energy source bachelor discovered in motors |
| CARBS – CAR(B)S. | |
| 8 | Sweetener a court arranged with grass |
| CASTOR SUGAR – (A COURT GRASS)*. This clue bamboozled me for a while because I’ve never seen CASTER SUGAR spelled like this. | |
| 11 | Fancy priests in India with lace headwear? |
| IMAGINE THAT – I(MAGI), NET, HAT. | |
| 14 | Johnny Rotten supposedly was one in charts with a hit |
| ANARCHIST – (IN CHARTS A)*. ‘Supposedly’ because in spite of singing the song John Lydon said he never was actually an ANARCHIST. In 2022 he wrote ‘anarchy is a terrible idea. Let’s get that clear. I’m not an anarchist’. | |
| 16 | Excited outburst bishop suppressed in power shower? |
| RAINSTORM – |
|
| 18 | Struggle with support if leader’s lacking |
| WRESTLE – W, |
|
| 20 | Pacifist punched by Republican gets teed off |
| DROVE – D(R)OVE. A golf reference. | |
| 21 | Live comfortably under Dad’s leadership |
| DWELL – D |
|
| 23 | Organ one heard on the radio |
| EYE – sounds like ‘I’. | |
I’d never seen CASTOR SUGAR spelled any way! (So… nothing to with beavers! Ha! Got it, this time!)
Sartre’s petname for Beauvoir…
NHO SLINGSTONE
31:13
Like Sandy, I was unfamiliar with the sugar (ODE marks it as (Brit.) and gives ‘castor’ as a variant). DNK Johnny Rotten, though I assumed he was a colleague of Sid Vicious in that group whose name escapes me. As K says, first-class anagrams. I blush to admit I liked HEADACHE.
I found this rather easy, which is not often the case with this setter. I had the knowledge, mostly, although I’d never heard of castor sugar so just followed the cryptic. Clues like Orpheus and anarchist were just about write-ins, and throw in the towel is given away by the enumeration.
Time: 29:47
30 minutes with no queries other than why the specific mention of energy in the definition of EMISSION?
I didn’t notice that the sugar was spelt with an O rather than an E so either it was already checked or for once I was paying close attention to the anagrist. Tate & Lyle market their product as CASTER SUGAR, so that’s probably the spelling I would have chosen without prompting.
One definition of “emission” in Collins ED is:
energy, in the form of heat, light, radio waves, etc, emitted from a source
Thanks, Peter. I guessed there’d be a specific definiton somewhere.
Thought this was an absolute classic from David and certainly not ‘easy ‘ as suggested above. On first glance at 19a, my heart sank, as it looked impenetrable but when the penny finally dropped, I laughed out loud.
Bravo!
Well isn’t that strange, I never occurred to me it could be spelt caster. But now I look in the cupboard I see a packet of caster sugar staring me in the face. Maybe Castor Oil is what I was thinking of. Chambers by the way gives Caster as the variant and Castor as the preferred spelling.
Just moonlighting today.
Would someone pls explain 19ac HEADACHE to the dummy – me ?
OK, I can see the meaning if it is that sort of congress (or the sort is ‘it’ in crossword world).
But, at the risk of appearing dummer (and I do resent that US movie BTW), how does ‘long’ become ‘ache’.
Both mean ‘yearn’.
OK, why was that so difficult?!
Thank U.
Caster is the better spelling – caster sugar is so called because grains are small enough to pour from a sugar caster. I had not previously realised this though!
According to Chambers the sprinkling thing is also spelled ‘castor’!
Ah yes, so I now see, thanks. It seems the same alternative spellings apply also to the ball on a chair leg sense, where I have always used ‘castor’.
I’d never heard of the terms SLINGSTONE or NINEPENCE, though the former made sense once I’d eliminated FLINTSTONE owing to inability to parse. The latter was my LOI, entered only because it parsed, and checked afterwards. I got quite stuck in the SW until ANNUALS opened up 11 and 14d. My COD to HEADACHE, for the PDM chuckle.
I like some of Harry’s crosswords more than others, but no problems with this one which I thought very good.
Not heard of ninepence!? About 4p nowadays. I can remember when it would buy you a loaf..
I’ve heard of ninepence! Just didn’t know it could mean ‘idiot’.
Ah, fair enough K, me neither in fact. I was lost in the pre-decimal era.. possibly it meant someone who was not quite the full shilling, but I don’t remember it being used that way..
In the full OED:
British colloquial. ninepence in (also to) the shilling: depreciative. below average in intelligence, common sense, or mental capacity. Also as n.: a person of lower than average intelligence or mental capacity.
“She’s got a husband who’s..ninepence in the shilling, a bit barmy.”
J B Priestley • Festival at Farbridge • 1951.
It’s in Collins too: ‘a person lacking intelligence’.
Yes, something like “a few pence short of a shilling” occurred to me when I was solving and I moved on, but I’d like to know if there’s more behind the definition here.
… and change left over for 4-a-penny gobstoppers!
HEADACHE went in very quickly for me.
But then, thinking on similar lines, I spent a while trying to split Johnny (as the definition) from Rotten in 14d. Prophylactic, contraceptive, was there another medical term I was forgetting..?
Just under 10 minutes.
– Eventually biffed THROW IN THE TOWEL once I had enough checkers
– Had no idea about the idiot meaning of NINEPENCE
– Also biffed IMAGINE THAT
Thanks keriothe and David.
FOI Evening Primrose
LOI Throw in the towel
COD Headache
19.35
Another superb Sunday puzzle. Absolutely loved THROW IN THE TOWEL and ANARCHIST. And the usual high quality blog. Thanks all.
14.27, so in this part of the world a relative breeze.
The very daring political comment at 19 has nothing on the Independent on Saturday, where central entry was COMPULSIVE LIARS, crossed by a named selection from the Trump administration.
Why is bishop RR?
It’s an abbreviation for ‘right reverend’, which is the honorific used for bishops.
Isn’t there a saying “as daft as NINEPENCE”? Or did I IMAGINE THAT?
Thanks David and keriothe
Found this easier than normal from this setter and was able to finish in just below average time – 43 min. It was a crossword where one clue answer just led to the next one after a little bit of thinking.
SLINGSTONE was new and the Sex Pistols song “Anarchy in the UK” was a look-up. Took a while to marry up ‘ministry and MISSION at 12a. Liked the clues for LAV and HEADACHE.
Finished with that HEADACHE, IMAGINE THAT and THROW IN THE TOWEL that held out till the last. Now pretty much up to date again with the ST puzzles.