A very enjoyable puzzle from Gaff.
I liked the mini-theme on the Arthurian legend, nicely understated. I thought this was a puzzle with some hidden gems, not a flashy puzzle but but one with much detail to be appreciated. Thanks Gaff.
GRID UPDATED: thanks to Gaufrid for pointing out the lottery theme that completely passed me by.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CYNICISM |
Lack of trust in my CIC’s disastrous (8)
(IN MY CIC’S)* anagram=disastrous
|
| 5 | SPRANG |
Jumped ship – initiated collision (6)
Ship (initial letter of) PRANG (collision)
|
| 9 | LUCKY DIP |
Brave princess first to end speculation (5,3)
PLUCKY DI (brave princess) moving first letter to the end. I like the way moving just one letter changes the meaning and sound of the words.
|
| 10 | ARTHUR |
Ruler with an inner circle (6)
cryptic definition – referring to King Arthur and his “Knights of the Round Table” (inner circle)
|
| 12 | BY THUNDER |
Curse how one is deafened (2,7)
double definition
|
| 13 | TANGO |
Dance holidaymaker sees eventually (5)
your TAN will GO eventually
|
| 14 | BALL |
Delivery round (4)
double definition
|
| 16 | CAMELOT |
Legendary court order for meal in bed (7)
MEAL* anagram=order for in COT (bed)
|
| 19 | ILLICIT |
It’s about 50-50 chemists were unlicensed (7)
IT contains (is about) L L (L=50, Roman numerals) ICI (chemists as were) – I like the inclusion of ‘were’ here as ICI was taken over by AkzoNobel in 2008
|
| 21 | EURO |
Mark’s successor in Richelieu role (4)
found inside richelEU ROle
|
| 24 | LOTTO |
John claims race is a gamble (5)
LOO (john) contains (claims) TT (race)
|
| 25 | GUINEVERE |
Half a beer always starts embarrassing queen (9)
GUINess (beer, half of) EVER (always) Embarrassing (start, first letter of)
|
| 27, 29 | ONE-WAY SYSTEM |
In the end, authority wastes money building traffic scheme (3-3,6)
anagram (building) of authoritY (in the end) and WASTES MONEY. A good surface reading.
|
| 28 | LANCELOT |
Knight who was terribly tall once (8)
(TALL ONCE)* anagram=terribly
|
| 29 |
See 27
|
|
| 30 | RECLINER |
Chair person adjusts to many positions (8)
This is basically a straight definition that tricks you into believing it is cryptic. It reminded me of cricket practice at school where the teacher used to bowl ball after ball of wickedly twisting deliveries. Every once in a while he would lob a simple straight ball right down the middle. Before you realised what was going on you had been bowled by the easiest delivery of the evening.
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | CELEBS |
Stars who may become despicable if not paid (6)
CELEBS is an anagram (may become) of DISPICABLE without PAID. The clue has a nice &littish feel about it too.
|
| 2 | NICETY |
Resort to extremely trendy refinement (6)
NICE (resort, in France) TrendY (extremes of)
|
| 3 | COYPU |
Reserved utter evacuation of rodents (5)
COY (reserved) PU sounds like (when uttered) POO (evacuation, of the bowels) – this stumped me for a while as I would have pronounced coypu as coy-pew rather than coy-poo. I had a look in Chambers and they list both pronunciations.
|
| 4 | SPIDDAL |
Boy plunges back in Galway Bay (7)
LAD (boy) DIPS (plunges) all reversed (back) – a village in the Galway Bay area, Ireland. Not somewhere I had heard of.
|
| 6 | PART-TIMER |
Scrap watch maybe one with fewer hours (4-5)
PART (scrap) TIMER (watch maybe)
|
| 7 | ACHINGLY |
Involved in detaching Lycra with great pain (8)
found inside (involved in) detACHING LYcra
|
| 8 | GARROTTE |
Throttle opens to get air roaring right on to the engine (8)
opening letters to Get Air Roaring Right On To The Engine
|
| 11 | CROC |
Nearly injure small reptile (4)
CROCk (injure) – short (small) for crocodile
|
| 15 | ANCHORAGE |
Where swinging sailors hate to see drag (9)
Cryptic definition – a boat swings at the anchor, which they do not want to drag
|
| 17 | MILLIONS |
Janus the Italian in battle of huge numbers (8)
IL LI (the, Italian, shown facing both ways, like Janus) in MONS (site of battle). I have not seen the Janus trick before – very nice!
|
| 18 | FLUTTERS |
23 has bats (8)
double definition – to gamble and to bat ones eyelids for example
|
| 20 | TOGA |
Received backing over second hand garment (4)
GOT (received backing) reversed (backing) on (over) hAnd (second letter of)
|
| 21 | EMIRATE |
State old musicians value (7)
EMI (former record company, old musicians) and RATE (value)
|
| 22 | MERLIN |
Gaff hands in bird of prey (6)
ME (gaff) R L (right and left, hands) then IN
|
| 23 | BETTER |
Superior ale-houses having no alcohol (6)
BEER (ale) contains (houses) TT (having no alcohol). I like ale-houses.
|
| 26 | EXCEL |
Shine from church at first light (5)
EX (from) CE (Church of England) at L (first letter of light). I like the way ‘from’ masquerades as a link word here.
|
*anagram
definitions are underlined
definitions are underlined
Thanks PeeDee
Your utility probably didn’t pick up the message Good luck! above the clues. As well as the theme involving Arthur et al, we have in the grid LOTTO, THUNDER BALL, EURO MILLIONS, LUCKY DIP and CAMELOT (and maybe some other lottery references that I haven’t heard of).
Thanks for that Gaufrid, I had not spotted the introduction to the puzzle. I have never played the lottery and know next to nothing about it, so most of this would probably have gone over my head anyway!
Also LANCELOT and GUINEVERE are names of the machines that pick the balls for the lottery I believe.
Fun puzzle where the theme added some additional fun without making it significantly easier.
Thanks to Gaff and PeeDee
Some googling reveals that ARTHUR and MERLIN are also names of lottery machines – so possibly no Arthurian them at all, just lottery…
Malory must be spinning in his grave…
@5
Great – we can use him as a tombola…
Camelot was the name of the company which originally ran the UK national lottery.
I enjoyed Gaff’s previous puzzle (which I had to blog) but at the same time I wasn’t very keen on devices like ‘second thoughts’ for H and ‘about middle’ for O.
Today he does the same kind of things in 20d and 26d and certainly after his comments recently, I surrender.
Not wholeheartedly but, yes, I do.
Today, Gaff also gave us a variant of ‘openly’ (used in the Dylan Thomas puzzle) for chosing multiple starting letters in 8d. Unfortunately, once more “opens to” is not precise enough for me.
That said, our setter has also shown to be really innovative in 17d.
A thing like this is absolutely sufficient to compensate all my quibbles.
Also, +++ for 12ac (TANGO) and 23d (BETTER).
SPIDDAL (4d) I got without any problem.
I have actually been there on the way to the Arran Islands.
Spiddal was where magnificent The Waterboys liked to be and recorded some of their tracks for the album Room to Roam, wayback when.
Yes, Spiddal is near Galway Bay but the definition is really poor, methinks.
Gaff and I probably never fully agree about cryptics but I liked solving this crossword!
Thanks PeeDee.
On 15 Feb last year, we had a ‘near miss’ from a comet. Our astonishing scientists had predicted this date with enough accuracy for me to theme a puzzle for that day, and I was rewarded by a splurge of publicity to give FT solvers a head start on what the theme might be.
Themed puzzles don’t have to land on a date, but it does help solvers in a lateral sort of way if they are tuned into it. Today was the 20th anniversary of the first National Lottery draw, and I had hoped for a similar PR initiative, maybe a triple rollover, double-up multi-millionaire draw or whatever.
Nothing! Ah well!
As a precaution, I made it solvable even if you didn’t work out the theme. Well done to those who spotted it and sorry to all the bewildered ones out there!
Great blog PeeDee. Yes, if a setter is allowed favourites, I also liked LUCKY DIP and RECLINER.
And SvH, did you get from Spiddal to Arran by my preferred means of transport?
Well, Gaff, I hope it’s not swimming …. ?
For that, we just used something that looked like a boat.
We took our tent with us too, and our bikes.
It wasn’t the best holiday of my life but Spiddal did hit the right note – some ten years ago and in your puzzle.
ps, I would like to repeat that I liked the novel use of ‘Janus’.
It reminded of my alter ego using ‘Arabic’ as a reversal indicator (because in that language they write from right to left – which as a teacher I saw myself).
Nobody liked it – I liked Janus, though!
I thought 13 was a reference to the film ‘Last Tango in Paris’ – plausible?! Thoroughly enjoyable crossword though.
Thanks Gaff and PeeDee
Actually did this one the day after it was published – but only just checked it today. Was thinking that it was an Arthurian theme … and missed completely on the lottery aspect.
Still lots to enjoy on the journey to getting there with a wide mix of devices, including the compound anagram with CELEBS and the clever first to last with LUCKY DIP. A couple of old household names in ICI and EMI thrown in for good measure.
Enjoyable as always from this setter !