The gaffer’s called me off the bench this morning to replace flashling, who’s recovering from an eye operation he underwent this weekend. So first things first – a speedy recovery to him. And as for the puzzle: a typical offering from Quixote, but one or two that I had difficulty with. However, it’s still a crossword I’d recommend to my friends who are trying to master the world of cryptics.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Plant‘s given water by this person outside front of shed
SESAME
An insertion of S for the first letter of ‘shed’ in SEA and ME for ‘this person’.
4 Yon church man covered with traditional roof material
THATCHED
A charade of THAT for ‘yon’ – as in ‘yon churchyard’ – CH for ‘church’ and ED for ‘man’.
9 Hill hiding lake that provides fish
BLENNY
Not my favourite ever Quixote clue. It’s fair, but BENNY for ‘Hill’ is asking a bit of the solver if you haven’t got any crossers. Anyway, it’s L in BENNY.
10 One receiving property sees gain after transfer
ASSIGNEE
(SEES GAIN)* The anagrind is ‘after transfer’.
11 Say one tiny fellow comes in after time? It’s OK
LEGITIMATE
Bit of parsing to be done here: it’s an insertion of EG I TIM in LATE for ‘after time’. TIM is the ‘tiny fellow’: TINY TIM from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. ‘God bless us, everyone!’.
13 Ring accepted by hysterical lover
CALL
Hidden in hysteriCAL Lover.
15 New air hostess flying shows quality needed during one sort of journey
SEAWORTHINESS
(NEW AIR HOSTESS)* with ‘flying’ as the anagrind.
17 Rented accommodation in which mad cousin Chloe entertains us
COUNCIL HOUSES
An insertion (‘entertains’) of US in (COUSIN CHLOE)* Ah yes, that accommodation that used to house the less well-off before the Iron Lady decided to sell off said housing stock to fill up the Treasury coffers.
21 Press wants removal of undesirables first off
URGE
[P]URGE.
22 Refusing to change when energy is limited – a vain exercise of modern times?
EGO-SURFING
Well, Quixote is more up-to-date with modern phraseology than I am, because this was a new one on me. It’s an insertion of E GO for ‘energy’ in (REFUSING)* and is referring to the habit of putting your own name into Google or another search engine and seeing how many results you get. I don’t think I’ll be bothering to do that myself.
24 Unrestricted in restaurant choice, Clara ate stew
A LA CARTE
This is a puzzle intended for improving solvers, don’t forget. (CLARA ATE)*
25 To eat a lot may be very good, but disease ensues
PIG OUT
Nice surface. It’s a charade of PI (short for ‘pious’ and only ever heard in Crosswordland) and GOUT, which in fact is not a disease of old men who have imbibed too much port. Young folk get it too. And the pain has been described as ‘men’s childbirth’. Which since happily I’ve never suffered from it, I can’t say is accurate or not.
26 What the increasingly greedy want unceasingly
EVERMORE
A dd.
27 Goddess shown on the outside of uranium plant
CEREUS
An insertion of U for the chemical symbol for uranium in CERES, the Roman goddess of agriculture. And it’s a plant, so you need to know a bit about ancient goddesses and a bit about botany to solve the clue. That’s what crosswords are meant to make you do.
Down
1 Animation coming with first-half upset not immediately obvious?
SUBTLE
Quixote’s turning into Pasquale here, I fancy. ‘Animation’ is BUSTLE; reverse the first three letters, or half of the word, and you’ve got your answer.
2 Gets rid of sounds in smooth-running vehicles
SLEIGHS
A homophone of SLAYS.
3 Holy vessel that could be fashioned by Normans, etc
MONSTRANCE
(NORMANS ETC)* A vessel used in the Catholic and Anglican traditions to display or show the Eucharistic host. Related etymologically to DEMONSTRATE, and in French, montrer.
5 Delays one found in the likes of Paddington, explosive having been found earlier
HESITATIONS
I was trying to fit our Peruvian ursine friend in somewhere, but in fact it’s the station he’s named after. It’s HE for ‘high explosive’ followed by I in STATIONS.
6 Neat edging at bottom of garment
TRIM
A charade of T for the last letter of ‘garment’ and RIM for ‘edging’.
7 In kitchen ban every poison
HENBANE
Hidden in kitcHEN BAN Every. It sounds like it’s out of Harry Potter, but it is in fact a poison in the Muggle world.
8 Fighter that ought to be paid still in action
DUELLIST
Pistols at dawn. A charade of DUE and (STILL)*
12 Doctor on boat is someone who’s got an extra job
MOONLIGHTER
A charade of MO, one of the abbreviations for ‘doctor’, ON and LIGHTER.
14 It’s wrong to show lack of respect to Her Majesty, an immoral habit
DISSERVICE
A charade of DISS for ‘show lack of respect’ (ask a teenager if you don’t know it), ER for Brenda, and VICE.
16 A Conservative minister telling it like it is
ACCURATE
Another charade: of A, C and CURATE. I so want to comment on the inaccuracy of the surface here, but there is blood all over my keyboard from having bitten my tongue so hard, so I can’t.
18 A rude GP out to improve
UPGRADE
(A RUDE GP)* The anagrind is ‘out’.
19 One may be up the mountains making jump with shout of approval
SKI POLE
A charade of SKIP and OLE, the Spanish shout of approval.
20 Stones put up to support cooker
AGATES
A charade of SET reversed (‘put up’) supporting (underneath) AGA for the middle-class cooker.
23 Female member in agricultural business
FARM
A charade of F and ARM.
Many thanks to Quixote for this morning’s puzzle.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
22a is GO (energy) limited by anagram of “refusing” = E(GO)-SURFING. Not something I plan to do soon either.
I liked this puzzle. Some not too challenging clues but a few more difficult ones eg BLENNY (yes to do cryptics you need to know about various obscure species of fish as well as botany and mythology!), LEGITIMATE and PIG OUT.
Thanks, WordPlodder. I did of course mean GO for 22ac.
At 27 across, not knowing the plant I had a John McEnroe moment. “You cannot be cereus”.
(Just getting my coat.)
I found some of this a little harder than the usual Quixote puzzle, specifically the NW and 27ac.
Eventually seeing the wordplay for LEGITIMATE finally opened up the NW for me because of the helpful “g” checker it provided for 2dn, and after that the NW fell into place quickly, although MONSTRANCE was an educated guess from the anagram fodder. CEREUS was my LOI after I decided that CERES was indeed the god being referred to, although I wasn’t 100% sure that there wasn’t another one that would have fitted ?E?ES.
I’d keep your coat on for the rest of the day, Conrad … however, makes a change from the Dog Star/McEnroe one.
I found this tricky in places, particularly the 1/9 combination. “Animation” is one of those vague words that there seem to be too many possibilities to think of anything easily and I only got blenny because I thought of ben for hill, which turned out to be wrong but fortunately was close enough to reveal the answer. Cereus was one of those where you just have to go consult the dictionary because it can’t be anything else.