In general the clues were pretty clear and obvious – after I had solved them. Before solving they were anything but. This is my definition of a good cryptic.
There were other red herrings in here too. When I spotted W, X and Y appearing early on in the solve I started hunting for a pangram, which was fruitless. Then I saw TUNED appear down the left hand side of the grid, which started another fruitless search for Ninas.
Thank you Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCREAM | Second best’s hilarious (6) |
| S (second) CREAM (best) | ||
| 4 | ADRIFT | Woeful first aid is struck off course (6) |
| (FiRsT AID)* anagram=woeful with IS removed (struck)- definition is ‘off course’ | ||
| 8 | TRAGEDY | Go over old sad event (7) |
| TRY (go) containing (over) AGED (old) | ||
| 9 | ROAD TAX | Duty men return, a tad frustrated and cross (4,3) |
| OR (other ranks, men) reversed (return) with (A TAD)* anagram=frustrated and X (cross) – definition is ‘duty’ | ||
| 11 | UNYIELDING | Indulge in trips round Yankee firm (10) |
| (INDULGE IN)* anagram=trips containing (round) Y (yankee, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 12 | POPE | US writer holds page for poet (4) |
| Edgar Alan POE holds P (page) – for Alexander Pope | ||
| 13 | FRETS | Not all quaff retsina in little bars (5) |
| found inside (not all of) quaF RETSina – little bars on a guitar | ||
| 14 | KITCHENS | Aberdonian knows about long galleys (8) |
| ITCH (long) in KENS (knows, Scots) | ||
| 16 | NECKLACE | Slug left hole in one decorative band (8) |
| NECK (drink, slug) L (left) ACE (hole in one, golf) | ||
| 18 | SPURS | Small prize money cut incentives (5) |
| S (small) PURSe (prize money, cut short) | ||
| 20 | ESPY | Spot cryptic clue for Burgess? (4) |
| Why? I know Guy Burgess was a spy – definition is ‘spot’ | ||
| 21 | HOPPING MAD | No-frills shopping made in high dudgeon (7,3) |
| sHOPPING MADe (missing edges, frills). Neat. | ||
| 23 | DYNASTY | Extremely dirty and unpleasant TV series (7) |
| DirtY (extremes of) NASTY (unpleasant) – 1980s TV show | ||
| 24 | ROMANOV | Nice novel, very old, recalled one of 23 (7) |
| ROMAN (novel, French, as read in Nice) V (very) O (old) reversed (recalled) – one of the House of Romanov, last of the Russian Imperial rulers | ||
| 25 | EASILY | Midshipman drinks one litre, no problem (6) |
| EASY (Midshipman Easy, 1935 film) contains (drinks) I L (one litre) | ||
| 26 | WYVERN | Heraldic device with very strange name (6) |
| W (with) VERY* anagram=strange N (name) – a heraldic dragon | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SIREN | Alluring woman is upset about note (5) |
| IS reversed (upset) RE (about) N (note) | ||
| 2 | RAGTIME | Two contrasting organs’ endless piano music (7) |
| RAG (a cheap newspaper) TIMES (a quality newspaper), two contrasting organs, missing final S (endless) – definition is ‘piano music’ | ||
| 3 | ANDALUSIA | Spanish region, also a large one in the States (9) |
| AND (also) A L (large) I (one) in USA (the States) | ||
| 5 | DROOG | Leave old road going up to see Burgess’ Russian “friend” (5) |
| GO (leave) O (old) RD (road) reversed (going up) – a word meaning ‘friend’ invented by Anthony Burgess in his novel A Clockwork Orange | ||
| 6 | IN-DEPTH | Thorough training of pathfinder may get you this far (2-5) |
| one anagram of PATHFINDER is (will get you) IN-DEPTH (this) FAR | ||
| 7 | TRAPPINGS | Split up police seizing new office equipment (9) |
| PART (split) reversed (up) PIGS (police, slang) containing (seizing) N new – definition is ‘office equipment’ |
||
| 10 | PICK-ME-UPS | Elect Euro politicians tackling top- class medicines (4-2-3) |
| PICK (elect) MEPS (Euro politicians) containing (tackling) U (top-class) | ||
| 13 | FREESTYLE | Stroke loosens part of roof, say (9) |
| FREES (loosens) TYLE sounds like (say) tile (part of roof) | ||
| 15 | TESTIMONY | Blair concealed controversial items in evidence (9) |
| TONY Blair contains (conceals) ITEMS* anagram=controversial | ||
| 17 | KEYPADS | Lily leaves behind Caribbean isle’s TV controllers (7) |
| PADS (lily leaves) following (behind) KEY (Caribbean island) – definition is ‘TV controllers’ | ||
| 19 | UPGRADE | Promote film ratings and read novel (7) |
| U PG (film ratings) and READ* anagram=novel | ||
| 21 | HOTEL | Stolen article from 3 stays here (5) |
| HOT (stolen) EL (definite article, Spanish) – stays in hotel. |
||
| 22 | ACORN | American sailors take care of mast (5) |
| A (American) RN (sailors) contain (take) CO (care of) – mast is the fruit of forest trees such as oak, beech etc | ||
*anagram
Antique thieves steal valuable idols from south Indian temples and spirit them away to other countries. One can imagine that on the long haul, the articles stay in hotels with the crooks. In a box under the cot, perhaps.
Re 7d. Trappings are characteristic accompaniments, adornments, paraphernalia. Nowadays in Chennai the Carnatic musician comes not only with the sruti box but iPad, iPhone and other such accompaniments. The elephants in Kerala Pooram festival sport colourful adornments. In the office all we have is the mundane equipment – PC, pads, pens, pencils, erasers, staplers and so on!
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
Another lovely puzzle from Redshank. Lots of great clues but my favourite was 15dn for its excellent surface.
Another red herring was the double use of Burgess, which got me looking for a theme.
[A wee typo in 9ac: you meant to say X = cross.]
Many thanks, as ever, to Redshank for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
5dn: Chambers says that Anthony Burgess coined ‘droog’ from ‘drug’ which is Russian for a friend. Hence ‘Russian “friend”‘ in the clue.
7dn: Both Chambers and Collins refer to ‘trappings’ in relation to ‘office’, i.e. the trappings of office in terms of a position of power or authority.
21dn: I reckon the definition in this one is “stays here”, as in [there are] stays here (in a hotel).
In 15 dn explanation, a typo needs fixing.
Thanks all, I really should have seen ‘trappings of office’, I was fixated on photocopiers and staplers etc.
Has anyone got any ideas about 20ac – ESPY?
20ac: Guy Burgess was an E[nglish] spy. Maybe that’s it, although he might more often be described as a British spy. I had MOLE for this at first, although it didn’t seem quite right and then didn’t fit with crossers.
All I could think of was that Burgess was a spy for the East hence an E spy — rather unconvincing though.
I puzzled over this, too, but I think I’m with Pandean.
I can’t think of anything else. But if I did see ‘espy’ as a clue in a cryptic I don’t think I would conclude that the solution had to be BURGESS.
Thanks Redshank for an enjoyable puzzle and PeeDee for the blog. My favourite clue was the deceptively simple 21ac.
20ac: I could not explain this either. I think I prefer David@8 to Pandean @7, but agree with David’s last three words.
3dn: A couple of small typos in the blog as I am reading it. The answer is ANDALUSIA (not ANDALISIA), and the last part is “in USA”, not “in US”.
I had originally thought that the ‘off’ in 4A was doing double duty ie as part of the removal indicator (struck off) and then as part of the definition (off course). But maybe not.
Thanks to Redshank and PeeDee
ernie@12 re 4ac: My initial thoughts were the same as yours, but “struck” is a sufficient indicator for removal. Chambers 2008 gives “to delete, cancel” among the definitions of strike vt.
Sadly I ran out of time so didn’t finish but I thoroughly agree with PeeDee’s definition of a good puzzle. I too admired the panache of 21ac. Many thanks as usual, Redshank.