When I see the name Loroso on a puzzle the word that comes to mind is “devious” (as a setter not as a person!). This puzzle does nothing to dispel that thought. Loroso does everything he can to disguise his intentions here. One clue still eludes me. Thank you Loroso for a tricky puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ESPUMOSO | Mostly sad about doctor, so bubbly (8) |
| UPSEt (sad, mostly) reversed than MO (doctor) and SO | ||
| 5 | AGHAST | Stunned adult is forced into luxury car (6) |
| A (adult) then HAS (is forced) into GT (luxury car) | ||
| 10, 11 | BRAIN OF BRITAIN | Quiz show (if you take it you leave it) (5,2,7) |
| if you take IT from BRitAIN you get BRAIN – a radio quiz show | ||
| 12 | WIDTHWISE | Accompanied by clever guards duke gets across (9) |
| WITH (accompanied by) WISE (clever) contians (guards) D (duke) | ||
| 13 | STEEP | Way to go back over the top (5) |
| ST (street, a way) and PEE (to go, to the toilet) reversed (back) | ||
| 14 | PUTNEY | Invest foreign money to back bridge location (6) |
| PUT (invest) YEN (foreign money) reversed (back) – Putney Bridge, a locaion in London | ||
| 15 | TINWARE | Point given about conflict can matter? (7) |
| TINE (point) contains (given about) WAR (conflict) – what cans are made of | ||
| 18 | OTHELLO | Play centre in Tots magazine (7) |
| tOTs (centre of) and HELLO (magazine) | ||
| 20 | MR BEAN | R&B featured in poor sitcom (2,4) |
| R and B inside MEAN (poor) – UK TV character and program | ||
| 22 | UNWED | Free run we decided to keep (5) |
| found inside (to keep) rUN WE Decided | ||
| 24 | DORSAL FIN | Marine guide for island tours (6,3) |
| anagram (tours) of FOR ISLAND | ||
| 25, 26 | SINGAPORE SLING | Separating bottles or cracking mirrors to make cocktail (9,5) |
| SINGLING (separating) contains (bottles) OR inside (cracking) APES (mirrors, copies) | ||
| 27 | APATHY | One way to get variable interest? No (6) |
| A (one) PATH (way) with Y (variable) | ||
| 28 | CHITCHAT | Perhaps queen conceals problem in discussion (8) |
| CAT (queen perhaps, a female cat) contains (conceals) HITCH (problem) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ELBOWS | Negotiating bend, other short barges (6) |
| BOW (bend) inside (with…negotiating, going round) ELSe (other, short) | ||
| 2 | PLAYDOUGH | Quietly produce 23’s fashionable toy (9) |
| p (quietly) LAY (produce) DOUGH (wonga, cash) – a toy that can be fashioned, moulded | ||
| 3 | See 17 | |
| 4 | SPOTIFY | Streamer? See about unravelling of it (7) |
| SPY (see) contains (about) anagram (unravelling) of OF IT – a streaming music serveice | ||
| 6 | GRINS AND BEARS IT | Soldiers on beach in trainers – big manoeuvres (5,3,5,2) |
| SAND (beach) in anagram (manoeuvres) of TRAINERS BIG | ||
| 7 | APACE | Secretary put into service quickly (5) |
| PA (secretary) inside ACE (service, tennis) | ||
| 8 | TONE POEM | To rejected author, free verse (4,4) |
| 9 | OBJECT | Stand in opposition’s in goal (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 16 | ADAM FAITH | Singer’s dependence on following commercial radio format (4,5) |
| FAITH (dependence of) following AD (commercial) AM (radio format) | ||
| 17, 3 | BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH | Brian Clough’s son made moves – he composed German team (8,15) |
| anagram (moves) of BRIAN CLOGH’S SON MADE then BACH (he composed) | ||
| 19 | OLD BOY | A pensioner gets bloody angry (3,3) |
| anagram (angry) of BLOODY | ||
| 20 | MORPETH | Change shape of France and north-east town (7) |
| MORPH (change shape) contains (why?) ET (and, of France) | ||
| 21 | KNIGHT | Man’s contract to wall good hotel (6) |
| KNIT (contract) contains (to wall) G (good) and H (hotel) – a chess man | ||
| 23 | WONGA | Rhino runs away from bad area (5) |
| WrONG (bad) missing (with…away from) R (runs) than A (area) – tso slang terms for cash | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Thanks PeeDee
8dn is TO plus a reversal (rejected) of ME (writer) OPEN (free)
A lovely proper challenge of a crossword, thanks to Loroso and PeeDee.
20d I agree with our blogger – what tells us the French and goes in the ‘change shape’
28a I thought was 4-4 not 8?
Thanks Gaufrid. Is a tone poem really verse? I thought it was a piece of orchestral music, specifically without lyrics.
Toughest weekday puzzle for ages. Got snagged in NW- so very grateful for blog as there are no reveal letters or check button.Thanks. I feel humbled.
Quite a challenge, but enjoyable with it. Had to consult Google for the answer to 17 & 3d, my knowledge of foreign football teams’ names being limited to Real Madrid & Inter Milan!
Thank you Loroso & PeeDee.
I was on the train to London this morning, looked at this puzzle for half an hour and got nowhere at all.
On the way back, I suddenly saw UNWED (22ac), OTHELLO (18) and the ‘other’ BORUSSIA (17,3).
That really opened up the crossword.
Back at home it didn’t even take that much time to finish it, ending in the tricky NW.
What a challenge and what a good puzzle!
As you said Pee Dee, where Loroso could trick and mislead us, he did.
I came here hoping to get an answer to why ET goes inside MORPH (20d) – alas.
I also do not see a reason for the second ‘in’ in 9d.
Without it the clue reads much better (think football), in my opinion.
I agree with Pee Dee that a TONE POEM is not really a verse.
It is an orchestral piece of music like Sibelius’ Finlandia, Ravel’s Bolero or Smetana’s Vltava.
They are often inspired by literature or poetry.
It is perhaps there that Loroso made a connection with ‘verse’?
Many thanks to Loroso (and Pee Dee, of course).
Thanks PD. Still cant see how morpeth is supposed to work. A tricky puzzle indeed from loroso.
Tough solve – just about got there.
20d MORPH, as a noun, actually means “a shape” (as well as its more common usage as a verb – to reshape) so change could be a heavily indirect anagram:
anag (change) of MORPH ET
The ET part is OK but the MORPH part fails Ximenes’s requirement that indirect anagram feed-ins should be uniquely defined. OTOH there is the fact that there aren’t all that many 7-letter NE towns to pick from – so with a couple of crossers you’ve probably got it.
8d – a tone poem is a piece of music – not a verse.
Here’s one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=891JUSQplzU
As a kid I played this myself for the Queen – 2nd violins – RH 3rd desk. I’m sure she’ll remember. I was the one whose bow went up when everyone else’s was going down.
Thanks all.
Thanks PeeDee and Loroso.
I found this slightly infuriating because there are some brilliantly clever clues – BRAIN OF BRITAIN, APATHY, WONGA, and some where they just don’t seem to work.
As well as the issues with MORPETH and TONE POEM, does KNIT really mean Contract in 21dn. Whilst classic music and literature is enduring, I’m not so sure that ADAM FAITH falls into that category. I’m old enough – just – to remember him but younger solvers surely would have no need to.
As for 5ac, I don’t get HAS = IS and anyone that’s been in an old Ford GT40 would surely not describe it as luxury! GT might stand for Gran Turismo but they are generally sports cars!
Hi Hamish – an example of has=is forced to could be “Michael has to do hard labour” for “Michael is forced to do hard labour”. Knit is in the dictionary as contract and so is GT as a luxury vehicle. Not always the most obvious definition that comes to mind (as you say the GT moniker is now thoroughly devalued), but that is the point of cryptic crosswords. Choosing the the less obvious meaning is what cryptics are about.
Thanks Loroso and PeeDee
This was very tough and took an elapsed couple of days to get through, some time after it was published. Not only were there tricky word plays, but there were quite a number of definitions that would have stretched most vocabularies I would hazard – it certainly did with mine.
Had no idea of the German football team and would be interested in how many folk over there would have known it. The quiz show was also a new find and I didn’t get the clever bit happening with the Britain to brain trick. SPOTIFY was deviously presented and was an ‘aha’ when the penny dropped with it. Was happy enough to find the town of MORPETH than to worry too much as to why the French ‘ET’ had to go into it (think that JS nails it though). WONGA was a new slang term for money – not used over here at all. My last one in was ESPUMOSO which was another new term and one that was very hard to track down through the reference material as well.
Thoroughly enjoyable exercise to work through all of the traps that had been set and very satisfying to find that all of the grid entries were correct at the end !
Hello Bruce, Bourissa Mochengladbach are not hugely famous over here but they make regular appearances in the various European cup competitions. I think for non-footie people they are probably most memorable for their name which is a bit of a mouthful! Probably why Loroso included them.
Wonga has been adopted as the name of the pay-day lender wonga.com. They are regularly in the news for their exorbitant interest rates and shady practices. That has no doubt increased teh awareness of the term over here.
Thanks PeeDee … always good to be able to expand the breadth of knowledge, although at my age sometimes I’m not thinking that there can be too much space left in the grey matter !!! 🙂