Checking back on the site, the first crossword we blogged was coutesy of Hamilton. We enjoyed it, as we enjoyed this one. A pleasant, gentle start to the day. Now off to walk the dogs.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PADDLE |
Mix-up comes after Princeton’s first foray into the shallows (6)
P (first letter of Princeton) plus ADDLE (mix up) |
| 4 | ICE CUBES |
Hard water? (3,5)
Cyptic definition |
| 9 | SLEAZY |
Corrupt, cunning and inwardly calm, by all accounts (6)
SLY (cunning) with EAZ (homophone of ease) inserted |
| 10 | NOCTURNE |
Recount new rendition of a work for piano (8)
An anagram of RECOUNT and N for new |
| 12 | OAPS |
The type that might miss the start of TV serials! (4)
Soaps minus the first letter. |
| 13 | MARTIAL ART |
Military skill as a means of self- defence (7,3)
Cryptic definition |
| 15 | ALL OF A SUDDEN |
Very quickly lad found ales befuddling (3,2,1,6)
An anagram of LAD FOUND ALES |
| 18 | JEOPARDISING |
Threatening rogue repaid Jo and Carol (12)
An anagram of REPAID, JO and SING (carol) |
| 21 | HEARTBREAK |
Hater – of great sorrow? (10)
Hater is an anagram of heart |
| 22 | ERGO |
Therefore experiencing only the middle section (4)
ERGO is made up of the four central letters of undergoing |
| 24 | DERISION |
Ridicule verdict that has clubs replaced by Republican (8)
DECISION (verdict) with the C (for clubs) replaced by R (for Republican) |
| 25 | MANTRA |
Some clergyman translated sacred text (6)
Included in the phrase “some clergyman translated” |
| 26 | SOLVENTS |
Liquids that dissolve matter so put on a number of outlets (8)
SO plus L (Latin numeral) plus VENTS (outlets) |
| 27 | ELICIT |
Bring out what’s reportedly prohibited (6)
Elicit and illicit sound similar |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PASTORAL |
Beethoven’s 6th is beyond examination (8)
PAST plus ORAL. Beethoven’s sixth symphony is commonly known as the Pastoral symphony. |
| 2 | DEED POLL |
Means to change one’s name? (4,4)
Cryptic definition |
| 3 | LAZE |
Lounge covers discussed (4)
Laze sounds similar to lays |
| 5 | CLOTTED CREAM |
Fool to have me carted off for a treat in Devon (7,5)
CLOT (fool) plus an anagram of ME and CARTED |
| 6 | COTTAGE PIE |
Dish that’s epic cooked involves excessive time (7,3)
An anagram of EPIC plus OTT (excessive) plus AGE (time) |
| 7 | BURSAR |
Bear being taken in by branch treasurer (6)
BR for branch with URSA (Latin for bear) inserted |
| 8 | SLEUTH |
Begins speaking, letting everyone understand the house detective (6)
The first letters (begins) of the words following |
| 11 | PASSE PARTOUT |
Frame for a master key (5-7)
The elder one of us remembers passe partout picture frames comprising a picture mounted between a piece of glass and a sheet of card stuck together at the edges with adhesive tape. Looking up the term, there seem to be other uses as well in picture framing. Passe-partout (goes everywhere) is also an obsolete term for a master key |
| 14 | AFTERTASTE |
A lasting reminder of a meal? (10)
What more is there to say? |
| 16 | DIURETIC |
Girl goes to old city to call up specific medicine (8)
Di (the girl in the crosswords) plus UR (the ancient city of Mesopotamia) plus ETIC (cite, or call, backwards, indicated by up). A diuretic is a drug that induces water loss from the body. |
| 17 | IGNORANT |
Had no knowledge of flawed interrogations from which Tories excluded (8)
Take the letters making up interrogations, remove the t, the o, the r, the i, the e and the s, rearrange them and you have IGNORANT. A pedant might say the definition should be having no knowledge, but we all know what used to happen to Mr Logic |
| 19 | SHADES |
Lady’s taken notice of sunglasses (6)
SHE’S (lady’s) with AD (short for advertisement or notice) inserted |
| 20 | PATROL |
As removed from 1 (down), shuffling round (6)
Remove the a and the s from PASTORAL, shuffle what’s left and you get patrol, a nightwatchman’s (for example) round |
| 23 | BAWL |
Shout at airline going to St Lucia (4)
BA (the world’s favourite) plus WL, the international car registration symbol for St Lucia comprising W for Winward Islands plus L for Lucia (we freely admit to having to look that up to confirm it) |
Thanks David and Linda for the blog, and Hamilton for a challenge, that was insurmountable for me. Filled in the lower half pretty quickly but couldnt make much headway in the top half.
It definitely didn’t help that 10ac, 12ac, 5d, 11d were all new to me.
Cheers
TL
Thanks both,
I enjoyed this, especially 21a and 7d. Passe-Partout is best known to me as the Phileas Fogg’s manservant in Around the World in 80 Days.
Thanks D&L. I found this pretty much a write-in (as is often the case with this setter), but was stumped at the end by 11d, which in comparison to the rest of the puzzle is quite an obscure clue. I knew the skeleton key meaning (and Fogg’s servant), but not the frame. I was hoping that FALSE PURPORT was a legal term for a false accusation (“frame”), but sadly not.
The wordplay for ERGO was a bit hard to spot too, even though the answer was obvious.
Andrew @3
We’re with you on the wordplay for ergo. We were about to give up when it suddenly dawned.
Thanks Hamilton and D&L
Late to this one again … from the more recent backlog.
Enjoyable and finished in two short sessions bookending my first dinner party in the new house. My experience was the opposite to Turbolegs, where the top half was filled in first and had to work a bit harder to finish off the SE corner, where DIURETIC, ELICIT and BAWL (which I found quite difficult with the WL to represent St Lucia).
I had parsed 13a as MARTIAL (military) and ART (skill), rather than as a cryptic definition.
Didn’t previously know of the ‘frame’ definition of PASSE PARTOUT and had to think through the OAPS ‘type’ before seeing the old age pensioners shine through!
Thanks D&L and Hamilton.
I failed on Passe Partout but the rest went in very easily.
As is so often the case with Hamilton, it was a case of solve first, parse later. I had to come here to understand Ergo and Bawl which I got without really knowing why.
For me personally, that makes his puzzles less satisfying than other setters. But it’s all part of the variety of crosswords – so thanks all the same.