Seeing Pasquale’s name is a guarantee of soundly-constructed and witty clues, and this was no exception. Although there were a few slight obscurities it yielded eventually, with the NW corner being the most toublesome.
I look forward to meeting some fellow bloggers and readers later today at the Sloggers and Betters gathering.
Key:
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
* = anagram
< = reverse
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | GNOSIS | “No sis” | ||||||
| 5. | WASHBOWL | ASH in W + BOWL (=roll) | ||||||
| 9. | CALAMARI | (I RAM A LAC)< Lac is “a dark-red transparent resin used in making shellac” | ||||||
| 10. | EXACTS | EX (former) ACTS | ||||||
| 11. | IRONING BOARD | cd – this could easily have been a Rufus clue | ||||||
| 13. | FAIN | “Feign” | ||||||
| 14. | GALOSHES | A L in GO + SHE’S | ||||||
| 17. | LIBRETTO | I in BLOTTER* | ||||||
| 18. | ICES | Alternate letters of InCrEaSe. To ICE someone is gangster talk for killing them. | ||||||
| 20. | SHOCKING PINK | KINGPIN in S HOCK | ||||||
| 23. | SLAP-UP | LAP in SUP(per) | ||||||
| 24. | DE LA MARE | MALE< in DARE. Walter de la Mare was an English poet and novelist. | ||||||
| 25. | CELLARET | EL in CLARET | ||||||
| 26. | TYPIST | “Thai pissed” – I don’t suppose there are many office workers left whose job title is “typist”. | ||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 2. | NAAN | AA (“service coming to the rescue”) in NN (“middle of dinner”) | ||||||
| 3. | STATIONER | STATION + ER | ||||||
| 4. | STAY ON | TAY in SON | ||||||
| 5. | WAITING FOR GODOT | (TWO ADRIFT GOGO IN). A brilliantly appropriate anagram: the two characters waiting for Godot are Vladimir (“Didi”) and Estragon (“Gogo”). | ||||||
| 6. | SVENGALI | SVEN (Sven-Göran Eriksson -“old coach”) + GAL + I | ||||||
| 8. | WATER LEVEL | cd – though having higher banks doesn’t necessarily mean the water level is higher, surely? | ||||||
| 12. | DANISH BLUE | (DUBLIN HAS) + E | ||||||
| 15. | STICK ‘EM UP | One of those “reverse cryptic” clues: if you stick EM up you get ME | ||||||
| 16. | STRIPPER | S + TRIPPER | ||||||
| 19. | MILLET | dd – a type of grass and an artist famous for paintings of peasants. | ||||||
| 21. | COPAL | P in COAL – the second obscure type of resin in this puzzle. | ||||||
| 22. | ARES | (h)ARES. Zeus had lots of sons and daughters, I seem to recall. This one is the god of war, or of “bloodlust, or slaughter personified”. Nice. | ||||||
Thanks for the blog, Andrew. As you say, entertaining as always, with some excellent clues. I enjoyed it a lot.
[I spent a minute or two trying, unsuccessfully, to think of a three-letter word for ‘peasants’ to put inside ‘pot’ for 19dn.]
Have fun this evening, everyone!
A pleasure. Challenging but fair.
Only one quibble – Sven’s not that “old”; and he’s still a coach as far as I know, although currently unemployed I believe.
Eileen, I tried the same thing with peasants, but using RAT outside.
Gnosis was the first answer I put in – it seemed such a Pasqualesque word. (Then again, we do also have ‘pissed’, if only as a homonym!).
Look forward to seeing you tonight Andrew, and any others who can make it.
Many thanks for appreciative comments. This puzzle was set when Sven was still the England coach, so a hasty edit was needed at proof stage, and ‘old’ can mean ‘former’ as well as ‘aged’.
Blimey, that means nearly three years between setting and publication!
My point was that he’s an old England coach, but he probably believes he’s still a current (unemployed)coach.
Yes, of course, I understand, but clues have to be short! The puzzle was indeed set in 2006 — just got lost in the pile, I guess!
Or maybe held over until there was a West End production of 5down to make it topical!
Thanks for the blog. This was lots of fun, tho GNOSIS caught me out. It’s lovely to have comments from a setter, too!
Beat me, but then nothing unusual there 🙁
But 5? Where does the first W come from please?
Dunno what this bash is some of you are going to, but enjoy. I’ll be getting my weekly ear bashing at a jam session.
Derek, in 5A the W is from With.
Ta for reply.
It is? Is this another arbitrary abreviation then?
W = with is pretty standard in crossword-land. Derek, you may not want to hear this, it’s (probably) in Chambers…
For the “bash” see under “Announcements”.
I think for 8D it doesn’t necessarily imply that the banks are higher, just that they have “more in”, therfore making the waterway narrower, and as a consequence the water level higher.
All the same, thanks for the great blog.
Andrew, hmm! The only time I can think of that I would use it would be in WRT. But I don’t go around using R and T as though they are standalone abbreviations. I was always taught that using the initial letters of a phrase is not (necessarily) the same as saying those letters can be separately used as abbreviations.
You could have said the OED, so is saying Chambers an invite for scrap then? LOL.
I had “shooting star” for 20a, which seemed to fit quite well (except for the “joint”), until the bottom right didn’t seem to be going well, as a consequence.
Enjoyed most of the rest of it.
Derek – I’ve not infrequently seen ‘with’ abbreviated to ‘w/’, particularly in Americanese. Pretty sure I’ve seen it before in crosswords too.
Was defeated by 3d and 13a. I particulary liked SVEN for ‘old coach’ – had me thinking of STAGE at first. I don’t suppose he would like the description, but who cares ?
And 26a certainly made me chuckle, even if typists are an endangered species.
I enjoyed this although didn’t complete the NW corner, got confused with the wordplay at 9ac, confidently entering “pastrami” for “calamari” !!
Favourite clue for me was “stick em up”
Thanks, Andrew. My NW corner was fine; it was the SW corner that was my downfall – I missed 20ac and 23ac, and only got 12d after using the cheat function for 20ac.
Mick, I had GNOSIS in first as well. And Mark, I too was thinking of “pastrami” for far too long!
5d was my favorite clue. There’s a new production of “Godot” in New York right now, which might have made solving it a little easier for me. (I don’t live in New York, but I read the New York Times…)
Hi, I enjoyed this puzzle, 5d and 15d were inspired – though not too sure about 8d’s “more in the bank”.
By the way, according to the online version, the puzzle was no. 24,705, not 24,704 – might be worth checking.
Well spotted, Judge – I’ve corrected the number.
Derek and Andrew: Chambers does indeed give ‘w’ as an abbreviation for ‘with’. So does Collins.
Pasquale:
Loved 5D, particularly as it’s a variation on one of mine from a while ago:
Two, adrift, going on about absence of unknown figure! (7,3,5)
TWOADRIFTGOINGO(N)* – lose the last ‘n’ as it’s shorthand for ‘unknown figure’ and it’s absent.
By the way, when did they stop using a ! for &lits?