It has been a while since I have solved and blogged a puzzle by Donk, so I attacked this morning’s challenge with gusto.
There are a fair few short entries in this grid, and not that many longer ones, so there are more clues to grapple with here than with many grids, as I noticed when I came to blogging the puzzle.
I enjoyed tackling this puzzle, not least for its sauciness (in 1A, 8, etc), but overall I would have to acknowledge that Donk had the upper hand. I needed to cheat to get 11, which was new to me, and then realised I had made a mistake at 5. There are also various bits of wordplay that escape me, and I would be grateful for any input from fellow solvers so that I can update the blog later. I have no idea whatsoever about 22, either wordplay or definition; can G be “girl” in 21?; can anyone think of a context in which CUP can mean “hold” in 27? I don’t know whether I was not quite on form today, or whether Donk’s clueing was particularly fiendish. What do others think? Thanks to one and all – I have now amended the blog accordingly.
My clues of the day, and there is a lot to admire here, would be 10, for its deceptive surface, and 17, for sheer flair and originality.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | NO-BRAINER | It’s obvious why US nurse droops!
Cryptically, and somewhat saucily, a US nurse (in the television series ER, say) would droop if she has no bra on, hence “no bra in ER” |
| 06 | JESUS | In Paris, I’m not one for college
JE SU<i>S (=I’m, i.e. I am in French); “not one (=I)” means letter “i” is dropped; there is a Jesus College at universities in both Oxford and Cambridge |
| 09 | DRUID | Priest produced entertaining tips for religious upbringing
R<eligious> U<pbringing> (“tips” means first letter only) in DID (=produced) |
| 10 | WAGE SLAVE | Worker leaves ground after striker’s miss
WAG (=striker’s miss, i.e. a wife or girlfriend of a footballer) + *(LEAVES); “ground” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | SUBWOOFER | Bass player’s underdog
Cryptically, a sub-woofer could be an under-dog; a subwoofer is actually a loudspeaker for reproducing the lowest frequencies |
| 12 | INLET | Every other signal sent sound
<s>I<g>N<a>L<s>E<n>T (“every other” means alternate letters only are used) |
| 14 | BASED | Located 4th foot?
Cryptically, BASE D could be the 4th foot in a series in which BASE A is the 1st foot |
| 16 | ASIDE | Where single may be found away from others
A single may be found on the A-side of a record |
| 18 | EAT | Put away leather hides
Hidden (“hides”) in “lEATher” |
| 19 | ADO | Trouble with Gregorian calendar, this year’s missing!
AD 0 as a year does not figure in the Gregorian calendar, with AD 1 coming straight after BC 1 |
| 20 | ETHOS | Standards of cycling things just mentioned
THOS-E (=things just mentioned); “cycling” suggests that the last letter moves round to become the first, etc |
| 21 | BARGE | Girl exposed round bump
G (=girl) in BARE (=exposed); to barge can mean to bump into, as a verb |
| 22 | HITCH | Check target for chopper’s pine
H (=target for chopper, i.e. marking on helipad) + ITCH (=to pine); a check is a hitch, snag catch |
| 23 | INDENTURE | Popular choice of champers leads to contract
IN DENTURE (popular choice of “champers”, i.e. (false) teeth); an indenture is a deed under seal where the edge is indented to enable authenticity to be confirmed |
| 25 | ARMADILLO | Animal laid out on branch – look!
ARM (=branch) + *(LAID) + LO (=look); “out” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | A-LIST | Non-dreamer, not concerned with celebs
<re>ALIST (=non-dreamer); “not concerned with (=RE)” means letters “re” are dropped |
| 27 | CUPPA | Hold secretary’s drink
CUP (=hold) + PA (=secretary, i.e. Personal Assistant) |
| 28 | OUTRIGGER | Boat you originally abandoned with Dave’s mate!
<y>OU (“originally abandoned” means first letter dropped) + TRIGGER (+ Dave’s mate, i.e. in Only Fools and Horses, where Trigger always referred to Rodney as Dave) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | NUDIST BEACH | On vacation, could I sunbathe naughtily here?
*(C<oul>D I SUNBATHE); “on vacation” tells us to drop all but the first and last letters; “naughtily” is anagram indicator; & lit-ish |
| 02 | BLURB | Smear black stuff on jacket
BLUR (=smear) + B (=black); the jacket referred to is that on a book |
| 03 | ANDROID | With staff, I employed robot
AND + [I in ROD (=staff)] |
| 04 | NEWSFLASH | Dancing Welsh fans providing immediate update
*(WELSH FANS); “dancing” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | ROGER | Do // okay
Double definition: ROGER can mean “do”, as a verb, i.e. have sexual intercourse with AND understood, “okay”, in radio telecommunications |
| 06 | JUSTICE | Amends cocktail, no spirits/mixers
Cryptically, a cocktail with no spirits/mixers would be “just ice” |
| 07 | SMALL BEER | Inconsequential result of not pulling enough
Cryptically, a small beer would result if the barmaid couldn’t pull a proper pint! |
| 08 | SUE | Woman’s fat bottom pinched
SUE<t> (=fat); “bottom pinched” means last letter dropped |
| 13 | TO THE LETTER | Exactly where hire fee goes
Cryptically, a hire fee would go to the person letting out the property, i.e. the letter |
| 15 | SHOOT-‘EM-UP | In fantastic photos, leggy bird’s game
EMU (=leggy bird) in *(PHOTOS); “fantastic” is anagram indicator; shoot-’em-up is a computer game with plenty of violent action |
| 17 | INSIDE OUT | Totally how movie gets to me
M<ovi>E; if you take the “inside out” of the word “movie”, you are left with “me” |
| 20 | ECHIDNA | One’s spiky welcome by city – something to pass on?
EC (=city) + HI (=welcome) + DNA (=something to pass on, i.e. in genes) |
| 21 | BENGALI | Language graduate’s the greatest?
B ENG (=graduate, i.e. Bachelor of Engineering) + ALI (=the greatest, i.e. the boxer Muhammad Ali) |
| 23 | IGLOO | House described by knocked-up schoolgirl
Reversed (“knocked-up”) and hidden (“described by”) in “schOOLGIrl” |
| 24 | USING | United give up info on drugs
U (=united) + SING (=give up, i.e. report to authorities) |
| 25 | ARC | Mentioned boat’s bow
Homophone (“mentioned”) of “ark” (=boat, e.g. Noah’s ark) |
Thanks, RR.
Definitely a toughie, which I struggled to finish. But some inventive clueing and some laughs along the way.
I liked ROGER (when I saw it) and thought ADO was clever too.
I think CUP for ‘hold’ is okay: ‘she cupped the baby to her chest’. In 1dn, I think Donk is telling us to ‘vacate’ or empty out ‘could’, which leaves us with CD.
Thanks to the setter, who is establishing himself as one of the ‘hard ones’, I think.
22a H (target for a helicopter to land on) and ITCH (pine)
I think your other suppositions are the correct ones.
Usual fun from cheeky Donk – even Mr CS who isn’t a fan of the cryptic crossword laughed at 1a.
Thanks to RR too.
22 across is H for the symbol on a helipad that the chopper aims for plus itch for pine.
Many thanks for the puzzle and the blog. I found this quite tricky, but rewarding (and amusing). I needed your help to parse 17 and, to my eternal shame, 1a.
Thanks RR.
The online clue for 1dn has “naughtily” rather than your “naturally”. So then “naughtily” is the anagram indicator, with “On vacation, could” giving c[oul]d as part of the anagram fodder.
And re 18ac, ‘g’ for ‘girl’ is not in Chambers or Collins, but is listed in “Chambers XWD (A Dictionary of Crossword Abbreviations)”.
Apologies, ‘g’ for ‘girl’ is re 21ac (not 18ac) of course.
As there are several naughty/saucy clues in this entertaining puzzle, perhaps we should add 27A, where surely the most common use of “cup” as a verb is in “he/she cupped her breasts”.
I thought this was a wonderfully inventive puzzle. Slightly held up by putting in ‘alone’ for 16ac thinking that it was a weak DD. Should have known better. Ended up with 10 ticks of which the simple yet smutty 5d was my personal favourite.
gwep, you are braver than me. I did not dare say this. But it is much more likely to be what Donk means than anything to do with babies, with all respect to K’s D.
Marvellous stuff, just right for a post work pint or two or three. Rude crude and dangerous to know our Donk.
Thanks RR wouldn’t want to be writing this up on a work day.
I came to this one late in the day but I thoroughly enjoyed it once I got on Donk’s wavelength. ASIDE was my LOI after the excellent INSIDE OUT.
Thanks for the blog, RR.
As usual, lots to smile at, in both admiration and amusement – great stuff, as ever.
Huge thanks, Donk, for another excellent puzzle.
We completed this whilst eating our evening meal and we ended up choking a few times when we sorted out the parsings!
11ac was Joyce’s favourite but really there are too many good moments to mention. It’s a long time since we’ve had so much fun when completing a crossword!
Our last one in was HITCH which we couldn’t parse so thanks to RR and everyone for their help.
Thanks Donk – another good puzzle!
Bravo Donk. Thought this was absolutely terrific. Lots of head-scratching required but worth it when a puzzle is as clever, funny and inventive as this.
1a reminded me of the clue cited by many as one of the best ever written:
Bust down reason? (9)
Solution for those who need it, and a bit of commentary as a bonus, can be found at:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZfECAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT121&lpg=PT121&dq=bust+down+reason+%289%29&source=bl&ots=IW7TyAGdHD&sig=dcq8gpHZOrZEZWbEkFybnsx2oss&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZHw0U4PVJrPH7AajyoCQDQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=bust%20down%20reason%20%289%29&f=false
There’s something clever you can do to produce a nice little blue link but I’m afraid I don’t know what it is 🙂
While Donk’s crosswords are always of the highest quality as far as cryptic techniques are concerned, they are also (in my opinion) varying in feel.
His football puzzle (I think in January 2013) was just marvellous as was his crossword with these doublets not so long ago.
However, sometimes his themes leave me cold (computer games or the like).
Unlike others, I didn’t find this puzzle particularly difficult.
I appreciated the lightness of touch very much – just the right feel, indeed. With 1d as the absolute winner among many other inventive clues.
Only 16ac (ASIDE) made me think ‘is this right?’.
“A single may be found on the A-side of a record” as the blog states. Really?
The whole record is the single, IMO. A bit the same discussion as in the last Picaroon crossword at another place.
Apart from that, excellent stuff.
Thanks RR and Donk.
Well, definitely on the very tough side for me. Couldn’t complete it – most of the bottom right was still blank – and I now see that my guesses (ended up guessing several answers) were totally wrong. Thanks for explaining 1ac, one of my guesses that actually was right.
Thanks RR and Donk for a delightful puzzle. This is the first time I’d tried an Indy puzzle, being a Guardian regular, and will brave the relatively annoyingly clunky software and slow-loading pages again if they’re this good!
Thanks everyone for sorting out the various things that had baffled me when blogging this puzzle. A dozen heads are better than one 😉
Very late to this. Have been tied up in one way and another.
Excellent crossword. Just one criticism: in 12ac the clue says ‘Every other signal …’ This does not mean ‘Every other letter of ‘signal’ …’ Everyone seems to have accepted that it’s fine, but it isn’t.
But I fear nobody will read this as it’s now so late.