Most of this Lohengrin crossword is fine; indeed I suspect more than most of it is fine, but I’m bewildered by one or two of the clues, as I make clear I hope in the blog. There were some imaginative anagram and inclusion indicators — nothing wrong so far as I can see, simply unusual.
This is a tribute to Muhammad Ali, who died recently. In fact it must have been produced quite quickly. I can find references to his ‘thrilla in Manila’, his ‘rumble in the jungle’, ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’, [George] Foreman, maybe 10ac (sparred), maybe 20dn (tornado). Surely there are others.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COMPRISED | Made concessions for deal without repeat order included (9) |
| compr{om}ised — the word ‘compromised’ [= Made concessions for deal] has OM in it twice | ||
| 6 | TAFIA | First-class stout returned for Caribbean rum (5) |
| (A1 fat)rev. — had never heard of this although it was strongly suggested by the wordplay | ||
| 9 | LINEMAN | Menial exercises followed by new railway worker (7) |
| (Menial)* n — the anagram indicator ‘exercises’ | ||
| 10 | SPARRED | Boxed supermarket wine (7) |
| Spar red | ||
| 11 | MILDLY | Slightly left in dark over Libya’s domain code (6) |
| (d(l)im)rev. ly | ||
| 12/17 | MUHAMMAD ALI | Clay probed by amateur graduate leading to Area 51 legend? (8,3) |
| mu(ham MA)d a LI — when I did the crossword I thought that ‘Clay’ was the definition since it was his earlier name but it’s part of the wordplay | ||
| 14 | DRAB | Dull spot around Reading, for example (4) |
| d(R)ab — R is Reading, one of the three Rs | ||
| 16 | GRASSLANDS | ‘Pastures new’ welcomed by boys on marijuana (10) |
| grass [= marijuana] la(n)ds | ||
| 19 | ALTERNATOR | Current provider‘s key rate on supply meeting resistance (10) |
| Alt (rate on)* r — the Alt key on the computer keyboard — the adverbial ‘supply’ the anagram indicator | ||
| 22 | IDEA | Plan inside army barracks (4) |
| Hidden in insIDE Army — ‘barracks’ the inclusion indicator since to barrack soldiers is to house them | ||
| 25 | HARDBACK | Book hotel and a second on way (8) |
| h a Rd [= way] back [= second] | ||
| 26 | JUBBAH | Muslim attire leaders of Jaipur used, before burkas achieved hegemony (6) |
| First letters | ||
| 28 | CHAPEAU | Gold on cheap feathered hat (7) |
| (cheap)* Au — yet another unusual anagram indicator, this time ‘feathered’ | ||
| 29 | ANGLIAN | Old Ford model with name of German heritage (7) |
| Anglia n — ref the Ford Anglia — takes me back to my youth, where I had thought they resided; yet I saw one on the M6 the other day |
||
| 30 | STORY | Sound level in audiobook, maybe (5) |
| “Storey” | ||
| 31 | BUTTERFLY | Cut of meat? (9) |
| Presumably this is a CD somehow, although I can’t think how it works: it is presumably a reference to Muhammad Ali’s floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee — sorry, can’t help here | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHLAMYDIA | Infection amid lay congregation undermining church (9) |
| ch. (amid lay)* — ‘this time it’s ‘congregation’ that is the anagram indicator | ||
| 2 | MANILLA | Paper report of thriller, here? (7) |
| “Manila” — ref the ‘thrilla in Manila’, the fight between Ali and Frazier | ||
| 3 | RUMBLE | Moan when missing opening fight in Vegas (6) |
| {g}rumble — ref the ‘rumble in the jungle’, but this was Ali-Foreman in Zaire, so what is Vegas doing? I think it’s an indication that the word ‘rumble’ is American, as in West Side Story — so perhaps it’s nothing to do with Ali-Foreman, simply a thematic reference to their fight | ||
| 4 | SEND | Post card, perhaps, where ultimately no love’s lost within (4) |
| SD round ({wher}e n{o}) — SD cards? Well this dinosaur was unaware of them, but they do exist and are no doubt part of the everyday vocabulary of most people | ||
| 5 | DISCUSSION | Field event one’s put up on review (10) |
| Discus (1’s)rev. on | ||
| 6 | TRAVAIL | Bible opening leads to struggle (7) |
| tr(AV)ail — trail = leads, ‘opening’ the inclusion indicator | ||
| 7 | FOREMAN | Warning on course with staff supervisor (7) |
| Fore [= Warning on course] man [= staff] — golf language | ||
| 8 | AIDED | Given support, said we’d see who starts to leave (5) |
| {s}aid {w}e’d — although I’m not quite sure about the ‘see who’ | ||
| 13 | BREADCRUMB | Trailer for Hansel and Gretel? (10) |
| A CD? Hansel and Gretel left breadcrumbs as a trail … | ||
| 15 | BEE | BT’s first mobile network – one creating a buzz (3) |
| B{T} EE — network for mobile phones | ||
| 17 | See 12 Across | |
| 18 | SEA SHANTY | Song more fancy than essay (3,6) |
| (than essay)* — the ‘more’, which seems at first sight to be superfluous, is I suppose part of the anagram indicator: ‘more fancy’ | ||
| 20 | TORNADO | Fighter having rent trouble (7) |
| torn ado — is this a reference to the RAF Tornado bomber, or to some connection with Muhammad Ali of which I am unaware? | ||
| 21 | RUBBERY | Growth mum’s neglected? It may be hard to swallow (7) |
| {sh}rubbery — shrubbery = growth and sh = mum, but the definition? If it’s rubbery it may be hard to swallow, but they are not equivalent; perhaps the definition is simply ‘hard to swallow’, which is grammatically OK now, but if so then ‘It may be’ is a rather strange link. Not sure here. Anyone know? | ||
| 23 | DEBRIEF | Take off pants, say, to gather information (7) |
| 2 defs, one of them really to de-brief | ||
| 24 | JUNGLE | 90s music from Amazon? (6) |
| The Amazon rainforest is also known as the Amazon jungle — jungle music | ||
| 25 | HACKS | Cuts cash outlay, saving grand (5) |
| k [= grand] in (cash)* — the inclusion indicator ‘saving’ | ||
| 27 | RAPT | Sent charge on time (4) |
| rap t | ||
*anagram
To BUTTERFLY meat is to slice a thick steak, for example, nearly through, then flip the top over so as to obtain a thinner steak nearly twice the size.
Never knew that. How crosswords extend one’s vocabulary.
Thanks for the explanation of 4D, which had had me scratching my head. I’m still unsure what’s cryptic about 31A.
Nice tribute puzzle to a great man. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks for the write-up John, it was indeed set rather quickly. With regard to your quibbles:
‘Cut of meat?’ is as per muffin, and (I hope) it’s cryptic: To me a ‘cut of meat’ is sirloin, for example, not the way said sirloin may be prepared.
AIDED is as you parsed, but I wasn’t comfortable with using ‘starts to leave’ arbitrarily. So it’s actually the starts to ‘see who’ that leave.
In [sh]RUBBERY, I had intended the def to be just ‘hard to swallow’, which considering the unusual link used to get rid of a QM, it probably was!
Re ‘fight in Vegas’, I initially had ‘fight in Kinshasa’, but felt it telegraphed an already easy clue – and I wanted the US usage indicator.
Thanks again
Oh, on the ‘on’ thing, I don’t think I’ve used both ways? For me, in an across clue it’s always after, down clue always above.
(I also genuinely failed at 5 x __ = 5 for the captcha.