To B or not to B !! Chalmie serves up a delectable challenge which was equal parts difficult as it was innovative – one can never say “Been there, done that!” with any of his grids and so that made it an exciting solve. I had to resort to confirming several answers on the internet so that possibly took a bit of the aura away, and I am not sure about the accuracy of one clue. But truly this is one grid that Rowan Atkinson would have loved to solve.
FF: 10 DD: 10
| Across | ||
| 1 | PEANUT |
Einstein, Archimedes and Newton – leaders in place B (6)
EAN (leaders, i.e. first characters of Einstein, Archimedes and Newton) in PUT (place) |
| 4 | PALL MALL |
London street in the afternoon has everyone and everything (4,4)
PM (afternoon) has ALL (everyone) and ALL (everything) |
| 10 | LEAFLETED |
Mistakenly felled a tree, oddly, having given out promotional material (9)
Anagram of FELLED A TrEe (oddly) |
| 11 | CHURN |
Vessel in Switzerland’s slightly useless navy (5)
CH (switzerland) U (slightly Useless?) RN (navy) – Not sure about this. |
| 12 | SEAN |
Director’s removal from chair carried – by B? (4)
SEdAN (type of chair that is carried) without D (director) – referring to the actor Sean Bean. |
| 13 | CANNELLINI |
Preserve tailless ex-circus elephant in backward B (10)
CAN (preserve) NELLIe (tailless, ex-circus elephant) NI (in, backward) |
| 15 | DICKENS |
Charles or Monica down to replace children in layers (7)
D (down) replacing CH (children) in CHICKENS (layers) – Technically, arent Hens supposed to be layers rather than Chickens? |
| 16 | AGENCY |
Talent company Cagney upset (6)
Anagram of CAGNEY |
| 19 | JEDDAH |
Knight endlessly entertained back in Red Sea port (6)
JEDi (knight, endlessly) DAH (entertained = HAD, reversed) |
| 21 | ROBUSTA |
Public transport becomes part of Schedule B (7)
BUS (public transport) in ROTA (schedule) |
| 23 | HARBOURING |
Protecting popular government by bringing underwear back in time (10)
ARB (underwear = bra, reversed) in HOUR (time) before IN (popular) G (government) |
| 25 | SOYA |
Sorry to miss “bishop with a B” (4)
SOrrY (missing bishop = RR) A |
| 27 | MAGIC |
Soldier in raincoat exchanged cow for these Bs (according to the story) (5)
GI (soldier) in MAC (raincoat, Mackintosh) – referring to Jack and the Beanstalk |
| 28 | CHESS CLUB |
Where queens attack kings having revolutionary ship weapon (5,4)
CHE (revolutionary) SS (ship) CLUB (weapon) |
| 29 | BORLOTTI |
B hands in footwear, getting a note (8)
[ RL (hands) in BOOT (footwear) ] TI (note) |
| 30 | MISTER |
Perhaps Scrooge swallows the first B (6)
MISER (scrooge, perhaps) swallowing T (The, first) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PALISADE |
Defence looking sickly, keeping one depressed (8)
PALE (looking sickly) keeping I (one) SAD (depressed) |
| 2 | AVALANCHE |
See Sugar perhaps in pain from terrible fall (9)
[V (see) ALAN (Sugar, Alan Sugar – business magnate)] in ACHE (pain) |
| 3 | UGLY |
Society girl abusing you ends up looking bad (4)
Ending characters of “societY girL abusinG yoU”, reversed |
| 5 | ADDENDA |
Dean puzzled after a theologian brings extra bits (7)
Anagram of DEAN after A DD (theologian) |
| 6 | LOCAL DERBY |
Strange boy called Rodney beginning match between close rivals (5,5)
Anagram of BOY CALLED R (beginnning character of Rodney) |
| 7 | ADUKI |
B one to support present-day country (5)
[AD (present-day) UK (country) ] supported by I (one) |
| 8 | LENTIL |
B the Italian follows before Easter (6)
LENT (before easter) IL (Italian for The) |
| 9 | STEAKS |
Chips often seen with these singular hardwoods (6)
S (singular) TEAKS (hardwoods) |
| 14 | HEAD HONCHO |
Three-hour dance round ring melted big cheese (4,6)
Anagram of HHH (three-hour) DANCE O (round) O (ring) |
| 17 | CASSOULET |
Dish of Bs produced from clues to As (9)
Anagram of CLUES TO AS |
| 18 | SALAD BAR |
Food outlet’s turnover down, alas supported by lawyers (5,3)
Reversal of [D (down) ALAS ] supported by BAR (lawyers) |
| 20 | HARICOT |
B spluttering at choir (7)
Anagram of AT CHOIR |
| 21 | RUNNER |
B is for Bolt? (6)
Double def : Runner bean / Usain Bolt – the runner |
| 22 | THEMOB |
Organised crime – our opponents, old boy! (3,3)
Charade of THEM (opposite of our – as in “us and them”) OB (old boy) |
| 24 | ROGER |
Moore’s radio acknowledgement (5)
Cryptic reference to Roger Moore |
| 26 | ASTI |
Blasting sides off Italian town (4)
Sides off from blASTIng |
Thanks, Turbolegs – I loved your preamble!
I parsed 11ac as you did.
I very nearly didn’t try this puzzle but then decided to do it with my elevenses – and I’m really glad I did. I found it most enjoyable, with a rather unlikely theme, which I got from 27ac – I liked the soldier in a raincoat.
My only failing was 18dn, where I had TAPAS BAR – but, of course, couldn’t parse it.
Many thanks to Chalmie for a very entertaining puzzle.
Thanks for the compliments, TL and Eileen.
It seems to me that “slightly” is a fair first letter indicator, much as “A hint of” or “a little” are usually accepted as such.
I second Eileen’s thanks to Chalmie for the entertainment. Particularly enjoyed: 15 & 28ac; 14 & 17d.
Thanks too to Turbolegs; I agree with you & Eileen on the parsing of 11ac.
Nice puzzle!
My way in was actually 1ac (PEANUT) at a time that I already had found six other solutions.
One of these was 27ac but this ‘story’ didn’t ring any bells for me.
I had to check JEDDAH, BORLOTTI and ADUKI – all unknown to me.
Meanwhile, I was surprised to see ‘supported/to support’ twice (7d, 18d).
The same applies to the double use of D for ‘down’ (15ac, 18d).
And there are one or two things that I’m not very keen on (‘the first’ for E, the lack of an apostrophe after ‘Rodney’ in 6d).
However, altogether really inventive stuff.
A ‘single-letter puzzle’ in the best Cinephile tradition.
For which many thanks to Chalmie.
‘the first’ for T, of course ….
Thanks Chalmie for the beanfeast, and Turbolegs for the blog.
Love CHURN, the parsing seems fine to me, and I have just seen one of the the paddle steamers on Lac Leman from the balcony
(I can hear a cuckoo in the wood). Seriously, as well as a ‘RN’, Switzerland has a merchant navy on the high seas, it is connected via Basel – Rotterdam.
‘slightly useless’, yesterday we had ‘a bit of …’ as a first letter indicator which was questioned. I think they are all right.
I had to google BORLOTTI, CANNELLINI and ADUKI and did not know HEAD HONCHO. Also needed quite a lot of help with parsing, thanks again Turbolegs.
Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs
What a clever and unusual theme to develop … and done so well here – thoroughly enjoyed it !! The ‘magic beans’ was my second answer (after THE MOB) and so the theme dropped early and brought a smile!
Lots of variety in the clue devices, some previously unknown beans / bean dishes and bean-related other things. Finished in the NW corner with the DICKENS pair, AVALANCHE and JEDDAH the last few in.
Thanks all for stopping by!!
Eileen@1 – Good choice finally on giving this one a go!
Chalmie@2 – Fantastic puzzle, you have played a big part in keeping my Friday from being anything but dull. 🙂 Ref 11a for CHURN, my comment was not as much about the use of “slightly” as it was about my lack of conviction that I had parsed it correctly. I have not come across such a first-letter indicator before so have learnt something new. The remark in my preamble about the accuracy of one clue was in relation to 15a.
Sil@4 – I had quite a few unknowns as well. Got there by deconstruction of the clue and then using Google to confirm – BORLOTTI, ADUKI, CASSOULET to name a few. Crossers helped in some cases – My FOI was 1a and my LOI was 12a as I wasnt sure that I was going down the right path with an actor parsing.
June@3, Cookie@6 – Thanks for stopping by.
Bruce@7 – Luckily for me, Jeddah was relatively easy since its in the gulf and quite well known here in Asia. I didnt know of Alan Sugar before but it couldnt be anything else so once again Larry Page came to the rescue for confirmation.
Cheers
TL
@ TL: Female chickens are hens. Female pheasants are hens. My grandfather called his birds “chickens”. I didn’t eat their eggs because I don’t like eggs, but they certainly laid them. There are times when only one of “hen” or “chicken” is correct, but I don’t think this is one of them.
And thanks very much to the others who’ve said such nice things. Glad you enjoyed it.