An entertaining puzzle, though I think I’m not quite on Hamilton’s wavelength as I struggled to fully explain some of the clues. Thank you Hamilton.
| Across | ||
| 9, 23 | LILY OF THE VALLEY | Flower girl from the glen (4,2,3,6) |
| LILY (girl) OF THE VALLEY (from the glen) | ||
| 10 | QUEEN | She commands state to cede southern territory (5) |
| QUEENsland (state) missing (to cede) S (southern) LAND (territory) | ||
| 11 | EMERALD | Dear me! Linda’s starting to turn green! (7) |
| anagram (to turn) of DEAR ME and L (start of Linda) | ||
| 12 | ORALIST | Tailors working for deaf teacher (7) |
| TAILORS* anagram=working | ||
| 13 | TREE | May be a heartless trainee (4) |
| TRainEE (heartless, no middle letters) – definition is ‘May’, the Hawthorne tree. Good clue! | ||
| 14 | EUROVISION | Contest the aspiration of the Maastricht Treaty? (10) |
| double/cryptic definition – the Eurovision Song Contest; the Maastricht Treaty created of the European Union | ||
| 17 | PROOF | Strength of evidence (5) |
| double definition – alcohol measure and objective fact | ||
| 19 | LEI | Even in Almeria there is floral decoration (3) |
| even letters of aLmErIa – a Hawaiian flower necklace | ||
| 20 | UNCLE | Relative is muddled, leaving Arkansas behind (5) |
| UNCLEar (muddled) missing AR (Arkansas) | ||
| 22 | LOVEY-DOVEY | Romantic actor heard he’d got the bird on May 3rd! (5-5) |
| LOVEY sounds like (heard) ‘luvvie’ (actor) has got the DOVE (bird) on maY (third letter of) – definition is ‘romantic’ | ||
| 24 | POLE | Limit of support (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 27 | PALMATE | Web-footed friend joins struggling team (7) |
| PAL (friend) joins TEAM* anagram=struggling – definition is ‘web-footed’ | ||
| 29 | BLOSSOM | Mature crowd return to accept defeat (7) |
| MOB (crowd) reversed (return) including (to accept) LOSS (defeat) – definition is ‘mature’ | ||
| 30 | OWENS | Wherein he now ensured gold medal status (5) |
| found in (wherein) nOW ENSured – definition is sort of &lit, Jesse Owens former Olympic gold medallist. This clue doesn’t work well for me as the &lit reading doesn’t really indicate Owens. Wherein what, in his name? | ||
| 31 | ENTERTAIN | Is the internet a means to divert? (9) |
| anagram (is … a means to make …) of INTERNET A – definition is ‘to divert’ | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FLUENT | Competent books on orally transmitted infection (6) |
| NT (books of bible) follows (on) FLUE sounds like (orally transmitted) ‘flu’ infection | ||
| 2 | ALTER EGO | Close friend is badly late for The King and I (5,3) |
| LATE* anagram=badly R (rex, king) and EGO (I) | ||
| 3 | LOCAL | Confined to the pub (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 4 | STUD | Would foremost stallions train under duress here? (4) |
| first letters of (foremost) Stallions Train Under Duress – definition is ‘here’, where foremost stallions train…etc | ||
| 5 | RECOLONISE | People again soldier on, taking officer to east Iceland first (10) |
| RE (soldier, Royal Engineer) ON containing (taking) COL (officer) to E (east) with IS (Iceland) before (first) – definition is ‘people again’ | ||
| 6 | AQUA | Question for motoring organisation about water (4) |
| QU (question) inside (for … about) AA (motoring organisation) – definition is ‘water’. Does ‘for… about’ really mean inside? ‘Question motoring organisation about water’ works just as well without ‘for’. | ||
| 7 | GEMINI | A sign that 11 is in India (6) |
| GEM (emerald is) IN I (India) – definition is ‘a sign’ | ||
| 8 | INSTANCE | This month, a northern church, for example (8) |
| INST (this month) A N (northern) CE (Church, of England) | ||
| 15 | UNLOOSENED | Released a French degenerate before coming to a sticky end (10) |
| UN (a French) LOOSE (degenerate) with (before coming to a) END* anagram=sticky. Unloosened is an odd word as it means more or less the same as loosened, theoretically its opposite. | ||
| 16 | IOU | What’s outstanding when contents become contentious? (1,1,1) |
| add IOU to contents to get contentious | ||
| 17 | POLYPHON | Musical instrument sounds like a parrot’s call – almost! (8) |
| sounds like POLLY PHONe (parrot’s call) almost (not finished) – an early mechanical music player | ||
| 18 | FLY | Hurry, knowing about trap (3) |
| I’m guessing at a triple definition – hurry, knowing and trap with about in there as filler. I think trap may be in the sense of a flap, but I’m not sure. It could be ‘knowing about’ rather than just ‘knowing’ but I think this changes the meaning to knowledgeable rather than arch or sly. Trap could go with fly to make fly-trap but I can’t see any indication we should do that. A fly and a trap are both horse-drawn vehicles. Thanks to Eileen. | ||
| 21 | CROSSBAR | Is part of goal to frustrate counsel? (8) |
| CROSS (frustrate) BAR (counsel, lawyers) | ||
| 23 | See 9 | |
| 25 | ERMINE | Hesitate before admitting one owns fur! (6) |
| ER (hesitate) before MINE (admission one owns) | ||
| 26 | COURT | Short’s got nothing in enclosure (5) |
| CURT (short) has O (nothing) inside – definition is ‘enclosure’ | ||
| 28 | ALSO | Heartless beast is a bit solitary too (4) |
| AnimaL (beast, heartless is) with SO (a bit of solitary) – definition is ‘too’. I think this is the correct reading. The clue requires us to remove an arbitrary number of letters from one (unspecified) word and then take an arbitrary number of letters from another, so other explanations may be possible? | ||
| 29 | BETA | Gamble on getting best mark in second grade (4) |
| BET (gamble on) with (getting) A (best mark) – definition is ‘second grade’ | ||
*anagram
Thanks, PeeDee. I shared your dilemma over some of the syntax. However, we got the answers, and had a good time doing so. Thanks also/too to Hamilton.
Thanks, PeeDee.
I, too, share some of your reservations, especially about 28dn.
Re 18dn: FLY = trap – a light horse-drawn carriage.
thanks PeeDee, needed your help a little.
Thanks Pee Dee for the blog.
Last year I did a puzzle themed around the month of April (14283). Gaufrid blogged it, as I recall, and got the theme, even though it was editorially decided that it would not be advertised as such. This is the May-themed puzzle – 9/23 Lily of the Valley (flower of the month), 10 May Queen, 11 Emerald (gem of the month), 13 May tree, 14 Eurovision takes place in May (and can I just say that the aspiration of Maastricht was the “Euro vision”), 19 Lei (the Lei day celebration in Hawaii is on 1 May), 24 Maypole, 29 May blossom, 7 Gemini is one of the astrological signs of May (I used the other last year) and 18 Mayfly. I’m sorry you didn’t spot it – perhaps it should be signposted after all – watch out in June 2015.
My thanks to Eileen for dealing with 18 down. I’m at a bit of a loss re 28 down, as this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a clue constructed this way (A(nima)L + SO(litary)). And Hornbeam, I promise not to tell my checker (who has a BA in English and 30+ years crossword solving experience) what you said about syntax.
Thanks Hamilton and PeeDee,
I loved the crossword, even though I didn’t see the very nice theme.
I thought 28 down was ok.