Loroso was on fine form when he set this one, every clue a gem. I nominate all the across clues for special mention, though each of the down clues is equally good. Thank you Loroso!
| Across | ||
| 1 | STANDOFFISH | Cool part of seafood exhibition? (11) |
| a STAND OF FISH might be found at a seafoood exhibition! | ||
| 7 | SAG | It’s good to give (3) |
| SA (it, sex appeal) has (apostrophe s) G (good) – definition is ‘to give’ | ||
| 9 | ALPHA | A pub in Alabama (5) |
| PH (public house) in ALA (Alabama) – definition is ‘A’ | ||
| 10 | OFFENSIVE | Nasty murder – thinking “beheaded” (9) |
| OFF (to murder) pENSIVE (thinking, beheaded) | ||
| 11 | PENDENNIS | Author was wrong about novel (9) |
| PEN (author) SINNED (was wrong) reversed (about) – novel by William Makepeace Thackeray | ||
| 12 | SOUND | Deep well (5) |
| double definition – ‘sea’ and ‘robust’ | ||
| 13 | SHINGLE | Tile – tight one? (7) |
| “shingle” is single (one) slurred like a drunk (tight person) – definition is ’tile’ | ||
| 15 | DROP | Walk away from doctor’s surgery (4) |
| DR (doctor) has OP (surgery) – definition is ‘walk away from’ | ||
| 18 | DRIP | Weakling died – these letters prove it (4) |
| D (died) RIP (rest in peace, letters indicating death) – definition is ‘weakling’ | ||
| 20 | CENTAVO | Foreign money, once exchanged, includes returned tax (7) |
| VAT (tax) reversed in ONCE* exchanged=anagram – a ‘penny’ in one of several Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries | ||
| 23 | AD-LIB | Made-up German newspaper article backfres (2-3) |
| BILD (German newspaper) A (article, indefinite) reversed (backfires) – definition is ‘made-up’ | ||
| 24 | AEROPLANE | Rope knotted, in a way, for crate? (9) |
| ROPE* knotted=anagram in A LANE (way) – definition is ‘crate’, old RAF slang | ||
| 26 | RIGOLETTO | Fiddle, primarily one hired for opera (9) |
| RIG (fiddle) O (first letter of one) LET (hired) TO (for) – opera by Verdi | ||
| 27 | PAINS | Pressure, as in wasted effort (5) |
| P (pressure) (AS IN)* anagram=wasted | ||
| 28 | WAN | Sickly staff given day off (3) |
| WANd (staff) missing D=day | ||
| 29 | INCONTINENT | Unexpectedly going home, and happy about that (11) |
| IN (home) and CONTENT (happy) about IN (that, home again) – definition is ‘unexpectedly going’. Ha ha! | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHARPISH | Sulphur’s abrasive – must protect eye immediately (8) |
| S (sulphur) has HARSH (abrasive) containing (protecting) PI (private investigator, eye) | ||
| 2 | APPENDIX | A couple of pages before index, perhaps? (8) |
| A PP (page, two of) before INDEX* perhaps=anagram – definition is &lit. A super clue. | ||
| 3 | DRAKE | Daughter supported by dissolute explorer (5) |
| D (daughter) on top of (supported by) RAKE (dissolute) | ||
| 4 | FLOUNCE | Stamp showing 1/20 pint? (7) |
| FL OUNCE (fluid ounce, liquid measure) – definition is ‘stamp’, to move abruptly or impatiently | ||
| 5 | INFUSED | News, mostly secondhand, poured in (7) |
| INFo (news, mostly) and USED (secondhand) | ||
| 6 | HANDS DOWN | Easily producing sentences? (5,4) |
| double definition – a judge hands down a sentence | ||
| 7 | SKI RUN | Alpine course seen in flm about sport (3,3) |
| SKIN (film) about RU (rugby union) | ||
| 8 | GREEDY | Starving journalist drably attired? (6) |
| ED (editor, journalist) in GREY (drably attired) – definition is ‘starving’ | ||
| 14 | GARIBALDI | A rude soldier captures patriot (9) |
| A RIBALD (rude) is contained (captured) by GI (soldier) – definition is ‘patriot’, Garibaldi was an Italian politician and general instrumental in the unification of Italy | ||
| 16 | PARASITE | When it penetrates skin it sucks blood (8) |
| AS (when) IT goes into (penetrates) PARE (skin) – definition is ‘it sucks blood’, also &lit | ||
| 17 | SOMERSET | Street location situated beyond unnamed river (8) |
| SET (situated) following (betond) SOME R (unmaned river) – definition is ‘street location’, the town of Street is located in Somerset | ||
| 19 | PLASTIC | Cards most unlikely to be used in snap (7) |
| LAST (most unlikely) in (to be used in) PIC (picture, snap) – credit cards etc | ||
| 20 | CARTOON | Councillor adopting a Newcastle strip? (7) |
| CR (councillor) containing (adopting) A then TOON (nickname for Newcastle United football club) – definition is ‘strip’, as in comics | ||
| 21 | MARROW | Last part of anagram indicator in essence (6) |
| anagraM (last part of) ARROW (indicator) – definition is ‘essence’ | ||
| 22 | FLAGON | Keep sinking a vessel (6) |
| FLAG ON (keep sinking) – definition is ‘vessel’ | ||
| 25 | PEPSI | After training, is about to quaff soft drink (5) |
| IS reversed (about) following PE (training) all containing P (piano, soft) – definition is ‘drink’ | ||
Ref 1ac, Everyman clued this in 3482 as:
14. Cold counter containing cod? (11)
Nick
Hi Nick,
I can’t believe Loroso had seen this, from reading his blog I know he is scrupulous about plagiarism.
Was cod = clue of (the) day too?
Thanks PeeDee and Loroso. Agreed, a splendid, challenging puzzle – needed your help with parsing 7a and 1d.
Thanks for a marvellous blog PeeDee.
Pity about the STANDOFFISH coincidence but it was almost inevitable. Wordplay-wise there isn’t a huge amount on offer, plus of course the immediate breakdown is too good to ignore. I’m just relieved that the wording of the two clues is quite different.
To be honest, when writing a clue based on such an obvious breakdown all you can do is hope to avoid a verbatim repeat – really can’t imagine any setter seeing STAND OF FISH and thinking “I bet no-one’s spotted that before!” – but there’s no practical way to check without expending a silly amount of time on it.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to accuse, just point out the coincidence. As commented, there are a lot of words that get clued by various setters similarly (DIS+TRESSED, ref. Samson spring to mind).
Nick
Anax – out of curiosity, if you had explicitly known a specific and contemporary example of the same clue for the same word, would you have substituted anther word? What is the etiquette on this?
Hi PeeDee.
The only etiquette, really, is that you don’t deliberately plagiarise. But no matter how much effort you put into working a clue, at the back of your mind is the acceptance that someone, somewhere, may have written exactly the same thing. That’s especially true if you’ve gone for an obvious wordplay breakdown. The English language is hugely generous in terms of how it allows us to express definitions (and wordplay devices, of course) but we can’t ignore the fact that it is finite.
Funnily enough, when I find that another setter and myself have almost identically clued an answer I actually get a slight buzz from it; it’s nice to know that a peer/colleague/contemporary thinks the same way as I do.
Enjoyed this one, my first of the day, and those ‘fishy’ clues ate different enough for me!! No problem, a really goos FT puzzle.
Cheers
R.
Thanks, PeeDee.
I agree entirely with your assessment of the across clues – and the down ones 😉 – which leaves very little to say, really, except to express particular admiration for 29ac – a real laugh out loud one.
Huge thanks to Loroso / Anax for another super puzzle and for dropping by with more insights, which are always fascinating.
As usual Eileen and I agree – so if you read what she says just above here, you will know what I think too.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
I screamed in horror when I read the solution to 7ac…
Lynette, have I missed something subtle in 7ac or did you mean 27?
Nothing subtle PeeDee, I just screamed with horror when I saw ‘SA’ clued as ‘IT’ and read the explanation!
Many thanks PeeDee & Loroso for another great puzzle.
You have a typo in 29a with INCONTINENTLY: the LY needs to be removed.
Thanks, fixed now.
I don’t suppose you’re still looking in, Anax, but I’ve just come to this clue in today’s Indy [Morph] puzzle:
5dn: A foreign tabloid promoted with no forethought [2,3].
Very spooky indeed!