I was rather surprised to see that Morph was occupying the Friday spot this week.
I suppose that I should immediately have asked myself if there was something about this puzzle, appearing on this particular day, that would justify ousting the usual occupant from his regular slot. Nothing, however, sprang immediately to mind.
It was only when reading 19 that I realised that Bonfire Night would soon be upon and that today was Halloween, which then helped me with 4. Once again, I was rather slow on the uptake.
Overall, I found this a tough puzzle to get into, with the first perusal of the clues not yielding a single solution!! 17 was the first in, followed by 18 and 23, whereupon the bottom half of the grid began to fall into place. The NE quadrant was the last to reveal itself, although looking at the clues, there is no objective reason why that should have been the case. I solved 14 early from the letters, yet it was the last clue that I managed to parse.
As always with a Morph, it is difficult to single out just one or two clues as particular favourites. However, if pushed, I would plump for 4 and 19, for their topicality, and above all 13, for its smooth surface and concision.
And let’s hope that not too many of those trick-or-treaters dress up tonight as a gurnard, which sounds an awful lot scarier than the average witch or warlock!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | BRISKET | Cut probability of loss entailed in gamble
RISK (=probability of loss) in BET (=gamble) |
| 05 | PEBBLY | Like shingle layer around when tide goes out
EBB (=when tide goes out) in PLY (=layer, e.g. 2-ply tissues) |
| 08 | IMPERATIVE | Essential to restructure private income when officer’s retired
*(PRIVATE I<nco>ME); “when officer’s (=NCO) retired” means letters “nco” have been dropped from anagram, indicated by “restructured” |
| 09 | BUGS | Monitors // badgers
Double definition |
| 10 | THE WEAKEST LINK | I eat Kent whelks prepared for dodgy one that might cause chain reaction?
*(I EAT KENT WHELKS); “prepared” is anagram indicator |
| 11/22 | CONVEYOR BELT | Property lawyer has designated area – it’s useful when one’s job on the line
CONVEYOR (=property lawyer) + BELT (=designated area, as in green belt, consumer belt); the “line” in the definition is a production line |
| 13 | REHAB | As for addiction, kick it here
RE (=as for) + HAB<it> (=addiction; “kick it” means letters “it” are dropped) |
| 15 | SUNNI | Member of student union turned Muslim
IN NUS (=member of student union, i.e. National Union of Students); “turned” indicates reversal |
| 17 | RESETTLE | Move from rundown street by central Bellevue
*(STREET) + <bel>LE<vue> (“central” means middle letters dropped); “rundown” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | IMPREGNABILITY | Naughty child knocking over firework I set off at end of display, being impervious to threat?
IMP (=naughty child) + REGNAB (BANGER=firework; “knocking over” indicates reversal) + I + LIT (=set off, e.g. firework) + <displa>Y (“end of” means last letter only) |
| 23 | ALIENATION | Country pursuing a myth, becoming detached
A + LIE (=myth) + NATION (=country) |
| 24 | MEDDLE | To win award for reporting, get involved
Homophone (“for reporting”) of “medal” (=award) |
| 25 | GURNARD | Pull a face, biting off first piece of tough fish
GURN (=pull a face) + <h>ARD (=tough; “biting off first piece” means first letter dropped); a gurnard is a fish with a large, bony-plated angular head |
| Down | ||
| 01 | BUMPTIOUS | False head of tribe, outwardly religious and self-important
BUM (=false) + [T<ribe> (“head of” means first letter only) in PIOUS (=religious)] |
| 02 | IRENE | Female temptress heading off to the Orient
<s>IREN (=temptress; “heading off” means first letter dropped) + E (=the Orient, i.e. East) |
| 03 | KNAVERY | Up-and-coming minister held by pull of wickedness
REV (=minister, i.e. reverend) in YANK (=pull); “up-and-coming” indicates (here full) vertical reversal |
| 04 | TRICK-OR-TREATING | Doing this, start off attacking with terror – upset, I’ll chip in
I in [<a>TTACKING + TERROR]; “start off” means first letter dropped; “upset” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | PRESSER | Papers served on Queen by one preparing suit?
PRESS (=(news)papers) + ER (=Queen); the “presser” here is one ironing a suit |
| 06 | BOBBLE HAT | Headgear of Spooner’s to hamper movement of cricketer
Spoonerism of “hobble (=hamper movement of) + bat (=cricketer)” |
| 07 | LOG ON | What fire may need to get started
A fire may need a log on it to burn better |
| 12 | VENERATED | No ordinary cooker, energy-approved and regarded with awe
<o>VEN (=cooker; “no ordinary (=O)” means letter “o” is dropped) + E (=energy) + RATED (=approved) |
| 14 | BOLLYWOOD | Cheekily flirt with date towards end of romantic film?
BOL-D-LY WOO (=cheekily flirt); “with date (=D) towards end” means letter “d” moves to end of answer) |
| 16 | INGRATE | Churlish fellow hauled over coals?
Cryptically, someone literally “hauled over coals” would find himself in the grate of a fireplace! |
| 18 | SPINNER | One’s in PR, missing nothing in contortions
*(<o>NE’S IN PR); “missing nothing (=O)” means letter “o” is dropped; “in contortions” is anagram indicator; & lit. |
| 20 | MY EYE | I disagree – this is how I see things
Cryptically, my eye is how I see things, what I see with |
| 21 | INTRA | Within carriages, inch forward
TRA-IN (=carriages); “inch (=IN) forward” means letters “in” are moved to front of word |
Thanks, RR. Like you, I found it really hard to get into. But having been completely beaten by Anax and Donk earlier in the week, I was determined not to get a hat-trick of failures in one week.
It yielded, but only slowly. The theme seemed a little understated – if you’re going to do a Halloween puzzle, then let’s have more than one clue related to it. Or perhaps we’re missing something.
Didn’t like it as much as I have previous puzzles from this setter. Not dead keen on the definition for THE WEAKEST LINK, nor for ALIENATION. But REHAB was good, as was LOG ON.
I think there is more (unfortunately) to your explanation of MEDDLE, RR. The homophone MEDAL is ‘to win award’, rather than just ‘award’. This verbal usage seemed to start only a few years ago with the London 2012 Olympics. I remember Rebecca Adlington (and others) saying how difficult it was ‘to medal’ in the competition. Personally I’d be happy if this particular ‘nounal verb’ disappeared entirely from the lexicon.
That’s enough grumping for this week. Good weekend to all.
Count me as another who found it difficult to really get started. For quite a while I only had four answers in the grid, and it was only when I got BUMPTIOUS that the top half opened up for me. It took me even longer to make decent inroads into the bottom half, and eventually getting IMPREGNABILITY was the key. I finished in the SW with CONVEYOR BELT after VENERATED. My only quibble would be that a property lawyer is a conveyancer rather than a conveyor, although I dare say there may be dictionaries out there that show that both are acceptable.
Thanks to setter and RR,
Enjoyable and not quite as tough as yesterday’s offering, thank goodness. I had GRIMACE for 25, which half works but is clearly wrong. BTW if you haven’t had gurnard it’s worth a try and for fish isn’t too expensive.
I couldn’t agree more with Kathryn’s Dad@1. I can’t stand the use of ‘medal’ as a verb especially when it’s used in the same sentence as ‘meet’ used as a ‘verbal noun’ (yes, it’s in Chambers but I still disapprove) and even more so when it appears with ‘swim’ used as an er… ‘verbal adjective’ – sorry I don’t know the grammatically correct term for this sort of word use. Do you think Dawn Fraser was reported at the time to have “medalled at the Olympics swim meet” back in 1956? I doubt it.
Tough to start? Me too! But I did finish it and without having to look anything up, so I am reasonably happy. 3dn was my LOI: I had all the components of the clue more or less worked out in my head but it wasn’t until I got 11/22 I was able to put it all together.
Got RHS quite quickly then came to a halt before seeing brisket and then it all fell out.
Morph usually has more thematic stuff and was puzzled by its absence but an enjoyable romp. Wot no Phi this week? Thanks RR.
Lovely fish, the gurnard, very tasty.
All Hallows having broken out over here, I thi I can note that there’s a Phi today.
Yes, quite a toughie. SUNNI was my first in, tho’ I struggled to parse it at first having taken SU as the ‘student union’ bit. Fortunately there were one or two fairly obvious beginnings or endings which helped a bit.
WordPlodder @3: I agree there are some awful verbal nouns around these days but ‘meet’ has a long history – having grown up in hunting country in the 50s I know the gathering at the start of a day’s “sport” (note the inverted commas) was referred to as a ‘meet’. But a lot of the modern ones are the result of sheer laziness when there is a perfectly good noun that will do the job. And vice-versa for nounal verbs, if that’s what they’re called.
Mind you, in Welsh most verbs are known as verb-nouns and can be used as either. But that’s no excuse for doing the same in English.
Better stop now or Gaufrid will block this post.
Thabks, though, to setter and blogger.
As Brian Greer once told me, there isn’t a single noun that can’t be verbed.
Not a Halloween puzzle as such but as Morph submitted this fairly recently I thought it would be perverse to run it on any other day.
Thanks for the blog and all your comments. I didn’t actually set out to do a thematic puzzle, but it had a couple of seasonally relevant clues so found its slot here.
In the words of the baddie who failed to disrupt the youth Olympic games: “I would’ve got away for it, if it hadn’t been for those medalling kids!”
PS I second Phi on gurnard.
Tough but good. One little doubt, not really a quibble because I suspect I’ll be corrected: in 23ac we are told that the definition is ‘becoming detached’. Surely ‘alienation’ is a noun and the phrase ‘becoming detached’ is not really nounal? I can’t think of two sentences where they can be interchanged.
Thanks Morph and RR.
Wil @10 re 23ac: Think of “becoming” as a gerund.