I had quite a struggle solving this one and explaining the wordplay to my satisfaction. I think that I got there in the end with all but one clue, 28, so I look forward to being enlightened by fellow solvers. I would also welcome some feedback on my parsing of 12. Furthermore, 25 took some unravelling, while 6 and 22 were new words on me.
When I solved 10, I wondered if this signalled a hidden message or theme, but I haven’t spotted anything: has anyone else, I wonder?
As for my favourite clues today, I particularly liked 2 and 4, both for their smooth surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | WAY-OUT | Bizarre mode of escape
(a) WAY OUT (=(a) mode of escape) |
| 05 | LADY MUCK | Would-be aristo is the personification of good fortune, having married for money
LADY LUCK (=personification of good fortune); “having married (=M) for money (=L, as in LSD)” means letter “l” is replaced by “m” |
| 09 | ALLOCATING | French article about finding allotment
AL (LA=French article, i.e. French for the; “about” indicates reversal) + LOCATING (=finding) |
| 10 | NINA | Name of a little town in Africa
Hidden (“a little”) in “towN IN Africa” |
| 11 | ARROYO | Endless carry-on with duck stuck in dry creek
O (=duck, i.e. zero score in cricket) in <c>ARRY-O<n> (“endless” means first and last letters are dropped); an arroyo is a rocky ravine or dry watercourse in the US, hence “dry creek” |
| 12 | BOARFISH | Boat race initially interrupted by two-bit interference from nearby idiotic swimmer
B<oat> R<ace> (“initially” means first letters only) split (“interrupted”) by first two letters (“two-bit”) of OA-FISH (=idiotic), with rest of word coming straight after (“nearby”) |
| 13 | SNAP | Shoot // game
(to) snap is (to) take a photograph AND a game of cards |
| 15 | MURPHY’S LAW | If it can go wrong, it will with potato salad
MURPHY (=potato) + SLAW (=salad, as in coleslaw) |
| 16 | RADIOGRAPH | X-ray? Right, ring in a little after 6
R (=right) + {O (=ring) in [A + DIGRAPH (=6, i.e. entry at 6]} |
| 20 | OVEN | Type of stove, nowadays
Hidden (“of”) in “stOVE Nowadays” |
| 22 | CENTAURY | Plant that’s one in a hundred
A (=one) in CENTURY (=a hundred); a centaury is a plant belonging to one of various gentianaceous genera |
| 23 | STAMPS | Dies // making NI contributions
A stamp is a die for printing e.g. coins AND a National Insurance contribution |
| 25 | MOLE | Spot // spy // unit // source reported
Multiple definition: a mole is a spot on the skin AND a spy, i.e. one who infiltrates an organisation AND a base SI unit AND a Mexican sauce – homophone (“reported”) of “source” |
| 26 | TENNIS SHOE | Pump 10’s turning on – is she?
TEN (=10, i.e. the number) + *(ON IS SHE); “turning” is anagram indicator |
| 28 | REASONED | Argued about an obnoxious person without any shouting
RE (=about) + [NE (homophone – “shouting” – of “any”) in A + SOD (=obnoxious person)] |
| 29 | ENACTS | Measure part of bible establishes by law
EN (=measure, i.e. in printing) + ACTS (=part of bible, i.e. a New Testament book) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | AILERON | Bad liar, one in a flap on plane
*(LIAR ONE); “bad” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | OVOLO | Moulding edges of one very ornate little ogee
O<ne> V<ery> O<rnate> L<ittle> O<gee>; “edges of” means first letters only; an ovolo is a moulding in architecture |
| 04 | TEA ROOM | Café where more toast gets ordered? No way!
*(MORE TOA<st>); “no way (=ST, i.e. street)” means letters “st” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “gets ordered” |
| 05 | LEI | Moldovan readies the foreign newspaper
LE (=the foreign, i.e. the French for the) + I (=newspaper, i.e. “The i”); the leu, plural lei, is the unit of currency in Moldova, hence “readies” |
| 06 | DIGRAPH | Like harp arrangement in combination used by both Bach and Chopin
DIG (=like, as verb) + *(HARP); “arrangement” is anagram indicator; a digraph is a combination of two letters expressing a single sound, as in “ch” in both Bach and Chopin |
| 07 | MANIFESTO | King’s possibly to include beheading of wife in declaration of intent
<w>IFE (“beheading of” means first letter is dropped) in [MAN’S (=king’s possibly, i.e. in chess) + TO] |
| 08 | CANASTA | Is a top player able to cut short game?
CAN A STA<r> (=is a top player able); “cut short” means last letter dropped |
| 12 | BURSARY | Northern town accepts rising artists for grant
SAR (RAs=artists; “rising” indicates vertical reversal) in BURY (=Northern town) |
| 14 | POINTLESS | Absurd quiz show, // to be blunt
Pointless is a BBC quiz show where the contestants with the lowest score wins, hence absurd AND a blunt pencil has no point, hence “pointless” |
| 17 | ACETONE | Excellent muscle tension makes one thinner
ACE (=excellent) + TONE (=muscle tension) |
| 18 | GLUTTON | Pig meat’s good – left for starter
M-UTTON (=meat); “good (=G) – left (=L) for starter” means that letters “gl” appear at start of word (in place of “m”) |
| 19 | HOSPICE | House relish served with care here?
HO (=house) + SPICE (=relish) |
| 20 | EXPLOIT | Use old one in bed
EX (=old) + [I (=one) in PLOT (=bed, e.g. in garden)] |
| 24 | AT SEA | Lost a cycling saddle, perhaps
A + SEA-T (=saddle); “cycling” implies end letter becomes first, etc, to give A + T-SEA |
| 27 | NOD | Short sleep which father and son both have (definitely not daughter
Both “father” and “son”, as words, have “no D”, while “daughter” does have a D |
Thanks RR and Hob,
I parsed BOARFISH as you did.
28 ac REASONED – RE = about, A = an, SOD = obnoxious person, NE = any shouting (homophone). Tricky eh?
I was looking at 28ac REASONED as Muffyword has done in #1, but NE as homophone of ‘any’ was not convincing. Does anyone else agree?
Check the top left to bottom right diagonal for a 10A!
@Ben indeed I did, 28a I saw as per muffy and shouted for homophone seems fine for NE==ANY
Rather tougher today for me than the last 2 days, thanks RR needed a few parsings in places.
Thanks RR and Hob. Quite a tough one (started easily enough). Missed the Nina (not 10a,) as usual for me, and couldn’t parse 28a – I’m happy with the explanation given @1.
I have just realised that any is a homophone of the two letters N E. Still I don’t appreciate it very much.
I was about to post asking who Willy Ou… was but just saw it in time. Never got 6dn (DIGRAPH) because I had 2ac as ALLOCATION (although I wondered why location = allotment), so I never got 12ac (BOARFISH), which was remarkably difficult anyway and would quite possibly have defeated me. Still not convinced by the wordplay.
On the other hand 26ac (TENNIS SHOE) was quite brilliant. Some of the other clues were pretty good too.
I haven’t been able to get the online version to load all day.
Hi Andy B
I have just tried to access the Indy website and am getting a 503 error. However, I have checked and the puzzle can still be downloaded using Crossword Solver (http://www.crosswordsolver.info/). It might be worthwhile downloading and installing this software in case the site problem persists.
Hi Gaufrid, thanks very much for that.
I’ve not been able to load the paper’s site for a while. Even after fixing java problems a few weeks back.
i buy dead tree but our overseas friends don’t have that luxury alas.
A tricky puzzle indeed. I did it without aids and came a cropper at 22ac where I entered “centiury” from the wordplay because I’d forgotten that “one” is sometimes “a”, and CENTAURY obviously looks a lot more like a real word. Quite annoying because I’d parsed the rest of the puzzle correctly.
Thank you Ben Sandford Smith for spotting the diagonal! We didn’t!
We saw the setter was Hob so started it at lunchtime and after completing the NW corner very quickly we ground to a halt.
Only picked it up again late this evening and realised that we had entered ‘allocation’ for 9ac which held us up for a while.
We needed a search for 12ac but parsed it as just two bits of ‘oafish’ between B and R. The nearby though seemed a bit redundant.
Thanks RR for the blog and Hob for a very enjoyable puzzle with a LOL moment when we read comment @3!
Thanks Ben @3 – well spotted. I sought and did not find.
Thanks to Muffyword for the parsing of 28. As for the Nina, far too subtle for me, I’m afraid ….
Nice puzzle, but I’m particularly unconvinced by the wordplay for BOARFISH, which I failed to parse. And as for NE and ANY being homophones? No.
I seem to recall that N E was a good enough homophone for the 2 Ronnies cafe breakfast sketch……
F U N E M?
S V F M
F U N E X?
S V F X
L F M N X
Sorry
@Paul A, that’s exactly the one I thought of!