What a delightful morning’s work-out. Cryptic clues with definitions that are cryptic in their own right. Nearly an hour with much time spent trying to unravel the wordplay as I know I have to explain the clues fully for this blog.
ACROSS
1 SWEEPS Ins of WEEP (blubber) in SS (ship)
5 SIDE ARMS Ins of ARM (member) in SIDES or ARM splitting SIDES (having apparent fit of giggles)
9 AIREDALE Cha of AI (A one, excellent) RED (ginger) ALE (beer)
10 UPTURN UP (with an advantage) TURN (go)
11 METATARSAL Ins of TATARS (fearsome invaders once) in MEAL (food) of that part of the foot, or its bones, between the tarsus and the toes
13 OTTO The Castle of OTRANTO by Horatio Walpole, (1717–1797) minus RAN (legged it). Thanks mctext@1 for the wordplay. A house name of many HRE from the 10th Century.
14 HAND H (hour) + AND (with)
15 PRIEST-HOLE *(HERE IS PLOT) a secret room providing a hiding-place for a Roman Catholic priest in time of persecution or repression.
18 ELECTORATE E (last letter of Burke or Hare) LECTOR (academic) ATE (worried) for the body that chooses. The allusion to the two names got me googling to get Burke and Hare who committed serial murders in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1827 and 1828
20 ha deliberately omitted. I hope you don’t mind
21 CAIN CAIRN (a variety of Scottish terrier, dog) minus R (runs in cricket scoring)
23 CHICKENPOX CHICKEN (yellow) PO (river) X (cross) with a most misleading and original def, youngsters spotted with it. My COD for making me laugh
25 MEDICI MED (Mediterranean Sea) ICI (here in French, as indicated by in Marseilles)
26 STALKING S (son) TALKING (giving interview)
28 STRANGLE Ins of L (line) in STRANGE (novel)
29 PARADE PAR (norm) + alternate letters in AnDrEw
DOWN
2 WHITEHALL WHITE (in continental Europe, anti-revolutionary, therefore conservative) + H (hard) ALL (each person) for the London street with government offices; the British government or its policy.
3 EMERALD Ins of ME (writer of this clue) in ERA (time) + L (left) D (symbol for the old penny before 1971 when the pee came in when Sterling went decimal) Beryls are precious stones occurring in hexagonal crystals, of which emerald and aquamarine are varieties
4 SPA S (first letter of sick) PA (father, old man) for a health resort with springs
5 STEPS Rev of S (small) PETS (animals we love)
6 DOUBLESPEAK Quite self-explanatory if you write it doubles the peak
7 ANTIOCH AN + TI (rev of IT, sex appeal) O (old) CH (Companion of Honour)
8 MERIT Rev of TIRE (tax) M (millions)
12 APPROACHING A P (piano) PRO (player) ACHING (with strong desire)
16 IDA IDEA (thought) minus E (energy) for Princess Ida, or, Castle Adamant, a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert.
17 LAND OF NOD *(OLD FAN) + NOD (lapse in concentration) Reference to Genesis 4:16 And Cain (answer to 21Across) went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
19 CANTINA CANT (insincere talk) IN (at home) A (answer) with concern (a business, in this case, a business house) for drinkers as def
20 MONIKER Rev of ins of E (English) + KIN (family) in ROM (gypsy) alias, nickname or real name aka handle
22 AGENT AGE (get on) + NT (New Testament, books) with vehicle as def
24 ISSUE IS (lives) SUE (girl or in Johnny Cash’s case, a boy 🙂
27 ASP WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, supposedly representing the most privileged class in US society) minus W (wife)
++++++++++++++
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram
yfyap88 at gmail.com = in case anyone wants to contact me in private about some typo
Didn’t know the Walpole reference but guessed the emperor correctly. Didn’t know white for conservative at 2dn. Enjoyed splitting sides.
I had to think about some of the cryptics carefully before understanding them – why ‘cairn’ is a dog instead of a pile of stones, what exactly is meant by ‘after game’, why sidearms are funny, etc, etc. A really excellent puzzle with lots of high-quality clues.
I never did fully understand ‘Whitehall’ – I suppose I should have thought of White Russians. My last in, however, was ‘upturn’, which gave me no end of trouble for such a simple answer.
I don’t think there’s a poor clue here and some are real gems – particularly the quirky definitions. Well blogged UY and thank you setter
In my family, the “Land of Nod” was synonymous with going to bed. Perhaps, if Philip Pullman is listened to (Times, Monday) such allusions will not quite disappear from public vocabulary.
I appreciated 12, with its use of “player” for “PROfessional” conjuring an image of the bygone days of gentlemen amateurs in sport.
Yippee! All right for once. Liked this puzzle a lot, and was confident that all were ok. This must be because the cryptics all seemed to be very clear (once the penny had dropped). Tried to fit acne into 23 ac for some while (would have thought CHICKENPOX was two words). Didn’t know the Walpole ref, but assumed the castle thing could have been ‘ottoran’.
FOI: SWEEPS; LOI: METATARSAL; COD: SIDE ARMS.
Brilliant puzzle. Misleading, sly, inventive and educative. What more could you want?
COD: SIDE ARMS .. or CANTINA or PRIEST-HOLE or CHICKENPOX [on edit: or ELECTORATE, which I forgot to mention before … so many choices]
Edited at 2013-03-21 03:50 pm (UTC)
Had my doubts about 5, as I think side-splitting is more like ROFL than just giggling.
Like the previous solver, I also had PROP for player in 12, causing another delay until I had a re-think.
This one took me about 50 minutes, but there was quite a lot to savour, as others also seem to think. Perhaps the many misleading definitions were ultimately responsible for this, as the cryptics were all beyond reproach.
The brilliant ELECTORATE is my CoD with all its body-snatching reference.
Thanks Uncle Yap, and to a fine setter.
Appeal upheld (TI) by an = ANTI
(pause)
old companion – OCH
Antioch only known from the eponymous holy hand grenade in Monty Python and the Holy Grail so a youth wasted watching the Pythons is good for more than just learning names of philosophers.
I mis-parsed 8 thinking there must be a type of ancient tax called an ermit or emrit with the M raised to the start of the word.
Ref 20d I once worked with someone who, when he wanted me to sign something, would ask me to put my monocle on it.
I think I’ll give COD to Medici but it’s hard to choose from such a good bunch.
Today’s puzzle seemed much harder, and indeed when I had done all I could I had empty squares all over the grid! But I gave one final push and started guessing all over, throwing in several answers that seemed to be right, even though I couldn’t understand the wordplay. Before I knew it, the puzzle was complete.
I came here to check my errors and, somewhat unbelievably, I didn’t have any! This is probably one of my most satisfying solves, with no aids. Time probably under an hour?
Maybe I’m just getting better at these things?! Many thanks to the blogger for explaining all the clues that vexed this poor US solver!
Or is the answer something completely different?
I know this has been raised before but what is the point of omitting answers?
This is not the first time that I have failed to understand one of the answers and have come here only to find (annoyingly) that it has been chosen to be omitted.
Personally I see no point in omitting these answers and do not do so in my blogs
If you click on the “about this blog” link at the top of the page there’s a bit about why some bloggers omit certain clues/answers from their blogs.
Regarding the specific clue the “ha” in yfyap’s explanation at 20a is his own shorthand for “hidden answer” although I guess it could be confused for just “ha!”
I have to confess that I’m not a fan of yfyap’s abbreviations but others seem to like them.
What is the meaning of “upstairs” in the Issue clue? I can’t understand the wordplay for that one.
Thought Medici was an excellent clue – the pick of the bunch.
I didn’t remember the Walpole reference, although I’m sure it’s come up before. And I didn’t know where CAIN went on his holidays.
I can see the concept but I don’t think the wordplay for 5ac quite works. I’m probably missing something.
The wordplay features three elements, madam, in, and disorderly. This is not to say that these couldn’t be considered as a single entity either, but while your reading is available, so is one in which plural usage for the three parts is deployed. Therefore, ‘house’ ought to be all right.
Cheers
Paul.