Four crosswords for the price of one.
This puzzle is composed of four corners that intersect by only one letter in the centre of the grid. I’m fine with this myself but can imagine that some will find it annoying, ‘just not cricket!’. There were a few repeats in here (companions, sailors etc.) and a quite few old chestnuts (EC=city, workers=ants etc.) that again some solvers might find old and hackneyed. Having said all this, I enjoyed the crossword a lot, so maybe being modern isn’t all that it is cracked up to be.
27 across is my favourite. Thank you Aardvark.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PUMICE | Abrasive rocks cropped wild cat earlier (6) |
| PUMa (wild cat, cropped) coming before ICE (rocks, diamonds) | ||
| 4 | A DAB HAND | Bill attends Kasbah regularly, along with an expert (1,3,4) |
| AD (advert, bill) with (attends) kAsBaH (regularly) AND (along with) | ||
| 9 | TOGGLE | Switch to goods connected with the French (6) |
| TO GG (good, twice) with (connected with) LE (the, French) | ||
| 10 | ABU DHABI | A friend snubbed custom here in Middle East (3,5) |
| A BUD (friend) HABIt (custom) snubbed=shortened | ||
| 11 | NEWISH | Quite modern Tyneside institute mum joins (6) |
| NE (Tyneside, the North East) WI (Womens Institute) with (joined by) SH (mum) | ||
| 12 | PEDIMENT | Grey borders in extension covered by dearest architectural feature (8) |
| DIM (grey) ExtensioN (borders of) in (covered by) PET (dearest) | ||
| 13 | FAD | Fine characters half involved in road rage (3) |
| F (fine) AD (half the characters in road) – definition is ‘rage’ | ||
| 14 | CATNAP | Worker retires into Crown for rest (6) |
| ANT (worker) reversed in CAP (crown) | ||
| 17 | WORSTED | Get married, restricting gold frills to shirt material (7) |
| WED (get married) containing (restricting) OR (gold) ShirT (frills=edges) – definition is ‘material’ | ||
| 21 | TREBLE | Shake, when squandering a thousand for this bet? (6) |
| TREmBLE (shake) losing (squandering) M=thousand | ||
| 25 | PIN | Peg leg (3) |
| double definition | ||
| 26 | LOLLIPOP | Confectionery supply, including lozenge, handed back (8) |
| POOL (supply) including PILL (lozenge) all reversed (handed back) | ||
| 27 | TUXEDO | Pronounced pleats – the latest in fashionable party jacket (6) |
| TUX (pronounced ‘tucks’) fashionablE (last letter of) DO (party) | ||
| 28 | SQUIRREL | Landowner grabbing right and left – typical hoarder (8) |
| SQUIRE (landowner) containing (grabbing) R (right) then L (left) | ||
| 29 | SHELVE | He’s munching nothing except duck, that’s put aside (6) |
| HE’S* munching=anagram LoVE (nothing, tennis) missing (except) O (zero, duck) – that is (will give) ‘put aside’ definition | ||
| 30 | ABERDEEN | Salt and medical soap require taking back here in Scotland (8) |
| AB (sailor, salt) ER (TV program, medical soap) NEED (require) recversed (takining back) | ||
| 31 | OSPREY | Huge nose entertains English bird (6) |
| OS (huge, out size) PRY (nose) including (entertains) E (English) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PUT ON ICE | Delay travelling north, up to French city (3,2,3) |
| UP reversed (upwards, travelling north on a map) TO NICE (French city) | ||
| 2 | MEGAWATT | Amount of power needed to cook game was endless – temperature doubled (8) |
| GAME* (anagram=cook) WAs (with no end letter) TT (temperature, twice) | ||
| 3 | COLESLAW | Old King’s order – salad (8) |
| COLE’S (old king is) LAW (order) | ||
| 5 | DUBBED | Called companion about accommodation (6) |
| BUD (buddy, companion) reversed (about) BED (accomodation) | ||
| 6 | BODKIN | Smell blood after duke produces punch (6) |
| BO (body odour, smell) KIN (blood) following D (duke) – a tool for punching holes | ||
| 7 | AZALEA | Plant extremists attached to a meadow (6) |
| AZ (extreme letters) with (attached to) A LEA (meadow) | ||
| 8 | DAINTY | Wed perhaps outside – one books small cake? (6) |
| DAY (Wednesday perhaps) incuding (outside) I (one) NT (books, of the Bible) – a small iced cake | ||
| 12 | PARSNIP | Churchman, out of love, meets Greek character turning over veg (7) |
| PARSoN (churchman) missing (out of) O (love) with (meets) PI (Greek character) reversed (turning over) | ||
| 15 | POD | School party pedal back (3) |
| DO (party) P (pedal, music) reversed (back) – a school of dolphins, whales etc | ||
| 16 | JET | Rush ballet leap, stubbing toe (3) |
| JETe (a leap in ballet) missing (stubbing, shortened by last letter, toe) | ||
| 18 | DRAUGHTS | Shout of annoyance interrupts another, before end of this game (8) |
| UGH (shout of annoyance) inside (interrupts) DRAT (another shout of annoyance) before thiS (end of) – definition ‘game’ | ||
| 19 | ABSEILER | Seaman, then another, reported one clinging to cliff-face? (8) |
| AB (seaman) then SEILER sounds like (reported) ‘sailor’ (another seaman) | ||
| 20 | RECOVERY | City embraced by traveller joining unknown rally (8) |
| EC (East Central, the City of London postal area) in (embraced by) ROVER (traveller) with (joining) Y (unknown, maths) | ||
| 22 | ALASKA | State entered between Arizona and Hawaii (6) |
| cryptic (ish) definition – the 49th state of the USA, entered the union between Arizona (48th) and Hawaii (50th) | ||
| 23 | CLAUSE | Legal section periodically call at practice (6) |
| CaLl At (periodically) USE (practice) | ||
| 24 | NIMROD | Aircraft noise envelops old commandos ascending (6) |
| DIN (noise) contains (envelops) O (old) RM (marines, commandos) reversed (ascending) – one of several former RAF aircraft | ||
| 25 | POPEYE | Try and see cartoon character (6) |
| POP (try, as a noun) and EYE (see) | ||
*anagram
I fell into every trap going . Of course if I solved more clues, I may have avoided them but I couldn’t.
4a Bill in crosswordland is always ac except when it is a birds beak -but of course it turned out to be neither here.
2d An amount of power needed to cook is of course a kilowatt. To justify kilo I only had to think of a game such as the Russian kilok (don’t bother googling, it doesn’t exist)
22d This was clearly the obscure state of ak??hi
31a Was something to do with roman, hooter or conk.
24a Aircraft noise had to be drone but couldn’t see beyond that
25a Try is always but always go so we had goofey -who cares about ofey not being too obvious
And so it went on. I think that if you had locked me in a room with dictionaries and solvers, I’d never have got out.
Well done PeeDee, I’m in awe
Thanks PeeDee and Aardvaark. Not much time today, so only finished this just now. Quite tricky, I thought, with some neat clues – 26 and 28, for example.
Fair put me in my place this one did! Rigorous, elegant, and challenging I thought. Thanks both.