It hadn’t fallen to me to blog a Morph puzzle for a good few months, so I attacked this morning’s offering with particular gusto.
I seemed very much to be on Morph’s wavelength today and made even progress through this puzzle from start to finish. For me, this was the perfect level of difficulty for a daily puzzle, with high entertainment value to boot.
8 raised the biggest smile of the day, for its saucy surface reading, while I very much appreciated the whimsical definitions at 10 and 15. However, my clues of the day have to be 3 and 4, for their smooth surfaces and none-too-obvious definitions.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 09 | INTESTATE | Run away from road, being unwillingINTE<r>STATE (=road, i.e. in US); “run (=R, i.e. on cricket scorecard) away” means letter “r” is deleted; the cryptic definition “un-willing” refers to someone not having made a will before death |
| 10 | PRISM | Spin and ideology that’ll lead to colour segregationPR (=spin, i.e. public relations) + ISM (=ideology) |
| 11 | LARGE IT | Splash out on // double Martini?Cryptically, a large IT (=Italian vermouth) would be a “double Martini” |
| 12 | BULWARK | Volume about conflict and defenceWAR (=conflict) in BULK (=volume) |
| 13 | GUERRILLA | Combatant, rogue irregular finally switching sides*(IRREGULA + L for R); “rogue” is anagram indicator; “finally switching sides” means the R (=right) at end is replaced by L (=left) |
| 15 | TIARA | Mother and I will avoid liqueur – it goes to one’s headTIA <ma>R<i>A (=liqueur); Mother (=Ma) and I will avoid” means the letters “ma” and “i” are dropped |
| 16 | CONTRAINDICATED | Rioting and direct action banned*(AND DIRECT ACTION); “rioting” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | LICIT | Permitted company to produce chemicals in flat regularlyICI (=company to produce chemicals) in <f>L<a>T (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used) |
| 21 | EUCALYPTI | Peru oddly lacking typical wild shrubs<p>E<r>U (“oddly lacking” means odd letters are dropped) + *(TYPICAL); “wild” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | LIMINAL | I’m all in, knackered and barely conscious*(I’M ALL IN); “knackered” is anagram indicator; cf. subliminal=unconscious |
| 24 | ADMIRER | One increasingly desperate to catch male suitorA (=one) + [M (=male) in DIRER (=increasingly desperate, i.e. of situation)] |
| 26 | CURIA | See court give voice to urban council leaders after recallAIR (=give voice to) + U<rban> C<ouncil> (“leaders” means first letters only are used); “after recall” indicates (here full) reversal; the curia is the court of the papal see |
| 27 | SUCCESSOR | New leader to use straw (short) settling scoresSUC<k> (=to use straw, i.e. to drink; “short” means last letter dropped) + *(SCORES); “settling” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01 | BIOLOGICAL CLOCK | Internal mechanism for egg-timer?Cryptic definition: the eggs referred to are human ova! |
| 02 | STURGEON | Cutter carrying tons of fishT (=tons) in SURGEON (=cutter) |
| 03 | ISLE | One’s limb almost cut off bodyI’S (=one’s) + LE<g> (=limb; “almost” means last letter dropped) |
| 04 | CARTEL | Ring mobile carrier’s telephone numberCAR (=mobile carrier, whimsically) + TEL (=telephone number, e.g. when abbreviated in advert); a “ring” can be a group, arrangement, hence “cartel” |
| 05 | KEYBOARD | There are various characters on this central committee
KEY (=central) + BOARD (=committee) |
| 06 | APOLITICAL | Attraction one’s found in a party organisation – Labour, Conservative and Liberal leaders? Not if like this
[IT (=attraction, as in She’s got it) + I (=one)] in [A + P<arty> O<rganisation> L<abour> C<onservative> A<nd> L<iberal>]; “leaders” means first letters only; semi-& lit. |
| 07 | TIRANA | Force surrounding Middle Eastern country’s capital
IRAN (=Middle Eastern country) in TA (=force, i.e. territorial army) |
| 08 | SMOKE AND MIRRORS | Naked Moss shot involving tabloid deception
MIRROR (=tabloid) in *(NAKED MOSS); “shot” is anagram indicator |
| 14 | RURITANIAN | Ruin 7 after redevelopment based on romantic view of country …
*(RUIN + TIRANA (=entry at 7)); “after redevelopment” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | IDEALISM | … I mislead badly with such an approach
*(I MISLEAD); “badly” is anagram indicator; semi-& lit. |
| 18 | TOP BRASS | At least three items worn on chest – last of medals for military leaders
TOP + BRAS (=at least three items worn on chest, i.e. a top and at least two bras) + <medal>S (“last of” means last letter only) |
| 20 | CAMERA | One creating image for PM on leaving America
CAMER<on> (=PM; “on leaving” means letters “on” are dropped) + A (=America) |
| 22 | CHANCE | Opportunity for one to divide churches
AN (=one) in [CH + CE (=churches, i.e. two ways of referring to church)] |
| 25 | MPEG | Politician, say, producing file
MP (=politician) + E.G. (=say, i.e. for example); MPEG comes from Moving Pictures Experts Group, and is an international standard for encoding and compressing image files |
Thanks for the blog, RatkojaRiku.
I enjoyed this puzzle even though I failed to solve 25d MPEG.
I particularly liked 1d, 5d, 15a, 13a & 20d (last in) and my favourites were 9a UNWILLING & 2d STURGEON.
I couldn’t parse 18d, 11a.
For 26a, I parsed it as definition = “see court” with CURIA being a papal court, or even a judicial court in a town where there is a bishop or archbishop.
One of Morph’s easier ones certainly, when I got PRISM and SMOKE AND MIRRORS early on I thought we were in for another totally topical Morph puzzle about the US and other governments tracking all internet traffic and half expected to see Snowden in there.
Thanks RR and Morph, lovely stuff for the train ride but a minor whinge about the paper’s price rise. 🙁
I enjoyed this far more than some of the more recent Thursday puzzles. I knew MPEG so 25dn wasn’t a problem, but even if I hadn’t done the wordplay was extremely clear, and sometimes you just have to trust the wordplay if you don’t know an answer.
Nice one, Morph. I particularly liked the linked clues to 14dn and 17dn – and the implication (to me, anyway) that TIRANA is in that area of Europe where RURITANIA is imagined to lie.
And thanks, RR, I needed your help to parse some of the clues.
re: Flashling @3
Price rise? OOPS! Just handed over usual £1-20 to lady at station and jumped on the train. Start from back, sport and x-word…. haven’t read the excuses yet.
Not as much trouble as the usual Morph
Lovely stuff thank you Morph – the only holdup being the MPEG. Thanks to RR for the explanations too.
Argh! MPEG! Just couldn’t see that. Even thought it might end -eg, but I dismissed the possibility of a word beginning mp-.
Thanks, Michelle – I understand now that “see” was actually part of the definition at 26. The italicisation has been amended accordingly.
Hi everyone. This is the first time I’ve contributed to the site although I’m a regular follower of the blog and your comments.
Thanks for the blog RR, but are you sure your parsing of 18d is correct? My wife assures me that a bra is singular so it and a top only makes two items. However, I couldn’t parse it myself so I guess that must be what Morph intended.
I’d never come across the expression “large it” before and found the “finally” in 13a a bit redundant.
That serves me right. No sooner had I pressed the send button that I realise the plural form means at least two bras plus a top to give the required “at least three”.
I do like a Morph puzzle. They invariably have a contemporary feel to them, with a bit of politics thrown in. The two long down clues, BIOLOGICAL CLOCK and SMOKE AND MIRRORS were among my favourites today. Having teenage children, I have heard LARGE IT; or GO LARGE is the alternative.
Thanks for blogging RR, and welcome to Howard – keep commenting!
@flashling, has the price rise only just reached you? I have been paying the new price all week. If it wasn’t for the crossword I would have stopped buying a long time ago. I hope the setters are getting the lion’s share of the increase
We finished this very late last night after returning from a recording of the News Quiz.
We hadn’t noticed the price rise either but that’s because we buy pre-purchase vouchers which brings the price down considerably!
Thanks RR, welcome to Howard and many thanks to Morph!
Hmm it appears I owe the newsagent 60p then as neither he nor I noticed before yesterday, yes I know I should buy pre purchase vouchers B&J. As for the setters getting more cash at the Indy, it’s rather unlikely as it’s notoriously the lowest paying paper.