A Thursday Klingsor! We anticipated a good challenge and we weren’t disappointed.
As expected, some excellent surfaces and well constructed clues – we particularly liked 16d, 23ac and 13ac (our LOI).
We’ve looked for a hidden theme but cannot find anything – we wondered whether there could be something based around Tom 27ac – we love his plays and have very happy memories of seeing Michael Hordern in ‘Jumpers’ and Felicity Kendall in ‘The Real Thing’ and ‘Arcadia’ (among many others). Perhaps we were side-tracked away from something else?
If there are any errors or omissions we apologise and will amend the blog later in the day when we have internet access again!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Could be Archer novel isn’t as good, right? | |
| STAR SIGN | An anagram of ISN’T AS G (good) R (right) – anagrind is ‘novel’ | |
| 5 | Short film by Boys’ Brigade about old snow vehicle | |
| SKIBOB | SKI |
|
| 9 | Wine or port associated with the Spanish | |
| MUSCATEL | MUSCAT (port) + EL (‘the’ in Spanish) | |
| 10 | It’s fashion for a sacristan | |
| SEXTON | SEX (‘it’) + TON (fashion) | |
| 12 | William is stacking boxes wrongly | |
| AMISS | Hidden or ‘boxed’ in WilliAM IS Stacking | |
| 13 | Sporting star – he, apparently unpaid for starters, receives money | |
| SHAMATEUR | Cryptic definition – an anagram of STAR HE, A & U (first letters or ‘starters’ of Apparently Unpaid) around M (money) – anagrind is ‘sporting’ – convoluted, but very clever!! | |
| 14 | Book, e.g. vacuous love story I’m amending, following typical romantic style | |
| BOY-MEETS-GIRL | B (book) + an anagram of EG L |
|
| 18 | This magazine’s speciality: article introducing unnatural items? | |
| FORTEAN TIMES | FORTE (speciality) + AN (article) + an anagram of ITEMS – anagrind is ‘unnatural’. We had to Google this as we’d never heard of the publication! | |
| 21 | English monarch appears in public, finding tax too much | |
| OVEREXERT | E (English) REX (monarch) in OVERT (public) | |
| 23 | Public transport’s beginning to pall? Walk! | |
| TRAMP | TRAM (public transport) + P (first letter or ‘beginning’ of Pall) – nice clue! | |
| 24 | Mountie perhaps arrests a thief | |
| RAIDER | RIDER (mountie perhaps) around or ‘arresting’ A | |
| 25 | Sole trader? She’s got a mouth on her! | |
| FISHWIFE | Double definition – a woman who trades in fish (eg sole) and a loud-mouthed woman | |
| 26 | Score less than a hundred is significant when wicket’s lost | |
| EIGHTY | ||
| 27 | Playwright gives plug to American associate | |
| STOPPARD | STOP (plug) + PARD (American slang for partner). | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | I’m in Spain, broke, quietly going ape | |
| SIMIAN | I’M in an anagram of S |
|
| 2 | Set about arranging seminar, primarily on Genoa? | |
| ASSAIL | A S (first or ‘primary’ letters of Arranging Seminar) + SAIL (a genoa is a type of sail) | |
| 3 | Soft rock suggesting mood of TV serial | |
| SOAPSTONE | A SOAP’S TONE would suggest the mood of a Soap (TV serial) | |
| 4 | Mechanic from European country reportedly means to tour Cambodia | |
| GREASE MONKEY | GREASE sounds like (‘reportedly’) Greece (European country, coincidentally where we are now!) + MONEY (means) around or ‘touring’ K (IVR for Cambodia, formerly Kampuchea) | |
| 6 | Bring round a mild Indian meat dish | |
| KEEMA | A MEEK (mild) reversed or ‘brought round’ | |
| 7 | First of all, Bobb |
|
| BATHETIC | B (first letter of Bobb |
|
| 8 | Row over list of names supplying finance | |
| BANKROLL | BANK (row) + ROLL (list of names) | |
| 11 | Rail ticket’s lost outside deserted English holiday destination | |
| LAKE DISTRICT | An anagram of RAIL TICKET’S (anagrind is ‘lost’) around D (deserted) – one of our favourite parts of the UK | |
| 15 | In such a workplace, was set ridiculously hard work? | |
| SWEAT SHOP | An anagram of WAS SET (anagrind is ‘ridiculously’) + H (hard) + OP (work) | |
| 16 | Fellow going astray, going astray naturally | |
| OF COURSE | OF |
|
| 17 | Manners regularly bordered on shabby? That’s not unknown | |
| BREEDING | Odd or ‘regular’ letters of BoRdErEd + DING |
|
| 19 | Love to acquire degree that’s served up on a plate | |
| LAMINA | NIL (love) around or ‘acquiring’ MA (degree) all reversed or ‘served up’ on A | |
| 20 | Relieved, having delayed a broadcast | |
| SPREAD | SPARED (relieved) with the ‘A’ moved back or ‘delayed’ | |
| 22 | Straight up before court | |
| ERECT | ERE (before) + CT (court) | |
Thanks, both.
Well, it’s Thursday, so it’s going to be ‘the hard one’, and I did find this tough, but was pleased to get there in the end. As you say, some nicely constructed clues: my favourites today were STAR SIGN, SOAPSTONE and FISHWIFE. Well done for parsing SHAMATEUR – have a brownie point (between you).
Not that it matters a great deal, but the footballer is Sir Bobby (not Bobbie) Charlton. Hugely gifted player, but that combover was never a good look.
Bravo, Klingsor – excellent crossword.
I built this puzzle from the bottom up, and once I had a toehold in the puzzle the answers came to me at a decent rate, but I let myself down by entering a careless “Muscadel” at 9ac. Must concentrate more. I thought the clue for 1ac was excellent.
Thanks to B&J and Klingsot,
I liked this one – the usual Thursday challenge but not impossible and some nice clues. SHAMATEUR is a bit of a blast from the past. I’ve hardly heard the term since the late 60’s when tennis had Amateurs and Professionals (remember Pancho Gonzalez?) and Avery Brundage was running the Olympics. I’d heard of BATHETIC without knowing its meaning – a good word to slip into conversation and sound very learned!
Thanks again.
Woops, apologies for my typo @3 above, Klingsor.
????????? and thanks for the blog to the highly enviable B and J.
[I didn’t know the magazine, either.]
I solved the puzzle before I went out this morning but didn’t have time to comment. I was very surprised to come home and find so few comments on such a gem.
Lovely clues, as already said, and every surface is as smooth as silk and makes perfect sense – with added wit, as at 1ac [as good as what, I wonder?]. I loved the picture of William struggling with his boxes – and the sole trader!
I’m going to stick my head above the parapet to applaud the splendid ‘&lits’ at 13ac and 15dn. If they’re not, they’re near enough for me!
Many thanks to Klingsor for a highly enjoyable challenge.
Grrrh! It came out OK on the ‘Preview Comment’ – I thought it was too good to be true!
It was ‘ kalispera’ – in Greek characters! [I didn’t want you to think it was something rude! 😉 ]
Thanks Eileen – it’s the thought that counts! We did not think it was something rude knowing that you were the author although we wouldn’t have guessed that you were intending to say ????????!
Didn’t work for us either!
Thanks to B&J and Klingsor.
I really struggled with this, only managing to complete less than half of it, and some of those I did get I could not parse. still, I liked it, and liked it more after reading the blog.
Why is ton=fashion?
Absolute cracker, outstanding &lits and surfaces. Cheers Klingsor & B&J.
Finally got signal to post from deepest darkest and wettest Zummerzet. No we’re not at Glastonbury 🙂
Billy, someone asked the exact same question on the Guardian blog only a day or so ago. TON is a French word meaning ‘fashion’ which you never hear outside crosswordland, but appears quite often within it.
I too found Klingsor a hard setter to begin with, and sometimes still do. Stick with it.
Thought I was going to get stuck on this but I got there eventually, and the only use of aids was to look up the meaning of “Genoa” in 2dn. I knew it meant something nautical, but I thought it was a type of ship, and I couldn’t get that to work.
7dn brought back memories. My father was a lifelong Charlton fan and some of my earliest memories are of going to their games back in the fifties, before the family moved up north.
Another waste of ink and time, 2018