When you see Morph’s name on a puzzle, you know you’re going to have a few smiles when solving it. No exception here: bit of cricket, bit of politics, bit of current affairs, bit of getting down with the kids … When I finally got my hands on a paper, it didn’t take too long to pin it down, but the entire crossword was a delight.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Great show of British power
POMP
A charade of POM for the Australian word for Brits and P.
4 Ask why I’m drunk? Note what I’m drinking perhaps
WHISKY MAC
Great surface. (WHY IM DRUNK)* (ASK WHY IM)* in fact, with ‘drunk’ as the anagrind (thank you to Polly), plus C for the first note of the musical scale.
9 Predator ripped apart one running away from viewer
TEARDROP
Nice misdirection. It’s (PREDATOR)*
10 Conveyed to west and east to make investment
ENROBE
More clever misdirection. A reversal of BORNE is followed by E and it’s a House of Lords type investment. Lib Dems are advised not to mention the House of Lords at all today.
11 Bottom hospital in that regard
AS SUCH
Not just any hospital, but University College Hospital, London. A charade of ASS and UCH.
12 Marks next to ‘blood group’, ‘doesn’t drink‘
ABSTAINS
AB for a less common blood group followed by STAINS.
13 Irrelevant as the end of the sentence?
BESIDE THE POINT
A cd. A POINT, or full stop, comes at the end of a sentence.
16 Cross-dressing female lawyer taking drug that’s bad for health
TRANS FATTY ACID
Interesting concept in the surface and another clever clue. It’s a charade of TRANS, F, ATTY and ACID. I presume TRANS is an abbreviation for TRANSVESTITE, but I don’t move in the same circles as the setter, so I can’t be certain.
18 Solicitor taking on man’s name mostly to escape
GET OUT OF
An insertion of TOUT in GEOF[F].
20 Reluctant woman marrying – not the first or last to get cross
HYBRID
There are some delightful surfaces in this puzzle. [S]HY BRID[E].
22 Front-of-house to cut down on lighting and install air-conditioning
FACADE
An insertion of AC in FADE
23 Deer retreating, like puss? They’re loosely bound for Reading
BOOKLETS
Morph is suggesting that you insert KLE for a reversal of ELK in BOOTS. As in Puss in Boots.
24 Electronic musicians, female, shaking booty after throwing back chest
KRAFTWERK
Priceless. It’s a reversal of ARK for ‘chest’ followed by F and TWERK. To TWERK is to lean forward, stick your arse out and wiggle it in a sexually provocative manner. It’s difficult to do this tastefully, as Miley Cyrus has discovered. KRAFTWERK are a German band from the 1970s who were pioneers of electronic music. Still going strong, I think.
25 Queen in science fiction who got into bondage
SERF
An insertion of ER for Brenda in SF. Can’t image Brenda ever having done S&M, can you? ‘Pass one that studded dog collar this instant, Philip.’ Naah.
Down
2 Pets? Old animal sanctuary taking on a thousand, to breach limit
OVERSTEP THE MARK
Took me ages to see this. OVERSTEP gives you ‘pets’ via reversal; then it’s an insertion of M for ‘a thousand’ in THE ARK, in which Noah provided sanctuary for all the animals on the earth, as long as they came in two by two.
3 Concealed in copper duct
PERDU
I originally entered CORNU, a medical term that seemed to fit the definition of ‘duct’. But then ORN for ‘concealed’ didn’t make sense. I finally spotted that it was hidden in copPER DUct. I’ve always known it from the French for ‘lost’, but the ‘concealed’ definition is in my SOED, so fair play.
4 Good-for-nothing drunken Welsh short
WORTHLESS
(WELSH SORT)*
5 Criticise what looks like principle of single-member constituencies?
IMPEACH
Funny clue. If we had single-member constituencies, we’d have 1 MP EACH.
6 Smooth over bases of vessels
KEELS
A reversal of SLEEK.
7 Spread’s pointless – time to have a cocktail
MARGARITA
The two points of the compass are N and E; take them off the end of MARGARI[NE], add T and A, and you’re ready for a popular cocktail.
8 Nice man is bitter after reshuffle, no longer being one?
CABINET MINISTER
You’ll often get some political stuff in Morph’s puzzles, which I for one enjoy. (NICE MAN IS BITTER)* and what we might call an ‘extended definition’ clue.
14 Woman that a Roman impresario kept when up-and-coming
INAMORATA
Hidden reversed in thAT A ROMAN Impresario.
15 Pawn’s desire to get king with multi-pronged tool
PITCHFORK
A charade of P ITCH FOR K.
17 A f-falsehood that’s benign
AFFABLE
A charade of A, F and FABLE.
19 Online communication time after time containing leak
TWEET
The online messaging service that’s got lots of people in trouble through indiscreet use. It’s WEE in two Ts.
21 Rubbish deliveries
BALLS
A lot of rubbish deliveries is what the English bowlers have been sending down over the last couple of months. It’s a dd. Deliveries in cricket are BALLS and BALLS! is an interjection meaning ‘rubbish!’ Which this puzzle certainly was not. Thanks to Morph for the entertainment.
We have to go to Gatwick mid afternoon to pick up No2 son from his travels so I won’t be able to comment later so I just wanted to agree with Pierre that it is an excellent puzzle.
Thank you Morph – a great start to Monday morning.
It’s up now folks.
There were certainly some IT problems earlier in the day. The first puzzle that was loaded was the Hob one from Xmas day that was repeated a few days later, and a couple of hours later it was replaced by a Quixote puzzle from two or three weeks ago (which I did again because I couldn’t remember too much about it). I finally got access to the correct puzzle mid-afternoon.
I’m writing this pre-blog posting, but I did it online so I know I didn’t make any mistakes, and it was indeed a very enjoyable puzzle. I initially entered BOOKLETS from the definition, although I finally saw the wordplay shortly after I completed the puzzle. Very clever. I also enjoyed seeing “twerk” make an appearance in the clue for KRAFTWERK. SERF was my LOI after BALLS.
Excellent puzzle and great blog. Love the non-PC elements. I’d got KRAFTWERK, but no idea why, so found the explanation really funny. As for 21d, least said. How many more ways to snatch defeat from the jaws etc?
Thanks to both.
Just in case anyone thinks they’re in a time warp, the comments from my earlier placeholder have now been transferred here, thanks to the ever-efficient Gaufrid.
A busy day then Pierre, two and a half blogs in one day. Thanks for as such as i completely missed the uch for hospital and wondered what assuc was…. Many thanks to the rhyming tweeter Morph.
There’s a neat irony cluing Kraftwerk, who usually don’t move at all during concerts, with twerk. I thought this was a lovely puzzle, which was full of invention. The puss in boots idea was brilliant.
Great stuff. I don’t normally have time for a daily puzzle, but this kept me chortling audibly during a bus journey on which most of the other passengers were silently jabbing at their smartphones (and no doubt marking me down as a dinosaur, with my pen and paper). Small correction to Pierre’s slip of the keys re 4ac: the anagram fodder is ASK WHY I’M + C.
Thank you for the correction at 4ac, Polly. Put it down to a slightly stressy morning and too much haste in writing up the blog.
Thanks Morph for a puzzle with a lot of very enjoyable material and Pierre for the blog.
24ac: My copy (printed from Crossword Solver) says “shake” not “shaking” in the clue, which gets the cryptic grammar right. From the definition Pierre has given I am wondering if “booty” is a typo for “botty”.
Well done Pierre for managing to sort out the blog under difficult circumstances.
Well worth it in the end – an excellent puzzle.
Thanks Morph for a great start to the week!
@Pelham, alas booty is right, dead tree has shake too.
Apologies, it is ‘shake’. My copy typing’s not what it should be.
Thanks Pierre, glad you all liked it… TWERK being part of KRAFTWERK was irresistible. And I think the Americanism ‘booty’ fits better here than ‘botty’, which (to me, anyway) conjures up images of changing nappies.