Hello all! I found this on the easy side of middle-of-the-road – mostly pretty straightforward, but with one or two tasty nuggets. I liked the 21-letter anagram at 13a and the novel anagrind at 15a that led to an entertaining surface, for example, and last, but not least, the neat wordplay at 49d. All done quickly enough not to need a loo break despite the volume of coffee consumed. Thanks to our setter for a bit less than 1/2 hour’s entertainment solving.. and rather more writing the blog. How did you like it?
Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bits of pencil you could pick up for artist (6) |
| STUBBS – Sounds like [you could pick up] STUBS (bits of pencil). George Stubbs was an 18th century artist known most for his horse paintings. Not my cup of coffee, I’m afraid. | |
| 5 | Ornate ship going round eastern tip of Gozo (7) |
| BAROQUE – The ship is a BARQUE. Put it around {Goz}O. Staying in the 18th century and before, “The Baroque is a highly ornate and often extravagant style of architecture, art and music that flourished in Europe from the early 17th until the late 18th century.” Some of my favourite music comes from this period. Ah, Bach! | |
| 9 | Grant aid — about time for supporting female (8) |
| CARYATID – Here the screen idol CARY (Grant) gives AID about T. This may be a bit less familiar, but it has come up in another cryptic recently, I think. Now we are going back even further in history to a feature of classical Greek architecture. | |
| 13 | Very nervous of Californian heat, took to swimming (4,1,3,2,1,3,3,4) |
| LIKE A CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF – (Californian heat took to)* [swimming]. A 21 letter anagram(!) and a play by Tennessee Williams. | |
| 14 | Local girl narrowly avoided accident (4,4) |
| NEAR MISS – NEAR (local) + MISS (girl). And now, suddenly, we arrive in QC land. | |
| 15 | Brahms and Liszt interact, lacking a stringed instrument (7) |
| CITTERN – Now here’s a noivel anagrind! [Brahms and Liszt] = p****d (Interct)* (INTERACT missing A), giving us another historical reference to a mediaeval precursor to the mandolin or guitar. | |
| 16 | Crack soldiers penetrating walls of Cretan city (6) |
| CRANNY – Our soldiers here are the gunners (RA). Put them in C{reta}N [walls of] + NY (city). After all this historical stuff, you might have been, like me, thinking of labyrinths and minotaurs here, but you (like I was) would have been wrong. | |
| 17 | No sailor, dismissing starters of tasteless whale fat (10) |
| LANDLUBBER – {b}LAND + {b}LUBBER [dismissing starters]. I liked this one. Sounds like the Chief Cook needs replacing. | |
| 20 | Leisure and work in Brazilian capital? (12) |
| RECREATIONAL – CREATION (work) in REAL (Brazilian currency). A bit of a leisurely clue. | |
| 23 | Came across Zulu in French city (4) |
| METZ – MET + Z. “Metz is a city in France’s northeastern Grand Est region, with gardens and leafy promenades along the Moselle and Seille rivers. In the old town, the Gothic Metz Cathedral is famed for its massive amount of stained glass windows, many by noted artists.” Until I looked it up I didn’t know where in France it is. I don’t think I’ve been there. | |
| 24 | Perhaps saw last of wealth and money in recession? (4,4) |
| HAND TOOL – {wealt}H + AND + LOOT (money) backwards [in recession]. Nicely deceptive definition. | |
| 26 | One offering to be less tough (8) |
| TENDERER – Double Definition. A bit of a softer one. | |
| 29 | Engaging Saul to develop digital communication method (4,8) |
| SIGN LANGUAGE – (Engaging Saul)* [to develop]. Digital, as in using your fingers. Ha, ha. | |
| 30 | Blunt’s traitors recalled head of KGB, impressed by fame (4-6) |
| STAR-STRUCK – CURT’S (Blunt’s) + RATS (traitors) reversed + K{gb}. | |
| 32 | More obvious career for cobblers (10) |
| BALDERDASH – BALDER (more obvious) + DASH to get a load of boloney. | |
| 34 | Vocal supporters of Chelsea erred badly (12) |
| CHEERLEADERS – (Chelsea erred)*. Do Chelsea have cheerleaders? I wouldn’t know. | |
| 36 | Thug, Chinese, going around loves free party (8) |
| HOOLIGAN – HAN (Chinese) around OO (loves) + LIG (party). The LIG bit was new on me. Apparently it is a sort of party where the drinks are free. | |
| 38 | Patrilineage of extremely annoying people (8) |
| AGNATION – A{nnoyin}G + NATION. Another new word on me. | |
| 39 | Brad shelled molluscs (4) |
| NAIL – The molluscs are {s}NAIL{s} shelled to get a sort of nail with a handle. | |
| 41 | VIP ran to exchange starters with shellfish for famed kipper (3,3,6) |
| RIP VAN WINKLE – Swap the starts of VIP and RAN and add WINKLE (shellfish) to get the protagonist of an 1819 short story by Washington Irving. No I didn’t know it either. | |
| 43 | Colonisation of earth allowed humans to be preserved (10) |
| SETTLEMENT – SETT (a badger’s earth) + LET with MEN inside [preserved]. Will colonistation of Mars allow us to be preserved, I wonder? | |
| 44 | Loved song and dance and wine (6) |
| ADORED – ADO (song and dance) + RED (wine). Hello QCers. I hope you are enjoying this Jumbo. | |
| 46 | Bird in Henley wings away in style (7) |
| ENTITLE – TIT in {H}ENLE{y}. Style as in giving a name. I guess you get tits in Henley, but mostly in the marquees, perhaps? | |
| 48 | Make a saint transgress revoltingly in boat (8) |
| CANONISE – SIN backwards [revoltingly] in CANOE. | |
| 50 | One refusing to serve men after particular article (13,8) |
| CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR – CONSCIENTIOUS (particular) + OBJECT + OR (men). This was a bit of a gimme. | |
| 51 | Arsenic of highest quality, huge danger to health (8) |
| ASBESTOS – AS (Arsenic) + BEST + OS. Arsenic.. danger to health. Neat. | |
| 52 | Unusual diversity on street (7) |
| STRANGE – ST + RANGE. | |
| 53 | Dish mature Englishman carries (6) |
| TUREEN – Hidden word in {ma}TURE EN{glishman}. Not got one of those, Our soup comes straight from the pan. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Agriculturalist with last of wire netting (5) |
| TULLE – Jethro TULL + {wir}E. No, not the rock band. “Jethro Tull, (born 1674, Basildon, Berkshire, Eng.—died Feb. 21, 1741, Prosperous Farm, near Hungerford, Berkshire), English agronomist, agriculturist, writer, and inventor whose ideas helped form the basis of modern British agriculture.” Add E to get the lightweight, very fine, stiff netting. | |
| 3 | Thirteen tradesmen finally return after nap (6,5) |
| BAKERS DOZEN – BAKERS + DOZE + {retur}N. Did you bother to parse it? Simples. | |
| 4 | Scoundrel promises to pay for flower (8) |
| SCABIOUS – SCAB + IOUS. Nice wild flowers. They look like this. | |
| 5 | Supporters at first sent money (5) |
| BRASS – BRAS + S{ent}. Groan. How often do we get that female ‘supporting’ garment? FANSS would be a more novel answer, except it isn’t a word. | |
| 6 | “Discontented” reserve officer commanding dog to come back (7) |
| REOCCUR – R{eserv}E [discontented] + OC + CUR. I liked the “discontented” device, but the quotation marks rather signposted it. | |
| 7 | Interval of fifteen minutes before meeting bridge opponents (7-4) |
| QUARTER-TONE – QUARTER TO + NE. Half a semitone. Easy enough with electronic devices, I suppose, but not easy to play with conventional instruments or sing. Try this to hear a quarter tone piano composition. | |
| 8 | Put down, absent daughters act histrionically (5) |
| EMOTE – The put down is to {d}EMOTE, and you lose the daughters to express your feelings. | |
| 9 | Ringing hospital department after company function (9) |
| COTANGENT – CO + TANG + ENT. TANG for ringing is meaning 2 in Chambers. | |
| 10 | Queen Eunice losing case of old letters (5) |
| RUNIC – R (queen) + {E}unic{e}. We already have a Latin crossword on a Saturday. How a about a runic one? Maybe not. | |
| 11 | A fool filling motor after knocking back eggs and fruit (7,4) |
| AVOCADO PEAR – OVA backwards + CAR filled with A DOPE. Be careful how you cut them. Personally I’ve never had a problem, but apparently ‘avocado hand’ is an acknowledged health hazard. | |
| 12 | Fashionable follower cheers Iberian princess (7) |
| INFANTA – In + FAN + TA. Which reminds of the lovely Faure piece commemorating the death of one of these. Lovely playing by the young Crakow Philarmonic. [Edit: As Kevin pointed out, I’d got my pieces mixed up. I should have, of course, referred to the Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte. No real excuse for getting that wrong – I have the music for the piano version on the floor by may piano!]. | |
| 18 | Woman not one to go after morning coffee (9) |
| AMERICANO – ERICA + NO (not one) after AM. No as in “There are no biscuits left in the tin. Where did they all go?”… as I often say when I want a biscuit for my cheese. | |
| 19 | British swing and rap, brief hybrid musical style (7) |
| BHANGRA – B + HANG + RA{p}. Entertaining stuff. | |
| 21 | Bully scowled at sign of fear (4,5) |
| COLD SWEAT – [bully] (scowled at)*. Not something I experienced in my school days, fortunately. | |
| 22 | Metal end of dart catches wildebeest from underneath (8) |
| TUNGSTEN – {dar}T + NETS GNU upwards. Chemical symbol W from its other name Wolfram. | |
| 25 | Stiff cast hated cavorting on screen (5,4) |
| DEATH MASK – (hated)* + MASK. Kept as a memento of the dead or to create a posthumous portrait. | |
| 27 | Former copper working after repetitive strain injury and trip (9) |
| EXCURSION – EX + CU (copper) + RSI (repetitive strain injury) + ON (working). My excursion (on foot) this afternoon will be to the East Anglian Beer Festival. Anyone want to join me? | |
| 28 | Terribly arrogant cook might use this (8) |
| TARRAGON – (arrogant)*. I used some of this with my salmon for the family meal the night I started this blog in draft. Yum. | |
| 31 | Perhaps JFK left after show (7) |
| AIRPORT – AIR (show) + PORT (left). You surely must have seen this before. | |
| 33 | A despised revolutionary, basis of Christian church and salvation (11) |
| DELIVERANCE – A REVILED reversed [revolutionary] + {Christia}N [basis of] + CE. A nicely deceptive surface. | |
| 34 | One might see prom queen arrange travel in advance (11) |
| CONCERTGOER – CONCERT (arrange) + GO (travel) + ER (queen). ‘prom’ not ‘prom queen’. Didn’t fool me, though. | |
| 35 | Monitored an unstable figure below this line (11) |
| DENOMINATOR – (Monitored an)* [unstable]. Not sure why it is “this” rather than “the”. | |
| 37 | Sister oddly wound up mute (9) |
| NOISELESS – S{i}S{t}E{r} + LESION upwards. A noiseless sister. Isn’t that every brother’s dream? It was mine! | |
| 40 | Melancholy, mean man (8) |
| PLANGENT – PLAN (as in mean to) + GENT. How sad. | |
| 42 | Persuades head of compliance to wear naughty undies (7) |
| INDUCES – C{ompliance} + (undies)* [naughty]. Cheeky surface. | |
| 43 | Subdues male relative (7) |
| STEPSON – STEPS + ON. Are the clues getting easier as we head for the finishing line? | |
| 45 | Old coin initially depicting uncrowned queen? (5) |
| DUCAT – D{epicting} + U{ncrowned} + CAT (queen). A bit more tricky this one. I never knew “queen” for “cat” until I came across it in a crossword a year or so ago, and I’ve never heard it outside crosswordland before or since. | |
| 47 | Strict nurse regularly scrubbed Roman emperor (5) |
| TITUS – Alternate letters of sTrIcT nUrSe. And we are back in history again. Titus was best known for completing the Colosseum in Rome. | |
| 48 | Constant, clever guy? (5) |
| CABLE – C + ABLE to give the sort of rope. | |
| 49 | Huge wave from theatre professional, on leaving (5) |
| SURGE – SURGE{on}. Theatre professional? Ha ha! | |
It’s Irving, not Irvine, John.
ONG’ARA,
KENYA.