Well not really; rather good, as I have come to expect from Punk. At first he seemed rather difficult and unsatisfactory, but increasingly nowadays I enjoy his well-constructed crosswords.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | RHUBARB. There are three clues of this sort (1ac, 7dn, 22dn, all identical) and I don’t like them. Perhaps it’s just me, for when the other day I grumbled about a similar thing in The Times nobody came out in my support. The problem is that one can’t work out the definition and the subsidiary indication: OK ‘nonsense’ is ‘rhubarb’ and that’s the definition, but how can ‘edible’ be seen either as a second definition or as a provider of wordplay? |
| 5 | (h)OL(D)STER |
| 9 | YET IS |
| 10 | NU TRIT(I)ON. Nice definition (consuming science). |
| 11 | H(OT)AIR. The musical Hair lives on long past its sell-by date. |
| 12 | INDECENT – (dine)* cent |
| 14 | PRISMATIC – (a script I’m)* |
| 15 | OMEN – with no men you might be said to be defenceless |
| 19 | cRUDEness |
| 20 | A DU(L THO’ O(btain))D |
| 23 | COBBLERS – CD |
| 25 | FI(E)ST A |
| 27 | BO(LIVIA)NO. Had never heard of it but it was obviously something like this and I have to admit I looked it up, to find that the poverty campaigner was Bono not Bolivar. |
| 28 | STIFF – 2 mngs |
| 29 | E YEW ASH |
| 30 | HAW KEY E(ngland). Punk I know follows cricket. I wonder how many who don’t follow cricket or tennis have heard of Hawk-Eye? |
| Down | |
| 1 | R(HYTH(e))M presumably, although RM for ‘sailors’ seems wrong: the Royal Marines aren’t sailors but soldiers serving on board ship. Ref ‘I Got Rhythm‘ by Gershwin |
| 2 | UNTUTORED – (nut rude to)* |
| 3 | A BSc I’S SA – the x-co-ordinate in the Cartesian plane (maths) |
| 4 | BUNK – 2 mngs |
| 5 | O S((clarine)T)ENSIBLE |
| 6 | DRIVE L |
| 7 | TRIPE. And another thing: it seems a bit doubtful to me to have three clues that have exactly the same wording (‘Edible nonsense’), only differing in the number of letters in their answer. |
| 8 | RINGTONE – (nitrogen)*. I liked the fact that Punk didn’t use a question mark. |
| 13 | BALDER DASH |
| 16 | MOONSHINE – 2 mngs |
| 17 | C RU(n)CIBLE |
| 18 | CHAIN SAW – “Sane chore” |
| 21 | OLIVIA – (oil)* via |
| 22 | WAFFLE. And yet another thing: the best clues seem to me to give precise answers. Until one gets the checking letters, this could be any of WAFFLE, HUMBUG, GAMMON, and possibly others. |
| 24 | BIL(G)E |
| 26 | TOSH – s in (hot)rev. |
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