For the second time I have been unable to complete an Io puzzle. Any help with the remaining two solutions would be greatly appreciated.
Across
1 Millennium outlawed 60s teenager’s explosives, providing blast from the past! (3,4)
ODS BOBS
mODS (outlawed teenagers) BOmBS (explosives) missing MM (millennium) – archaic curse, blast!. Thanks to Gaufrid, I had certainly never heard of this one.
5 Fruit off 27 (7)
BANANAS
double definition – to be ‘off ones trolley’ is to be mad
10 Victor eventually cut shallots in pieces, concealing a sign of revulsion (2,3,6,4)
HE WHO LAUGHS LAST
HEW (cut) SHALLOTS* anagram=in pieeces contains (conceals) A UGH (sign of revulsion)
11 Unusually tense Universal news system (6)
USENET
anagram (unusually) of TENSE and U (universal) – an early internet messaging system originally designed for topical discussion or ‘news’
12 Concert in which Wood has backing from Tier 13 (8)
TEAMWORK
TEAK (wood) contains (has) ROW M (tier 13, in a theatre perhaps) reversed (backing from)
13 Order not all of trio to load gun (8)
BRETHREN
THREe (trio, not all of) inside (to load) BREN (gun)
15 Bet the Spanish live right in retirement! (6)
TREBLE
EL (the, Spanish) BE (live) RT (right) all reversed (in retirement)
17 Here’s to you where everybody knows your name (6)
CHEERS
double/cryptic definition – ‘Where everybody knows your name’ is the theme song of the US sitcom Cheers
19 Sizeable shifts to the left after Nationalist enters Italian constituent (8)
INTEGRAL
LARGE (sizeable) reversed (shifts to the left, in the grid direction) following (after) N (nationalist) in IT (Italian)
21 Jolly chap assembling crew on Cornish river (8)
FALSTAFF
STAFF (crew) on FAL (Cornish river)
23 Outside court, a swine counters “The joke’s on you!” (6)
GOTCHA
A HOG (swine) outside CT (court) all reversed (counters)
25 Much Ado About Nothing as put to American fans? (1,5,2,1,6)
A STORM IN A TEACUP
(AS PUT TO AMERICAN )* anagram=fans
26 Try to hold in a kilo getting off scales? (7)
FLAKING
FLING (try) contains (to hold in) A K (kilo)
27 Cry a bit in local over means to transport brew (7)
TROLLEY
YELL (cry) ORT (a bit, in local=dialect) reversed (over) – a tea trolley perhaps
Down
2, 14 In major practice, medic tries again to inject girl going back on drug (5,9)
DRESS REHEARSAL
DR (medic) then RE-HEARS (tries again) inside (to inject?) LASS (girl) reversed (going back) on (following) E (drug). A minor quibble, but can ‘to inject’ mean ‘be injected into’?
3, 16 Confounded bet held in high table capers (6,3,5,4)
BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL
(BET HELD IN HIGH TABLE)* anagram=capers. An expression I had not heard of before, Wikipedia explains it here…
4 Hold up strobe lights, initially flashing (7)
BOLSTER
anagram (flashing) of STROBE with Lights (initial letter of)
6 Substantially reduced cultural pursuits after acting (2,5)
AT HEART
ART (cultural pursuits) following (after) THEAtre (acting) reduced=shortened. I’m not 100% sure of this explanation, reduced seems to apply to ART rather than THEATRE. A (acting) then THE ARTs (cultural pursuits) reduced.
7 Sanction that hurts everyone in van (5)
ALLOW
OW (that hurts!) with ALL (everyone) in front (in van)
8, 24 One American garnering mounting Oscar acclaim pictures treat – Victorian base in London? (9,5)
AUSTRALIA HOUSE
A US contains (garnering) O (oscar) HAIL (acclaim) ART (pictures) all reversed (mounting) then USE (treat) – Victoria is an Australian state
9 Cruel penalty? One’s got cross in there, with little margin for error (7,2,4)
CUTTING IT FINE
CUTTING (cruel) FINE (penalty) contains (in there) I (one) with (has got) T (tau cross)
14 See 2
16 See 3
18 Graceful mover neatly sidesteps big meeting itinerary (7)
SWAGMAN
Possibly SPAEMAN? – someone who reads the future? SWAN (graceful mover) contains (neatly sidesteps, goes around) AGM (big meeting). Thanks again to Gaufrid. I did briefly consider swagman but was unable to see any definition.
20 Height reduces, big cat prowling more closely (7)
TIGHTER
TIGER contains (prowling, going around) HT (height) abbreviation=reduces
22 In terms of childcare, a revolutionary lining his pockets (5)
SPOCK
found inside (lining) hiS POCKets – Dr Benjamin Spock, American paediatrician with controverisal ideas on childcare
24 See 8
*anagram
definitions underlined
Thanks PeeDee
It looks like you need some help with this one which I found to be rather tricky.
1ac [m]ODS (60s teenager’s) BO[m]BS (explosives) – ‘Millenium outlawed’ gives the removal of the two Ms and the def. is ‘blast from the past’.
6dn I parsed this one as: A (acting) THE ART[s] (reduced cultural pursuits)
18dn SWAGMAN – SWAN (graceful mover) around (neatly sidesteps) AGM (big meeting) – def. ‘itinerary’
I thought 2,14 was OK as ‘to inject’ can mean ‘to put into’ so the REHEAR is put into SSAL.
1a is ODS BOBS Mods – 60s teenagers and BOMBS (explosives) with the Ms removed (Millennium outlawed) Apparently it is old oath (in the swearing sense)
18d I have as SWAGMAN – SWAN (graceful mover) with AGM (big meeting) inserted.
I really enjoyed solving this – nice to get a proper challenge in the middle of the week for the cryptic grey matter. Just wondering when I can next introduce 1a into a conversation!
Thanks to Io – I wish your planetary orbit brought you round here more often and to PeeDee for the blog.
I found this a real stinker, and couldn’t finish. Even when I guessed correctly I wasn’t quite sure sometimes how it parsed.
So thank you, Io, for a lesson in humility; and to PeeDee for an honest best try (a lot better then mine!)
Thanks Gaufrid and crypticsue for the missing solutions and explanations.
I still can’t see how ‘to inject’ works. To inject can certainly mean ‘to put into’, but what I cannot see is how it means ‘to put itself/oneself into’. If we have REHEARS to inject ELASS then we end up with ELASS in REHEARS not the other way around. REHEARS is the thing doing the injecting, not the thing being injected.
If a diabetic is to inject insulin then the insulin goes into the diabetic.
It may be that a doctor is to inject a patient. Something enters the patient, but it is not the doctor.
Hi Peedee,
Believe me, you did quite good getting as far as you did!! I got a shellacking, nice and proper – barely managed to make any headway whatsoever.
Thanks Io for this alien puzzle.
Cheers
TL
What a beast, rather glad I’ve not drawn an Enigmatist or Nimrod recently. I do remember Ods Bobs from someone in my childhood but could i dredge it up for this? Nope.
@PD can you look at my Paul Guardian blog to see how Damon became demon in the screenshot?
Is “itinerary” used for “itinerant” – swagman”?
Yves@10 – Chambers has a definition for itinerary as a noun, same as itinerant. That threw me too, I was fixated on itinerary being a route or schedule.
Thanks Io and PeeDee
Well … I shied away from starting this for a month … and for good reason … a very well worn printout finally succumbed when I eventually discovered ODS BOBS yesterday !!! I just refused to be beaten by this one … and how satisfying to eventually construct an unknown (archaic) expression from a very cryptic clue – even then after extracting an M from ‘bombs’, it still took more time than it should to realise another M needs to be taken from ‘Mods’ !! And then to actually track down the expression itself … it took the second day of my first holiday in ages to finally crack it. 🙂
SWAGMAN was a bit easier for me, being an Aussie.
Still, there were a couple of others that I ended up parsing incorrectly after getting the right answer:
AT HEART … I had ATHE (Association of Theatre in Higher Education) + ART(S) – clearly Gaufrid’s version is much neater.
Didn’t see the anagram in STORM IN A TEACUP – lazily thinking that it was a US expression.
Had to look up ‘Where everyone knows your name’ to find out that it was the theme song from Cheers.
Anyway, it’s finished – it was all correct … and I feel very chuffed in having done it!!