Please tell me that this was hard. It took me three goes to finally pin this down, but looking back you think ‘why was that so difficult?’ I have chuntered on a bit, and there’s one I can’t parse.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
8 One trapped in game of strategy, Ray hasn’t a prayer
HAIL MARY
HALMA is a ‘game of strategy’. Google it if you’re that interested. Put I inside that and R[A]Y at the end and you’ve got:
Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee;
Blessed art thou amongst women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
I’ve never sinned in my life, so I won’t be needing the intercession of the Blessed Virgin myself.
9/24 Chinese food, nuts including starter of macadamias a shocker – get away!
BAMBOO SHOOTS
I’m afraid that I have no idea how to parse this. It might have SHOOT! for ‘get away!’ in there somewhere, but beyond that … I ask you to intercede on my behalf.
Andrew has kindly parsed this for us at comment no 1.
10 Generate a problem, reason for parental headaches?
TEENAGER
(GENERATE)* with ‘a problem’ as the anagrind. Those parents should have a cup of (GREEN TEA)* to get rid of the headaches.
11 His dogs would salivate as meringue cake cut
PAVLOV
PAVLOV[A] They certainly would have. Ivan PAVLOV, whose work with salivation in dogs led to his theory of classical conditioning. Introduce a stimulus enough times and you’ll get the response before the reward arrives.
13 Break back of net, as scorer
HOLST
A charade of HOLS for ‘break’ and T for the last letter of ‘net’. The Planets and the tune for In the Bleak Midwinter, amongst other stuff.
15 I combined energies?
EGO
A charade of E and GO for two ‘energies’.
16 I need less stuffing with old reference
INDEX
A charade of I, N[EE]D and EX.
18 Hunt to secure a vote, primarily, for Labour
TRAVAIL
Jeremy Hunt (and I won’t go into the well-known and live on radio Spoonerism) would be unlikely to secure a vote for Labour. But it’s A and V for the first letter of ‘vote’ in TRAIL.
19 I croak like a box of frogs, quietly, as pond life
KOI CARP
It took me a million years to see this, despite having all the crossing letters. It’s (I CROAK)* plus P for ‘quietly’. The anagrind is ‘like a box of frogs’, which is an informal expression for ‘mad’: ‘he’s as mad as a box of frogs’.
21 Kid influenced in conversation
SUEDE
A homophone of SWAYED.
22 Problem detailed for vineyard
CRU
CRU[X] I didn’t know this definition for ‘problem’. Perhaps you did. ‘Detailed’ is setter-speak for ‘cut the tail off’, or ‘de-tailed’.
23 One producing liquor, serene however
STILL
Not a dd, but a td: a triple definition.
26 Neat hand
STRAIGHT
This is a dd. STRAIGHT as in ‘neat’ or ‘without ice’; STRAIGHT as in STRAIGHT FLUSH in poker. I think.
28 Make known the creative work of the devil?
IMPART
Well, the ‘work of the devil’ might be IMP ART. So a cd cum dd.
29 Fat Duck’s opening – marvellous!
DRIPPING
Clever surface, referring to Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, where you can enjoy interesting dishes more to do with chemistry than cooking. A charade of D for the first letter of ‘Duck’ and RIPPING! which is a rather upper-class word for ‘marvellous!’ Bread and dripping will certainly not feature on the menu at The Fat Duck. Or maybe …
Down
1 Jerk feeding pet idle conversation
CHITCHAT
An insertion of HITCH in CAT.
2 Possible call as drunk empties ale?
TIME PLEASE
(EMPTIES ALE)* with ‘drunk’ as the anagrind and an extended definition.
3 Novel ending in marriage, then master’s marital affair starts
EMMA
A charade of E for the last letter in ‘marriage’ and MMA for the first letters of ‘master’s marital affair’. As we all know, it’s by Jane Austen, and is possibly one of the worst novels written in the English language. Imho, of course. I did try to read it when I was younger, but ended up putting two fingers down my throat by about Chapter 3. This may even be &lit; I care less.
4 Easy thing to cut off brick
BREEZE BLOCK
A charade of BREEZE and BLOCK.
5 Commonplace stuff from insatiable cavalier
BANALITIES
(INSATIABLE)* with ‘cavalier’ as the anagrind.
6 Early man equipped with skills, they said
ABEL
A homophone of ABLE, referring to Adam and Eve’s son, thus ‘early man’.
7 Ten supporting car plant
VOLVOX
This has the air of a ‘I’ve painted myself into a corner here and nothing else will fit’ clue. VOLVOX is a polyphyletic genus of chlorophyte green algae in the family Volvocaceae, but is considered by some botanists to be a ‘plant’. So there you go. VOLVO over X.
12 Works of literature mad about breasts
BONKBUSTERS
It wouldn’t be Punk without tits or bums. This was my last one in, and took me the longest time to see. But of course it’s BUST in BONKERS. Are BONKBUSTERS ‘works of literature’? Well, if EMMA was, I can’t argue.
14 High arc jet’s taken over the blue
TRAJECTORY
A charade of (ARC JET)* and TORY. The anagrind is ‘high’. Some bits of this clue are doing double duty, I fancy.
17 Bandaging arm with first of plasters, bleed – there’s something sharp!
DRAWING PIN
An insertion of WING and P for the first letter of ‘plasters’ in DRAIN.
20 Good airline has time to demonstrate skill in aviators
PILOTAGE
A charade of PI, LOT and AGE. PI is short for ‘pious’ or ‘good’ and only ever appears in crosswords; LOT is the Polish airline; and AGE is ‘time’. Pleasing surface.
21 Bird is wearing coat
SISKIN
An insertion of IS in SKIN. And after a long gap, a chance for the obligatory Pierre bird link. A member of the finch family, with a bright yellow breast and a bill where the lower part projects further than the upper part, which I often think makes it look a bit grumpy. My kind of bird.
25 I’ve spilled something hot to wipe from surface of rings
OOPS
[H]OOPS. I’m not mad about the definition here, and of course with O??? and a Punk offering, I was into Biblical territory.
27 Some mountains, plainly, to climb
ALPS
Hidden reversed in mountainS PLAinly.
Many thanks to Punk for this morning’s entertainment.
Thanks Pierre – 29/24 is M[acadamias] + BOO (shocker) + SHOO (get away) in BATS (mad, nuts).
Yes, I thought this was quite hard.
Yes, I thought this crossword was hard too.
Thank you, Andrew.
Thanks, Pierre. ‘This was hard’ – so Bravo!
I didn’t actually finish it and gave up, because it’s a busy time. It was the right hand side where I had problems. I’m afraid I failed to get BONKBUSTERS, which would have helped a lot, but I wouldn’t have had a hope of 19ac, as I’ve never heard the box of frogs expression and so would never have thought of an anagram – added to which I didn’t know KOI CARP!
I enjoyed what I did do – favourites TIME PLEASE and DRIPPING. I think it’s time the TEENAGER anagram[s] had a rest.
Thanks, Paul, for a stiff challenge.
I meant Punk, of course.
This was one of Mr Halpern’s more challenging puzzles which made it perfect for a Monday where the other puzzles are quite simple.
More like a Don is some ways with at least a couple of new words but well clued.I guessed the “shoo” and the m in the Chinese but thanks Andrew for complete parse.
Good stuff
The presence of a few hard-to-guess fodder words like hitch for jerk, boo for shocker and crux for problem made this somewhat harder than it might otherwise have been. It was a slight shame to see Emma putting in yet another appearance – it’s getting to the point where, if you see novel and it’s 4 letters, you can just write that in without having to think about the clue.
I think you’d have to interpret 14 as an &lit and it just about works at a stretch. There was a nice &lit quality to several of the clues e.g. 2 and 12.
Four letter novels? Nana takes some beating (if you have a decent translation)
Some fairly easy clues to seed the grid, but then I ground to a halt and only finished it with plenty of e-help. Never heard of VOLVOX. Nor for that matter had I heard of ‘like a box of frogs’, though it made a marvellous clue.
Thanks, Punk and Pierre.
Thanks, Punk and Pierre.
Time to look at this today as the Grauniads were so easy. I forgot about drain=bleed and wasn’t sure about VOLVOX.
Nice trademark Halpern BONKBUSTERS.
Certainly not the hardest crossword in the Indie in recent weeks, but it was hard. I nearly finished it but for some reason persistently misread the clue for 2dn, taking the numeration as (6,4) and not (4,6). Oops.
Another two here who found it tricky. We were glad that we were completing the puzzle on-line as we knew instantly whether our guesses were correct.
Actually Joyce liked the clue for TEENAGER – yes it was easy but it raised a smile.
Thanks to Pierre and Punk.
Dormouse @11: You’re not alone in getting enumerations the wrong way round; I often get held up that way until I look carefully at the clue again and think “Doh!”
Glad I’m not the only one.
Too hard for me too!