It is Tuesday today so there is normally a treat in store for solvers of the Independent cryptic crossword. Today was certainly no exception.
This puzzle gets full marks from me for flair and topicality, given the recent US presidential elections, and 10+ for entertainment value. And who could resist the humour of juxtaposing (Mitt) Romney, US presidential candidate, and Romney (Marsh), sheep breed?!
Some might think the clues at e.g. 1 and 5 a tad too daring, but I loved them – when the penny dropped, of course! I found parsing the wordplay in this one quite a challenge, especially at 8, 13 and 30 – not quite knowing how to spell the retailer at 13 was something of a handicap, while for a long time at 28 I misread “introduction” to mean “first letter(s)” rather than “insertion into”.
My clue of the day could have been one of half a dozen, but I will plump for the lovely & lit. at 27/3.
Thanks, Punk, for an immensely entertaining start to the day.
*(…) indicates an anagram
| Across | ||||
| 1 | BARREL OF LAUGHS | HA HA (=laughs) in TUN (=barrel); the solution is a cryptic clue to a word in the actual clue, i.e. T-haha-un! | ||
| 10 | HANGMAN | Double definition | ||
| 11 | FLEECED | Double definition: FLEECED is “conned”, swindled AND (whimsically) “Romney (=entry at 3)’s thus”, i.e. like a sheep, Romney (Marsh) being a breed of sheep | ||
| 12 | NEUTER | *(TENURE); “unsound” is anagram indicator; to doctor is to spay, castrate | ||
| 13 | SYCAMORE | SYCAM (Macy’s=US retailer; “switched” indicates a reversal) + ORE (=rock, i.e. from which metal is extracted) | ||
| 15 | SUCK | Double definition: SUCK is “be bad”, repellent as in What you did sucks! AND “drink” (through straw) | ||
| 16 | SHEEPISH | Double definition: SHEEPISH is “embarrassed”, abashed AND (whimsically) “describing Romney (=entry at 3)”, i.e. Romney (Marsh) being a breed of sheep | ||
| 19 | RUMINATE | RUMINATE is “consider one’s options”, meditate, muse AND (whimsically) “as might Romney (entry at 3)”, a Romney (Marsh) being a breed of sheep, hence a ruminant | ||
| 20 | STEW | WETS=adds water; “for a turnover” indicates reversal | ||
| 24 | ANTELOPE | TEL (=phone, i.e. abbreviation of telephone) in [A + NOPE (=refusal)] | ||
| 26 | ROCOCO | RO (=OR; “retro” indicates reversal) + COCO<a> (=drink; “a short” means the letter “a” is dropped) | ||
| 28 | AMERICA | ERIC (=Idle, i.e. UK actor-singer-comedian) in [A M<ormon> + A]; “leader” means first letter only; the definition is “country targeted by (Mitt) Romney (entry at 3)”, referring to recent US presidential elections | ||
| 29 | INSTALL | I (=one) + N S (=two poles, i.e. N<orth> and S<outh>) + TALL (=high) | ||
| 30 | ROMAN CENTURION | ROMANCE + N (=north) + [O (=old) in TURIN (=European city)] | ||
| Down | ||||
| 2 | ANNOUNCER | A + N N (=news, i.e. 2 x N=new) + OUNCE (=feline) + <edito>R (“finally” means last letter only) | ||
| 4 | LAND | Double definition | ||
| 5 | FIFTY CENTS | BU<ck> is half of a word meaning dollar, as is DOL<lar>, hence fifty cents | ||
| 6 | AVE MARIA | [VE (=victorious day, i.e VE Day at end of WW2) in AM (=earlier times, as opposed to PM)] in ARIA (=song) | ||
| 7 | GECKO | G<r>E<e>C<e> (“every so often” means alternate letters only) + KO (=killer blow, i.e. knockout); a gecko is a lizard, hence “one climbing the walls” (whimsically) | ||
| 8 | SODDEN | SOD (=earth, i.e. turf) + DEN<mark> (“un-MARK-ed” means the letters “mark” are dropped) | ||
| 9/18 | THANKS A MILLION | HANKS (=Oscar-winning actor, i.e. Tom Hanks for Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) in [TAMIL (=from Sri Lanka) + LION (=animal)] | ||
| 14 | CHINA PLATE | *(HELP IN A CAT); “that’s bedraggled” is anagram indicator; “China plate” is Cockney rhyming slang for “mate”, hence “a fragile (=breakable, whimsically) friend” | ||
| 17 | HOT POTATO | HOTPOT (=dish) + <c>A<s>T<r>O (“regularly” means alternate letters only) | ||
| 21 | WOOLLY | Double definition: WOOLLY is “vague”, imprecise AND (whimsically) “as Romney (=entry a 3)”, Romney being a breed of sheep | ||
| 22 | BAZAAR | A Z (=extreme characters, i.e. first and last letters of alphabet) in [BAA (=Romney (=entry at 3)’s comment, whimsically, i.e. sound made by sheep) + R (=right)] | ||
| 23 | MOUSER | MO (=second) + USER (=druggie) | ||
| 25 | THERM | {THE R<oyal> M<arines> (=company, i.e. of soldiers) or (and more likely)} THE R<oyal> M<ail> (=company delivering, i.e. letters) | ||
| 27/3 | MITT ROMNEY | *(MY REMIT NOT); “liberal” is anagram indicator; & lit. | ||
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