Here I am with my blog of the last Indy puzzle of 2015, which I imagine is a joint effort on the part of Eimi and Nimrod.
New Year’s Eve seems to be an appropriate time for a highly entertaining, boozy crossword, the grid being littered with toasts of various kinds. I knew all but the one at 15, where I needed to cheat, as I rightly surmised that I was looking for an expression from a foreign language that I didn’t know. The plate at 13 was also new to me, although it could be worked out satisfactorily from the wordplay.
My favourites today were 19, for surface and the cheeky “number one”; 14/10/29, for its clever and concise wordplay; and the linked clues at 22 and 23, for their misleading Christmas references.
Let me take this opportunity to thank Eimi and his team, as well as Gaufrid, for another year’s worth of crosswords and blogs. And let’s raise a toast of our choice from the grid below to the next 12 months’ supply of puzzles!!
(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | ALL THE BEST | Entire Boeotian city beginning to trust 12
ALL (=entire) + THEBES (=Boeotian city) + T<rust> (“beginning to” means first letter only); “all the best” can be used a toast, so is thus a synonym for “cheers” (=entry at 12) |
| 06 | TEA | Drink in the bar regularly
T<h>E<b>A<r>; “regularly” means alternate letters only |
| 09 | BOTTOMS UP | 12 might be pub’s motto
*(BOTTOM’S UP); “might be” is anagram indicator; bottoms up is a synonym for “cheers” (=entry at 12) |
| 11 | CHIN-CHIN | Two mates not finishing 12
CHIN<a> CHIN<a> (=two mates, i.e. 2 x china (-plate), in Cockney rhyming slang); chin-chin is a synonym for “cheers” (=entry at 12) |
| 12 | CHEERS | A TV series // brings comfort
Double definition; the reference is to the US sitcom Cheers, set in a bar in Boston |
| 14/10/29 | RING IN THE NEW | Mark timely change to hen
Cryptically, “ring in the new” defines “to hen”, i.e. O (=ring) in THE + N (=new); the expression is particularly apt today, New Year’s Eve |
| 15 | L’CHAIM | Michael’s getting drunk and dropping e for 12
*(MICHA<e>L); “dropping e” means letter “e” dropped from anagram, indicated by “getting drunk”; L’Chaim is Hebrew for “cheers” (=entry at 12) |
| 19 | LEEWAY | Play a song that’s number one backwards
EEW (WEE=(a) number one; “backwards” indicates reversal) in LAY (=song) |
| 20/27 | LIKE A SHOT | Straight down the hatch as you’d expect with slammer?
Cryptic definition, in that a slammer would be drunk as a shot (of alcohol), i.e. downed in one |
| 24 | PROSIT | 12 offering resistance in advance
R (=resistance, in electronics) in POSIT (=advance, as verb): “prosit”, from Latin but used commonly in German, is a synonym for “cheers” (=entry at 12) |
| 25 | LAUDANUM | A tincture making old driver mostly insensible
LAUDA (=old driver, i.e. former Austrian F1 driver Niki Lauda) + NUM<b> (=insensible; “mostly” means last letter dropped) |
| 28 | ANDRE RIEU | Endure air played by noted New Year’s Day performer
*(ENDURE AIR); “played” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Dutch violinist André Rieu (1949-), founder of the Johann Strauss Orchestra, famed for its New Year concerts |
| 30 | YOUR HEALTH | GP’s concern is 12
A GP is concerned by “your health” as a patient; “your health” is a toast, a synonym for “cheers” (=entry at 12) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | ALBACORE | Tuna and shaved bacon: real toasted sandwiches!
BACO<n> (“shaved” means last letter dropped) in *(REAL); “toasted” is anagram indicator |
| 02 | LATVIANS | Valiants playing Igors Stepanovs and Marians Pahars?
*(VALIANTS); “played” is anagram indicator; Igors Stepanovs (1976-) and Marian Pahars (1976-) are both former Latvian footballers |
| 03 | HOOTCH | Strong liquor – a scream when given to small children
HOOT (=a scream, also in sense of something hilarious) + CH (=children; “small” indicates an abbreviation) |
| 04 | BESMIRCHED | Brahms and Liszt describe him, heartlessly, with dishonour
*(DESCRIBE + H<i>M); “heartlessly” means middle letter dropped; “Brahms and Liszt”, Cockney rhyming slang for “pissed”, is anagram indicator |
| 05 | SUPS | Fans rejecting brown bitter drinks …
SUP<porter>S (=fans); “rejecting brown bitter (=porter)” means letters “porter” are dropped |
| 06 | TOTTER | … soak a measure of whisky up and sway
RET (=(to)soak) + TOT (=measure of whisky); “up” indicates vertical reversal |
| 07 | AT EASE | Mocking one with no worries
A TEASE is a “mocking one”, i.e. a person who mocks someone else |
| 08 | HIT HOME | Made one’s point in keeping up success
HIT (=success) + HOME (=in) |
| 13 | SALAMANDER | Chap tucking into healthy meal on rotating hot plate
[MAN (=chap) in SALAD (=healthy meal)] + ER (RE=on, concerning; “rotating” indicates reversal); a salamander is a hot metal plate for browning meat |
| 16 | SLAINTE | Killed alien over 12
SLAIN (=killed) + TE (ET=alien, extraterrestrial; “over” indicates reversal); “slàinte” is Irish for “cheers” (=entry at 12) |
| 17 | BIENNIAL | Barrels arranged in a line for not especially regular event
B (=barrels) + *(IN A LINE); “arranged” is anagram indicator; a biennial takes place every two years and is thus a “not especially regular event” |
| 18 | VERMOUTH | It perhaps runs one out of estuary
(ri)VERMOUTH (=estuary); “runs (=R) one (=I) out” means letters “ri” are dropped; “it” is Italian vermouth, as in a gin and it |
| 21 | SPRAIN | Run quickly curtailed when sustaining a joint injury
A in SPRIN<t> (=run quickly; “curtailed) |
| 22 | NO-SHOW | Second part of present old mum’s wrapped for absentee …
[O (=old) + SH (=mum, i.e. be quiet)] in NOW (=second part of (the) present, i.e. of “here and now”) |
| 23 | ADHERE | … first part of present given to lady, not getting wrapping to stick
<l>AD<y> (“not getting wrapping” means first and last letters are dropped) + HERE (=first part of (the) present, i.e. “here and now” |
| 26 | TACO | Chillified offering for starters under cover of tortilla?
T<ortill>A (“cover of” means first and last letters only) + C<hillified> O<ffering> (“for starters” means first letters only); & lit. |
Thanks RatkojaRiku and ‘Eimrod’. What a cheery way to end the year. I fully endorse your last sentence. Thanks to Gaufrid, the setters, bloggers, commenters and lurkers (they know who they are!).
Incidentally, today’s Toughie in the Telegraph is a virtuosic review of the year. Quite astonishing in its comprehensiveness, and a whole load of fun. Highly recommended.
I’d like to add my thanks to all who keep this excellent site running. A daily treat for me.
Thanks to today’s setters and blogger too. Very enjoyable.
Minor pedantic quibble on 17d. Biennial is certainly regular. It’s just not frequent :-).
A v. good appropriately themed puzzle to finish off the year, though pretty hard I thought. It took me long enough to get the key clue and the floodgates still didn’t really open. Some excellent clues, especially LAUDANUM, VERMOUTH (‘It’ in this sense was also in another place this week), LEEWAY and the ‘Endure air’ anagram for ANDRE RIEU. A bit frustrating not to work it all out – missed 15, and couldn’t parse 5 or 14/10/29. I don’t think I’ve heard of B for ‘Barrels’ in 17 before.
Thanks to setters and bloggers, both for today and for all of 2015. A happy New Year to everyone.
Got the theme fairly soon but still struggled. Eventually got 15ac by trial and error; having never heard of it before I googled to see where it came from and the Urban Dictionary had it with several synonyms which enabled me to finish. Got 22dn and 23dn from the definitions but didn’t understand the first and second part references. Although I got ‘now’ for the present in 22, all I could think of for ‘now’ in 23 was AD (as opposed to BC) with ‘her’ for the ‘lady’ but then the rest of the clue didn’t make sense.
One quibble about LEEWAY: where is the insertion indicator – or have I missed something?
Thanks to setter(s?) and blogger; and a Happy New Year to everyone.
Mostly accessible and entertaining, but having done most of it on paper I gave up on the last few – I had GOOD HEALTH which meant SALAMANDER was stymied (and the definition would have been unfamiliar, as was LCHAIM – an obvious anagram but I would never have believed that could be pronounced). Also failed on LEEWAY.
Thanks to Eimrod and RR, happy new year all
Great crossword, Eimi and Nimrod should team up more often.
13D is MAN in SALAD + <RE ("on rotating").
Happy New year to setters, bloggers, commenters. Now 2016 in Oz, where I have just watched, on TV in Adelaide, the midnight fireworks display from Sydney Harbour.
Thanks to "Eimrod" and RatkojaRiku.
Good festive fun, but I’m with beery hiker on 30. I’d cheerfully entered GOOD HEALTH, which I’d think we’d all agree fits the clue as well as the true answer. All credit & seasonal greetings to Eimrod but (grumble, grumble) is there not a convention that only one solution shd be possible from a given clue?
Happy New Year to the lot of yez anyway
Gx
Thanks for the blog, RR and the setters for an appropriately cheery puzzle, as Conrad said.
Very clever to get in so many toasts – as well as a number of other references to drinking.
allan_c @4 – re LEEWAY: I read it as ‘a song that has …’, which works for me.
12s to all! 🙂
Eileen @8: Ah, yes, the surface reads ‘that is’ but it actually means ‘that has’. Thanks for that.
Like others I had GOOD HEALTH at 30ac so never got 13dn. Not sure that I’d have got it anyway. And if something is biennial it is very regular. Just not all that frequent, as Geebs says. But much enjoyed, especially the wordplay at 14/10/29.
We were very glad that we were completing the puzzle online. We only have iPad access for the Indy now so use Crossword Solver each day for our regular solve. When you enter the answer, all incorrect letters are coloured red so we knew that it wasn’t GOOD HEALTH straightaway.
This was also the only way we solved 15ac by trial and error as we guessed it was an anagram.
All good fun though for NYE!
Many thanks to Gaufrid and Setters & B.
Another GOOD HEALTH here, but I managed to recover when I toyed with “salad” in 13dn with the D in “good” being the D in “salad” and then deduced the existence of SALAMANDER.
It was 18dn that defeated me in the end. I even spotted that VERMOUTH fitted the crossing letters, I just couldn’t work out what it had to do with the clue. Thanks for the explanation.
Thanks to gwep for spotting the mistake in the parsing of SALAMANDER – that’s what happens when one is working on screen alone, without a print-out of the puzzle, and is now corrected.
Thanks to Eileen for clarifying LEEWAY, which I ought perhaps to have done in my original blog.