The usual high quality, enjoyable puzzle from Poins, if perhaps a little tougher than some, at least for me.
The crossing 11 down and 16 across were last in: not being in any way familiar with Shakespeare didnt help, nor did the fact that 12 across could have provided either an E or an A depending on how one chose to read the clue. The well-hidden definition in 11 was too good for me too.
Anyway, got there in the end.
I’ll be on a train under the sea to exotic destinations (Belgium) by the the time you read this, so apologies in advance if I can’t respond to comments or questions in a timely fashion.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TIN MAN | Brown’s hedging because of Mark’s heartless character (3,3) |
| (IN + M) in TAN. | ||
| 4 | BROUGHAM | Rude to stuff fairy queen back in carriage (8) |
| ROUGH in MAB<. | ||
| 9 | MUMMER | Actor‘s mother joins revolutionary group (6) |
| MUM + REM<. | ||
| 10 | COLOSSUS | It’s big for Cuba to have succeeded after withdrawal of American bid (8) |
| C + (US + SOLO) + S. I assume “solo” is “bid” here, though I can’t definitely prove it. There is at least a card game by that name which apparently involves bidding. | ||
| 12 | OVERSEAS | Supervises broadcast from abroad (8) |
| Homophone of “oversees”. | ||
| 13 | SENECA | Scene tampered with by amateur playwright (6) |
| SCENE* + A. | ||
| 15 | AGOG | Excited to find work in the centre of Prague (4) |
| GO in [pr]AG[ue]. | ||
| 16 | STARVELING | Shakespeare’s tailor‘s grave isn’t left untidy (10) |
| (GRAVE ISN‘T + L)*. Robin Starveling, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. | ||
| 19 | EVEN-HANDED | Equalised without assistance – just (4-6) |
| HAND in EVENED. | ||
| 20 | SPUR | Jet falling short of railway siding (4) |
| SPUR[t]. | ||
| 23 | CURARE | Poison dog over time (6) |
| CUR + ERA<. | ||
| 25 | CLAPTRAP | Nonsense to applaud Republican during strike (8) |
| CLAP + (R in TAP). | ||
| 27 | ASSASSIN | Fool wrong to assume arsenic’s a killer (8) |
| ASS + (As in SIN). | ||
| 28 | NEREID | Worm turning contributes to bloodier encounter (6) |
| [bloo]DIER EN[counter]<. | ||
| 29 | MASSACRE | Overwhelming defeat as Cram’s resilience finally cracked (8) |
| (AS CRAM‘S + [resilienc]E. | ||
| 30 | SPOT-ON | Excellent tenor packs club (4-2) |
| T in SPOON. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TOMBOLA | Fellow starts to bellyache over love arguing it involves the luck of the draw (7) |
| TOM + B[ellyache] + O[ver] + L[ove] + A[rguing]. | ||
| 2 | NUMBER ONE | Without feeling before carrying on with first lieutenant (6,3) |
| NUMB + (ON in ERE). | ||
| 3 | AVERSE | Having a strong dislike of American poetry (6) |
| A + VERSE. | ||
| 5 | RIOT | Right about priestess’s loose living (4) |
| IO in RT. | ||
| 6 | UNOPENED | Upper class newspaper boss maintains no writer is barred (8) |
| (NO + PEN) in (U + ED). | ||
| 7 | HASTE | Pure cocaine’s cut to produce speed (5) |
| [c]HASTE. | ||
| 8 | MUSTANG | A few said to be upset by smell coming from horse (7) |
| Reversed homophone of “some” + TANG. | ||
| 11 | BATTING | In time money fills container (7) |
| (T + TIN) in BAG. | ||
| 14 | BRIEFLY | Extremely lively after lawyer gets to the point (7) |
| BRIEF + L[ivel]Y. | ||
| 17 | IMPERFECT | Flawed politician involved in fierce struggles with Tory leader (9) |
| (MP in FIERCE*) + T[ory]. | ||
| 18 | CHARISMA | Is breaking spell a divinely conferred talent? (8) |
(IS in CHARM) + A. I initially wondered about the definition, but it’s the third definition in Chambers: A spiritual power given by God. |
||
| 19 | EXCLAIM | Without right to speak boldly (7) |
| EX + CLAIM. | ||
| 21 | ROPED IN | Enlisted soldiers crossing river on the way back to Germany and home (5,2) |
| (PO< in RE) + D + IN. | ||
| 22 | UPKEEP | In court to continue getting maintenance (6) |
| UP + KEEP. | ||
| 24 | RESTS | Supports Settle school’s head (5) |
| REST + S[chool]. | ||
| 26 | PIER | Good to have the Queen’s support (4) |
| PI + ER. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
I, too, found this hard. Again, I still had many pencilled-in unsure-of answers when I finished. Was Io a priestess? Isn’t it a bit of a stretch to define Seneca as a playwright? Is a “solo” a bid in some card game? Anyway, I did get there in the end. I loved “Batting” at 11D for its misdirection.
I first wrote in “bases” at 24D, and had to correct it later. It’s as good a guess as “rests”, I think.
Solo is indeed one of the bids that can be made in the game of solo whist.
12A It is simply not possible from the wordplay to divine what the seventh letter of the answer will be.
Also stuck on BATTING for ages. Wouldn’t mind an explanation of “in” for “because of” in 1A.
Overall enjoyable. Thanks to Poins and Simon Harris
I seem to be starting many of my comments recently with ‘I found this harder than usual’, so it could just be that what passes for my brain is gradually going downhill.
I liked the puzzle, but agree with the remarks about OVERSEAS/OVERSEES. Yes, I know that once you’ve got BATTING it can only be the former, but it’s just one of my pet niggles when the homophone indicator appears in the middle of the two possible homophones.
Good stuff otherwise; thanks to Simon and Poins. Hope that Simon doesn’t find anything too exotic in Belgium. And that he can explain ‘in’ for ‘because of’ in 1A for gwep, because I can’t.
I agree with (nearly) everyone on (nearly) everything.
On the ambiguity of 12ac (which made it not possible for me to find BATTING).
On the fact that BATTING was indeed very clever.
On not understanding why ‘in’ = ‘because of’.
On finding this one of the harder Poins puzzles (which took me more than one session).
On liking this crossword – a good one!
Hi gwep et al
Chambers has ‘because of’ as one of the definitions under ‘in’ and I would suggest that the two are interchangeable in the likes of ‘in the circumstances …’ and ‘because of the circumstances …’.
And to quote Collins: “while or by performing the action of; as a consequence of or by means of » in crossing the street he was run over“.
I also agree with just about all that has been said. BATTING was my last in, because of the ambiguity in 12 across. I generally enjoyed the puzzle, though.
I also wondered at first about ‘in’ and ‘because of’, but as another example, an item could be described as ‘elegant in its simplicity’ or ‘elegant because of its simplicity’.
Thanks to Gaufrid and Tom_I re 1A, though I find the examples are not very convincing, Chambers or not, and merely demonstrate subtle differences in meaning.
BATTING was my last one in, too, after resolving the ambiguity of 12ac.