A bit of a mixed bag today I thought, some good clues and some that were not so good. I wondered if this was a ‘Friday Afternoon’ crossword, compiled after a good lunch with the creative juices flowing freely, but the attention to detail a little compromised? I have quite a few queries, particularly 18 ac, 23 ac and 20 dn.
Hold mouse over a clue number to see the clue, click a solution to see its definition.
| Across | ||
| 1, 5 | PRIMROSE LEAGUE | The PRIMROSE path (an easy time, the life of Riley) and LEAGUE (3 miles). How does ‘took’ fit in here? |
| 10 | ROAD MAP | Definition and cryptic definition |
| 11 | AIRPORT | AIR (music) and PORT (wine) – people wait around a lot at airports |
| 12 | CHURN | Tea URN following CHurch |
| 13 | ROCHESTER | CHE Guevara in ROSTER (roll) |
| 14 | RABBIT WARREN | RAB (Scots ‘Robert’) and WIT* inside BARREN (infertile) |
| 18 | RESPLENDENCE | RES (Royal Engineers) with L (pound) at END (last) inside PENCE (money) – RE is an abbreviation for Royal Engineers, so I don’t think it can be made plural twice, REs does not make sense. Have I missed something? |
| 21 | KICK START | KICKS (hurtful treatment) and TART (bitter) |
| 23 | ERICA | ‘is rich’ 3rd person feminine singular in Portugese would be ‘e rica‘ – a bit obscure, can anyone suggest better? |
| 24 | PROSAIC | (PARIS COmpany)* |
| 25 | Cryptic definition – social networking website | |
| 26 | DOTTED | Cryptic definition – from the Rufus mould. The letter I can have a dot on too, thanks to lenny for pointing this out. |
| 27 | SOUTHPAW | UPSHOT* and AW (expression) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PIRACY | PI (pious, reverent)and RACY (lively) |
| 2 | ICARUS | I (one, single) CAR (vehicle) US (American) – the boy who tried to fly too close to the sun |
| 3 | ROMAN WALL | ROW about MAN with ALL |
| 4 | SUPERABUNDANCE | The SUNDANCE Kid about (BEAR UP)* – the word ‘to’ is unaccounted for in this clue |
| 6 | EYRIE | I (the setter) in Jane EYRE |
| 7 | GOOD TURN | (GOT ROUND)* |
| 8 | ENTHRONE | tENTH RONEo without ‘to’ – see Roneo Stencil |
| 9 | CATCH TWENTY-TWO | Definition and cryptic definition. Should this be all hyphenated? |
| 15 | ALCHEMIST | (THIS CAMEL)* |
| 16 | BRAKE PAD | PAD (residence) following BRAKE (gorse thicket) – would ‘in’ read better than ‘at’ in this clue? |
| 17 | ASHCROFT | ‘crash oft’ spoonerism, Baron Ashcroft |
| 19 | BIG TOP | POT (grass) GIB (the Rock of Gibraltar) reversed |
| 20, 22 | NARROW SHAVE | New ARROWS (weapons) HAVE – I have heard of a ‘close shave’, but not a narrow shave. It is not in my Chambers either. |
*anagram
Thanks PeeDee & the Rev
9d I think the original title was Catch-22
20,22d Agree that “close shave” & “narrow squeak” are more common
27a American slang in the Guradain today as well.
Thanks for explaining 8d, I couldn’t parse it. My cod 2d
Many thanks PeeDee and Cinephile.
This was very enjoyable but, I thought, rather easier than some others of his.
Re 1,9 across: The Primrose League was a Tory group. Hence ‘took’ is OK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primrose_League
Re 9 down: The book’s title is Catch-22 so another hyphen would be appropriate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22
My COD was RABBIT WARREN where I spent far too long trying to work IAN – our usual suspect – into the answer.
Hi Bryan, my problem with 1,9 is that the ‘Primrose League’, whether defined literally (Tories) or cryptically (3 miles of a path) is a noun expression. Adding the verb ‘took’ makes one part or the other into a verb expression, which then doesn’t match the sense of the remaining part.
I enjoyed found this very enjoyable despite the sloppy clueing that PeeDee points out. I particularly liked the simple elegance of the clues to Road Map and Airport for example.
I know the definition of a Spoonerism is a bit variable, but, in my book Ashcroft is not a Spoonerism of Crash Oft because there is no transposition of initial sounds.
I would put Dotted down as a DD, with “i may be…” as the first definition
I think you are right PeeDee – I followed Lord JG here after yesterday’s great effort, but this was not as good. I would go along with Bryan re RABBIT WARREN, my best of batch. Thanks for your excellent blog.
Good blog and puzzle, which I didn’t have time to finish.
RICA is also the feminine version of rich in Spanish, so maybe as the clue states ‘says,’ it is similar to your parsing, but “‘ER RICA” with elision.
23ac works in Italian
Re 23a –
I liked this clue. Another way of looking at it is that “e” is in Italian, “rica” in Spanish – “changing languages” in between. I thought it was just Italian at first, but I see that would strictly be “e ricca”.
Thanks Peedee.
I appear to have enjoyed this one more than most. Thought that it was par for the course, in terms of Cinephiliac jiggery-pokery and amusement. I was one of those who didn’t fathom the wordplay for 23A. My only quibbles are 8D (a little too indirect, I felt) and 9D (pedantically on the def’n, I think it’s a ‘paradox’ rather than a ‘dilemma’).
PS: There’s a slip of the pen in the answer at 3D.
Smiffy @ 8
Yes, of course, 3d should be ROMAN WALL.
Thanks smiffy, slippage of the brain really rather than the pen… …but you are kind not to mention that.