The second time I am covering Magwitch and just as pleasurable as the first. Thanks Magwitch for a grid that was just within reach, and not having any alien words. Quite a few clues that I parsed directly without any cross-refs so that got me off to a quick start – The NW quadrant fell first, followed by SW, and then NE and SE in that order. 11d and 19d both caught my fancy.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SHADOW | Dog exhibition receives notice (6) |
| SHOW (exhibition) receives AD (notice) – used in the sense of tailing someone | ||
| 4 | APTITUDE | Bent coppers replace team leader in position (8) |
| P (coppers – Police) replacing T (team leader) in ATTITUDE (position) | ||
| 9 | MUESLI | Minced mule is eaten at breakfast (6) |
| Anagram of MULE IS | ||
| 10 | SECLUDED | Private society avoided getting caught inside (8) |
| S (society) [ELUDED (avoided) getting C (caught inside)] | ||
| 12 | LOUT | Jeer at beheaded hooligan (4) |
| fLOUT (‘Jeer at’ beheaded – without first letter) | ||
| 13 | FORCE | Power held by bailiff or censor (5) |
| Hidden in bailifF OR CEnsor | ||
| 14 | STAR | Main attraction may be a dwarf or a giant (4) |
| Double definition – Dwarf and Giant are both types of stars. A star is the main attraction (of a show). | ||
| 17 | TOTAL ECLIPSE | Liberal police state unfortunately leaves you completely in the dark (5,7) |
| Anagram of L (Liberal) POLICE STATE | ||
| 20 | OUT OF THE BLUE | Unexpectedly excluded from the honour of representing Oxford or Cambridge (3,2,3,4) |
| Cryptic definition – referring to the war on the waters between Oxford and Cambridge (~ the Blue boat) / could also allude to the uniform color | ||
| 23 | MEAN | Common purpose (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | DONOR | Party reject man as a benefactor (5) |
| DO (party) NOR (reject man – RON reversed) | ||
| 25 | SWIM | Introduces sturdy walkway into marshland – the alternative is to sink (4) |
| Initial characters of Sturdy Walkway Into Marshland – reference to the oft used phrase “sink or swim”. | ||
| 28 | KNITWEAR | A winter king dressed in warm clothing (8) |
| Anagram of A WINTER K (king) | ||
| 29 | SCREEN | Score ten without occupational therapy test (6) |
| SCoRE tEN minus OT (occupational therapy) | ||
| 30 | DIGESTED | Taken in by a princess, a Greek goddess, a saint and a small boy (8) |
| DI (princes) GE (Greek goddess – aka GAIA) ST (a saint) ED (a small boy) | ||
| 31 | MORSEL | A bit further south within Luxembourg (6) |
| [MORE (further) with S (south within)] L (Luxembourg) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SIMULATE | Feign upset at 9 (8) |
| Anagram of AT MUESLI (solution to 9ac) | ||
| 2 | ADEQUATE | Middling two notes are the same (8) |
| AD (two notes) EQUATE (are the same) | ||
| 3 | ONLY | Just downplay regularly (4) |
| Even characters of dOwNpLaY | ||
| 5 | PRESCRIPTION | No backsliding after I support advance text laying down the law (12) |
| ON (no backsliding) after I support [PRE (advance) SCRIPT (text)] | ||
| 6 | IDLY | Ideologically disheartened without thinking (4) |
| IDeologicalLY disheartened | ||
| 7 | UPDATE | Well-informed director swallowed an account of the latest developments (6) |
| UP (well-informed, as in keeping up with ..) D (director) ATE (swallowed) | ||
| 8 | ENDURE | Last stop before adventure ends (6) |
| END (stop) URE (adventure ends – last three characters) – I am a bit uncomfortable with this one, with ‘ends’ being part of the clue itself. | ||
| 11 | HOT CHOCOLATE | Terrible toothache when consuming most of cold drink (3,9) |
| Anagram of TOOTHACHE and COLd (most of cold) | ||
| 15 | FLOUR | Bloomer reportedly also made from this (5) |
| Homophone of FLOWER (bloomer) – |
||
| 16 | ASSET | Old savings account turned up something of value (5) |
| 18 | FLAWLESS | Fathom rules about the French perfect (8) |
| F (Fathom) LAWS (rules) about LES (the in French) | ||
| 19 | TERMINAL | Third world ailment turns out to be fatal (8) |
| Anagram of R (third woRld) AILMENT – referring to a type of illness that is fatal – nice clue-in to R, liked it. | ||
| 21 | SMOKED | Preserved sausage meat initially approved (6) |
| SM (sausage meat initially) OKED (approved – to be read as okayed = OK-ED). As a vegetarian getting this clue without any cross-refs, I am happy! 🙂 | ||
| 22 | FACING | Bother about Tory elected on the opposite side (6) |
| FAG (Bother, as in unwelcome task) about [C (Tory, Conservative) IN (elected)] | ||
| 26 | OWES | Has to pay nothing over stitch up (4) |
| O (nothing) over WES (reverse of sew – stitch up) | ||
| 27 | ECHO | Response from Brussels? (4) |
| Possibly an allusion to European Commission based in Brussels. Weak parsing this – any help is appreciated. [ EDIT: ECHO expands to European Community Humanitarian Office – Thanks Rishi ] | ||
*anagram
ECHO expands to European Community Humanitarian Office. I agree that the clue is rather weak.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
I particularly liked HOT CHOCOLATE and TOTAL ECLIPSE.
Re 15dn: a bloomer is a type of loaf.
Re 16dn: ASSET is a reversal [turned up] of TESSA [Tax Exempt Special Savings Account].
I read 27dn as EC HO [exclamation] – but I didn’t like that much, either!
Thanks to Magwitch for an enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks for the expansion of ECHO Rishi – that’s what I had in mind as well but I was hoping that there is something deeper there that I am missing. I even tried looking up connections with sprouts to see if there was something there …
Hi Eileen – Thanks for the tidbit on 15dn. Ref 16dn, while I do think that the proposed parsing is a bit contrived, if indeed the setter intended for TESSA to be reversed, I would have liked to see something other than “…savings account..” as part of the clue. It becomes too literal for my liking otherwise. Not sure if I have articulated this sufficiently .. I will make the edits above, thanks once again!
Thanks to Magwitch for an enjoyable puzzle and to Turbolegs for the explanations.
I wondered if the ECHO was a response from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (NATO has its headquarters in Brussels).
(First attempt to submit this does not seem to have worked, so apologies if it appears twice.)
Thanks Magwitch for a very enjoyable puzzle and Turbolegs for the blog. I really liked 15dn.
4ac: I think the P for coppers here is pence rather than police.
11dn: I think this is really COLd contained in an anagram of TOOTHACHE, not that it matters much.
27dn: I thought of this the same way as Eileen@2. I rather like the idea from crypticsue@4.
Minor issues:
1dn: I am not a fan of cross-referencing between clues whose answers intersect. In this case, I had already solved 9ac before I read 1dn, so it did not affect my solving, but it might have done on another day.
25ac: “Introduces” does not quite work for me as meaning “Initial letters of the following words”.
19dn: Similarly, I am not a fan of “Third world” meaning “Third letter of world”. I have seen various attempts to justify this, but I found none of them convincing.
The above issues are all matters of opinion and I have no quarrel with anyone – including setters – who is happy with the devices used.
Hi Pelham
For some reason that I am unable to determine, your first comment was intercepted by Akismet, the site’s spam filter. The same thing happened to your second attempt but this was probably due to the fact that it contained identical text.
Thanks Gaufrid.
While I am back in, can I also say how much I enjoyed the tidiness of 30ac, building up the eight-letter answer from four parts of two letters each?
Thanks Magwitch and Turbolegs.
In 27dn, I read “from Brussels” as E (European) which seems to tie up nicely with Echo, the communication
code word for the letter e.
How about RACING for 22dn?
Definition ‘in competition against another’, RAG (torment or bother) about (C + IN).
It was no common feat for me to think of a way for MEAN to mean common. Can any one think of a way for mean to mean purpose? Is it purpose as a verb?
Muffyword @9
For “mean” Chambers gives vt to intend, to purpose.
Mike
Thanks mike04 @10
Thanks for the blog and puzzle too, Turbolegs and Magwitch.
Muffyword @9
Sorry, I meant to add these dictionary examples:
“God has allowed suffering, even purposed it.” “I purpose to arrange an interview.”
Mike
Mike – I’ll let you off as long as you didn’t do it on mean.
Generally an enjoyable puzzle, particularly liked “total eclipse ” and “out of the blue”as well as “digested ” and “shadow”.I wouldn’t have got 27 ever.Thanks for the review Turbolegs, and to the setter Magwitch.
I also enjoyed this; thanks Magwitch (and Turbolegs for the blog).
I couldn’t parse ECHO, but I like crypticsue’s NATO idea.
I read 20a as referring to the practice of awarding Blues to athletes who compete at the highest level at university (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_(university_sport)). (How’s that for a Yank? I came across this term when setting a blue-themed pub quiz once.)