Another very enjoyable puzzle from Cinephile: varied, witty and educational as always. Thank you Cinephile.
Hold the mouse pointer over any clue number to read the clue.
Across | ||
9 | CONSIGNIA | CON (trick) SIGNorA (Italian lady) with I replacing OR (gold) |
10 | IRISH | Hibernian (first letter of) following IRIS (flag, plant) – definition is ‘Hibernian’. Usually I quite strongly disagree with words performing double duty in a clue, but in some cases, such as this, its seems perfectly acceptable. I am unable to decide what the rule is that makes some cases OK but not others. |
11 | CHOLERA | C (circa, more or less) HOL (break) ERA (time) |
12 | IN TOUCH | double definition |
13 | See 23 | |
14 | See 17 down | |
17, 18, 19 | STONE THE CROWS | (SHORT SCENE TWO)* |
21 | RIGOR MORTIS | RIG (costume) and (TO MORRIS)* – a temporary stiffening of muscle tissues approximatley 12-60 hours following death. ‘It will wear off’ is not really really a definition of rigor mortis, but in this case I think it works nicely. |
23, 13 | TIPPET | Michael TIPPETt (composer, unfinished) – a type of stole |
25 | CHECK-UP | definition and cryptic definition – using American spelling of cheque |
27 | PRITHEE | THE (definite article) in RIPE (fruit=anagram). Personally I can’t quite coerce ‘fruit’ into an anagram indicator, however it seems that these days any word that does not explicitly mean ‘unchanged’ is allowable. |
28 | LADEN | double definition |
29 | CASHW NUT | SHEW (to exhibit) in CANUTe (Danish king, unfinished) |
Down | ||
1 | ICECAP | CAP (limit) on ICE (diamonds) |
2 | ONE OR TWO | cryptic definition |
3 | TIME OF YEAR | I’M (setter is) FOE (enemy) reversed YE (solvers) in TAR (pitch) |
4, 6 | ANNALIST | ANNA (old coin) and LIST (catalogue) |
5 | BANISHMENT | NAB (catch) reversed and MEN (people) in THIS* (anagram=problem) |
6 | See 4 | |
7 | LIQUOR | sounds like (say) “licker” |
8 | PHTHISIS | PH (public house) THIS IS – tuberculosis. I am so glad that this is a written commentary and I do not have to attempt to pronounce this thing. |
15 | RETROSPECT | SPEC (speculation, a gamble) in ROTTER* |
16 | BACKSLIDER | Spoonerism of ‘black cider’ |
17, 14 | STRICTLY FOR THE BIRDS | STRICT (disciplinarian) FLY* OR and BE reversed in THIRDS (bronzes, medals). I think this is the second or even third crossword I have blogged with this solution – thankfully no reference to that ballroom dancing programme this time. |
20 | OUTSHINE | O (circle) and (IN THE US)* anagram=circulating |
22 | GREEDY | ED (editor, journalist) in GREY (colour) |
24 | PRESTO | PRESTON with N (north, pole) removed |
26, 27 | KING POST | KING (a royal) POST (mail) – a vertical post joing the apex of a roof to the tie beam in medieval archirtecture |
*anagram
Thanks PeeDee. I enjoyed this example of Cinephile’s wit and wisdom although there seemed to be a rather morbid thread with Cholera, Phthisis and Rigor Mortis. As usual, the Reverend takes a few liberties. There was no satisfactory definition for Rigor Mortis. Consignia should probably have been defined as former mail company as it only lasted 18 months before it changed its name back to The Royal Mail. I also did not like the definition of One Or Two as “three or more” but that is probably just my literal-mindedness as I see that Chambers defines it as “a few” which seems fair enough.
I finished with the blindingly obvious Phthisis because it took me some time to accept that the word really exists.
I don’t think there is ‘double duty’ in 10A. I think the definition is just ‘Hibernian’. Then the separate wordplay gives H (its first – admittedly referring back to Hibernian but I think this is fair as it’s using the word in a different, separate, way) following IRIS.
nmsindy – so the rule could be “definition and wordplay should be disjoint, though they may refer to one another”
Yes, I’d see it like that, but, as you know, there are no absolutely agreed ‘rules’ in this game.