Excellent grid from Mudd – a most enjoyable Friday solve. Interesting clues all around, with some gems for good measure (1ac, 17d ). More than the average number of double definitions today.
Progress was steady – especially with getting some of the longer across clues in. It could just be me but I like solving clues such as 7d,8d which I am sure are very simple for most people yet I find some thing to cheer about in how short yet precise they can be. While it might look like the grid is fully solved, I could use help with 10ac .
| Across | ||
| 1 | KISS OF DEATH | So it’s not mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? (4,2,5) |
| Cryptic clue – I got this almost like a brain wave in the shower 🙂 with no crossword in front of me and only the ‘H’ in Death to go with. From wiki elaborating this – Judas’s betrayal of Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane. | ||
| 7 | NIT | Cause of much head-scratching for an idiot (3) |
| double definition – Nit is slang for an idiot, in addition to being a parasitic louse in the hair. | ||
| 9 | ALL IN | No-one out then to get tired? (3,2) |
| Double definition – No-one out means All in, which also means tired/exhausted. | ||
| 10 | FREE LIVER | Glutton needing cash to restrain wind (4-5) |
| FIVER (cash) restraining REEL (wind, as in the verb). |
||
| 11 | STATEMENT | Someone good should frame gallery pieces, it’s said (9) |
| ST (Someone good, Saint) around TATE (gallery) MEN (pieces, as found on a chess board) | ||
| 12 | SACRA | Two-thirds chopped off radius behind bag for bones (5) |
| RA (two thirds off radius chopped off, i.e. lose 4 letters out of the 6) behind SAC (bag) – plural of sacrum, bone in the lower back. | ||
| 13 | CROQUET | Tease round back of keeper in genteel sport (7) |
| COQUET (tease) around R (back of keeper, i.e. last letter) – Game typically associated with society’s cream. | ||
| 15 | COOL | Hip – ice pack applied then? (4) |
| Double definition – Something Hip is Cool (slang usage) | ||
| 18 | EDAM | In red, a mild cheese (4) |
| Hidden in rED A Mild | ||
| 20 | GRENADA | Rock garden on a Caribbean island (7) |
| Anagram of GARDEN, on A – Rock being the anagram indicator | ||
| 23 | TUTOR | Mummy or teacher (5) |
| TUT (Mummy, Tutankhamen, Egyptian boy king) OR | ||
| 24 | GERMINATE | Grow as a regiment after manoeuvres (9) |
| Anagram of A REGIMENT | ||
| 26 | PIMPERNEL | Bird after old pro’s boss left a flower (9) |
| ERNE (bird, sea eagle) after PIMP (old pro’s boss – pro referring to prostitute) L (left) – I was under the impression that this generally referred to the entire plant and not the flower specifically so not too sure if the cluing is precise. | ||
| 27 | LOIRE | French runner, individual into learning (5) |
| I (individual) in LORE (learning) – Runner here means river | ||
| 28 | EYE | Letter read out in organ (3) |
| EYE sounds like the letter I | ||
| 29 | REAGANOMICS | 1980s foreign policy coming, areas needing reform (11) |
| Anagram of COMING AREAS – Referring to economic policies fronted by Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | KNAPSACK | Hiker’s assistant getting sound sleep on bed (8) |
| KNAP (sounds like nap, sleep) on SACK (bed, commonly used in the phrase hit-the-sack) – liked the usage of “sound sleep” | ||
| 2 | SALVADOR | Dish served cold around Vietnamese capital or Brazilian cty (8) |
| SALAD (dish served cold) around V (Vietnamese capital) OR | ||
| 3 | OUNCE | Lightweight prowler (5) |
| Double definition – Ounce is a cat. | ||
| 4 | DEFLECT | Swerve, taking front of lorry through crack (7) |
| L (front of lorry) in DEFECT (crack) | ||
| 5 | ASEPTIC | Clean space, it having become messy (7) |
| Anagram of SPACE IT | ||
| 6 | HOLY SMOKE | What emerges at the choosing of a Pope? Good grief! (4,5) |
| Double definition – At the choosing of a pope, white smoke emerges from the Sistine Chapel. Its black smoke if there was no clear majority during the meeting. Good grief is an exclamation just as Holy Smoke is. And the reason I got this straightaway was because I set this as a Quiz question in an event I did last week. | ||
| 7 | NOVICE | Learner ill-equipped for clamping? (6) |
| Charade of NO VICE i.e. without any gear for clamping | ||
| 8 | TARTAN | Material, sweet and short! (6) |
| TART (sweet) ANd (and short) | ||
| 14 | UNDERWEAR | Ruder, a new sort of bra, perhaps? (9) |
| Anagram of RUDER A NEW | ||
| 16 | PAGANINI | Old bower, non-Christian in one (8) |
| PAGAN (non-christian) IN I (one) – Niccolo Paganini, a phenomenal italian violinist. | ||
| 17 | FACELESS | Unidentifiable female, unable to beat a king? (8) |
| F (female) ACELESS (unable to beat a king – in most games of cards, an Ace would beat a King). | ||
| 19 | MAGENTA | Parent superior to bloke, a shade (7) |
| MA (Parent) GENT (Bloke) A | ||
| 20 | GORILLA | Some fish to catch or a huge beast (7) |
| Double definition – initially before I had cross refs, I had penned the answer as Giraffe, as apparently there is a type of fish called the Giraffe fish. | ||
| 21 | STAPLE | Main fastener (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | STYMIE | Block is yet to be redeveloped, a thousand squatting? (6) |
| Anagram of IS YET containing M (a thousand) | ||
| 25 | IGLOO | White House fool gives up shackles (5) |
| Hidden (in reverse) in fOOL GIves – up is the reverse indicator, and shackles means losing the ends of the words – f,ves in this case. I was well mislead by White House in the clue and was conjuring all sorts of answers with a recent ex-president. 🙂 | ||
*anagram
I solved 10ac as FREE-LIVER — reel (wind?) in fiver (cash).
Thanks a lot Coby – that indeed does make a lot more sense !!
Thanks Turbolegs and Paul,
I answered and parsed 10ac as Coby@1, with reel as in the sense of reel or wind in (a fishing line).
Hi Muffyword – Its just that the term “feed lever” seems to be a very plausible term and it fit the clue quite well, so I was hoping for google to tell me that it is some fancy item that controls louvers in a window of some sort and blocks the wind 🙂 This is indeed true wishful thinking.
It didnt help that I have never come across the term “free liver” although I really should have got it by dissecting the clue.
Hi Turbolegs,
I came across FREE LIVER in another crossword once, but never before that.
PS I think ‘flower’ is often used to refer to flowering plants as a whole, as well as their pretty bit.
Lovely crossword – on the easy side for Mudd I thought.
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
For 20D, I came up with the same answer, but from a different approach – not a double definition.
Part of a fish is GILL surrounding OR and followed by A
A lovely straightforward piece of entertainment – such fun that I will even forgive the return of the dratted crossword cat (there are more of them in crosswords than in the wild these days).
Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs.
Hi AID @7
Sorry you had to try and post your comment three times and it still didn’t appear. It was intercepted by Akismet, the spam filter, for some reason that I’m unable to determine.
8d – Surely tart does not men sweet, but the opposite?
Hi Richard A.
You may well have an apple (or other fruit) tart for pudding (dessert, sweet).
Thanks Mudd for an enjoyable puzzle and Turbolegs for the blog.
I took 20dn the same way as AID@7.
I must quibble with the definition at 13ac: I think croquet is one of the most vicious games around.