Thematic fun from Gaff today and I found this one rather tougher than the usual Tuesday fare.
A bit of a heart-sink moment when I realised what the theme was – I’m a complete duffer with these chaps – but there was nothing that even I didn’t know. Nonetheless, a slower solve than usual today with some very oblique cluing. Hard but fair, I thought.
I apologise for the problems with 18 down seeming to appear twice: we’re working to sort it out, but, you know, computers, tch… (Admin edit: now corrected).
| Across | ||
| 1 | TIMBER | Warning that deal is going down? (6) |
| Whole clue charade. “Timber!” is the traditional cry as a tree falls. The question mark is because ‘deal’ is not the tree but its product. |
||
| 4 | TWEETERS | Birds that are followed 22 (8) |
| Thematic double definition. Birds may be ‘tweeters’ and computer types who ‘tweet’ hope to be ‘followed’ ON LINE (the solution to 22 Down). | ||
| 9 | INANER | Not so brilliant production of Annie ends run (6) |
| An anagram (‘production’) of ANNIE is ended by ‘R’ for a run in cricket. | ||
| 10 | SLEETING | Smart to take shelter from throwing ice down (8) |
| STING (to ‘smart’) includes (‘takes’) LEE (‘shelter’) to give us this cryptically defined weather. | ||
| 12 | DOWNLOAD | Feathers with capacity to move from 29 to 18 (8) |
| DOWN (‘feathers’) + LOAD (‘capacity’) to give the thematic definition ‘to move from INTERNET to COMPUTER’, the respective answers to 29 & 18. | ||
| 13 | ESCAPE | Bolt and key (6) |
| Double definition, the ESC ‘key’ being thematic, of course. | ||
| 15 | EDIT | Change of diet (4) |
| Anagram (‘of’) DIET. Thematic again: in computing, to ‘edit’ a program is to change it. A newspaper editor is most pleased when he has to do no such thing. | ||
| 16 | ST TRINIANS | Performing Arts isn’t in notorious girls school (2,8) |
| Anagram (‘performing’) of ARTS ISNT IN to give the school created by Ronald Searle, immortalised by Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Grenfell and George Cole and later rather spoilt by others. | ||
| 19 | EYE-POPPING | Watch street dance – it’s amazing (3-7) |
| EYE (‘watch’) and POPPING for ‘street dancing’, which my Chambers doesn’t (yet) give but which I think is pretty well-known. | ||
| 20 | SPAM | Meat Atlas rejected (4) |
| More theme-fodder. SPAM is spiced ham and also MAPS (collectively ‘Atlas’) reversed. | ||
| 23 | FLOPPY | Relaxed when buzzer keeps work quiet (6) |
| Theme again. FLY, a ‘buzzer’ surrounds (‘keeps’) OP (‘work’) and P (musically, ‘quiet’). | ||
| 25 | CORNMEAL | Ears pounded by first love following tragic romance (8) |
| Neat cryptic def, with L (first of ‘Love’) following an anagram (‘tragic’) of ROMANCE. | ||
| 27 | NIGHT AIR | Dark atmosphere of lullaby? (5,3) |
| Double cryptic definitions. ‘Night air’ as a phrase was new to me but it seems to be an old term for a peculiarly nocturnal miasma. | ||
| 28 | SIERRA | Tumultuous raiser of mountains (6) |
| Anagram (‘tumultuous’) of RAISER. | ||
| 29 | INTERNET | Imprison alien with part of 1 across, 9, 10’s invention (8) |
| Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet and he appears in the grid as described. The wordplay is INTERN + ET. | ||
| 30 | DELETE | Cut back incomplete ledger (6) |
| Reversed inclusion (‘back in’) in incomlETE LEDger. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TWIDDLE | Play is West End number one (7) |
| ‘T’ (the ‘end’ of ‘West’) then WIDDLE, a euphemism for ‘number one’, itself a euphemism for a slash, or, crudely, urination. | ||
| 2 | MEANWHILE | Play with hot meal and wine during the interval (9) |
| Anagram (‘play with’) of H+ (‘hot’, as on your tap), MEAL + WINE. | ||
| 3 | EVENLY | First Lady and First Lady in city equally (6) |
| EVE was the first woman, then place L (the first of ‘Lady’) in NY for New York. | ||
| 5 | See 26 | |
| 6 | EVENSONG | Odds on Graf’s first service (8) |
| EVENS (one kind of ‘odds’, paradoxically) then ON, then G (first letter of ‘Graf’), to give one of the loveliest words in the language, imho. | ||
| 7 | ERICA | Plant in US taking morning off (5) |
| amERICA without its AM (‘morning’) to give us a variety of heather. Makes a change from ‘ling’, I suppose. | ||
| 8 | SIGNETS | Small seals pick up small birds (7) |
| Homophone (‘picks up’) of ‘cygnets’. | ||
| 11 | LAPTOPS | Place friend turning up with 18s on your knees (7) |
| SPOT (‘place’) + PAL (‘friend’) both reversed. | ||
| 14 | GRUNION | King joining fish (7) |
| GR (‘king’, here Georgius Rex) + UNION (a ‘joining’) to give a fish which I freely confess I had to look up. | ||
| 17 | APPLE TREE | Program of endless greed that bears fruit (5,4) |
| APPLET (a liittle ‘app’ or computer program) + gREEd without either of its end letters. | ||
| 18 | COMPUTER | Brain malfunction – Trump & co first in election (8) |
| Anagram (‘malfunction’) of TRUMP + CO + E (first letter of Election | ||
| 19 | EFFENDI | Audition for part in defending title (7) |
| ‘Effendi’, with two ‘F’s is a title of respect in the near East. The construction is rather novel: it’s a homophone (‘audition’) of the EFENDI part of dEFENDIng. A new one on me. | ||
| 21 | MALWARE | Man catches kiling virus perhaps (7) |
| Another thematic clue. MALE (‘man’) includes (‘catches’) WAR (‘killing’, although the clue as published on line is ‘kiling’ with one ‘L’ which had me head-scratching until I decided it had to be a (very rare) misprint. | ||
| 22 | ONLINE | Where trains are connected (6) |
| Double definition, being ‘where trains are (to be found)’ and ‘connected’, as in ‘on the net’ &c. | ||
| 24 | OUGHT | Should be nothing but topless (5) |
| NOUGHT without its first letter in this Down clue. | ||
| 26, 5 | FIRE WALL | Fear will ruin defence against Trojan horse (8) |
| Thematic anagram (‘ruin’) of FEAR WILL. | ||
*anagram
I didn’t think this was too bad, although there were a few unknowns, including GRUNION – another one to be added to the piscatorial vocabulary – and POPPING, which I’m sure is a well-known term for ‘street dancing’ but not to a troglodyte like me. Good to have a theme, including the Nina referred to in the clue for 29. Favourites were TIMBER, CORNMEAL and EFFENDI.
It’s probably obvious but anyone know what the anniversary of the ‘anniversary puzzle’ is?
Thanks to Gaff and Grant.
Sorry to be picky, but contrary to 29A Tim Berners-Lee did not “invent the Internet” – he invented the World Wide Web, which is not the same thing (though it’s a common confusion). The anniversary is presumably (slightly belatedly) that of the first website, published on 8 August 1991.
WordPlodder: today is the 25th anniversary of the Internet’s going public (I didn’t know this either – have just looked it up!).
I, another ” computer duffer”, was put off by the theme at first but found the puzzle much less of a problem than I thought it would be. In fact, I quite enjoyed it!
Thank you Gaff & Grant.
Thanks Gaff and Grant. re the anniversary (or not):
http://www.pcmag.com/news/347260/the-world-wide-web-turns-25-today-or-does-it
Thanks Steve!
I’ve been waiting all day long to get an answer to the question.
Meanwhile, I hope that Andrew’s post @2 didn’t embarass Gaff too much.
As Andrew is very knowledgable when it comes to IT related things, he’s surely right.
Not many comments today but this was actually quite a good puzzle, I thought.
As ever with Gaff there were a couple of eyebrow-raising moments but altogether I really liked it!
I cannot see how “(ANNIE)* ends run” in 9ac leads to (ANNIE)* followed by R (as Grant tells us).
Replacing ‘ends run’ with ‘runs’ would do the trick but, yes, it would also ruin the excellent surface.
That said, first there is the cryptic grammar and then there is the surface.
The other thing thing that puzzled me was the use of ‘of’ in 17d.
Surely, the surface needed a link word but it is out of place here.
But hey, no crossword is perfect.
I was fooled by in/complete in 30ac, thinking there was something missing.
The well disguised definition at 25ac and the splendid surface of the anagram clue at 26,5 were my favourites.
Many thanks to Gaff, and Grant.
Thanks Grant and Gaff.
Enjoyable. Due to the misprint in the clue for 21dn, I did for a while ponder whether the answer might actually be, er, MISPRINT until the true answer emerged.
I am not familiar with POPPING as a street dance so respect to you Grant!
The use of parts of 3 clues to get an answer is a new device, as is the partial inserted homophone. Creative.
Thanks Gaff and Grant
Published a while ago, I know, but a very enjoyable puzzle with a theme in the industry in which I’ve worked in since before the internet was ‘invented’. Still some other words to be learnt – such as the POPPING street dance, the ST TRINIANS cartoon strip girls and the GRUNION.
Fair clueing which should have enabled the most computer-illiterate people to be able to complete the grid. Especially liked how he got us to pick up what would normally be a very well-hidden nina with the clue at 29a.
Finished in the NW corner with EVENLY and TIMBER which shows that I had to reverse parse that 29a way after the event.
Nice puzzle.