Klingsor’s puzzle today was a fair workout for a Thursday.
There were a couple of lesser known words / phrases, for me at least, in the top left hand corner with GRAFFITO (1 across) rather than GRAFFITI and ROGER DE COVERLEY (2 down). I thought the clue for GRAFFITO was clever in its use of ‘walls’ as a containment indicator. I had vaguely heard of the name but didn’t realise that it was the name of a dance. I liked the clueing of GRASS as a component part forming a container at 11 across GRAS (S ROOT) S even though GRASS was also present as the first five letters of the entry.
There was good misdirection in the clues – e.g. ‘present’ in the clue to 10 across, ‘South Africans’ in 15 across when what we wanted was simply Africans, and Gore Vidal novel at 7 down where ‘gore’ was indicating containment and ‘novel’ was indicating an anagram.
I don’t think this was quite as hard as some Thursday puzzles , but I enjoyed it very much.
|
Across |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay |
Entry |
|
1
|
For it good new walls are favoured primarily (8)
|
Anagram of (new) (FOR IT and G [good]) contains (walls) AF (first letters of [primarily] ARE and FAVOURED) GR (AF) FITO* |
GRAFFITO (a mural scribbling or drawing, as by schoolboys and idlers at Pompeii, Rome, and other ancient cities) &Lit clue
|
|
6
|
Light-heartedness from Jewish priest not entirely unknown (6)
|
LEVITE (subordinate priest of the ancient Jewish Church;) excluding the final letter (not entirely) E + Y (common indicator of an unknown in mathematics)
|
LEVITY (light-heartedness)
|
|
8
|
For example, one blocking ring road is selfish sort (6)
|
E.G. (for example) + (I [one] contained in [blocking] [O {ring} + ST {street; road}]) EG O (I) ST |
EGOIST (a person who thinks and speaks too much of himself or herself or of things as they affect himself or herself; selfish sort)
|
|
10
|
One’s present to nurse is wrapped by a supporter (8)
|
TEND (nurse) contained in (wrapped by) (A + TEE [supporter {of a golf ball}]) A T (TEND) EE |
ATTENDEE (one who is present)
|
|
11
|
Special grub in pot is appealing to ordinary folk (5-5)
|
(S [special] + ROOT [grub]) contained in (in) GRASS (marijuana; pot) GRAS (S ROOT) S |
GRASS-ROOTS (ordinary folk)
|
|
12
|
Attention-seeker sent back some ham sandwiches (4)
|
AHEM (hidden word [sandwiches] reversed [sent back] in SOME HAM) AHEM< |
AHEM (used to draw attention to oneself or to express a reservation, as though clearing the throat. This word was also clued by Azed in a crossword I blogged last Sunday as Attention-seeker, one on fringe
|
|
13
|
Leaving Las Vegas’s young female star (4)
|
VEGA (the letters that remain when LASS [young female] is excluded from [leaving] LAS VEGAS)
|
VEGA (the first-magnitude star – alpha Lyrae.
|
|
15
|
One stops playing the piano with South Africans (10)
|
(I [one] contained in [stops] an anagram of (playing) THE PIANO) + S (south) ETH (I) OPIAN* S |
ETHIOPIANS (Africans)
|
|
17
|
After a day Jack and the others return to find Caribbean island (10)
|
MON (Monday; a day) + ([TAR {sailor; Jack} + REST {the others}] all reversed [return]) MON (TSER RAT)< |
MONTSERRAT (island in the Caribbean)
|
|
18
|
Witty saying by husband, one famous for eating habits (4)
|
MOT (witty saying) + H (husband)
|
MOTH (cloth eating larva of the clothes MOTH)
|
|
19
|
Considered Buñuel’s article in paper (4)
|
EL (Spanish for ‘the’, the definite article; Luis Buñuel [1900 – 1983] was a Mexican/Spanish film maker) contained in (in) FT (Financial Times; paper) F (EL) T |
FELT (considered)
|
|
20
|
Idiot’s caught out entertaining with short story revealing lovers’ bedroom conversation (6,4)
|
(PILLOCK [idiot] excluding [out] C [caught)] containing (entertaining) (W [with] + TALE [story] excluding the final letter [short] E) PILLO (W TAL) K |
PILLOW TALK (talk between lovers in bed))
|
|
22
|
It causes bad reaction generally, when cut out (8)
|
Anagram of (out) (GENERALLY excluding the final letter [cut] Y)
|
ALLERGEN (any substance that induces an abnormally sensitive [bad] reaction)
|
|
23
|
Managed to get some coppers, being badly off? (6)
|
RAN (managed) + CID (Criminal Investigation Department; some coppers)
|
RANCID (rank in smell or taste; badly off)
|
|
24
|
Perhaps native Yankee will appear in advert, being penniless (6)
|
Y (Yankee is the International Radio Communication code word for the letter Y)) contained in (will appear in) (POSTER [advert] excluding […less] P [penny]) O (Y) STER |
OYSTER (native is descriptive of an OYSTER raised in an artificial bed)
|
|
25
|
Got holy doctrine finally sorted out, studying it? (8)
|
Anagram of (sorted out) (GOT HOLY and E [last letter of {finally} DOCTRINE])
|
THEOLOGY (study of God, religion and revelation; one studying this should understand [get sorted out] the holy doctrine) &Lit clue
|
| Down | |||
|
2
|
Drunken old codger beginning to enjoy revelry and dance (5,2,8)
|
Anagram of (drunken) (O [old] and CODGER and E [first letter of {beginning to} ENJOY} and REVELRY)
|
ROGER DE COVERLEY (an English country dance)
|
|
3
|
Fellow presses buzzers (5)
|
F (fellow) + LIES (presses; LIE against = press against))
|
FLIES (FLIES buzz around)
|
|
4
|
English referee’s shown up after Italian footballers step in (9)
|
INTER (reference F C INTERnazionale Milano, an Italian football team, almost always written as INTER Milan) + ([E {English} + REF {referee}] all reversed [shown up; down clue]) INTER (FER E)< |
INTERFERE (intervene; step in)
|
|
5
|
Possibly Earth not one’s home to produce scheme so unrealistic (2,7,6)
|
Anagram of (possibly) EARTH NOT ONE containing (home to) PLAN (produce scheme) ON ANOTHER (PLAN) ET* |
ON ANOTHER PLANET (not in touch with reality)
|
| 6 |
Bumpkin’s needing time to climb tree (5)
|
LOUT‘S (bumpkin’s) with the T (time) climbing up (to climb; own clue) the word to form LOTUS
|
LOTUS (North African tree)
|
|
7
|
Gore Vidal novel with an exotic sexual practice? It could be smashing stuff (9)
|
AN contained in (gore) an anagram of (novel) VIDAL + SM (sadomasochism; erotic sexual practice) V (AN) DALI* SM |
VANDALISM (wanton destruction of property; could be smashing stuff)
|
|
8
|
We’ll never know why the election result’s held up? (6,2,7)
|
THERE’S NO TELLING (there are no people to count the votes [TELLers])
|
THERE’S NO TELLING (one cannot possibly know or predict)
|
|
14
|
An unpleasant person takes article by force? Such measures should stop him (9)
|
AN + (TIT [unpleasant fellow] containing [takes] [THE {definite article} + F {force}]) AN TI (THE F) T |
ANTITHEFT descriptive of a device or measures that protect against things being taken [by force])
|
|
16
|
Dismissed embittered crew regularly, to use external workforce (9)
|
OUT (dismissed [in cricket for example]) + SOUR (embittered) + CE (1st and 3rd [regularly] letters of CREW)
|
OUTSOURCE (use external workforce or contractor)
|
|
20
|
Electronic device has buttons on right (5)
|
PAGE (reference Buttons the page boy in Cinderella) + R (right)
|
PAGER (electronic device)
|
|
21
|
According to key Academician, under 100 will take Latin (5)
|
TON (100 e.g.as a batsman’s score in cricket) + A (academician) + L (latin)
|
TONAL(according to key [musical terminology]
|
A pretty tough workout, my last ones in the crossing antitheft (carelessly stuck in antitrust originally) and allergen.
As indicated in the preamble, I think the word Africans should be underlined in the Clue column for 15A.
Thanks to Klingsor and duncanshiell.
Thank you to blogger, particularly for parsing of 11 and 20a which I couldn’t work out. For 7, I took ‘gore’ to indicate that ‘Vidal’ was “holed” or had the middle letter ‘d’ removed = VIAL, ‘novel’ as anagrind, ‘exotic’ (my version of the puzzle has ‘exotic’ rather than ‘erotic’) anagrind for ‘sexual practice’ = S AND M.
Thanks also to Klingsor – a bit gentler than I’d been expecting!
gwep@1
Now underlined – thanks
I agree that this wasn’t as difficult as some Thursday puzzles but it was an enjoyable solve with some inventive cluing and amusing definitions, such as “one famous for eating habits” for MOTH. LOTUS was my LOI after FLIES and GRASS ROOTS.
WordPlodder @ 2
Thanks – ‘erotic’ is a typo on my part so I didn’t see ‘exotic’ when solving the clue. Now corrected.
I have used ‘gore’ meaning to pierce and have ‘pierced’ an anagram of VIDAL with AN. Both Collin and Chambers give SM as an abbreviation for sadomasochism although I recognise the phrase ‘S and M’ is also used.
Re 1a: Only ‘one cornetto’ but two cornetti. One spaghetto wouldn’t be much use, rather many spaghetti! (Italian s/pl.)
Otherwise a good puzzle and blog with many witty aspects.
@6 Heather McKay, I think the seldom-used singular “graffito” has the sense of a piece, or specimen, of writing (on walls etc).
An excellent puzzle from Klingsor as always. Noticeable how often he uses a clever word for containment: for example walls (1ac), stops (15ac), home to (5dn) etc.
Wil true, i got caught trying to use nurse as a container in 10a.
nice one K and thanks Duncan.
Thanks Duncan. A late start as usual and we were too tired to look any further at 1ac our LOI. An electronic search then helped complete the puzzle!
All good stuff from Klingsor – lots of misdirections and we also liked the definition for 18ac.
Thanks Klingsor for the challenge – very enjoyable!