Gah I hate insomnia but it means an early post. Slight surprise to see the editor again, but very welcome nonetheless. On seeing Eimi I was a little self duped into thinking this would be a stroll in the park as I sometimes do, but I certainly didn’t find it so this time, I have some minor niggles in my head still and comments suggestions welcome.
If there’s any Ninas then they are very well hidden but a theme – most certainly. 11/10/26 is the author of various crime novels (amongst other things) but notably he was the creator of Perry MASON (Ironside as played by Raymond Burr in a wheelchair in the 70’s). There are various other characters I’ve seen: Hamilton BURGER, Della STREET and Paul DRAKE. There’s probably more thematics but I’m not well enough read on his stuff to see them so any other spots folks? As it’s my blog I’m still going to say well done the Foxes against Southampton last night!
[Edit oops I forgot to type up 27d which is ROT – ROT(i) as #8 Newton says]
Across:
| 1 | Brand | Russell (rather than Jo as the clue says he) with R instead of L in B(l)AND |
| 4 | Building | (I(ndustry) L(eaders) + D.I.) in BUNG |
| 5 | Rapallo | An Italian port, RA + ALL in the river PO |
| 10 | See 11 | |
| 11/10/26 | Erle Stanley Gardner | [TERRY ENSNARED LEGAL]* Surely nowt to do with England captain and Chelsea player John Terry? |
| 12 | Beautiful | FIT rev + “U” all in [A BLUE]* |
| 15 | (Perry) Mason | MA’S ON – I assume the def refers to Masonic lodge practices which oddly I’ve not been invited to join. |
| 16 | Resonant | ONAN (yes he the great spiller of seed) in REST. |
| 19 | Acid rain | Hmm not Acid Raine who was quite poisonous we were told, but ArCtIc + DRAIN |
| 20 | (Paul) Drake | Singer Nick Drake (she)D + RAKE |
| 23 | Panegyric | GREY* in (don’t) PANIC |
| 24 | Suet | SUE T(ownsend) |
| 26 | See 11 | |
| 28 | Colette | LET in COTE. |
| 29 | Straddle | Ha ha Eimi! (h)ELD DARTS reversed |
| 30 | Worst | ROW rev + ST (see 22) Do like words that are self antonyms. |
| Down: | ||
| 1 | (Hamilton) Burger | RE + GRUB all reversed |
| 2 | Appellation | [ALLAN POE + PIT] Nice spot by the setter. |
| 3 | Dali | Mostly in (mohamme)D ALI |
| 4&25 | Blow by blow | CD I guess, of blow football on a table with straws |
| 5 | In spades | N in ISP + E In ADS |
| 6 | Draft board | DR + AFT + BOARD. CD of those creating (most notably) Vietnam Vets |
| 7 | Nil | Umm I guess this is Neil Young with E removed, but the clue has drugs plural. |
| 8 | Eyelets | Hom of ISLETS |
| 13 | Frankfurter | Link to 1dn? TURF*in FRANKER |
| 14 | Corrigenda | [A RECORDING]* |
| 17 | Rampage | (A MP) in RAGE |
| 18 | Mirrored | Morgan was the Daily Mirror editor |
| 21 | Icicle | Clue that would be unlikely to work out of the Indy stable, The i + hom of sickle. |
| 22 | (Della) Street | TuRkEy in SET |
| 25 | See 4dn |
Thank you, flashling. You the owl, me the lark …
I always enjoy Eimi’s puzzles, and I liked this one; but his breadth of knowledge is miles wider than mine, which is why I sometimes struggle, and that was my experience this morning. But that’s my problem, and there was much to appreciate in this crossword once I’d finally nailed it down. I thought the Edgar Allan Poe, Sue Townsend, Crafty Cockney and Piers Morgan clues were excellent, and I think we also had reference to the Indy’s i a little while ago.
I couldn’t parse NIL at all – but drugs plural does seem not quite right. Eimi’s usually very careful, so perhaps there’s another explanation.
Two very good crosswords in a row this week so far.
Thanks for the blog. I enjoyed teasing this out – some of it involved a fair amount of lateral thinking.
Re 7d (one of the lateral ones for me) – drug is singular in the online version.
I totally missed the theme, but then apart from Perry Mason I’d never heard of any of it. Didn’t spoil my enjoyment.
Fair point about 7D, which is why I’ve now changed the online version. I thought it sounded better in the plural, but can’t really justify it now.
And I’m trying to appear a bit more often in the Indy in response to a request here.
I couldn’t resist the Crafty Cockney link, given that Cockneys are a staple in crosswords where aitches have to be dropped. Apparently Mario Balotelli likes throwing darts too, but only at people.
Mystery solved, Thomas. It’s ‘drug’ in the Crossword Solver download, but it’s still showing ‘drugs’ on the Indy website. Who’d be a crossword editor? Only joking. If I had a penny for every mistake I’d made in a puzzle, I’d be rich.
If I cross with someone else again this week, I swear I am going to scweam and scweam until I’m thick.
At the risk of making Gaufrid cross, I will go off-topic to say that I would have thought that Mario Balotelli’s studs, rather than his darts, would have been your main point of complaint this week, eimi?
What Eimi says is The Law. But … I’ll go illegal and say I’m all right with ‘drugs’ for E: you can certainly have ‘Es’ if you want, just as you can have ‘lions’, but ‘E’ is one pill or many to your average slack-jawed clubber.
Re footer, we @ St Marys are in the business of providing false hope for those in the chasing pack. Hah: see! You never thought of it like that. In other news, apparently the nutter Balotelli has until Wednesday to contest a charge that carries an automatic four-match ban.
Very enjoyable, mind you I am old enough to remember Perry Mason on the television (I was quite young then though!) Very enjoyable thank you Eimi and flashling too.
Thanks to flashling and Eimi.
Am I right in thinking that the explanation of 27d is missing? Roti wihtout -i?
Saw it was Eimi and thought we ought to start earlier. Glad we did but not as hard as we had expected.
The links to Erle Stanley Gardner were completely lost on us (we’d never heard of him!) so pleased that you sorted that out flashling. We guessed Stanley and google came up trumps with “Stanley crime writer”.
Nil was the last one in but couldn’t see why.
Thanks flashling and Eimi.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Thought we were on for a foodie theme with BURGER, FRANKFURTER and SUET showing up, and also perhaps APPELLATION (controlee). But no, the MASON theme then revealed itself. And then I couldn’t remember if FRANK N FURTER was another Gardner creation to partner Hamilton Burger…. wrong, Frank N belongs to the Rocky Horror Show.
Great fun, many thanks to flashling and eimi.
Thanks, flashling [yes, great result for us but still wrong-shaped ball for me!], for the blog and eimi for the puzzle.
I am old enough to remember Perry Mason and, when pointed out, all the links were obvious but the clue of the day for me [see local link above] was 24ac. Chapeau to this great lady in AM’s fortieth anniversary year! My son came 2nd / 3rd/ [I can’t remember which] about thirty years ago, in the auditions for the TV series. We were sharing fond memories of Sue this evening – but I was struggling to interest him in the clue, I’m afraid!
A bit surprised to finish this as I have come seeking explanations of sa good number of answers. Still have some queries if anyone can help : I can’t see where “fit” comes fromin 12 ac; 5 dn, I understood “in spades” to mean a lot of something and I can’t find a reference to Yard in the dictionary; Not quite sure why 21 dn is “paper cutter” as I thought a sickle was for cutting vegetation; lastly 27 dn got missed and I am still puzzled about the bread.
Enjoyable solve, noting suet at 24 ac, eyelets at 8 dn and 18dn mirrored in particular
@Pennes #12 He/She’s fit means they’re attractive. 5dn In Spades – in the card game bridge spades are the highest ranked suit, so it tops everything else. In 21 the “i” is the paper and a sickle is a cutter. 27dn yes I forgot it but it’s at the end of the preamble.
Thanks flashling.
Wow!!!
Due to the Lunar New Year, I have been tardy with the Indies and only solved this today … and what a treat, my childhood reading revisited, Perry Mason, Della Street, etc and not forgetting the early tv series in black and white starring Raymond Burr and all those courtroom drama.
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be (sigh)
Thank you eimi, you are indeed an excellent compiler … remind me to buy you a Guinness when we next meet