A (mostly) straightforward crossword today, with only one clue (14 across ) that I’m not happy about. Enjoyable, good fun and no obscure words or archaic definitions, which is nice.
There have been so many themed crosswords recently that it comes as something of a relief to blog a plain simple crossword. The ‘special instructions’ turned out not to be instructions at all but a simple statement that the letters ‘FT’ appear four times in the grid, twice in the middle row and twice in the middle column, though this did have me wasting some time looking for something more complex.
Hold mouse over clue number to see clue, click solution for definition.
| Across | ||
| 1 | NOTICED | the cake is ‘not iced’ – definition ‘marked’ |
| 5 | BEDEWED | EWE Died underneath BED (the sack) |
| 9 | BARBER OF SEVILLE | Cryptic definition |
| 10 | INAMORATA | (TO MARIAN A)* |
| 11 | REINS | RINSE with the letter E (energy) moved up a few places (promoted) – a Hackney is a horse-drawn cab, so controlled by reins. |
| 12 | KNOSSOS | KNOwS (recognises) without the W (wife) and SOS |
| 14 | SWINGER | SINGER around With – |
| 15 | PITFALL | IT (she’s got ‘it’ – sex appeal) Female inside PALL (funeral cloth) |
| 17 | SHYLOCK | SHY (retiring) and LOCK (to engage) – sounds like ‘famous loaner’ – Shylock is a money lender in The Merchant of Venice |
| 19 | U BEND | B (note of the scale) inside gUnpowder (second) END (plot, as in ‘means to an end’). Another parsing is N (note) inside gUnpowder (second) BED (plot, flower bed), thanks to Gaufrid for this altenative, and to my mind more natrual parsing. |
| 20 | OFFICE BOY | OFF (out of supply) ICE (cocaine, drug) and YOB reversed |
| 22 | PIPPED AT THE POST | PIP (star, button on military uniform) and (THATS OPTED)* after PE (training, physical excercise) |
| 23 | DISUSED | DIED (late) around SUS (suspect) |
| 24 | PRESS ON | opPRESS ONly (central characters of) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | NIBLICK | NIB (writer) and LICK (thrashing) – I’m not convinced the tenses match for ‘lick’ and ‘thrashing’ |
| 2 | TARZAN OF THE APES | (TAPES OF NAZARETH)* |
| 3 | CREDO | RED (socialist) inside CO (company) |
| 4 | DOODAHS | DO and SHADOw (endless gloom) reversed |
| 5 | BUS PASS | SUB (loan) reversed and PASS (decline to answer) |
| 6 | DIVERSIFY | DIVERS IFfY (not sure) missing F (half ‘of’) |
| 7 | WELLINGTON BOOTS | beef WELLINGTON and BOOTS (gives advantage to) |
| 8 | DRESSER | Double definition |
| 13 | ST ANDREWS | STAN (chap) DREW (pulled back) on Southern – golf course |
| 15 | PLUMPED | Double definition |
| 16 | LEOPARD | Cryptic definition – a leopard cannot change his spots |
| 17 | SOFT TOP | SOFT (plastic) and POT (container) reversed – reference to an open-top car |
| 18 | KRYPTON | Fictional planet and ex-home of Superman (Clark Kent). Superman flew (escaped) from Krypton just before its destruction. |
| 21 | CREWE | CREW (boasted) over English – town in Cheshire, UK. |
*anagram
Hi PeeDee
You seem to have a slight problem with 8dn (no solution).
Regarding 14ac, ‘the other’ is a euphemism for sex and a SWINGER is ‘one after the other’, or as Chambers puts it “a person engaging freely in sexual activity, usu in groups (informal)”.
I had a different parsing for 19ac: N (note) in [g]U[npowder] BED (plot).
Thanks PeeDee
Swingers are people who have sex with multiple partners, so are “after the other”. I thought it was quite a funny clue.
It was a a Monk puzzle a couple of weeks ago that had the letters FT in every across answer, so this one’s “theme” was a bit tame in comparison. Remembering the previous one also made the hint a bit of a giveaway for me.
I agree with Gaufrid about U-BEND, and with PeeDee about the dubiousness of LICK=THRASHING – surely it would have to be “licking”.
Thanks to Gaufrid and Andrew, the blog has been updated.
Profuse apologies for the error at 1dn. The first iteration of this puzzle grid had NIBLICKS, clued as Writer covering thrashing by clubs (7), in which Chambers has the plural licks, n. = a thrashing. When changing the grid to the final version, NIBLICKS became NIBLICK and I simply pulled the above clue from the database, changed clubs to club, and carelessly assumed that I had a sound clue. [PeeDee: I hadn’t seen the “special instructions” before today, so presume that the puzzle was deemed to be a little too hard for less-expert solvers, who would benefit from the hint.]