An entertaining exercise, as always, where tightly packed clues explode in the mind with a flash of light. And in keeping with recent Price tradition, the last two across answers certainly make a phrase, and if you read the first word as a pun, you can join top and bottom to find “Start her story very prettily.” (This seems to be a somewhat random phrase, as I couldn’t find a literary precedent.) Edit: Don’t miss the Xmas Nina!
I indicate (Ars Magna)* like this, and words flagging such rearrangements are italicized in the clues.
| ACROSS | |
| 1 | Courses for beginners (8) |
| STARTERS DD Servings of food and neophytes The clue could almost be a single definition. …I had to squint. |
|
| 6 | Just one side of Tetbury’s MP (4) |
| TORY T OR Y Pick a side! Your MP, of course, might be of a different persuasion. |
|
| 10 | Revolution curtailed when crushed by firms colluding (9) Hate it when that happens! |
| CARTWHEEL CART(WHE |
|
| 11 | Tree snake seen now and again (5) |
| ASPEN ASP, “snake” + sEeN |
|
| 12 | European drunk, heartless and abrasive (5) |
| EMERY E(uropean) + ME |
|
| 13 | Watch it around this setter, man! (9) …would make a good title for this post. |
| TIMEPIECE IT<=“around” + ME, “this setter” + PIECE, “man” (as in chess, say) |
|
| 14 | Viking oarsmen migrating north (8) |
| NORSEMAN (oarsmen)* + N(orth) …Ah, must award a Creative Anagrind Prize! Been a while. |
|
| 16 | Two novels abridged in error (3-3) |
| BOO-BOO BOO |
|
| 19 | Former Chief Detective’s role and rank (6) |
| RANCID He or she once RAN the C(riminal) I(nvestigation) D(epartment)! 😀 |
|
| 20 | Groom, say, returning after a riding event (8) |
| DRESSAGE DRESS, “Groom” + A + EG<=“returning” |
|
| 22 | Flower parts named in official document (5,4) |
| TITLE DEED TITLE(DEE)D “Flow-er” meaning a river, of course (just in case any newbie is here) |
|
| 24 | Joint piece from a number performing (5) |
| TENON TEN, “a number” + ON, “performing” |
|
| 25 | Have a go at Sunday lunch? (5) |
| ROAST DD |
|
| 26 | Going on for ever wrinkle-free, but no Romeo (9) |
| CEASELESS C |
|
| 27 | Actual courage when support is removed (4) |
| VERY |
|
| 28 | Rather assuming one left in a charming way (8) |
| PRETTILY PRETT(I)(L)Y |
|
| DOWN | |
| 2 | Club about to appear in the press (5,4) |
| THREE IRON TH(RE)E IRON |
|
| 3 | Wild bunch where the leader’s left variable (5) |
| ROWDY |
|
| 4 | Final match, United tipped over City (8) |
| EVENTUAL EVENT, “match” + U(nited) + LA<=“tipped over” |
|
| 5 | Wilde play part without a line (6) |
| SALOME S(A)(L)OME One of Oscar Wilde’s earliest theatrical works, dashed off—in French—in late 1891 and published in Paris two years later. But it didn’t achieve its first theatrical presentation until 1896—premiering at the Théâtre de la Comédie-Parisienne—when Wilde couldn’t attend because he was in prison for having sex with men. Britain’s Lord Chamberlain had prohibited its performance in Britain because of a rule against depicting biblical characters on stage. Wilde died in 1900 and never saw Salomé performed—let alone Richard Strauss’s 1905 operatic treatment. …The alleged last words of the consummate æsthete often come back to me: “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” |
|
| 6 | Small measures of ground soapstone (9) |
| TEASPOONS (soapstone)* |
|
| 7 | Sport gym outside East Asian capital (5) |
| RUPEE R(ugby) U(nion), “Sport” + P(E)E |
|
| 8 | Guards grappling with ceremony run for Oscar hopefuls (13) |
| SCREENWRITERS SCREEN(W)(RITE)(R)S Oscar is a mysterious figure. No one knows where he got his name. There have been various stories, some disproven, others unverifiable. |
|
| 9 | US drone seen on manoeuvres in plain sight (5,4,4) |
| UNDER ONES NOSE (US drone seen on)* |
|
| 15 | Lived ten wasted years apparently (9) |
| EVIDENTLY (Lived ten)* + Y(ears) |
|
| 17 | Lingerie occupying room in part of your mind (5,4) Who, me? |
| BRAIN CELL BRA IN CELL …Is this the same BRA lost in an earlier answer? |
|
| 18 | Scrape to bag a third from Huddersfield university? (8) |
| GRADUATE &lit, GR(A)(D)(U)ATE deploying a DBE where “a third” indicates the degree achieved—and apparently it’s an onerous or expensive process to bag that diploma. …I’m sure it’s easier for some than for others. I had never heard of the University of Huddersfield, though it is rather famous. |
|
| 21 | Give a lesson, briefly leading part of a service (6) |
| TEACUP TEAC |
|
| 23 | Guy comfortable going topless (5) Indeed, I am. |
| TEASE |
|
| 24 | Newspaper piracy (5) |
| THEFT THE F(inancial) T(imes) …Sometimes also a piracy newspaper |
|
DNF
Didn’t get TORY. I liked THREE IRON, TIMEPIECE, & TITLE DEED.
Like Kevin, I biffed Tory without understanding it. Then, about an hour later, I saw it.
The puzzle was pretty easy to some of the Robert Price creations I’ve struggled with. Three iron seemed pretty green-paintish, even though it is a thing.
Time: 32:28
43 minutes. The expected enjoyable Sunday morning puzzle from our setter. Highlights for me were GRADUATE (COD), RANCID (very good) and the BRAIN CELL thinking naughty thoughts. Not many golf professionals seem to use a THREE IRON much these days.
Interesting to see that the current MP representing the good citizens of Tetbury, Gloucestershire is not a TORY, as I would have thought, but a Liberal Democrat, Dr Liz Savage.
BTW, as well as the answers in the first and last rows, there’s a little something else (left to right and top to bottom) in the grid to celebrate the festive season.
Thanks to Guy and Robert
Excellent – thanks for pointing it out!
Oh my goodness! Missed that entirely!
Is anyone else struggling to get today’s crossword to load on the app? I’m getting an error message.
Today’s is unusually a Jumbo by Dean Mayer – maybe that’s a problem for your app?
I’m told that an app problem with today’s puzzles is now fixed. You might need to close and restart.
I was a bit miffed about TORY, as I felt it should have had a question mark. An MP is not necessarily a Tory or vice versa. But on reflection, perhaps ‘just one side’ covers it? SALOME was barely known – only once I’d worked it out did it ring a bell. I didn’t make notes, but I’m fairly sure my LOI was CARTWHEEL, which I found tortuous. TORY and VERY also took far too long. I like Guy’s pared-down blog – admirably succinct, with the exception of SALOME. Poor Oscar Wilde – he’d have fared so much better a century later on.
The norm in cryptic crosswords is that you can have a category in the clue and expect the solver to decide which possible member of the category is required. But if you have a member of a category to clue the name of the category, the traditional rule is that you have a question mark. This does get a bit strange sometimes – it means that “dog” can indicate any of the dozen or more possibilities for a dog with (e.g.) a one-word eight-letter name, but you must add a question mark in a clue like “Cockapoo … (3)” even though cockapoo doesn’t mean anything other than “kind of dog”.
Your post reflects something very close to my thought process when deciding that this clue didn’t need a question mark. ‘Old MacDonald’ came to mind of course!
Having said that you could* use ‘cockapoo’ to define (by example) something along the lines of ‘fashion’ or ‘craze’…
*nothing against cockapoos, they’re lovely dogs
Mt thanks to Robert Price and Guy du Sable.
DNF, failed to understand 6a Tory (very clever I now see) and 7d Rupee. Bother, should have got that and it would have helped with Tory.
5d Salome, had forgotten Wilde wrote that and looked it up.
18.03
Usual high quality feast of clues, starting with the STARTERS. Particularly liked ROAST and THREE IRON.
Thanks Guy/Robert.
Half an hour. Had to trust that SALOME is a play by Oscar Wilde, but otherwise no major issues.
Thanks Guy and Robert.
FOI Theft
LOI Screenwriters
COD Timepiece
12:55. Lovely puzzle. Thank you GduS for the little Wilde vignette. We weren’t treating sexually non-conforming people much better a little more than half a century later when Alan Turing died and in the current climate I worry that we are moving backwards.
Thanks Robert and Guy
Took a couple of sessions for a total of 56 minutes to get this one done. A couple of rash unparsed and unparseable first entries with TITLE PAGE at 22a and TIMES at 24d did hold things up a little along the way. TORY and GRADUATE took a little time to understand what was going on.
Liked RANCID when I finally saw what was happening with the ‘Chief Detective’.
Started off with the THREE IRON (something never done in the actual game!) and finished with TEACUP (cute) and PRETTILY (not so cute because it took so long to understand it).
Totally missed the Rudolf nina !