Crosophile gives us a puzzle that will entice solvers to finish. Some accessible clues to get started, no traps – apart from the one I fell into – and the rest of a moderate difficulty.
I had barely a dozen left to go after the first pass and some of them had a “should of got it earlier feel”, till the last few.
There is no theme that I can see, but as usual in these situations I expect to be refuted. There is just one clue that I am not happy about the explanation: 5A.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BISMUTH | One building block is hard mass but unstable (7) (IS H[ard] M[ass] BUT)* AInd: unstable. Perfectly happy with “one building block” being used as the def. for an element |
| 5 | COSTUME | Dress uniform worn inside made a hole in my pocket (7) Last one in, from the Def. and crossing letters – and I still cannot see the wordplay. Uniform is either U or UM from U[nifor]M (worn (away) inside). How the rest might arise from a hole in my pocket – which I suppose might “Cost me” – is that it? I normally only lose tiddlers (5p) |
| 9 | LIMIT | 50mph perhaps with lights on going round M1 (5) LIT (lights on) around M1. First one in |
| 10 | RED-HANDED | Director and performer put in grass in middle of act (3-6) D[irector] HAND (performer) inside REED (grass) |
| 11 | MATERNITY | A ground rent – it’s put into my mother’s property (9) A, (RENT)* AInd: ground, and IT, all inside MY |
| 12 | SWEAR | Shout abuse as we are leaving A&E (5) A and E leaving from [a]S WE AR[e] i.e. effectively Hidden in aS WE ARe |
| 13 | CHILD | This little one if left for dead would be cold (5) If you change L[eft] into D[ead] you get CHILL (cold). I initially had this the wrong way around and wrote in CHILL. It became clear it was wrong when 14D was shouting at me |
| 15 | OBSTINACY | “I CAN’T!” Bossy heartless ridiculous pigheadedness (9) (I CAN’T BO[s]SY)* AInd: ridiculous |
| 18 | LIGHT YEAR | Time not hanging heavy? It’s a long way (5,4) LIGHT (not … heavy) YEAR (time). Seems like Light Year has appeared in several recent crosswords |
| 19 | KNIFE | Blade made of three metals (5) K (Potassium) NI (Nickel) FE (Iron) I could see how the wordplay was going to work as soon as I read the clue, but I couldn’t think of a suitable 5 letter blade till I got the K from slapstick |
| 21 | INFER | Unable to bear tile being missing – make a deduction (5) INFER[tile] |
| 23 | BAPTISMAL | Concerned with using a font that might be a bit small after cut round page? (9) (A BIT)* AInd: might be, around P[age], and SMAL[l] (small after cut) |
| 25 | GRAPEVINE | Rumour of good set of exercises in the gully (9) G[ood] then PE (set of exercises) inside RAVINE (gully) |
| 26 | PATHS | Poignancy on losing love one way and another? (5) PATH[o]S |
| 27 | NECKTIE | In reach but oddly elusive, knot that is maybe a bow (7) [i]N [r]E[a]C[h] (oddly elusive) KT (knot, maritime speed unit) I.E. (that is) |
| 28 | PALACES | Surrounding area locations – they’re fit for a king (7) PLACES (locations) around A[rea] |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BULIMIC | I’m one in upcoming society concerned with eating disorder (7) I’M 1 in CLUB< |
| 2 | SOMETHING | Beatles title? Came across a greeting in one (9) MET (came across) HI (a greeting) inside SONG (one – a title like this). Ref “Something” from Abbey Road (the 2nd LP I ever bought) |
| 3 | UTTER | Extreme state (5) Double Def. |
| 4 | HERBIVORE | Maybe Delia’s book four, raw material for a vegetarian (9) HER (Maybe Delia’s) B[ook] IV (four) ORE (raw material) |
| 5 | CADDY | What carries tee and tea (5) Double Def. |
| 6 | SLAPSTICK | Criticism for wearing make-up – some find it funny (9) SLAP (make-up) STICK (criticism) |
| 7 | UNDUE | 50% of wave energy is excessive (5) UNDU[late] (half of wave) E[nergy] |
| 8 | ELDERLY | Aged like a tree? (7) Double Def. one amusing “make like a tree and leave” |
| 14 | DETERGENT | Cleaner put chap off (9) DETER GENT (that old chestnut) |
| 16 | SCRAPHEAP | A place for Sierra worth little after taking a knock? (9) near &Lit S[ierra] CHEAP (worth little) around (taking) RAP (a knock) What a great clue! |
| 17 | AXIOMATIC | Certain American to cross Isle of Man cat with one that’s wild (9) A[merican] X (cross) IOM (Isle of Man) (CAT 1)* AInd: wild. Another great clue! |
| 18 | LYING-IN | When you initially went in nothing raised spirit in confinement (5-2) Y[ou] inside NIL< then GIN (spirit) |
| 20 | ENLISTS | Listens for bombing and joins the army (7) LISTENS* AInd: for bombing |
| 22 | FRANC | Was in management, invested in soccer club to get some of the old money (5) RAN (was in management) inside FC (soccer club) |
| 23 | BRIBE | Bung cheese round a piece of bread (5) BRIE (cheese) around B[read]. Not the kind of bung you cork your bottle with, but the kind you fill your boots with. |
| 24 | IMPEL | Drive little devil to the school finally (5) IMP (little devil) [th]E [schoo]L |
beermagnet
‘u’ inside ‘cost me’ is certainly how I saw it at 5a.
As usual when such areas crop up I had to ask my partner in crime if there was a Beatles song of that name for 2 down. (FYI I used to play in The Cavern before the Fab Three and Ringo got there.)
Good blog, good puzzle. Just finished the Grauniad and Times fifteen squared ones and about to start on the Times jumbo.
Hey ho, spring is here.
I parsed COSTUME as U inside COST ME as in ‘this car repair really cost me’ i.e. ‘made a hole in my pocket.’
Enjoyed this: 17d (AXIOMATIC) was my fave: Americans not crossing, axes not cutting and Manx cats not being tail-less, just a little muddled. All rather tongue-in-cheek, I felt.
Thanks to Paul and Crosophile.
Oops, thanks to beermagnet, sorry, misread the headers.x
Thanks, Beermagnet, Conrad, and Grant. Correct parsing on COSTUME, Grant 🙂
And (unusually for me) no nina this time.
Nothing too difficult, thanks Crosophile and beermagnet. No nina, but is there a hint of a theme with MATERNITY, LYING-IN and CHILD?
On the technicalities of the online Indy crossword, has anyone had problems printing it out? After spending a lot of the day at the computer I decided to rest my eyes by printing out the crossword rather than do it online. But when I printed it there were no black squares in the grid! Thinking it might be a glitch in my printer I tried converting it to a pdf but the same thing happened there! So I was reduced to putting in the blocking squares by hand before I started.