It’s a Donk – at long last!
Checking through our posts, it’s over a year since we had the pleasure of blogging a Donk. When we were away in February we missed Donk’s puzzle when Gaufrid kindly stood in for us.
There’s one clue today which we didn’t really like – 24ac/ 15d – perhaps there is more to it and we are missing the point. However, as always, there is much to enjoy and some inventive clueing as expected along the way. Please see the amended comments for this clue – it is now our favourite! Some of the surface readings raised a smile.
We looked around for a theme but couldn’t find one unless there’s something about Donk’s background that he wants to 9ac about involving 12, 11 wearing a 2d. Addendum – We had a conversation with Donk at the S&B in Cambridge about how setters start filling in a grid, which is where themes (hidden or otherwise) can play a part. We now see what Donk filled the grid with in this case.
If there are any errors we may not be able to make any changes to the blog until later today as we are starting to walk half of the Coast to Coast with some friends. Early this morning we are setting out from St Bees on the first leg ….. no doubt in the rain!!
| Across | ||
| 6 | Board employed by you, I jail | |
| OUIJA | Hidden or ’employed’ in yOU I JAil | |
| 7 | Workers bound to open second deck | |
| SHOP FLOOR | HOP (bound) in or ‘opening’ S (second) + FLOOR (deck) | |
| 9 | Pipe down tower’s pretty, twisted at the end | |
| KEEP QUIET | KEEP (tower) + QUITE (pretty) with last two letters swapped around or ‘twisted at the end’ | |
| 10 | Hairy swinger didn’t need phone | |
| ORANG | A play on the fact that if you didn’t need the phone it was because O (no-one) RANG | |
| 11 | Miss hunting lesson I supply | |
| LIONESS | An anagram of LESSON I (anagrind is ‘supply’) | |
| 13 | Before long, one picking up mesdemoiselles here? | |
| EARLY ON | EAR (one picking up) + LYON (French city where one may find Mesdemoiselles – along with mesdames, messieurs et autres personnes français) | |
| 14 | State of missing jam | |
| PRESS | ||
| 16 | Flat pack | |
| PAD | Double definition | |
| 18 | Old lady to invent round sandwiches (possibly spam) | |
| MA (old lady) inside or ‘sandwiched by’ LIE (invent) reversed or ‘round’ | ||
| 19 | Old opposition, that of the French | |
| ANTIQUE | ANTI (opposition) + QUE (‘that’ in French) | |
| 21 | Finds passes | |
| COMES BY | Double defintion | |
| 23 | It’s often filled during church, for each in turn | |
| CREPE | PER (for each) reversed or ‘turned’ in or ‘during’ CE (church) | |
| 24/15 | 1 1 2 3 5 8 …… | |
| FIBONACCI SEQUENCE | ||
| 27 | Act on oral suffering here? | |
| ROOT CANAL | An anagram of ACT ON ORAL (anagrind is ‘suffering’): The mere thought of a dentist working on this area in my mouth makes me feel quite ill. | |
| 28 | Do One Direction pack it in? | |
| SCRAM | S (direction) + CRAM (pack it in). A good bit of misdirection here we thought but that may have been because we hadn’t come across the urban slang meaning of ‘do one’. | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Charming and reserved, taking nothing off | |
| NICE | ||
| 2 | Wicked stocking Queen makes you wear in bedroom | |
| BASQUE | BASE (wicked) around or ‘stocking’ QU (Queen). Actually Chambers only mentions ‘under-bodice’ – perhaps Donk knows more about where this garment is worn than Chambers! | |
| 3 | Definitely Ascot’s | |
| OF COURSE | A play on the fact that if something belongs to Ascot (notice the apostrophe) then it would be OF COURSE (Ascot being the racecourse) | |
| 4 | Revolutionary periods as royal arses about | |
| SOLAR YEARS | An anagram of ROYAL ARSES (anagrind is ‘about’) | |
| 5 | First one’s booze by champers outside | |
| ORIGINALLY | I (one) GIN (booze) with ORALLY (by mouth or ‘champers’) around the outside | |
| 6 | Yob’s current fine for boxing | |
| OIK | OK (fine) around or ‘boxing’ I (current) | |
| 7 | Provokes traditional fans to stand up – side’s first to go down | |
| STIRS UP | PURISTS (traditional fans) reversed or ‘standing up’ with S (first letter of side) moving down | |
| 8 | Every other bonus Tories put aside is shocking | |
| OUTRE | Hidden in the clue with every other letter in bOnUs ToRiEs missed out or ‘put aside’ | |
| 11 | They may get tips to barely move | |
| LAP DANCERS | Cryptic definition – A play on the fact that LAP DANCERS are paid in tips and have little on in the way of clothing – so we are told! | |
| 12 | Too much bottom’s covered briefly | |
| OVER THE TOP | OTT (OVER THE TOP) is hidden or ‘covered’ in bOTTom. ”Briefly’ refers to the fact that it is a shortened form. | |
| 15 | See 24 across | |
| 17 | Sound unit that might ring in winter after docking | |
| DECIBEL | DEC I BEL |
|
| 20 | Small, mischievous and self involved! | |
| ELFIN | Hidden or ‘involved’ in sELF INvolved | |
| 22 | One believer is heading off the following day | |
| MONIST | IS + T (first letter or ‘heading’ of The) following MON (day) | |
| 25 | Plug cashback (those banking options) | |
| CORK | C OR K the first and last letters or ‘banks’ of CashbacK | |
| 26 | System sorts out Bond | |
| ISM | IS M (M refers to James Bond’s boss who may well try and ‘sort him out’!) | |
In the end, I couldn’t finish this. There were several short answers I just couldn’t see, including a knot in the bottom right corner.
24/15 is certainly clever, but as someone else who immediately recognised the sequence, it didn’t occur to me to search further, especially as 1dn was another I couldn’t get. Thanks for the explanation. Too clever by half.
I thought this was another enjoyable Donk challenge. I also struggled in the SE but finally cracked SCRAM, followed by CORK and ISM. I biffed FIBONACCI SEQUENCE but now I wish I had bothered to investigate it further because it is a cracker. I’d heard of “do one” but it took me a goodly while to recognise it as the definition for 28ac, and I never did parse ISM so thanks for that B&J.
FIBONACCI SEQUENCE was brilliant. Like most others, no doubt, I wrote in the answer without investigating further. Should have realised there was something more to it.
Not the hardest of Donks (even though I had trouble to complete the SE).
Like others, I didn’t pay much attention to the, in the end, absolutely brilliant FIBONACCI SEQUENCE.
Alas, when the solution is so clear from it’s ‘definition’ all these thoughts that Donk put into it are perhaps wasted.
I mean, most solvers just tackle a crossword and either get the solution or not.
Only geniuses or the ones that visit this site (a minority, I fear) will have jumped for joy, many of them only after seeing the explanation (like me, for example).
But WOW, Dave, 24/15 is quite unbelievable – full marks to you!
I found 20d (ELFIN) very intriguing.
I’m not sure whether we need both ‘small’ and ‘mischievous’ for the definition.
But it’s that ‘self-involved’ that made me think.
There is no hidden indicator because the word we are looking for comes from ‘self-involved’ as it is, er, ‘self-involved’.
Clever.
Finally, my view on 14ac is different.
I saw it as PROFESS (‘state’) minus OF.
Many thanks B&J.
I think you are correct about the parsing for 14ac Sil, it makes much better sense.
Our thoughts were the same about 20d – presumably that’s why Donk included the exclamation mark!
Eimi mentioned on Twitter that one of the clues here was among the very best he’d ever edited. Praise indeed. I guess that was the Fibonacci one, though I’d have to add myself to the list of people who didn’t even look at the wordplay.
Thought the One Direction one rather nice, and perhaps serendipitously topical.
Catching up (prizes can be ‘lost’ in a pile of paperwork). I’d marked the Leonardo da Pisa clue as “weak?”, the question mark meaning I’d intended to return to explore further – but didn’t. On reading your intro just now I took another look – so was able to get the PDM for myself. Absolutely delightful. And how nice that a puzzle can bring new joy nearly three week’s after its initial solve…!
I, too, derived PRESS from ‘express’ – the other clue I marked, with a QM, at the time. Of course, ‘profess’ is the key – silly me.
So it’s thanks to B & J and the same, with golden knobs on, to Donk (the sound I heard internally on seeing the true resplendence of 24/15).
[Joyce – once a mathematician, always a mathematician….]