A joint effort this week on the blog during a very busy week so if there are errors or omissions we won’t know who to blame. Joyce’s elderly father has not been well and her mother is exhausted and we realised when it came to finishing off the blog that neither of us can remember whether we enjoyed the solve or not! So, apologies to Radian – maybe we’ve been a bit 16ac this week.
What we do remember is looking for a theme – we immediately noticed that LOV appears in a number of solutions and there are four plants in the final grid. However, on reviewing the blog, we noticed that all but four of the entries include at least one ‘O’ and/or ‘X’ and that of the four entries that do not include 11/5d, 19ac could be (very) loosely paraphrased as ‘noughts’, while 21ac and 18d are both synonyms for ‘cross’. However, what is the connection for 15d? Surely not that it includes ‘ten’ (X in Roman numerals)? Any other thoughts out there?
Comments on the parsing of 4d would be useful too.
| Across | ||
| 9 | Working on English broadcast alone | |
| ON ONES OWN | ON (working) ON E (English) SOWN (broadcast) | |
| 10 | Section of cornice, very large, split into rings | |
| OVOLO | V (very) L (large) separately ‘split’ in O O O (rings) | |
| 11/5d | Big hash made of hugs and kisses here | |
| NOUGHTS AND CROSSES | NOUGHTS AND CROSSES (an alternative name for the game is ‘hugs and kisses’ – Bert hadn’t come across this before) – the ‘big hash’ referring to the 3 x 3 grid used for the game – the hash sign commonly found on mobile phone keypads, but not on our keyboard!! | |
| 12 | Dance about among Anglicans from same family | |
| COGNATE | TANGO (dance) reversed or ‘about’ in CE (Church of England – Anglicans) | |
| 13 | Live session beginning during leave | |
| EXIST | S (first letter or ‘beginning’ of ‘session’) in EXIT (leave) | |
| 14 | Journey breaks prevent lots of deliveries | |
| STOPOVERS | STOP (prevent) OVERS (‘lots of deliveries’, as in cricket) | |
| 16 | After surgery, isn’t ESP common? No, that’s bonkers | |
| NON COMPOS MENTIS | An anagram of ISNT ESP COMMON NO – anagrind is ‘after surgery’ | |
| 19 | Negates new uni lecturers providing ideas occasionally | |
| NULLIFIES | N (new) U (uni) LL (lecturers) IF (providing) I |
|
| 21 | Seeing Red, proletarian group turns | |
| IRATE | A ‘group’ of the letters of prolETARIan, reversed or ‘turned’ | |
| 22 | Swinish behaviour also upended call boxes | |
| ROOTING | TOO (also) reversed or ‘upended’ ‘boxed’ in RING (call) | |
| 23 | Mass killer caught Lahore ill-prepared | |
| CHOLERA | C (caught) + an anagram of LAHORE (anagrind is ‘ill-prepared’) | |
| 24 | Plant by drilling holes | |
| OXEYE | X (by, as in multiplied by) in, or ‘drilling’ O (hole) EYE (hole) | |
| 25 | Spear-carrier’s last to go home, so ends outside | |
| EXTRINSIC | EXTR |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Can Noel put up inspiring names for ex-Liverpool player? | |
| JOHN LENNON | JOHN (can, as in toilet) + NOEL reversed or ‘put up’ round or ‘inspiring’ NN (names) | |
| 2 | What you’re after is very much current in airport | |
| SOLUTION | SO (very much) + I (current) in LUTON (airport) | |
| 3 | Like poker in bed, it makes you passionate | |
| RED-HOT | A reference to a RED-HOT poker, a flower that might be in a ‘bed’ | |
| 4 | Cheats in game | |
| DOES | We’re not 100% sure about this one, but we can’t come up with a better suggestion than that it’s a double definition: a) DOES as in cons or ‘cheats’ and b) DOES as female deer, which might be referred to as ‘game’ | |
| 5 | See 11ac | |
| 6 | Baffle Tory minister left inside plant | |
| FOXGLOVE | FOX (baffle) GOVE (Tory minister – say no more!) with L (left) ‘inside’ | |
| 7 | Umbellifer Virginia stuck in box | |
| LOVAGE | VA (Virginia) ‘stuck’ in LOGE (box – as in a theatre) | |
| 8 | Dearest one’s worth nothing in court | |
| LOVE | Double definition – a) ‘dearest one’, b) zero on a tennis court | |
| 14 | Spooner’s enormous place is waterlogged | |
| SOPPING WET | A Spoonerism of WHOPPING (enormous) SET (place) | |
| 15 | Realise residents picked up food | |
| SUSTENANCE | Sounds like (‘picked up’) SUSS (realise) TENANTS (residents) | |
| 17 | Rusty old team faded about halfway through Tests | |
| OXIDISED | O (old) XI (eleven – ‘team’) DIED (faded) around teSts (middle letter, or ‘halfway through’) | |
| 18 | Cover Republican states during half term | |
| TRAVERSE | R (Republican) AVERS (states) in TErm (half of ‘term’) | |
| 20 | She’s fetching royal couple after game | |
| LOOKER | K (king) ER (queen) – ‘royal couple’ after LOO (card game) | |
| 21 | Press starts to investigate Conservative with forked tongue? | |
| IRONIC | IRON (press) + first letters or ‘starts’ to Investigate Conservative | |
| 22 | Angler hooks over 40 perches | |
| ROOD | ROD (angler) round or ‘hooking’ O (over) – with a bit of research we found that a perch can be a measure of 30.25 square yards, so 40 perches is 1210 square yards = 0.25 acre = one rood. Showing our age, it reminds us of the tables on the back of our Primary School exercise books which included rods, poles and perches as well as bushels, hundredweights etc. | |
| 23 | Religious texts found in church loft | |
| COTE | OT (Old Testament – religious texts) in CE (church) | |
Thanks B&J and Radian. Thoroughly enjoyed.
I parsed 4d just as you did, so either we are both right or both blind to the obvious.
Bon courage with your tribulations.
This one defeated me. There were still three to get, including 22dn. I remembered rods poles and perches but I only knew the perch as five and half yards. (Four perches is one chain, the length of a cricket pitch.) I didn’t know it could mean a square perch, nor was I familiar with a rood as a unit of area. I was toying with RODS but couldn’t convince myself. So, thanks for all the explanations. (4dn was another I couldn’t get, so I’m no help there.)
This was tough. I also had 4D only tentatively pencilled in, based on the same parsing as others above. I was held up for a while having put in CADENCE at 12 across – the definition seemed a bit tenuous, though no worse than some others, but the wordplay seemed too neat to ignore.
Sorry this is off-topic ..
No paper delivery this morning so I’m trying to do today’s cryptic online. I’ve spent an hour wrestling with Java and finally got to the crossword … and it seems to be last week’s. Am I doing something wrong or is the site messed up ?
(I tried the CrosswordSolver route too and encountered jibberish error messages the like of which I’d never seen before .. and I spent 30+ years in IT!!)
Geebs
As the Saturday puzzle is a prize one, and as the Indy software will not permit the suppression of the ‘reveal’ option, the on-line puzzle is published a week after it appears in the paper.
I will email you a copy of today’s puzzle.
Gaufrid .. ah yes, that makes sense. And thanks very much. Greatly appreciated.
G.
I couldn’t avoid coming on to acknowledge your awesome efforts (not least with ROOD) given the pressures you are undergoing. My best wishes for Joyce’s parents (and for both of you).
As far as 15dn is concerned, hugs and kisses are an important (and, for me, possibly the best) kind of sustenance! I’m sure the setter had this in mind. So you indeed ‘nailed’ a delightful theme.
All in all, therefore, a wonderful crossword – thank you Radian!