The Thursday slot, home to a wide variety of compilers, is hosting Morph’s latest offering today.
I found this puzzle quite a challenge, and after an initial flurry of ten or so clues, I made rather slow progress through the rest. In the end, I was left with 3 and the intersecting 14 and 18. I worked out 3 from the wordplay, although I knew neither the tree nor the second bird, an alternative spelling of a more well-known word. Then, being on holiday this work, I had the luxury of being able to hand the puzzle over to a family member, who slotted in the final two answers on my behalf, both of which were eminently gettable.
Interestingly, Morph has brought together in this puzzle an impressive number of clues with pairs in their wordplay, such as two insects at 15, two elements at 24, two pieces at 28, etc. The theme is announced by “couplet” at 12. If anyone had asked me, I would have thought this an impossible task without resorting to a lot of obscure words, but Morph has managed it.
I am not sure that I have parsed 8 correctly and would appreciate confirmation (or otherwise). 4 was also new, assuming the word is intended to mean drunk, a definition I found not in Chambers but online; I wasn’t sure if Morph’s “skinful” was alluding to being drunk or, cryptically, to being soaked to the skin. My favourite clue today, for its topical reference to the Labour leader’s eating habits, has to be 1A.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | POINTEDNESS | Miliband heads for sandwich – what might personal remarks show?
ED (=Miliband, i.e. Labour leader) in [POINT + NESS (=heads, in geographical sense)] |
| 09 | OFF-CENTRE | I abandoned workplace with outrageous rent that’s not quite at the heart of things
OFF<i>CE (=workplace; “I abandoned” means letter “i” dropped) + *(RENT); “outrageous” is anagram indicator |
| 10 | OCEAN | Perhaps Indian canoe rebuilt
*(CANOE); “rebuilt” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | REALISE | Get pay increase, including extra annual leave initially
E<xtra> A<nnual> L<eave> (“initially” means first letters only) in RISE (=pay increase) |
| 12 | COUPLET | Lines on a mini-revolution?
Cryptically, a coup (d’état)-let would be a mini-revolution |
| 13 | RADISH | Salad vegetable that’s quite excellent
Cryptically, rad-ish would be quite excellent, where rad is a short form of radical |
| 15 | BEHEMOTH | Two insects besieging hot giant
H (=hot) in [BEE + MOTH (=two insects)] |
| 18 | SHRAPNEL | Sawn-off projectile filled with charge and nuclear particles for dispersal
[RAP (=(criminal)charge) + N (=nuclear)] in SHEL<l> (=projectile; “sawn-off” means last letter dropped) |
| 19 | STIGMA | Greek letter covering last instalment of bailout’s a disgrace
<bailout>T (“last instalment of” means last letter only) in SIGMA (=Greek letter) |
| 22 | ASEXUAL | Like former partner, you said, almost entirely celibate
AS (=like) + EX (=former partner) + U (=you said, i.e. homophone of “you”) + AL<l> (=entirely; “almost” means last letter dropped) |
| 24 | BIT PART | Two elements of silent movie role?
BIT + PART (=two elements); cryptically, a silent movie role, as opposed to a speaking part, would be a bit part |
| 26 | E-BOOK | Withdraw award accepted for publication on digital media
EBO (OBE=award; “withdraw” indicates reversal) + OK (=accepted) |
| 27 | NAIL-BITER | Tense match perhaps to cause downfall of Suarez?
NAIL (=cause downfall of) + BITER (=Suarez, i.e. the Barça and Uruguay striker notorious for biting other players) |
| 28 | EUROCENTRIC | Two pieces, endlessly sumptuous but with limited world view
EURO + CENT (=two pieces, coins) + RIC<h> (=sumptuous; “endlessly” means last letter dropped) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PUFF ADDER | Two commercials on oddly dreary, cold-blooded creature
PUFF + AD (=two commercials) + D<r>E<a>R<y> (“oddly” means odd letters only) |
| 02 | ICENI | Protestants in island province who opposed influence of Rome
CE (=protestants, i.e. Church of England) in [I (=island) + NI (=province)]; the Iceni were a tribe in Britannia who revolted against the influence of Rome in 61 AD |
| 03 | TI TREE | Two birds in Pacific nesting place?
TIT + REE (=two birds); ree is an alternative spelling of reeve, the female ruff; the ti tree is a small Pacific liliaceous tree with edible roots |
| 04 | DRENCHED | Doctor pleased to get rid of soldier perhaps having had a skinful
DR (=doctor) + ENCH<ant>ED (=pleased; “to get rid of soldier (=ant) perhaps” means letters “ant” are dropped) |
| 05 | EMOLUMENT | Gloomy music followed by bit of light entertainment at last as a reward
EMO (=gloomy music) + LUMEN (=bit of light, i.e. SI unit of light) + <entertainmen>T (“at last” means last letter only) |
| 06 | STEAL | Lift stuck in West Ealing
Hidden (“stuck”) in “WeST EALing” |
| 07 | POURER | Three rivers, one gushing
PO + URE + R (=three rivers) |
| 08 | SNATCH | Short piece of music – it’s naturally brief and informal
‘S + NATCH (=naturally, brief and informal, i.e. slang for naturally) |
| 14 | SAPSUCKER | A couple of fools getting the bird
SAP + SUCKER (=two fools); a sapsucker is a type of North American woodpecker |
| 16 | ORGIASTIC | Bacchanalian Queen’s favourite wine – Cape saved to last
C-ORGI (=Queen’s favourite) + ASTI (=wine); “Cape (=C) saved to last” means letter “c” moves to end of word |
| 17 | HELLENIC | Greek ruin pleasant when cycling
HELL (=ruin) + E-NIC (NICE=pleasant; “when cycling” means last letter is moved to front of word, etc) |
| 18 | SEAMER | Delivery using two stretches of water (one foreign)
SEA + MER (=two stretches of water, i.e. sea and its equivalent in French) |
| 20 | ATTIRE | Costume of Hun finally toned down?
ATTI-LA (=Hun); “finally toned down” means the musical note LA is replaced by the lower note RE |
| 21 | O’BRIEN | Irish writer dressed in robe
*(IN ROBE); “dressed” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Irish novelist Edna O’Brien (1930-) |
| 23 | EMOTE | Express feelings on electronic particle
E (=electronic) + MOTE (=particle, i.e. of dust) |
| 25 | TUBER | Turn counter into vegetable storage area
REBUT (=counter, e.g. a theory, argument); “turn” indicates reversal; the tuber is where plants store reserves of nutrients, etc, hence cryptically “vegetable storage area” |
4 and 8 seem fine, that’s how I saw them, thanks for ATTIRE the LA->RE transformation passed me by.
Quite hard to break in places for me, 1ac raised a smile.
Cheers Morph and RR
Sadly (for the world), celibate does not mean sexually abstinent, and neither means ASEXUAL (22a). Otherwise, no quibbles with this enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to blogger and setter.
An enjoyable puzzle IMHO. I didn’t know TI TREE and had either forgotten or didn’t know the alternative spelling of “reeve”, so I needed aids to confirm the answer. Under competition conditions I might have been tempted to invent a place called “Ti Then” on the basis of “tit” plus “hen”.
SAPSUCKER and SHRAPNEL also my last in. Particularly enjoyed amusing and ingenious cluing for EMOLUMENT and ORGIASTIC.
Thanks to RatkojaRiku and (double)thanks to Morph
I managed most of it and enjoyed it though, as usual, I did require the blog. Plus, I don’t think the Church if England is actually classed as ‘Protestant” – – – .
Well, not my favourite ever Morph, although I usually enjoy his puzzles. Hard, particularly in the NE corner.
I’m into birds (of the feathered variety) but I had to get one of my books off the shelf to find SAPSUCKER (looking something up in a book is not cheating, unlike using the Internet …) HELLENIC is a bit too intricate for a daily cryptic imho. And ‘downfall of Suarez’ would be BITING, not BITER. Got TREE in TI TREE, but had to cheat to get the first bit.
But I liked ATTIRE and POURER.
My Collins gives ‘abstaining from sexual intercourse’ for CELIBATE, Ian, and that’s what I’ve always understood one of its meanings to be. But you are right: ASEXUAL and ‘celibate’ are not synonymous. Someone who is asexual has no interest in sex; someone who is celibate has taken a positive decision not to indulge in it. That’s enough sex for today.
Thanks to Morph and RR.
Oh, and Girl with Green Eyes by Edna O’Brien is a brilliant piece of English literature. Not read it? Do.
Quite a challenge, only solved with some help, and a few facepalm moments when I saw the parsing of some of the answers.
My CoD was SEAMER – nice to see the odd cricket reference now and again.
Heather @5: The C of E may be moving towards Rome in some ways but nevertheless it’s Protestant. I think you’re confusing ‘protestant’ with ‘nonconformist’.
Anyway, thanks to setter and blogger.
I always love Morph’s puzzles. K’s Dad, I think the definition in 27 across is ’cause downfall of Suarez’ i.e. nail biter, with nail as a verb.
Sorry, I mean the wordplay, not the definition.
Thanks, Anne. You are right, of course. Still not my favourite Morph clue. I guess when you start to lose interest in a puzzle then you start to pick holes in it when there are no holes there.
Kathryn’s Dad @6, I’m not surprised to find solecisms blessed in Collins, but my OED gives only the sense of abstaining from marriage. I always understood that the sense of abstaining from sexual relations was only jocose (like using the grammatical term ‘gender’ to refer to the biological term ‘sex’), and that over time many people failed to distinguish between the correct usage and the joke.
Of course, one is bound to admit that inclusion in Collins is deemed to make it acceptable in crosswords. It’s still wrong, though.
If a sense of a word is deemed wrong that is in general usage, and which is accepted by the dictionary, I’m not sure whose law I’d be violating by using a word in that way. Still, sticking to the original meaning of a word would be nice. As it were.
I particularly liked 20.