I’m having more interaction with Tees than I am with my own children these days. Once again one of his puzzles arrives on my watch, which is no great hardship for me – I always enjoy solving and blogging his offerings.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Initially dislodged, small girl back on bed below?
ABYSSAL
A charade of [B]ABY and LASS reversed, giving you an adjective that describes, for example, the sea ‘bed’.
5 Long cushion provides help
BOLSTER
A dd. The two meanings, as a noun and a verb, are clearly related, since that’s what a BOLSTER does – provides support for other cushions, or pillows.
9 Odds of criminal receiving fifty lashes?
CILIA
An insertion of L for the Roman numeral in CIIA, which are the odd letters of CrImInAl. Great surface. CILIA (plural of cilium) are small, hairlike projections from cells that can rhythmically beat to produce a current; but cilium is also the technical medical word for ‘eyelash’. French speakers would recognise it: the word in their language for ‘eyelash’ is le cil.
10 Stop boss being an idiot
BLOCKHEAD
A charade of BLOCK and HEAD, as well as the late, great Ian Dury’s band. We could do with their Reasons to be Cheerful right now.
11 Publicity material has right look reportedly
PROPAGANDA
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of PROPER GANDER, the latter half coming from ‘take a gander’ for ‘have a look’. Its origin is the word for the male goose, gander, who is always using his long neck to look around. Why the male bird got the gig, I don’t know. Perhaps ‘goose’ for pinching someone’s arse had already been taken.
12 Starts with the straight approach — right for tyrant
TSAR
The initial letters of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth words of the clue.
14 Noble creature with pride beheaded after moving protest
MARCHIONESS
A charade of MARCH for ‘moving protest’ and [L]IONESS. Gender balance restored.
18 Spirit behind someone else’s work?
GHOST WRITER
A cd.
21 Wife to independent politician being spineless sort
WIMP
A charade of W, I and MP.
22 Loud Welshwoman entertains singer keeping time
STENTORIAN
An insertion of T in TENOR, all inserted into SIAN, the archetypal Welsh female name beloved of setters. The two insertion indicators are ‘entertains’ and ‘keeping’. I think that strictly, it’s written Siân, but perhaps some Welsh speaker can confirm.
25 Canoeing recklessly across river shows unawareness
IGNORANCE
An insertion of R in (CANOEING)*
26 Public rights guardian bans one Parisian race
TRIBE
TRIB[UN]E
27 Complex woman drops ecstasy into claret when sloshed
ELECTRA
An insertion (‘drops into’) of E in (CLARET)* The ELECTRA COMPLEX is a Freudian/Jungian concept, equivalent to the male Oedipus Complex. Named after the Greek mythological figure, who plotted matricide. You are never short of a classical reference with this setter.
28 Whilst travelling north, hiding amongst Europeans
EN ROUTE
An insertion of N and ROUT in two Es. ‘Sunderland’s 6-0 victory over Southampton could be considered a hiding/rout.’
Down
1 Acknowledge Charlie seen in fantastic part
ACCEPT
An insertion of C for the phonetic alphabet ‘Charlie’ in ACE, followed by PT.
2 50 housed in the old squat finding chicken
YELLOW
An insertion of L for the Roman numeral 50 in YE and LOW. YE is an Early Modern English word for ‘the’, hence ‘the old’. Except it’s not, but I’ve explained that lots of times before, and it keeps owners of Ye Olde Tea Shoppe happy to think it is.
3 One growing up as prison child
STALAGMITE
A charade of STALAG and MITE.
4 What was tender of Italians welcoming British stars?
LIBRA
An insertion of B in the old Italian currency, the LIRA, gives you the constellation.
5 Dashing young men very attractive in red
BLOODSHOT
A charade of BLOODS and HOT.
6 Gospeller to one side has small guitar
LUKE
A charade of L for left or ‘one side’ and UKE, the short form of UKULELE, which could be described as a ‘small guitar’. Cue ukulele fanatics telling me it’s no such thing.
7 Female coming in hates crappy cricket series
THE ASHES
An insertion of SHE in (HATES)* gives you one of the oldest rivalries in sport. The anagrind is ‘crappy’, not an adjective that could be used to describe the current England team, who on their day are seriously good.
8 Communist not best pleased in humanitarian group
RED CROSS
A charade of RED and CROSS.
13 Following the mail we get on turning bed
FOUR-POSTER
A charade of F for ‘following’, OUR POST for ‘the mail we get’ and ER for RE or ‘on’ reversed (‘turning’).
15 Game girl brought up in a mythical land
RURITANIA
A charade of RU for Rugby Union, or ‘game’, RITA, IN reversed (‘brought up’, since it’s a down clue) and A. The term was originally coined in novels by Anthony Hope, but is nowadays used more generically.
16 Meringue ingredient for example affected weight
EGG WHITE
A charade of EG and (WEIGHT)* Don’t whatever you do overbeat them. Stiff peaks and still glossy.
17 People with key arrive outside to open
COMMENCE
An insertion of MEN and the musical key C in COME.
19 One needing rest in Greek character’s location
MILIEU
An insertion of I and LIE in its verbal sense in the Greek letter MU.
20 Something added is a letter dictated
ANNEXE
A homophone (‘dictated’) of AN X.
23 Relative close to collapse in pleasant surroundings
NIECE
An insertion of E for the last letter of ‘collapse’ in NICE.
24 Old-fashioned loyalty not hard for left-winger
TROT
TROT[H]. By ‘old-fashioned’, Tees is indicating the word is archaic. You only hear ‘troth’ these days in traditional folk songs or during some wedding ceremonies, where it is plighted. It’s a middle English variant of ‘truth’ and of course you hear it more often as an indication of a future wedding, when someone admits to being ‘betrothed’.
Thanks as always to Tees for the entertainment.
Always enjoy the humour in a Pierre blog. Lots of laughs again today.
Thought the clue for cilia was superb. I believe the word “supercilious” comes from “looking down upon”.
I have also commented on the ‘thorny’ issue of 2d before.
I remember an old Paul crossword where I noted that the letter B can stand cryptically for both “blockhead” and ‘knob-end’ which I thought was funny.
Thanks to Tees and Pierre.
By the way, if anybody is interested and doesn’t already know, it is now possible to download yesterday’s FT crossword without a subscription (but not the usual pdf it seems).
Oh dear, I failed on 19D: stupidly didn’t see Milieu and in desperation entered unparsed Titipu (fictional G&S location) after rejecting Mikipu (1 kip in mu) as non-existent. At 13D, ‘our post’ for ‘the mail we get’ was brilliant. Thanks Tees and Pierre.
That’s interesting about ‘supercilious’, Hovis – thank you. And it’s another join-the-dots moment (for me, anyway). It is derived (I learned after following up your comment) from the Latin for ‘eyebrow’, supercilium. On discovering such news, if you were French you might hausser les sourcils …
Sadly, ‘eyelid’ doesn’t follow the pattern in French (but why would it, since it’s not made of hairs).
I do like a Tees/Pierre Sunday combo
Another enjoyable crossword – so thank you Tees for the fun and Pierre for the blog
Thanks Pierre for the amusing blog – almost as much fun as solving the puzzle. Thanks also to Hovis for your comments about clueing the letter B. It raised a smile from both of us.
Thanks also to Tees.
What crypticsue and BandJ said. Thanks all.
Excellent puzzle and blog. PROPOGANDA and BLOODSHOT were my favourites. Parsing of -ER from ON in 13d is a new one for me, one I’ll try to remember.
Sian is indeed, properly, Siân.
‘Sunderland’s 6-0 victory over Southampton could be considered a hiding/rout.’
I think these days it would be considered a miracle. Or interference from betting syndicates.
What crypticsue, B&J and Eileen said. Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
PROPAGANDA apropos my previous error
You can diss my blog, El Gwero, but I’ll thank you in advance for not dissing my team. A man can dream.
S under land. Glorious Southampton though.
Thanks Pierre, thanks all!
Tees