This is quite extraordinary: if you ignore the Saturday Prize Puzzles you have to go back to last August before you find a Klingsor that hasn’t been blogged by me. He must be suspecting some collusion amongst the people who organise these things, and must be crying out for someone else. So far as I’m concerned, however, it’s fine: I’d happily blog a Klingsor every time, with a few of the others thrown in for good measure. He always gets it just right — hard enough but he always loses gracefully, after presenting us with some very nice clues.
Definitions underlined. I have settled on maroon for them in my past few blogs as this seems best, but if anyone thinks otherwise then please do say so.
I see no Nina. My impression is that Klingsor doesn’t do them, but you can never be sure.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MISTRESS | Heading off trouble with money, making a bit on the side (8) |
| m {d}istress | ||
| 5 | GRAPPA | Two old men go head to head after Greek brandy (6) |
| Gr. ap-pa | ||
| 9 | SPOT CHECK | Random inspection succeeded, with European caught carrying drug (4,5) |
| s(pot)”czech” — the homophone indicator for Czech = check is ‘caught’ | ||
| 11 | FERAL | Wild West’s lacking in law, judge reflected (5) |
| (la{W} ref)rev. | ||
| 12 | ASTOUND | A safe boxing tactic’s first to stun (7) |
| a s(t)ound — the t being t{actic}, boxing = including | ||
| 13 | EVEREST | First Lady to remain Hillary’s highest ascent? (7) |
| Eve rest — ref. Sir Edmund Hillary although the surface leads you in the direction of Hillary Clinton | ||
| 14 | IN THE DOGHOUSE | When misbehaving husband does it enough, he may end up here! (2,3,8) |
| (h does it enough)*, with &littish qualities | ||
| 16 | ANTIBACTERIAL | Sterilising wound a bit can soothe, finally stopping suffering (13) |
| (a bit can)* {sooth}e in trial — wound the anagram indicator, rhyming with round | ||
| 20 | LA SCALA | Where one could be captivated by Callas possibly (2,5) |
| a in (Callas)* — &lit. | ||
| 21 | EPISTLE | Letter from holy man found in English mansion? (7) |
| e pi(St.)le — was a bit thrown at first by pi = holy | ||
| 23 | ALACK | Vitamin deficiency generates expression of regret (5) |
| A-lack, ie a lack of vitamin A | ||
| 24 | THE MIKADO | Those people, unlikable at heart, perform opera (3,6) |
| them {unl}ika{ble} do — Klingsor knows his opera — just consider his name — so he’s probably right here, but I have always thought that the G&S works were too light to be given the portentous name opera and were operettas | ||
| 25 | EVENTS | Quits smoking, initially eating tons? These things happen (6) |
| (even s{moking}) round t — quits = even, not evens — here, at any rate | ||
| 26 | UNCLE SAM | Could be clue’s about name given to America! (5,3) |
| Another &lit: (clue’s)* round n, then Am | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MISHAP | I fell after motorway accident (6) |
| M1 I Shap — Shap Fell | ||
| 2 | SHOOT | Fire‘s first sign of serious riot (5) |
| s{erious} hoot | ||
| 3 | RECOUNT | Tell and tell again (7) |
| re-count — the second ‘tell’ being = count | ||
| 4 | SPEED MERCHANT | Drug dealer, one whose rates are excessive (5,8) |
| Sort of double definition, one of them more a cryptic definition — now that’s what a cryptic definition should be like, not simply the straighforward ‘One whose rates are excessive’ | ||
| 6 | REFRESH | Invigorate upstanding woman keeping one in thrall (7) |
| (h(serf)er)rev. | ||
| 7 | PERPETUAL | Persistent US criminal turned up dead outside university (9) |
| perp (la{u}te)rev. | ||
| 8 | AFLUTTER | A fluid, say, in an agitated state (8) |
| a fl. utter | ||
| 10 | KEEP ONES EYE IN | Competitive fencing is épée only, with no learner struggling to remain proficient (4,4,3,2) |
| keen round [= fencing] (is epee on{l)y)* | ||
| 14 | INTESTATE | Not willing to try boring cooking, eat in (9) |
| (eat in)* round test — boring the insertion indicator, cooking the anagram indicator | ||
| 15 | BALL GAME | The whole school gets into live football? (4,4) |
| b(all gam)e | ||
| 17 | BLANKET | Cover is void except on vacation (7) |
| blank e{xcep}t | ||
| 18 | INITIAL | I left after endless waiting around first (7) |
| I ({w}aitin{g})rev. L | ||
| 19 | DEFORM | What makes him hide and get out of shape? (6) |
| To make ‘hide’ out of ‘him’ you need to replace the ‘de’ with ‘m’, so it’s ‘de for m’ | ||
| 22 | TEARS | Around second half of year, put up rents (5) |
| (set)rev. round {ye}ar | ||
*anagram
Quite extraordinary for me, too. I generally think of Klingsor as one of the trickier setters but I breezed through this in a couple of passes and no e-help at all. Almost fell at the last hurdle but just in time remembered gam = school from its previous use in crosswords so that 15dn was my LOI. CoD was GRAPPA.
Thanks, Klingsor and John
Yup, straightforward enough but with some v. pretty surfaces Inc 1a and ‘DE’ for ‘M’ was my favourite parse of the day. Thanks to John and Klingsnor.
On a personal note, a long-rumbling family argument has just been resolved. Are all these prize cryptics I keep sending in worth the price of postage? Well, I filled in the Women’s Institute Magazine’s cryptic over a coffee last month, sent it in by force of habit in the name of herself & won her an electric mountain bike, RRP £899.99.
End of, as they say these days.
I missed the ‘de for m’ parsing of 19 which was very clever but otherwise this wasn’t as tricky as I’d been expecting. Simple, common words but I liked the clues for SHOOT and EVENTS in particular as well as IN THE DOGHOUSE.
Thank you to Klingsor and John.