It has fallen to Morph to occupy the Thursday compiling slot this week and to me to occupy the associated blogging slot.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, which provided a moderate-to-difficult challenge and oodles of entertainment along the way – the perfect recipe for a daily cryptic, in my humble opinion!
I think that my answers are correct, but I am not absolutely sure of the parsing of two of them, namely 10 and 19, on which I seek either confirmation or correction. 3 was a new term for me.
My favourites today were three of the 15-letter entries: 11 for its concision, and 20 and 6 for their smooth surfaces.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PILFERAGE | Rifle shot interrupting attendant’s thieving
*(RIFLE) in PAGE (=attendant); “shot” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | WOMAN | West country lass
W (=West) + OMAN (=country) |
| 09 | ON MERIT | As alternative home for music magazine, The Independent’s initially rejected as worthy
[NME (=music magazine) in OR (=alternative)] + IT (T<he> I<ndependent>; “initially” means first letters only; “rejected” indicates reversal) |
| 10 | STEMMED | Started and // stopped // like a flute
Triple definition: to stem (from) is to start, to stem (the flow of) is to stop and a (champagne) flute is stemmed, i.e. it has a stem |
| 11 | PRIVY COUNSELLOR | Can adviser get senior position at Westminster?
CAN (=privy, toilet) + COUNSELLOR (=adviser) |
| 12 | CAMPANULA | PM informally to criticise a Liberal Unionist returning for bell
CAM (=PM informally, i.e. Cameron, as in Sam Cam) + PAN (=to criticise) +ULA (A L<iberal> U<nionist>; “returning” indicates reversal); the Campanula genus encompasses bellflowers and bells |
| 14 | SADDO | Flipping strange – to that extent, an unsociable type
ODD (=strange) + AS (=to that extent); “flipping (over)” indicates reversal |
| 16 | SEBUM | Skin product from trimmed marine sponge
SE<a> (=marine; “trimmed” means last letter dropped) + BUM (=sponge, cadge, scrounge); sebum is the fatty secretion that lubricates the hair and skin |
| 18 | FULL HOUSE | Lots of people round // to give a hand
Double definition: a full house is a house, theatre full of people AND a hand in cards |
| 20 | MOUNTAIN CLIMBER | Endlessly bumbling Cameron, it turns out, is expert when it comes to summits
*(<b>UMBLIN<g> + CAMERON IT); “endlessly” means first and last letters dropped; “it turns out” is anagram indicator |
| 22 | PHOTO OP | Passionate entering into crap shoot
HOT (=passionate) in POOP (=crap) |
| 23 | BUZZARD | Lacking aspiration, tough to follow excitement from high-flier
BUZZ (=excitement) + <h>ARD (=tough; “lacking aspiration” means initial letter “h” is dropped); cryptically, a high-flier is a bird |
| 24 | DARTS | Director with skills which may be competitively deployed on board
D (=director) + ARTS (=skills) |
| 25 | PRECLUDES | Part way through setting crossword, perhaps interruption by daughter renders impossible
D (=daughter) in PRE-CLUES (=part way through setting crossword, i.e. still working on the grid!) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PROSPECTS | Chances of success for parties holding power
P (=power) in [PRO (=for, in favour of) + SECTS (=parties)] |
| 02 | LAMAISM | American involved in Islam converted to form of Buddhism
AM (=American) in *(ISLAM); “converted to” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | EARLY DAY MOTIONS | Audience with my lady, so into sleazy MP’s business
EAR (=audience) + *(MY LADY, SO INTO); “sleazy” is anagram indicator; an early day motion is one tabled for consideration on a day when business finishes early, to draw attention to a matter |
| 04 | ASTROTURF | A horse’ll do this – browse around grassy stuff
A + [TROT (=horse’ll do this) in SURF (=browse, on internet)] |
| 05 | ESSEN | German city’s nature to reject church
ESSEN<ce> (=nature); “to reject church (CE)” means letters “ce” are dropped |
| 06 | WIENER SCHNITZEL | Crummy food in new Ritz Hotel, since redesigned by the Spanish
*(NEW RITZ H<otel> SINCE) + EL (=the Spanish, i.e. the Spanish for the); “redesigned” is anagram indicator; cryptically, Wiener schnitzel is “crummy” food as it is covered in breadcrumbs |
| 07 | MUMBLED | Old woman was apparently hurt, made incoherent sound
MUM (=old woman, i.e. one’s mother) + BLED (=was apparently hurt) |
| 08 | NADIR | Bottom of drain cracked
*(DRAIN); “cracked” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | ALLOCABLE | Gendarme’s greeting on line that can be placed
ALLÔ (=gendarme’s greeting, i.e. the French for Hello, [hello, hello]) |
| 15 | OVERRIDES | Diver rose, deploying manual controls
*(DIVER ROSE); “deploying” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | BOUDOIR | Perhaps carnival couple and bachelor surfacing in woman’s room
RIO (=perhaps carnival) + DUO (=couple) + B (=bachelor); “surfacing” indicates (here vertical) reversal |
| 19 | UPBRAID | Heidi’s hairstyle perhaps bringing reproach
Swiss girl Heidi, the character from children’s literature, wore her hair up in braids |
| 20 | MOPED | Bike // was under a cloud
Double definition |
| 21 | IN PUP | Model putting head down, preparing to drop litter?
PIN-UP (=model); “putting head down” means first letter appears later in the word, i.e. in a lower position in a down entry |
Thanks for the blog, RR. I can’t see anything questionable in your parsing of 10 and 19 [i.e. that’s how I did it!].
I agree with your favourites, with the addition of 25ac, which presents a lovely picture of the possible hazards of crossword compiling. And I liked 3dn, too, for its surface.
I think perhaps the buzzard flies higher than some other birds – from Wikipedia: “To attract a mate (or impress his existing mate) the male performs a ritual aerial display before the beginning of spring. This spectacular display is known as ‘the roller coaster’. He will rise high up in the sky, to turn and plummet downward, in a spiral, twisting and turning as he comes down. He then rises immediately upward to repeat the exercise.”
Many thanks to Morph for another great puzzle, which I really enjoyed.
Lovely puzzle – great start to my Thursday morning solving – Like Eileen I did smile at 25a. Thanks to RR and Morph.
Done and dusted this morning.
Also liked 25ac. Very much.
Thanks
This was my fastest Thursday solve for quite a while, but I confess that I saw the definitions and answers for 16ac, 20ac, 3dn and 7dn almost immediately so didn’t bother to parse them. The “allo” in 13dn made me smile, and STEMMED was my LOI.
6D There just has to be a dictionary that says otherwise, but isn’t “crummy” inferior, shoddy etc and “crumby” covered in (bread)crumbs? Use of homophone indicator in slightly different construction could have made this work just as well.
Excellent puzzle pleased to see Morph again, thanks to him and RatkojaRiku.
20D “it” not part of anagram indicator.
That should be 20A.
Gwep@5 – I thought the same as you at first but when I checked it post-solve my Chambers reckons “crummy” and “crumby” are interchangeable for both definitions.
What no limericks? Still, not a disappointment despite the number of unusual words.
All good fun – Joyce enjoyed the parsing of 20ac!
Thanks Morph and RR.
I too enjoyed Cameron stumbling imagery, shame it was written before the latest reshuffle.
Merci Morph and RR