It’s a while since we last blogged a Punk puzzle. We tend to prefer hidden themes rather than the overtly themed puzzle but there was still lots to enjoy.
At one point we thought the cities may have all featured in songs but when Bert solved YONKERS and Joyce sorted out ORLANDO we decided that perhaps we were wrong. If there is a link between them no doubt someone will let us now!
There didn’t seem to be any of the Punk ‘near the knuckle’ moments which was a bit of a shame as we always relish a smile but there were some cleverly constructed clues to keep us happy. It is certainly impressive that Punk has managed to get 12 thematic solutions into the grid
| Across | ||
| 1 | In Washington I note a US city | |
| WICHITA | WA (Washington) around I + CHIT (note) |
|
| 10 | Header missed in sport after trial for Roman defence | |
| TESTUDO | ||
| 11 | Little drink before a show | |
| DRAMA | DRAM (little drink) + A | |
| 12 | Spot social development in the end | |
| DOT | DO (social) + T (last letter or ‘end’ of developmenT) | |
| 13 | Fail to see Labour leader in a state of fear | |
| FLUNK | L (first letter or ‘leader’ in Labour) inside FUNK (state of fear) | |
| 14 | Off-season tours beginning to jar in US city | |
| SAN JOSE | An anagram of SEASON (anagrind is ‘off’) around or ‘touring’ J (beginning of Jar) | |
| 15 | Cool type getting hot with priest in a lather | |
| HIPSTER | H (hot) + an anagram of PRIEST (anagrind is ‘in a lather’) | |
| 17 | Top city office a month before time breaking royal orders | |
| MAYORALTY | MAY (month) before T (time) inside or ‘breaking’ an anagram of ROYAL (anagrind is ‘orders’) | |
| 23 | Scent first sign of trouble after travelling on road | |
| ODORANT | T (first letter in Trouble) after an anagram of ON ROAD (anagrind is ‘travelling’) | |
| 25 | 51 in a bunk – stop! | |
| ABOLISH | LI (51 in Roman numerals) inside A + BOSH (bunk) | |
| 26 | Circling Eastern capital, fish drops on US city | |
| SALEM | SALM |
|
| 28 | Greek character in short feature | |
| CHI | CHI |
|
| 29 | Initially, collapse hurt hidden resources | |
| CACHE | C (first letter in Collapse) + ACHE (hurt) | |
| 30 | Your choice is sea ____ with old US city | |
| ORLANDO | You have to read this as a choice between sea OR LAND + O (old) | |
| 31 | Rock chick finding wisdom with Garland | |
| LORELEI | LORE (wisdom) + LEI (garland). | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | My boss gets hugged by smart European | |
| SWEDISH | ED (setter’s boss) inside or ‘hugged by’ SWISH (smart) | |
| 2 | Lean crop ending in starvation among outsiders in society | |
| SCRAWNY | CRAW (crop) + N (last letter or ‘ending’ of starvatioN) inside SY (first and last letters or ‘outsiders’ in SocietY) | |
| 3 | Drink good drink, nothing about it | |
| PINA COLADA | PI (good) + COLA (drink) inside NADA (nothing) | |
| 4 | Smooth II for US city | |
| SAN DIEGO | SAND (smooth) + I + EGO (I) – We liked this one! | |
| 5 | Small, small person without it naked? | |
| STITCH | S (small) + TITCH (small person) – if you haven’t got a stitch on, you’ll be naked! | |
| 6 | Asian name? Yeah, right! | |
| ASIF | You have to read this as AS IF for Yeah! Right? | |
| 7 | Majestic, a US city | |
| AUGUSTA | AUGUST (majestic) + A | |
| 8 | Needing head transplant, mad US city | |
| YONKERS | ||
| 16 | Irishman laughs about origins of little Chinese pandas | |
| PATROL CARS | PAT (Irishman) + ROARS (laughs) about LC initial letters or ‘origins’ of Little Chinese | |
| 18 | A stream in former communist US city | |
| AMARILLO | A + RILL (stream) inside MAO (former communist) | |
| 19 | Move south over US city | |
| HOUSTON | Anagram of SOUTH (anagrind is ‘moved’) + ON (over) | |
| 20 | Knowing line reversible, lord and lady gutted | |
| WORLDLY | ROW (line) reversed + LD LY (first and last letters of lord and lady or ‘gutted’) | |
| 21 | Green US city | |
| LINCOLN | Double definition. We can’t believe how long it took to sort this one out. We live in Robin Hood territory not far from the local train line to this city in the UK. | |
| 22 | Charge scores, say, for US city | |
| PHOENIX | Sounds like FEE (charge) + NICKS (scores) | |
| 24 | Counts rigged in US city | |
| TUCSON | Anagram of COUNTS. We were held up with 28a as we had the ‘C’ in the wrong place in this clue. It took us a while to realise that the definition in 28a was definitely a Greek character before we saw our mistake! | |
| 27 | Make sweet | |
| MINT | Double definition | |
Well, it may have been impressive to get twelve thematic solutions into the grid, but I’m afraid I lost the will to live with this one. A third of the grid with less than 50% checking just makes it hard work, for this solver at least. And US cities? Well, there are lots of them, clearly. So I gave up with a bit over half done.
So sorry, Punk, not my favourite of yours. Thanks to B&J for blogging.
Punk is rather too fond of all things American for my taste, not content with Americanisms in clues at every opportunity we are now presented with some sort of gazetteer of the US. I don’t bother with this setter’s alter ego at the Graun any more, I won’t be bothering here either in future.
@2
If serious, contemptible. If not, the irony perhaps needed pointing up a bit more.
I’m normally a big fan of Paul/Punk but I found this puzzle a chore rather than the usual enjoyable experience. LINCOLN was my LOI and it took me ages to see it.
@3 What is contemptible about my post?
Nothing. I was being unreasonable. I retract it and apologise unconditionally. But I don’t agree that Punk overuse Americanisms and genuinely thought you might be joking.
I would have written exactly what K’s D did @1
Not much to add really, there were some nice clues but…
Thanks B&J
Well, it wasn’t easy, but I’m not as negative about it as some. Indeed, there have been puzzles that people here have raved about which I found too much of a slog to complete, but this wasn’t the case here for me. OK, I needed to do some e-searches to get the four cities forming the two columns on the right, but even there, I’d already seen and dismissed the answer to 22dn and it was only seeing the word again that I realised how the clue worked.
As far as I can remember, I’ve only been to two of the cities here, out of about 30 trips to the US.
Only completed by word-searching for several of the cities, so not a particularly satisfying solve for me either.
Don’t see what the fuss is about the theme. Even if not well-known to all they were mostly buildable or rang distant bells from pop-songs etc. Themes are famously the marmite of the cruciverbal world. Too familiar and the puzzle solves itself – too obscure and it’s impossible. This one seemed like a reasonable compromise between the two.
Beyond the theme there were some very nice clues – Rock Chick for LORELEI I particularly liked.
So no complaints from me – oh well – just one. Has Paul/Punk/Mudd given up smut for lent?
Thanks both/all three.