As we have come to expect, another great puzzle from Dac with the usual smooth surfaces. We had never come across 18ac or 18d before, but the wordplay was clear enough and an electronic search confirmed the definitions.
| Across | ||
| 1 | One state cooperating with another? There are strings attached | |
| CONDITIONALLY | CONDITION (state) + ALLY (one cooperating with another) | |
| 9 | Paint FBI agents into a hole | |
| PIGMENT | G-MEN (FBI agents) in PIT (hole) | |
| 10 | Writer is regularly bleary at end of day | |
| THURBER | Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of BlEaRy after or ‘at the end of’ THUR (day) | |
| 11 | Canute’s mad – he’s quite mad | |
| NUTCASE | An anagram of CANUTE’S – anagrind is ‘mad’ | |
| 12 | Sinister order in America restricting head of organisation | |
| OMINOUS | OM (Order – of Merit) + IN + US (America) round or ‘restricting’ O (first letter or ‘head’ of Organisation) | |
| 13 | Food for committee members | |
| BOARD | Double definition | |
| 14 | A single amount to begin with treated cold? | |
| ANALGESIC | Cryptic definition – An anagram of A SINGLE A (first letter only or ‘beginning’ of ‘amount’) – anagrind is ‘treated’ + C (cold). If we were to be picky, it could be argued that an analgesic would not really treat a cold – it is more of a painkiller – but perhaps it might help as an initial treatment, as inferred from the clue? | |
| 16 | Clothes store’s entered by 20, say | |
| DELICATES | DELIS (stores) around or ‘entered by’ CATE (sounds like Kate – the Shrew (20d) in ‘The Taming of the….’). Chambers doesn’t give ‘delicates’ as clothes, but most washing machines have a ‘delicates’ cycle, so it’s a fair definition | |
| 18 | Tea company in South America, it’s plain | |
| CHACO | CHA (tea) + CO (company). Apparently the Chaco plain spreads over parts of Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina – we learn something every day! | |
| 19 | Pay close attention to verbose characters | |
| OBSERVE | An anagram of VERBOSE – a rearrangement of the ‘characters’ | |
| 21 | Hairdresser uses them to produce curls and waves | |
| ROLLERS | Double definition | |
| 23 | Cherry is edible growth, large and round | |
| MORELLO | MOREL (edible growth) + L (large) + O (round) | |
| 24 | Some swimmers expected to get soaked | |
| IMMERSE | Hidden in the clue: swIMMERS Expected | |
| 25 | Tale-teller finding teacher in playground at break? | |
| WHISTLEBLOWER | Double definition – we liked this clue! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | About a penny added to poultry | |
| CAPON | C (about) + A + P (penny) + ON (added to) | |
| 2 | Champion said to suffer defeat late in the day? | |
| NIGHTFALL | Sounds like (‘said’) KNIGHT (champion) + FALL (suffer defeat) | |
| 3 | I dash into road in the country | |
| IRELAND | I + ELAN (dash) in RD (road) | |
| 4 | Trouble for harlots in street, ultimately | |
| IN THE LAST RESORT | An anagram of HARLOTS IN STREET – anagrind is ‘trouble for’ | |
| 5 | Several in action destroyed doing this? | |
| NATIONAL SERVICE | Cryptic definition – an anagram of SEVERAL IN ACTION – anagrind is ‘destroyed’. Fortunately Bert is too young (!!) to have to have endured Post-war National Service (which ended in 1960) but some 600 British conscripts were killed in action between 1945 and 1963 | |
| 6 | Mostly noisy group scowling | |
| LOURING | LOU |
|
| 7 | Former pupil and youngster, the reverse of such a lout? | |
| YOBBO | OB (old boy, or ‘former pupil’) + BOY (youngster) all reversed | |
| 8 | Wine experts initially expect tiny amount to drink, nothing more | |
| PROSECCO | PROS (experts) + E (first or initial letter of ‘Expected’) + CC (cubic centimetre – a tiny amount to drink) + O (nothing) | |
| 13 | Short body Morse hacked in quarters | |
| BEDROOMS | An anagram of BOD |
|
| 15 | Untidy person creates trouble in county, standing on head | |
| SCARECROW | CARE (trouble) in WORCS (county) reversed, or ‘standing on head’ | |
| 17 | Composer found orchestra leaders drowned by string player? No way | |
| CORELLI | OR (first two letters, or ‘leaders’ of ‘orchestra’) in or ‘drowned by’ CELLI |
|
| 18 | White powder – look – carried by beast of burden | |
| CALOMEL | LO (look) in, or ‘carried by’ CAMEL (beast of burden) – we had to check this one as we’d not come across it before | |
| 20 | Mostly clever mousy creature | |
| SHREW | SHREW |
|
| 22 | Promise special clothing | |
| SWEAR | S (special) + WEAR (clothing) | |
Another enjoyable Dac puzzle. I had a similar experience to B&J in that I only vaguely knew CALOMEL but the wordplay was clear enough, at it was only once I’d got it that I was confident enough to enter the previously unknown CHACO even though the wordplay seemed to be blindingly obvious, and that was my LOI.
Excellent puzzle as always from Dac. The unusual words (CHACO and CALOMEL) are unusual for Dac – might have been a case of ‘nothing else fits’, and if so, then the clear clueing is to the setter’s credit.
MOREL is indeed what it says on the tin above, but it always reminds me of one of my favourite novels, Sons and Lovers (which was originally titled Paul Morel).
Thanks all three.
I knew CALOMEL from somewhere, but I also had it confused with calamine, which is a different substance altogether.
25ac was my LOI, but that was my own fault. I had marked the word break on the grid but I’d miscounted and was looking for something 6-7. I seem to rely heavily on the letter count for multi-word answers, which is odd as I rarely have trouble in things like Beelzebub, where the only indication you have is the number of words, not their individual letter counts.
Thanks B&J fortunately didn’t need the blog but to check the 18’s in a rather easier solve than the earlier nutmegging I was given.
Nice stuff from the Mr smooth of the Indy world.
Unclunkiness epitomised. Some very smooth surfaces; 11ac very neat. Heartfelt thanks to Dac.
I didn’t need blog, but glad I dropped in (I had an odd feeling that I was missing a mini-theme or such, but probably not!) as it’s one of B & J’s. And the reason I’m posting this is to send Bert and Joyce my gratitude for their continued gracing of this lovely corner of the web!
Thank you so much William F P. We were going to wait until our next Phi blog to thank you for your lovely comments but couldn’t wait after today’s! If you make it to the Derby S &B a drink (or two) are on us!
Thanks Bert and Joyce. I shan’t make it this time but looking forward to meeting you on another occasion. (Am I allowed to add – strictly entre nous of course – that Eileen is also a secret favourite?!)
It’s lovely – and fun – after a hiatus of many years, to return to cryptic puzzling and discover such an uplifting, courteous (in the most part!), interesting and warm family as 15 squared. And what an antidote to those horrid “trolls” we hear about on the “social” networks.
And I use the word “family” after some consideration….!
Oops. Meant to add that 15dn was actually my favourite (visions of Jon Pertwee doing cartwheels across a hilltop field, clovered and bepancaked!)
Very good crossword (of course!).
Very nice blog (of course!).
But does 1ac actually work for me?
I fear not.
Can anyone explain it more specifically (please)?
I see what Dac wants to say but does he say it?
We have to say that we also wondered about 1ac. Bert, who wrote up the blog this week couldn’t come up with a clearer parsing but it seems that you have to read it as “condition ally” or the “ally of a condition”. It is somewhat contrived though, especially for Dac!