It’s fairly unusual to see a DAC on a Monday, although he did skip the usual Wednesday slot a couple of weeks ago, so I suppose this is making up for it. This was elegantly and accessibly clued with just a couple (15 down and 25) that I didn’t quite follow.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Outlaw pinching officer’s breakfast? (5) | ||
| Bacon | Ban around co. | ||
| 4. | Knox perhaps recalled receiving religious subjects (6) | ||
| Topics | Scot< around pi. | ||
| 9. | Cough remedy workers swallowed in one part of England (7) | ||
| Linctus | Lincs around TU (trade union). | ||
| 10. | Long walk round various parts of Paris is extremely tiresome (7) | ||
| Traipse | Paris* in t[iresom]e. | ||
| 11. | Home phone line cut off – where to ring for help? (5) | ||
| India | In + dia[l] (i.e. phone=dial with l=line removed). Ref to Indian call centres, I suppose. | ||
| 12. | Needing to secure boat, helmsman audibly grouses (9) | ||
| Moorcocks | Moor + hom of cox. | ||
| 13. | In ideal hotel, water gushes warmer in the bathroom (6,5,4) | ||
| Heated towel rail | (Ideal hotel water)* | ||
| 15. | Film director beginning to feel embarrassed, having problem during (6,9) | ||
| Alfred Hitchcock | F[eel] red + hitch in Alcock. | ||
| 19. | Warrior about to board ship (9) | ||
| Freighter | Re(=about) in fighter. | ||
| 21. | Order tapas or spaghetti? (5) | ||
| Pasta | Tapas*. | ||
| 22. | Island supplying holiday souvenir to everyone (7) | ||
| Rockall | Rock (as in Blackpool) + all. | ||
| 23. | France maybe gets the French to back a partnership of nations (7) | ||
| Anatole | A NATO + le. Anatole France was a Nobel prize winning French writer. | ||
| 24. | Bird, oddly pretty, seen on loch (6) | ||
| Petrel | Odd letters of pretty + re(=on) + l(och). | ||
| 25. | Barbecued food cool at the end of the day (5) | ||
| Satay | Don’t get this one. The only thing I can think of is that it’s ay(=cool) after Sat(urday), but I’m not convinced by that. | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Lord one encountered during party, rather thin on top (7) | ||
| Baldish | Ld (lord) + I in bash. | ||
| 2. | Language from China and France originally (8,6) | ||
| Canadian French | (China and France)*. | ||
| 3. | Cnut upset with sea, the fool (7) | ||
| Nutcase | (Cnut sea)*. | ||
| 4. | Team leader determined to turn up fit for important fixture (4,5) | ||
| Test match | (T[eam] + set)< + match(=fit as a vb). | ||
| 5. | Creature holed up in grotto perhaps (5) | ||
| Potto | Hidden, rev in grOTTO Perhaps. An African primate. | ||
| 6. | Place of altar in church, unusually clean (7) | ||
| Chancel | Ch + clean*. | ||
| 7. | Right-leaning magazine’s getting support from the left? That’s one to watch (9,5) | ||
| Spectator sport. | Specator’s + port(=nautical left). | ||
| 8. | Prickly plant kid left behind (6) | ||
| Teasel | Tease(=kid) + l(eft). | ||
| 14. | Bird making loud cry, crossing Roman land (5,4) | ||
| Water rail | Wail around terra (Latin for land). | ||
| 15. | Declare business has lost a million (6) | ||
| Affirm | This one I do not get. Obviously declare is the def and a firm is a business, but I don’t see how the rest of the clue works. See Muffyword’s explanation | ||
| 16. | Make mark on English party (7) | ||
| Engrave | Eng + rave. | ||
| 17. | Trendies once having hot record by the Animals? (7) | ||
| Hepcats | H(ot) + EP + cats. | ||
| 18. | Corrupt behaviour new, say, in one US state (7) | ||
| Knavery | N + aver in Ky (Kentucky). | ||
| 20. | Craftsman installing lift in bank (5) | ||
| Tiler. | L(ift) in tier. L is used an abbrev. for lift in Aerodynamics. | ||
Thanks for the blog, NealH and to Dac – I enjoyed this.
15 dn: AFF(a)ir + M
Can’t help with SATAY!
There were plenty of new words for me in this puzzle by Dac: LINCTUS, CHANCEL, TEASEL, ANATOLE France, MOORCOCKS, POTTO, and ROCKALL, an uninhabited island measuring 31m x 25.3 m in the North Atlantic Ocean. That’s a very small island!
I was quite frustrated that there were so many clues I could not parse, such as 9a, 15a, 25a, 4a, 22a, 18d, 20d, 15d.
I still don’t understand the parsing of 22a: ‘holiday souvenir’ = ‘Rock (as in Blackpool’?
My favourite clue was 17d / HEPCATS.
Thanks for the blog, NealH. I think you have one small typo in 20d: L(ift) in TIER = TILER.
Thanks for pointing that out. It was the last one in, so I was obviously getting tired by then.
I think the clue just refers to blackpool rock, type of confectionery – see here.
NealH@3
thanks, now I understand what Blackpool rock is. I had never heard of it.
Many thanks, Neal.
Dac on a Monday is bad karma (I think I know why he’s been given this slot this week, but I won’t spoil it for others). This was tough, I thought. The usual smooth surfaces, but one or two that were tricky to parse. Well done Muffyword for parsing AFFIRM – I couldn’t see that either.
ROCKALL will be familiar, Michelle, to listeners to the shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4. A quick google will give you details if you’re not familiar with it.
For SATAY, I took it to be as you indicated: SAT plus AY. AY is a dialect word for ‘yes’. ‘Shall we gaan oot the neet? Ay, why not?’ And COOL is used in the same way. ‘Fancy going to the pictures tonight? Cool.’ Not one of Dac’s best clues, perhaps, but thanks to him and Neal.
[By the way, you have not transcribed the clue completely in 15ac, Neal.]
Oh Michelle, clearly your education has been sadly neglected
Blackpool Rock
@6
thanks, Ian, that was very amusing but I thought we were talking about candy…… This man is singing about something else! That’s the biggest laugh I’ve had all day. I enjoyed it a lot.
KsDad@5
thanks, yes I did do a google search this morning and learnt of the island’s location and size, but I should read more about it.
Dac on a Monday? What on Earth is going on? Re Rockall http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22564408 is somewhat topical at the moment.
Yes, a nice one from Dac, and I can see where K’sD is coming from as to why he’s in the Monday slot. Some inventive clues; I particularly liked TOPICS and TEASEL.
A minor point in the blog, Neal: 2dn is CANADIAN FRENCH, not the other way round. Interestingly, Canadian French eschews those English words which have become common in standard French; thus in Canadian French ‘hot dog’ is translated literally as ‘chien chaud’.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Yes, strange to see Dac on a Monday. I thought this one was on the easy side for him, and that’s why I thought the editor had decided to use it today.
However, I confess that AFFIRM and SATAY went in from definition alone, so thanks for the parsing.
By the way Michelle, although Rockall is indeed a very small island it is more well known in this part of the world for the Shipping Area named after it. It brought back memories of listening to the shipping forecast on the radio (or the wireless as my parents insisted on calling it) when I was a kid.
flashling@8 and AndyB @11
Thanks for the further information on Rockall. I recommend that the man planning to spend 60 days on Rockall takes a lot of cryptic crosswords with him to help pass the time as it seems there may not be a lot to do there while he’s in his pod.
Look for oil mayber!!
Rowland@13
Well, that’s a great idea. By the way, you have a wonderful sense of humour!
Seemed to be a bit tougher than the usual Monday fare. Took me a while to get started but in the end I solved it without any electronic help. (Did have to look up “potto” in Chambers to confirm.) Couldn’t parse 9ac, so thanks for that. (15dn, on the other hand I got immediately, although it was second last in.)
Rockall is also familiar from a Flanders and Swann song that has the chorus “And Britain got Rockall” which they give as an example of a song that sounds a lot naughtier than it looks in print.
Michelle, I seem to recall you are from Australia? (Apologies if I remember that wrong.) About 25 years ago I found myself in Melbourne publicising a science fiction convention to be held in Brighton, UK. We were giving out sticks of Brighton rock as a gimmick. It caused some amusement.
Wi-fi now up and running after a technical malfunction!
Thanks for the blog NealH – we also couldn’t work out SATAY and AFFIRM.
Thanks Dac – great crossword as usual!
Google George Formby singing Little stick of Blackpool rock!
Ken @17 – Welcome. It’s usually courteous to read others comments first when posting to fifteensquared, in my very humble opinion.
Ian J @6 has already supplied a link to Mr Formby’s rendition – and some years ago!