I haven’t blogged a Punk puzzle in ages, so I was pleased to see Mr Halpern’s moniker at the top of the crossword this morning. In Another Place, as Paul, the setter has been getting slight grief recently because of the lack of puerile humour. No problems on that count today. I found it a lorra laughs, but difficult in places.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 Award less prestigious ultimately, popular with a music producer
OCARINA
The award is an OSCAR: so it’s O[S]CAR plus IN and A. An instrument I only got to know when I restarted doing cryptics. It comes up quite often, presumably because its letter pattern is helpful to setters.
11 Dance music, hellish business?
DISCO
A cd cum dd, suggesting that DIS CO would be a ‘hellish business’. DIS is Dante’s infernal city. Be good in this life and you won’t end up there.
12 Cook meat with iris, a plant
ARTEMISIA
(MEAT IRIS A)* I am rubbish with plant clues, so this was one of my last ones in, despite it being an obvious anagram (‘cook’).
13 Creature scaring children, one not coming up to par?
BOGEYMAN
Another cd cum dd. A BOGEYMAN is said to scare children (witness Raymond Briggs’ Fungus the Bogeyman) and the second bit is something to do with golf.
14 Allow evil extremists to take poison, rolling around
ENABLE
A reversal of EL for the outside letters of ‘evil’ and BANE for ‘poison’, all reversed. I think a version of BANE was in Harry Potter, but I’ll have to check with a child and get back to you. [Update from smallest child: it was WOLFSBANE, which is also the name of a poisonous plant known as MONKSHOOD.]
17 Dancer, similar person having skeleton endlessly rattled
TWINKLETOES
A charade of TWIN and (SKELETO[N])*
21 One making ace lace, perhaps, seeing flaw in underwear
LADDER
I could well be wrong, but I think the setter is suggesting that to get from ‘ace’ to ‘lace’ you need to add a letter L. Which would be L ADDER. If I am right, I don’t like it much.
22 Tad broken, hairline fractures fixed
ATTACHED
If you break ‘tad’ then you’ll get ATD; put TACHE for ‘moustache’ or ‘hairline’ in that and you’ve got a word that means ‘fixed’. The insertion indicator is ‘fractures’.
25 Having no children, in part by rejection of organ?
SINE PROLE
If you’re not a fan of Punk’s use of bums, tits and willies humour, then you won’t have approved. If you are a fan, then you would have liked this clue, because it’s a charade of PENIS reversed next to ROLE. And PENIS is definitely an ‘organ’, because if you have one, you can play with it, can’t you? SINE PROLE is a Latin, legal term for ‘without offspring’.
27 Island welcoming tempura initially, as Asian cuisine
BALTI
An insertion of T for the first letter of ‘tempura’ in BALI, the Indonesian island.
28 As a leprechaun might say, I’m surprised to see ogre wriggling into underwear
BEGORRA
What was I saying about tits? An insertion of (OGRE)* in BRA for a word of Irish origin that is (allegedly) a euphemism for BY GOD!
29 Eastern tea joints, by the sound of it?
CHINESE
Punk is suggesting that this would be a homophone of CHAI KNEES.
Down
1 String orchestra leader heading for Barcelona, a Spanish city
CORDOBA
A charade of CORD, O for the first letter of ‘orchestra’, B for the first letter of ‘Barcelona’ and A.
2 Wise to moan quietly, having caused a stink about it?
FAR-SIGHTED
An insertion of SIGH in FARTED. And yes, I did laugh.
3 I’m in the music business, sinful trade
SIMONY
It had to be this, but it’s a word I didn’t know. ‘The buying or selling of ecclesiastical privileges, for example pardons or benefices.’ Named after Simon Magus (Acts 8:18) who offered money to the Apostles for the laying on of hands.
4 Instrument placing dog in space south of lake
BALALAIKA
BALA, the lake in Gwynedd, is followed by LAIKA, the Russian dog who was the first animal to orbit the earth. She died painfully.
5 Check back of vestry for cross
TESTY
A charade of TEST and Y for the last letter of ‘vestry’.
6 Flier blasted off, launching
FLAMINGO
I think that this is FLAMING (as in FLAMING HELL!) and O for the first letter of ‘off’. I don’t think, but I know, that this triggers the obligatory Pierre bird link. Flamingoes/flamingos (you choose) are famous for three reasons: standing on one leg (although not the specimen in my link); being used as croquet mallets in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (take pity on the hedgehogs as well); and the pretty ones were a hit for Manfred Mann (but you have to be of a certain age to remember that).
7 Piece of pop useless as classical work
OPUS
Hidden in pOP USeless.
8 Similar behind painted crimson?
RELATED
An insertion of LATE in RED.
15 Fellow taking in girl before start of lunch as cover for waiter
BUS SHELTER
This was one of my favourites this morning because of the misleading definition. An insertion of SHE and L for the first letter of ‘lunch’ (we’ve had a few of these this morning, n’est-ce pas?) in BUSTER.
16 One in time showing awareness
SENTIENCE
An insertion of I in SENTENCE. ‘Time’ in its ‘doing time’ sense.
18 Powerless to harness former power, appearing amateurish
INEXPERT
An insertion of EX P in INERT.
19 Just around the corner, drop first of bags between capitals in Chad and Yemen
CLOSE BY
More first letter devices. LOSE and B in between C and Y.
20 Tot outside bog, regarded with wonder
ADMIRED
An insertion of MIRE in ADD.
23 Even though formal wear turning up, liturgical vestment put on first
ALBEIT
Being a lapsed altar boy is only occasionally useful, but getting priestly references is one of those times. ALB plus a reversal of TIE. CASSOCKS or COTTERS in a clue? Bring it on.
24/10 Top celestial realignment?
TOTAL ECLIPSE
I screwed up this part of the grid by first putting in SOLAR ECLIPSE, which in my defence, is also a correct solution. This is a bit of a weak cd, unless I am missing something.
26 Due to knock up hot drink
NIGH
A reversal of H GIN.
Many thanks to Punk for the Bank Holiday entertainment.
Thanks Pierre
You are missing something! 😉
24/10 is not a “bit of a weak cd”. It is an anagram (realignment) of TOP CELESTIAL &lit.
Whoops. Thanks, Gaufrid and apologies to Punk.
Thanks Punk and Pierre
3dn: In the explanation of the definition, you seem to have forgotten to mention the wordplay, which is of course IM in SONY.
It is indeed, Pelham, thank you.
I stupidly went with “solar eclipse” because I didn’t see the anagram fodder, and I’m annoyed with myself because I should have realised there was more to the clue. It might have been because I was tired while I was solving this, but I found this a little trickier than many of Punk’s puzzles.
Thanks to Punk for a great time, and to Pierre for the blog. I liked the anagram in 24d-10a a lot, as also several other great surfaces – even the naughty/potty ones! 🙂
Re. 21: In “One making ace lace…” I took “one” to mean the person who adds L to ace, and who is thus an “L ADDER” – it’s still weak, but just about works, IMO.
I did love “bus shelter”! “Sine Prole” was new to me, but the wordplau made it clear. Now, If only I could spell “Artemisia”…
Glad to see that you’re continuing to comment, Emrys. SINE PROLE is a good one to tuck away in the memory bank, because it sometimes just comes up as SP, its abbreviation.
Further to #8, OSP (or in lower case – osp) is often encountered in genealogy, standing for ‘obiit sine prole’ (died without issue).