I enjoyed this Poins puzzle. Some quite intricate cluing, but all fair. And a bit of bestiality thrown in for good measure.
Possibly the reason that the cluing is intricate is the large number of clues that require insertions – getting on for half of them. Only one full anagram; and no cds or dds (which will please folk that don’t like them). That’s not a criticism, just an observation. If you were just solving it rather than blogging it, you probably wouldn’t have noticed.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Important British novelist extremely rude about TV show
BIG BROTHER
It is a TV show, of course, but most of the target audience of intellectually challenged, bored young people couldn’t tell you that it comes from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. It’s a charade of BIG for ‘important’, B for ‘British’, ROTH for Philip the American author, and ER for the outside letters (‘extremely’) of RudE reversed.
7 Starts to see university student showing sharpness of mind
SUSS
The initial letters of See University Student Showing. My SOED gives ‘know-how’ as one nounal definition of SUSS, so fair enough.
9 Mother leaves rifle with junkie
USER
[MA]USER. MAUSER was a German brand of rifle.
10 Strengthen the borders after rebels capture northern port
INVIGORATE
Slightly elaborate wordplay: it’s TE for the outside letters (‘borders’) of ThE after an insertion of N VIGO for ‘northern port’ in IRA for ‘rebels’.
11 Flyer makes border in record time
EPHEMERA
Poins is referring to the insect genus EPHEMERA; hence ‘flyer’. It’s an insertion of HEM for ‘border’ in EP for ‘record’ and ERA for ‘time’. But since it’s a genus, and grammatically plural, shouldn’t it be ‘flyers’?
Q: What did the male mayfly say to the female mayfly?
A: What do you mean, ‘not tonight darling’?
12 Caught girl wrapping one on the tail of a dog
CANINE
A charade of C for ‘caught’ in cricket, followed by an insertion of I for ‘one’ in ANN and E for the last letter (‘tail’) of thE.
13 Hint of involvement with Capone removed from leader by newspaper boss
EDITOR
A ‘hint of involvement’ is I, ‘Capone’ is as ever AL; that gives you IAL. Remove that from EDITOR[IAL] or ‘leader’ and you’ve got the person responsible for it.
15 Fail to have an effect when cross over lodging in French resort
CUT NO ICE
Are ‘cross’ and CUT synonyms? In the sense of ‘cut across’, I suppose. Then it’s an insertion of O in NICE.
16 Begin short explanatory note on Ecuador in recession
COMMENCE
COMMEN[T] plus CE for the abbreviation for ‘Ecuador’ reversed.
18 Bishop to note turnover at today’s fair
NOT BAD
A reversal of B TO N followed by AD for Anno Domini, or ‘today’.
20 Wood contains Root at first with this type of delivery
BREECH
Joe Root, England’s new batting prospect, is slightly famous for several reasons: he’s one of the most promising English opening batsmen for some time; he got roughed up by an Aussie opponent in a Birmingham nightclub after the Edgbaston test; and he looks about twelve. However, this is naff all to do with cricket deliveries: it’s R for the first letter of Root in BEECH for ‘wood’ and is referring to the delivery of a baby when – for reasons only known to itself – it comes out arse first.
21 Delighted in language education at university
LAPPED UP
A charade of LAPP, ED and UP. LAPP is a member of the Uralic language family spoken in Northern Europe, although some consider it derogatory, preferring the term SAMI.
23 Ghastly Caruso broadcast cut by TV channel
CADAVEROUS
An insertion of DAVE in (CARUSO)* The anagrind is ‘broadcast’ and DAVE is a TV channel on Sky (111, since you ask). So if you ain’t got Sky (or indeed you don’t have a television) you may well not have had a clue what was going on here.
25 One ravished by the French lawyer
LEDA
Well, I stuck it in because it couldn’t be anything else: LE for one of the words for ‘the’ in French and DA for ‘District Attorney’ or (American) lawyer. Turns out that LEDA was a character in Greek mythology, and Zeus, disguised as a swan, had it away with her. Not a pleasant image, although presumably when he offered her his hand in marriage after the coupling, he gave her a cygnet ring. Sorry. My medication should kick in soon.
26 Celebrity performers showing class
TYPE
Hidden in celebriTY PErformers.
27 Simple butcher meant to stab the queen in Ely
ELEMENTARY
Poins can be intricate in his cluing, but it’s perfectly fair. It’s an insertion of (MEANT)* in ER for Elizabeth Regina, then another insertion of all that in ELY. The anagrind is ‘butcher’; ‘to stab’ and ‘in’ are the two insertion indicators.
Down
2 Fashionable princess is upset over prince lacking interest
INSIPID
Nice surface. A charade of IN for ‘fashionable’ and a reversal of P for ‘prince’ in DI IS reversed. I keep telling setters that DI for ‘princess’ is well past its sell-by date, but they never listen.
3 Possibly lighter except for odd bits of grey
BARGE
‘Lighter’ in its boat sense. A charade of BAR and GE for the first and third letters of ‘grey’.
4 Shocked Ivor with Blanche’s offer of reconciliation
OLIVE BRANCH
(IVOR BLANCHE)*
5 Be crazy in hold when sailors get relaxed
HAVE A SCREW LOOSE
A charade of HAVE for ‘hold’, AS for ‘when’, CREW for ‘sailors’ and LOOSE for ‘relaxed’.
6 Key taken from prison doctor
RIG
More sailor references: the prison is BRIG, so it’s [B]RIG, removing the musical key that has has five sharps in its signature.
7 Assistance essentially to manage disease when weak as a result of drug addiction
STRUNG OUT
A charade of ST for the central letters of assiSTance, RUN and GOUT.
8 Ian surprisingly included in new cast of Wicked
SATANIC
Two anagrams and an insertion: of (IAN)* in (CAST)*
12 Switched off as pedant reviewed word processing technique
CUT AND PASTE
A charade of CUT for ‘switched off’ and (AS PEDANT)* with ‘reviewed’ as the anagrind.
14 Abstemious muse mostly found in poetical beauty spot
TEMPERATE
An insertion of ERAT[O] in TEMPE. ERATO was one of the nine Muses, and daughter of Zeus (no swans involved this time). The picturesque vale of TEMPE is in modern Greece. TEMPE was in ancient times celebrated by Greek poets as a favourite haunt of Apollo and The Muses. So there you go. Random factoid: ‘abstemious’ is one of only two common English words to have all five vowels once only in alphabetical order; the other is ‘facetious’.
17 Not exactly you to hold Rex, a boy, as an object of veneration
OUR LADY
An insertion of R LAD in (YOU)*. R for ‘Rex’ in its ‘king’ sense. OUR LADY, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus’ mother, is particularly venerated in the Catholic tradition. Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris is named after her.
19 A subordinate keeping son apart
ASUNDER
An insertion of S in A UNDER.
22 Writing up story about Conservative’s social distinction
ÉCLAT
I’m more used to this word meaning ‘radiance’ or ‘brilliance’, but ‘social distinction’ is indeed definition number three in my SOED. An insertion of C in TALE reversed. ‘Writing up’ is the reversal indicator because it’s a down clue.
24 Topless just as before
ERE
[M]ERE gives you the mainly poetic word for ‘before’. But I’m not convinced that the clue works, since you can’t really substitute ‘just’ for ‘mere’; it would have to be ‘merely’.
Many thanks to Poins for this morning’s puzzle.
I didn’t parse EDITOR so thanks for that, Pierre. Like you said, some intricate wordplay but all fair, and it was a good Sunday morning workout. CADAVEROUS was my LOI.
24D “It was mere [just] bravado”. Many other examples.
Of course, gwep – thank you. And apologies to Poins.
An enjoyable solve, but one or two little niggles. In 12ac the girl could quite easily be ANNE, with a shorter clue, something like “Caught girl wrapping one tooth” – doesn’t make much sense but neither does the original. But I liked the misdirection (intentional or otherwise?) in 5dn where I took “get relaxed” as an anagrind for “hold when sailors”, not that I could make anything sensible from those letters, and a few crossing letters soon put me on the right path.
Thanks, Poins and Pierre
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