Following my previous New Year’s Day Jumbo to blog, which was an absolute cracker, I find I once again have a great crossword to decipher and comment on. It took me about an hour, which is well over average, but that was just about a perfectly satisfying level of challenge. Fortunately there were a few (but not too many) easier clues to get us going, but some nice chewy ones too. Some lovely deceptive definitions and noun phrases meant you had to take each word on its merits and challenge any word combinations. Some enjoyable surfaces and some belters of clues. 6d is my favourite, if only because it took me a while to recognise the significance of the number.. which was not a cross-reference to another clue. All in all, a great example of the art of compiling and a lot of fun to solve. So many thanks to our setter. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Give me another one soon! How did you get on with it?
Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Author of saucy verse, perhaps, about European villain (9) |
| BLUEBEARD – BLUE BARD [about] E. My last one in. It took me ages to realise that ‘Author’ was not the definition. Doh. | |
| 6 | Complain to Chairman: about time for something to eat! (4,6) |
| BEEF TOMATO – BEEF (Complain) TO + Chairman MAO [about] T. I liked the surface, having endured many meetings that have overrun into lunchtime. MAO for “Chairman” was pretty neat too. | |
| 12 | Crowds are in sound: pleasure boat in sight (7) |
| CRUISER – Sounds like CREWS (Crowds) ARE… in sight referring to what you see on the page… or web page in this case. | |
| 13 | Substandard pro after pardon (6,3) |
| EXCUSE FOR – EXCUSE (pardon) + FOR (pro). If you think what I write here is rubbish, you might consider it a poor excuse for a blog. | |
| 14 | Female returning in Bohemian role (5) |
| LORNA – Backward hidden in {Bohemi}AN ROL{e}. A reference to the renowned bohemian beauty Lorna Cecilia Garman Wishart, perhaps? | |
| 16 | S African hill walker on a motorway’s a reckless driver (5,7) |
| AMBER GAMBLER – This one took me back to my childhood when I lived in South Africa for 4 years. A memorable holiday was to the spectacular Drakensberg Mountains where we did some great {r}ambling. So here we have the South African hill walker who is a BERG AMBLER. Put A M (motorway) on front to get the memorable phrase from an inspired public safety campaign. Anyone else remember the Amber Gambler twins? | |
| 17 | Overcome eg with love, due for breakdown (10) |
| OUTWEIGHED – (eg with O due)* [breakdown]. The inventive anagrind makes the surface work neatly. | |
| 19 | Words implying stiff resistance? (4,2,4,4) |
| OVER MY DEAD BODY – Nice cryptic definition.Well it made me laugh, at least. | |
| 22 | The physicist’s bible: a good read at first, surprisingly (8) |
| AVOGADRO – AV (Authorised Version of the bible) + (a good r)*{ead}. How many people can claim to have a number named after them? In the case of our physicist it is Avogadro’s constant, 6.02214076×1023 mol−1 . I am a mole and I live in a hole . | |
| 24 | Stands when wearing slippers? (6) |
| EASELS – AS (when) with EELS outside. Slippers. Ho ho. Very slippery. | |
| 25 | Missionary school has nothing cut after we appeal (10) |
| SCHWEITZER – SCH (school) + WE + IT (sex appeal) + ZER{o} [after], giving us Albert, the French-German theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician… and missionary. | |
| 26 | A month of this and strain oddly showing (5) |
| TISRI – Alternate letters of T{h}I{s} and S{t}R{a}I{n}. A new word on me, having to trust the wordplay. Checking it out post-solve, I see it is “The seventh month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, answering to a part of September with a part of October.”. | |
| 29 | Boy can pinch or scratch (4) |
| NICK – Concise triple definition. Lovely! [Edit: As Kevin pointed out below, in American English it is a quadrupal definition!] | |
| 30 | A tango with dame concealing unusual tattoo (8) |
| DRUMBEAT – D (dame) + BEAT (tango) with RUM (unusual) inside. Here‘s how to do a tango with a dame! | |
| 32 | Echo got in unusual style of building (9) |
| NEOGOTHIC – (Echo got in)* [unusual]. Like St. Pancras station, for example. Two “unusual” clues in a row. | |
| 34 | Protection once linked with Bond, James, perhaps, reportedly (5,4) |
| CHAIN MAIL – CHAIN (Bond) + MAIL (sounds like male), of which James is an example. Some spylike subterfuge here to misdirect us from the real definition. When I first read this clue I thought “What the heck is going on here?”. One thing I twigged, though, is that it had nothing to do with James Bond! …and an inkling that there might be further sneaky definitions to come. | |
| 35 | Getting on with Labour, initially wrapped in red flag (3,5) |
| OLD GLORY – OLD (Getting on) + L{abour} [initially] inside GORY (red). Another tricksy definition, being not a “red flag”, but just a “flag” – red being juicily realised as GORY. | |
| 36 | Weakling from Caribbean: one sitting in house (4) |
| WIMP – WI (West Indies) + MP (one sitting in the house of commons). No. I will resist the temptation to comment on any of the current incumbents. | |
| 39 | Supplier of wood and new driver, superior (5) |
| LARCH – L (learner, or new driver) + ARCH (superior). The No. 1 tree. And No. 3 for that matter. But can you recognise it, unlike Eric and Michael? Bottom! | |
| 40 | Short scalable key adjusted in ways that are not obvious? (4-6) |
| BACK-ALLEYS – (scalabl{e} key)* [adjusted]. Another sneaky definition that took me some time to spot. Not obvious, indeed! | |
| 42 | Shameless meditation on underwear (6) |
| BRAZEN – BRA (underwear) + ZEN (meditation). All of a sudden we get a clue that has dropped in from QC-land. Not that I’m complaining – it was a bit of a relief after some the trickery before it. | |
| 44 | A red shroud contains piece mended at last (8) |
| BURGUNDY – BURY (shroud) with GUN (piece) + {mende}D inside. I think I’m starting to see our devious compiler’s game plan here. When you see a noun phrase like “red shroud”, don’t read it that way. This one had me scratching my head for a while. BURY for shroud seems a bit of a stretch, but BURGUNDY for “A red” works for both the colour and the wine. Cheers! | |
| 46 | I’m into sport on common land that’s had its day (6,8) |
| WEIMAR REPUBLIC – I’M inside WEAR (sport) + RE (on) PUBLIC (common). Another sneaky one. Not “common land”, of course. See what I mean? | |
| 48 | Fan mail sorted, prepare for work (6,4) |
| ANIMAL FARM – (FAN MAIL)* + ARM (prepare). Work as in the famous book by George Orwell, erstwhile inhabitant of my adopted home county. There is a marvellous graffiti mural of him by the pier in the charming seaside town of Southwold – a favourite day trip of the johninterred household. | |
| 49 | “Conchie” article heralds great suffering (7,5) |
| TRUMPET SHELL – TRUMPETS (heralds) + HELL (great suffering). Another neat potentially misleading definition. | |
| 53 | Water that flows close to port and dock? (5) |
| TWEED – The river. {port}T + WEED (dock). I took a while to be disabused of the idea that this was TIDES or TIDAL, but it is, of course, the border between Northen England and the Scottish Lowlands – a lovely part of the country, in my view. Nice misdirection with “dock” for WEED. | |
| 54 | Be accepting Latin who enters one’s church (9) |
| ACQUIESCE – QUI (Latin who) inside ACE’S (one’s) CE (Church of England). | |
| 55 | Commuter belt that Tournai-Bruxelles returns across (7) |
| EXURBIA – Reverse hidden {Tourn}AI BRUXE{lles}. And a rail journey of 59 minutes that costs €13.30, apparently. Yes. It’s not made up! Doff of the cap to our setter. | |
| 56 | Engineer rung by female, number getting cut off (10) |
| STEPHENSON – STEP + HEN + SON{g}. No telephone call involved here. Another smile raised when the penny dropped. Um. I’ve not used a phone box for many years (are there any left?), but I very much doubt they take pennies any more. | |
| 57 | What finally happened at St Andrews, say, is ill-defined (4-5) |
| OPEN-ENDED – Double definition, first cryptic. And a good walk spoiled, according to Mark Twain.. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Puff of black cloud’s above (5) |
| BLURB – BLUR (cloud) [above] B (black). “What a fantastic blog. The author should surely be in line for the Nobel Prize for Literature.” Or maybe not. Is that puffy enough for you? | |
| 2 | Order large cream buns for break (10) |
| UNSCRAMBLE – [Order] (L cream buns)* to get break, as in break the code. Cryptography is big business these days. | |
| 3 | Pole turning up organised party for philanthropist (8) |
| BARNARDO – BAR + RAN (organised) [turning up] + DO. The founder of the eponymous charity. And his legacy lives on. | |
| 4 | Cutting a single diamond, maybe, and odd bits of ruby (5) |
| ACERB – ACE (of diamonds) + R{u}B{y} gives us bitter and sour. I never knew you could spell this without an -IC on the end. | |
| 5 | Attire for male, but not a steady boyfriend, we hear? (6,3) |
| DICKEY BOW – Sounds like Dicky Beau. Not something I wear often. But I don’t get invited to the sort of events that require it. | |
| 6 | The number 25, maybe, full of passengers? (4) |
| BUSY – Easy to biff, but a bit tricky, this one and well worth working out. The number 25 could be a BUS.. and letter number 25 in the alphabet is Y If the bus is full of passengers it is certainly this. What a great clue! | |
| 7 | Loud complaint stops old partner running out (6) |
| EFFLUX – F (loud) + FLU (complaint) in EX Apparently “Active efflux is a mechanism responsible for moving compounds, like neurotransmitters, toxic substances, and antibiotics, out of the cell; this is considered to be a vital part of xenobiotic metabolism. This mechanism is important in medicine as it can contribute to bacterial antibiotic resistance“…. and not stopping the aforementioned complaint. | |
| 8 | Blanket covering plank in ditch (5,9) |
| THROW OVERBOARD – THROW + OVER + BOARD. The surface conjures a slightly bizarre image. At this time of year, of course, it could be a blanket of snow, but not here – we’re at sea, not on land. | |
| 9 | Item in parlour that drawer sits on (7,5) |
| MILKING STOOL – Cryptic definition. Parlour as in milking parlour. This one had me scratching my head for a while thinking of the struggling artist. By half way through the downs I should know better given what has come before! | |
| 10 | Fellow pinching gold chain gets fired (7) |
| TORCHED – TED including OR (gold) + CH (chain). I think that’s a bit harsh. Shouldn’t he just get sacked? Another entertaining surface! | |
| 11 | Latin read on a cue needs translation (10) |
| ECUADOREAN – (read on a cue)* [needs translation]…. but not for solvers of the O Tempora! | |
| 15 | Recording of cricket match’s commentary’s beginning following brief check (5,4) |
| AUDIO DISC – The brief check is the AUDI{t} and you add ODI’S (One Day International’S)+ C{ommentary’s} to get the obsolescent medium in this world of streaming from the interweb or mobile devices. | |
| 18 | Confessed to having a hand in deed, half-heartedly (8) |
| ADMITTED – A + MITT (hand) in DE{e}D [half-heartedly]. I confess I have no more to say on this clue. | |
| 20 | Place to park behind president, after a walk in the park (4,5) |
| EASY CHAIR – What a lovely oblique definition! EASY (a walk in the park) + CHAIR (president). Ha ha! Eclipsed only by 6d as my COD. | |
| 21 | Place falsely associated with comic’s sidekick? (10) |
| ACCOMPLICE – (Place + comic)* [falsely associated with]… possibly the longest anagrind I’ve seen. | |
| 23 | Visiting Australia the queen, I bet, gets high-level protection (5,5) |
| OZONE LAYER – OZ + ONE (I)+ LAY (bet) + ER. I bet she does. But is there not a hole in it, or at least a thinning of it over Australia? Slip, slop, slap, as they say. | |
| 27 | Zilch sent to cook for meat dish (9) |
| SCHNITZEL – (Zilch sent)* [to cook]. Most famously Viennese, there are variants of this the world over. | |
| 28 | Get free board with a fantastically impressive Herts retirement place (5,3,2,4) |
| GREAT BED OF WARE – (Get free board w a)* [fantastically]. And fantastically the name of a treasure now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Read all about it here! | |
| 31 | Green mark made by harmful bacteria almost killed brother (3-5) |
| ECO-LABEL – E COL{i} (harmful bacteria – almost) + ABEL (killed brother)… the first fratricide. Hmm. A somewhat opaque surface. | |
| 33 | May, perhaps, leaderless EU slam Brexit-supporting party in the ascendant? (2,3,2,3,2) |
| ON THE UP AND UP – The leaderless May is {m}ONTH + EU + PAN + DUP. Very clever, but another slightly clunky surface. | |
| 34 | Tirade from star priest (9) |
| CELEBRANT – CELEB (star) + RANT (Tirade). | |
| 37 | What betrays unfaithful husband? That’s traditionally for women to do (4-6) |
| PINK-COLLAR – We’ve had this phrase as answer elsewhere recently… and more than once, I think, so this didn’t hold me up. Double definition, first cryptic.. | |
| 38 | Force used to smash racket? (5,5) |
| FRAUD SQUAD – Cryptic definition. You cannot be serious? | |
| 41 | Red meat and game — and son taking care of wine (9) |
| LAMBRUSCO – LAMB (Red meat) + RU (game) + S + CO. Not a favourite tipple of mine. | |
| 43 | Swiss rugby team, say, upset English (8) |
| GENEVESE – The rugby team is SEVEN + EG all going upwards + E (English). Now Switzerland beating England at Rugby… that would be something! (says the scottish born blogger). | |
| 45 | Clothing no longer right for fine people to wear (7) |
| RAIMENT – AI (fine) + MEN (people) in RT (right). “Archaic”, says the dictionary. Indeed. “What a marvellous raiment!” as an attempted compliment might get you a funny look. | |
| 47 | A Quebec flag encapsulates a country’s people (6) |
| IRAQIS – A Q (Quebec) inside IRIS (flag). No. A Q is not always followed by a U. | |
| 50 | Nonsense from Monsieur you repeated (2,3) |
| MY EYE – M (Monsieur) + YE + YE. You repeated indeed. What a load of rubbish! | |
| 51 | War correspondent’s medal received by his boss? (5) |
| EMBED – MBE in ED. Well the wordplay is clear, but the definition was a new one on me. It is indeed a noun… “a journalist who is attached to a military unit during a conflict.“ | |
| 52 | National following superior to local (4) |
| FINN – F (following) on top of (superior to) INN, giving a native of the land of Sibelius….. and paper pulp factories like Sunilan Osakeyhtiö where I had a summer job once. | |
Edited at 2018-02-17 06:25 am (UTC)
Edited at 2018-02-17 07:43 am (UTC)
Actually, “scientist” was a 19th-century coinage, by Whewell; Avogadro would perhaps have called himself a natural philosopher, which was the term “scientist” replaced in English.
Ong’ara,
Nairobi.
Ong’ara,
Kenya.
Feeling good about my skill level, I went on and did last week’s Mephisto, so now I am puzzled out.