I found this much more amenable than the previous Io I blogged which was a desperate struggle – so getting to the end of this puzzle unaided came as something of a relief. Still not easy though, thank you Io.
| Across | ||
| 1, 7 | CAULIFLOWER EAR | Problem for one who repeatedly fghts about university existence, covering vulgar arse (11,3) |
| CA (circa,about) U (university) and LIFE (existence) covering LOW (vulgar) then REAR (arse) | ||
| 9 | TRURO | Turning out river runs through English city (5) |
| R (river) and R (runs) inserted into (through) OUT reversed – a city in Cornwall, England | ||
| 10 | PRESCHOOL | Kindergarten Cop left horse rocking (9) |
| anagram (rocking) of COP L (left) and HORSE | ||
| 11 | OVERSTATE | Exaggerate, so the Queen rules on, say (9) |
| definition and cryptic definition – the Queen rules over the state | ||
| 12 | NYLON | Material any longer in stock? (5) |
| found inside (stocked by) aNY LONger | ||
| 13, 15 | INTO THE OPEN | Making public obsessive about annual golf tournament (4,3,4) |
| INTO (obsessive about) THE OPEN (annual golf tournament) | ||
| 18, 20 | COME THROUGH | Space-traveller has initially turbulent progress (4,7) |
| COMET (space traveller) H (intial letter of has) ROUGH (turbulent) – definition is ‘progress’ | ||
| 23 | HOSEA | Insiders here chose an aged bookmaker (5) |
| found inside cHOSE An – definition is ‘aged bookmaker’, Hosea is a biblical character who wrote a book of prophecies | ||
| 24 | CARPENTER | Knock, then step inside chippy (9) |
| CARP (knock, criticise) ENTER (step inside) – a chippy is a knickname for a carpenter | ||
| 26 | ROAST LAMB | Shot last Rambo, cut at the weekend (5,4) |
| (LAST RAMBO)* anagram=shot, a cut of meat for Sunday lunch | ||
| 27 | IMAGO | Publication taken in by moon’s level of perfection (5) |
| MAG (publication) inside IO (moon of Jupiter) – quoting from Chambers: ‘the last or perfect stage of an insect’s development’ | ||
| 28, 29 | HIP REPLACEMENT | New articulation in theatre – lecturer’s a bind (3,11) |
| HIP (in) REP (theatre) L (lecturer) has A CEMENT (bind) – definition is ‘new articulation’ | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 21 | CATHOLIC CHURCH | Institution of Crouch Hill almost completely collapsing in strike (8,6) |
| anagram (collapsing) of CROUCH HIL (not completed) inside CATCH (strike) | ||
| 2 | UNUSED TO | Not being familiar with peacekeepers, practised (6,2) |
| UN (peacekeepers) USED TO (practised) | ||
| 3 | IRONS | We’re for clapping Men Behaving Badly actor (5) |
| definition and cryptic definition, actor Jeremy Irons and cryptically if men behaved badly they could be clapped in irons. For the benefit of foreign solvers, Men Behaving Badly was a long-running UK sitcom. | ||
| 4 | LAPLACE | Mathematician’s chum stuck up on spike (7) |
| PAL (chum) reversed (stuck up) on LACE (spice) – Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace French astronomer and mathematician. | ||
| 5 | WHERETO | Heading for which he wrote novel (7) |
| (HE WROTE)* anagram=novel – definition is ‘heading for which’ | ||
| 6 | RACONTEUR | After-dinner speaker, maybe, to run race for kicks? (9) |
| (TO RUN RACE)* for kicks=anagram – in a funny way? are the letters are kicked about? | ||
| 7 | ETOILE | A star trapped in the toilets (6) |
| trapped inside thE TOILEts – for some reason the name George Michael immediately sprang to mind | ||
| 8, 17 | RULING THE ROOST | English tutor not heading for schools in complete control (6,3,5) |
| anagram (schools, is instructed?) of ENGLISH TUTOR fOR (not heading) – definition is ‘in complete control’. Not 100% sure about this one. | ||
| 14 | TWO-MASTER | Craft sample with vertically cut inset (3-6) |
| MOW (cut) reversed (vertically) in TASTER (sample) – definition is ‘craft’ | ||
| 16 | MUST-HAVE | Essential to think outside the box: hard one gets inserted (4-4) |
| MUSE (to think) outside TV (the box) with H (hard) A (one) inserted – definition is ‘essential’ | ||
| 17 | See 8 | |
| See 8 | ||
| 19 | ENCLASP | Literally wrap lens cap up (7) |
| (LENS CAP)* anagram=up (excited) – definition is ‘literally wrap’ |
||
| 20 | TEREBRA | It’s an old bore returning to live in the earth (7) |
| BE (to live) reversed in TERRA (the earth) – an old Roman drilling device | ||
| 21 | See 1 down | |
| See 1 down | ||
| 22 | ESCARP | Slope “vehicle”, in an unusual sense (6) |
| CAR (vehicle) in ESP (an unusual sense) – definition is ‘slope’ | ||
| 25 | ELITE | The frst to eat lo-cal cream? (5) |
| Eat (first letter of) LITE (lo-cal) – definition is ‘cream’ | ||
*anagram
There were actually one or two easier ones this time but it was still a huge challenge for me. I kept being misled into taking slightly the wrong route and making wrong assumptions about the definitions. Many thanks to Io and well done PeeDee. Favourite possibly 28,29 – it looked so cumbersome and yet turned out to be smooth as silk. The one thought I have is…
8,17 I think “schools” is the second entry in Chambers – v.i. to gather or go in schools [i.e. shoals]. When fish move in shoals/schools they stay together but get jumbled within the school, like letters in an anagram. If I’m right this is definitely an indicator I haven’t seen before but which seems to work well. So there are still some out there!
Thanks PeeDee.
I got tangled up with confusing my jeroboams and my jerboas. A + o + bore (r) looked far too much like a clue for the half-remembered jeroboa (jerboa) which plausibly could be said to ‘live in the earth.’ I vaguely remembered it had variant spellings – xerboa, etc. Was there a Teroboa? Answer — no. Thanks to IO – a very enjoyable tussle. 1a looked for all the world like it ended in WAR – so a nice PDM when it came into focus.
That’s just to school= to discipline, no problems there. It was unruly (or Unrowly!!) and now is in order.
Great puzzle!!!
Rowly
for some strange reason, I normally find Io a little trickier that some of our setter’s other aliases but not today. After an extremely trying morning, it was great fun to just work my way through this very nice puzzle. I did particularly like 28/29
Thank you to both Io and PeeDee too.
Anyone got any ideas on 19dn ENCLASP?
Maybe ENCLASP is the p[oetic version of it PeeDee. UP is the anagrind for sure.
Rowls.
I can’t think how ‘up’ could indicate an anagram. A reversal OK, but in what sense does up imply rearranged?
Interesting question, PeeDee. I hadn’t given it much thought. I suppose it could be a ‘two-way’ clue depending on that ‘literally’. If you non-figuratively ‘wrap’ lens cap up you end up with enclasp which is the lens cap ‘up’ and is literally a ‘wrap’. There’s also the possibility of the ‘literally’ being an echo of ‘literarily’ – since it is undoubtedly a ‘bookish expression’.
Maybe asin ‘ what’ss up’??
That onew I thought of as ‘whats the trouble’, but when a a road is UP its under repair. I wonfder if that is better?
Rowls.
Hi all,
Chambers gives “in an excited state”. That’s ok, isn’t it?
Enclasp is being used here in its EMBRACE context, as in ‘she wrapped her arms around him’. I simply thought the qualifier “literally” would help…
Many thanks for blog and comments.
John
Thanks for dropping in Mr H.
up = excited is a fair explanation. I think ‘literally’ confused me rather than helped, but then maybe that was the point 🙂
What’s UP= what’s WRONG too! Would that be okay as well?
Thanks, PeeDee, for the blog.
I’m feeling rather chuffed. I’ve been out for the day and, without much confidence, took this with me for the train journey – and did it: I finished an Io, without any resources! And very enjoyable it was, too.
[I’ve seen ‘up’ as an anagram indicator a number of times – but not so much lately, I think.]
Many thanks to the moon of Jupiter for the entertainment.
PS Re resources: I meant to say that I hadn’t heard of LAPLACE but, thanks to the clear cluing, it couldn’t have been anything else.