Back from walking the dogs to a gentle Thursday crossword. Thanks, Sleuth
| Across | ||
| 1 | ABSOLUTE |
Certain muscles shown by ill- disciplined lout close to home (8)
ABS (muscles) plus an anagram (ill-disciplined) of LOUT plus E, the last letter (close) of home |
| 5 | ASSAIL |
Strongly criticise a ship facing trouble (6)
A SS (the abbreviation for screw steamer and crosswordese for ship) plus AIL (as in “What ails you?) |
| 9 | NORMANDY |
Two boys in French region (8)
NORM and ANDY are the boys concerned |
| 10 | DEBUNK |
Ridicule half of side – rubbish (6)
DE (two of the four letters of side) plus BUNK (a commonly used contraction of bunkum) |
| 12 | COCK A HOOP |
In high spirits, give bird a ring (4-1-4)
COCK is the bird getting A HOOP, or ring. Mickey Love would like this one. |
| 13 | TIDAL |
Some fetid algae – typical of the sea? (5)
Contained in (some) feTID ALgae |
| 14 | MAZE |
Confused state produced by grain, we hear (4)
The grain concerned is maize |
| 16 | TROUNCE |
Recount possibly beat in a dominant fashion (7)
An anagram of (possibly is the indicator) recount |
| 19 | LOUNGER |
Animal reared in unusual role getting place to sit? (7)
Gnu is the animal concerned. It is reversed and inserted into an anagram (unusual) of role. |
| 21 | JINX |
Curse judge elected by vote (4)
J for judge plus IN for elected plus X the mark one is supposed to make when voting |
| 24 | PECAN |
Exotic canape lacking a nut (5)
An anagram (exotic) of canape after removing (lacking a) a letter a. |
| 25 | CAVALCADE |
Sparkling drink left by young recruit short of time in procession (9)
CAVA (sparkling wine) plus L (left) plus CADE (cadet – young recruit short of “t” time) |
| 27 | AFFAIR |
Mention of a food business (6)
Affair is a homophone of “a fare” |
| 28 | PLATFORM |
Aims of party in part of station? (8)
Double definition |
| 29 | HUXLEY |
Actress right to kiss old novelist (6)
Hurley (Actress Liz Hurley) with “r” (right) replaced by “x” (kiss). Presumably referring to Aldous Huxley, author of “Brave New World”. The word “old” appears to be redundant, |
| 30 | SNIPPETY |
Trivial pen captivating little boy largely (8)
STY for “pen” with NIPPE, all but the final letter of nipper, an informal word for little boy, inserted. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARNICA |
Tincture in a car getting spilt (6)
An anagram (getting spilt) of IN A CAR |
| 2 | SPRUCE |
Trim tree (6)
Double definition |
| 3 | LLAMA |
Latin priest in Tibet getting animal (5)
L for Latin plus LAMA (Tibetan Buddhist monk) |
| 4 | TADPOLE |
Day among volunteers and staff for tiny creature (7)
TA (Territorial Army) are the volunteers. POLE is the staff. Insert D for day among them. |
| 6 | SWEETCORN |
Newer cost disputed for vegetable (9)
An anagram (disputed is the indicator) of newer cost |
| 7 | ABUNDANT |
A friend accepting new worker of a bountiful nature (8)
A BUD (American term for friend) accepting (ie having inserted into it) N for new, plus ANT (worker in crosswordese) |
| 8 | LIKELIER |
Liberal president once restraining priest before Republican? That’s more probable (8)
L for liberal plus IKE (erstwhile president of the USA Eisenhower) surrounding (restraining) ELI (biblical priest) plus R for republican |
| 11 | SPAT |
Barney’s covering for leg (4)
Double definition. We wondered whether barney in the sense of row or fight had anything to do with Fred Flintstone’s friend Barney Rubble, but as the term goes back to the nineteent century at least, that doesn’t work. |
| 15 | ARGENTINE |
Foreign inhabitant and government stopping a payment in Spain (9)
A RENT (payment) with G for government inserted (stopping) plus IN plus E for España . |
| 17 | SLAPDASH |
Careless promotion for artist occupied by melancholy piece of portraiture (8)
HALS is the artist concerned insert (occupied by) SAD (melancholy) and P (the first letter of portraiture) and reverse (promote) the lot. |
| 18 | QUICK FIX |
Shifting fellow with team recalled as expedient (5-3)
QUICK (shifting, as in quicksand) plus F for fellow plus IX (Roman numeral eleven for a football or cricket team, reversed) |
| 20 | ROCK |
Hard confection in style of music (4)
Double definition |
| 21 | JAVELIN |
Evil criminal in first month producing projectile (7)
JAN, the first month of the year, with an anagram (criminal is the indicator) of EVIL inserted |
| 22 | PAROLE |
Old man with part in a conditional release? (6)
PA (father, or old man) plus ROLE (part) |
| 23 | SEEMLY |
Notice surprised expression around lecturer of decent character (6)
SEE (notice) plus MY (an expression of surprise) with L for lecturer inserted. |
| 26 | LET UP |
Relief gained by eastern European heard on horseback (3-2)
LET, a homophone (heard) of Lett, a national of Latvia, plus UP, mounted or on horseback. |
A fun pangram indeed. I held myself up for a while by having ‘affirm’ instead of ‘affair’ in 27a, making no sense of 15d. My eyebrows were raised slightly by ‘trivial’ cluing ‘snippity’ – not the first meaning of the word that springs to my mind.
Thanks to Sleuth and D&L for a pleasant challenge and blog respectively.
D&L – In 17d, did you immediately know that ‘promotion’ meant reversing or was it more of reverse engineering the clue? I haven’t come across this device so would like to know if its typical or not.
Cheers
TL
TL
If I may answer your query to D&L, ‘promotion’ has been known to be used as a reversal indicator. BTW, ‘promoted’ may sometimes be used for a letter shift from lower position to an upper position in a Down clue.
As a PS to #3, the following was Paul’s clue in a Guardian cryptic:
Rubbish sci-fi film watched after promotion (5)
Thanks Rishi@3,4 – I was aware of the movement up in a Down clue of a specific letter or set of letters but haven’t come across the reversing of an entire word in this context. So yet another new thing learnt !!
Cheers
TL
Hi Turbolegs
Given the other letters available the answer was obviously going to be slapdash or slipshod. It doesn’t do to look for rigid rules on these things. It’s either right or wrong and one feels it in ones bones.
I would be interested to know why Huxley is an “old” novelist, though, while Fielding, Austen and others are just “novelists” in Crosswordland.
Thanks Sleuth and D&L
Off the back burner and a nice easy one on a busy day down here !! No real holdups, but realise that I hadn’t gone back to parse SLAPDASH.
Have not seen CAVA as a wine before … although I have had a session on kava before in an out of the way Fijian village many years ago – was that really 35 years ago !!
At 29, it was probably OK to have called Mr Huxley ‘old’ – would have been a whole other story to have called the actress old though! :-/. Maybe old was just there to discern the different generation between them.