Once again, it’s Joyce on her own. This time Bert is on a photographic course near Northallerton. Last week he was part of a small group attempting the Three Peak Challenge in Yorkshire. While he was at home over the weekend, he asked me to thank those of you who wished him good luck. All the group made it – without the use of head torches. It was a challenge but apparently the views from Ingleborough and Whernside in particular, were stunning. As I am scared of heights, my decision to stay at home was correct as some of the paths took even Bert’s breath away!
Anyway, back to Anglio’s 5th puzzle and the first one that we’ve blogged. I had a look back at the earlier ones and found that we hadn’t commented on them so I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome Anglio. I really enjoyed the puzzle as it had some really smooth surfaces and some clever constructions. More please!
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | Poor Arab gets stoned when protecting daughter – a crowd gathers (10) | |
| THREADBARE | An anagram of ARAB (anagrind is ‘gets stoned’) around A D (daughter) inside or ‘gathered by’ THREE (crowd – as in two’s company, three’s a crowd). This was my LOI and it needed a search, some head scratching and finally a ‘phone a friend’ to parse it! | |
| 6 | Lacking source of cash, chooses to make a comeback – boxers tend to do this (4) | |
| SKIP | PI |
|
| 10 | Rum and sour cream (7) | |
| OFFBEAT | OFF (sour) BEAT (cream) | |
| 11 | Extremists in Europe surely facing zero resistance when entering? It doesn’t look good (7) | |
| EYESORE | EE (first and last letter or ‘extremists’ in Europe) with YES (surely) O (zero) R (resistance) inside or ‘entering’ | |
| 12 | Shoot airmen and get out (9) | |
| GERMINATE | An anagram of AIRMEN GET (anagrind is ‘out’) | |
| 113 | Look, with the introduction of ceiling, you’ll have two floors (5) | |
| DEKKO | You need to think of this as DEcK (floor) KO (floor) and then take out C – the first letter or ‘introduction’ of Celing | |
| 14 | Girl’s brought over something to get you going! (5) | |
| SENNA | ANNE’S (girl’s) reversed or ‘brought over’ | |
| 15 | Intern, say, has to work for bully (9) | |
| TYRANNISE | An anagram of INTERN SAY (anagrind is ‘has to work’) | |
| 17 | Conservative and Liberal’s identifying title in office, leaders together accepted (9) | |
| COALITION | This is a play on CON (Conservative) around or ‘accepting’ the first letters or ‘leaders’ in And Liberal’s Identifying Title In Office | |
| 20 | Bloke’s taken short after second coffee (5) | |
| MOCHA | CHA |
|
| 21 | Make milky coffee, initially tasteless (5) | |
| CLOUD | C (initial letter of Coffee) LOUD (tasteless) – actually I find milky coffee tasteless ALL the time, not just initially! | |
| 23 | Hot and cold stuff containing key skin treatment (4,5) | |
| HAND CREAM | H AND C (hot and cold) RAM (stuff) around or ‘containing’ E (key). Thanks allan_c, my parsing had an extra C. | |
| 25 | Generally speaking, one has nothing against the Queen at all (7) | |
| OVERALL | O (nothing) V (against) ER (the Queen) ALL | |
| 26 | In the US, measures taken to restrain old lags (7) | |
| LOITERS | LITERS (US measures) taking in O (old) | |
| 27 | African dwelling on edge of plateau (4) | |
| HUTU | HUT (dwelling) U (last letter or ‘edge’ of plateaU) | |
| 28 | Hoping to exploit resources, one searches for busy ports outside of European Community (10) | |
| PROSPECTOR | PRO (for) and an anagram of PORTS (anagrind is ‘busy’) outside EC (European Community) | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | In jam, strike rear of car, resulting in whiplash (5) | |
| THONG | TH |
|
| 2 | Votes on free movement – new bill is written up (9) | |
| REFERENDA | RE (on) an anagram of FREE (anagrind is movement’) N (new) AD (bill) reversed or ‘written up’ | |
| 3 | In rain dance, am I performing? (8,6) | |
| AMERICAN INDIAN | A cryptic definition and an anagram of IN RAIN DANCE I AM (anagrind is ‘performing’). What a great anagram. | |
| 4 | Lionel receives acting tip for minor role (3,4) | |
| BIT PART | BART (as in Lionel Bart) around or ‘receiving’ an anagram of TIP (anagrind is ‘acting’) | |
| 5 | One could provide venison, caviar and honey, say … (3,4) | |
| ROE DEER | ROE (caviar) DEER (sounds like dear or ‘honey’) | |
| 7 | … so with a couple of thousand I launched small retail outlet (5) | |
| KIOSK | An anagram of SO KK (a couple of thousands) and I (anagrind is ‘launched’) | |
| 8 | Cruise company recruits female crew at a number of remarkable events (9) | |
| PHENOMENA | PO (cruise company) around or ‘recruiting’ HEN (female) + MEN (crew) A | |
| 9 | In which you may find chocolate drops? (7,7) | |
| VENDING MACHINE | A play on the fact that if you were buying a bar from a VENDING MACHINE the chocolate would drop | |
| 14 | When it was assumed remorse was being shown, idiot blocked fire hydrant (9) | |
| SACKCLOTH | CLOT (idiot) inside or ‘blocking’ SACK (fire) H (hydrant) | |
| 16 | Clint Eastwood’s opening shot captures soldiers showing no mercy (9) | |
| INCLEMENT | An anagram of CLINT and E (first letter or ‘opening ‘ to Eastwood) around or ‘capturing’ MEN (soldiers) | |
| 18 | In hospital, facing real trouble, one’s required to assist with breathing (7) | |
| INHALER | IN H (hospital) and an anagram of REAL (anagrind is ‘trouble’) | |
| 19 | “Fox News” screening nothing positive (7) | |
| NONPLUS | NN (news and in New New) around or ‘screening’ O (nothing) PLUS (positive) | |
| 22 | Lacking in name, inventor somehow gets patent (5) | |
| OVERT | An anagram of inVEnTOR without IN and N (name) – anagrind is ‘somehow’ | |
| 24 | One’s reluctant to spend money in motorway services, having mostly been ripped off (5) | |
| MISER | MI (motorway) SER |
|
I really enjoyed this and I think the clue for NONPLUS is absolutely superb, although there is much to admire all over the puzzle.
Great stuff from Anglio.
I needed help to see the very clever parsing of DEKKO, for which many thanks to Joyce.
Very good crossword.
Anglio’s clueing style is right up my street.
In a way, it is very close to that of Klingsor (/Alberich).
Precise, thoughtful constructions with care for the surfaces.
On the negative side, I did not like the cryptic definition of 9d very much.
But there’s a lot on the positive side, e.g. the full-blood &lit of the other long one (3d).
In 7d Anglio used ‘launched’ as an anagram indicator – not sure about that.
And in 10ac, why is ‘cream’ = ‘beat’?
Thanks (Bertand)Joyce – indeed, more please!
Thanks Joyce for the super blog, and Anglio for the workout.
Sil, ‘cream’ meaning to beat has cropped up in crosswordland a few times recently. I used it a while ago in an email to a blogger, whom I cannot name, but for the sake of argument I will call Eileen, and she queried it also.
I first met it in a George Roy Hill film ‘Slap Shot’ in around 1978, where Paul Newman’s character, having had his team start to play ‘aggressive’- i.e. violent, ice hockey, is asked by a radio interviewer how the most recent game went. ‘We creamed those guys’ he says, with relish.
Sil @2
In fact “cream” means “to beat easily”, as in “the mighty Plymouth Argyle creamed the opposition”, for example.
Very enjoyable puzzle, and definitely a challenge (for me). Thanks to both.
Beat, whip, lash, thong, stone, cream, bully, shoot, strike, showing no mercy, all put in an appearance
beat/cream is often used in recipes, e.g. “cream eggs and sugar…”, which you do with a “beater” or by beating with a spoon.
P.S. probably “cream butter and sugar…” was the origin of the term “cream”.
Super puzzle from a setter new to me. The clueing throughout is first-rate, especially 12,26,5,8……BTW I read 10 like @Cookie in the cooking sense!
I imagined the chocolate in 9 in liquid form dropping into the cup.
Very enjoyable blog too, so thanks Joyce and Anglio.
I should be convinced now, shouldn’t I? [why can’t I make smilies anymore?]
Great puzzle-failed to decipher the setter’s handwriting and thanks @baerchen for spotting the riff. Thanks Joyce too,Not to mention Anglio.
Threadbare was a cracker-in more ways than one as I needed a device to crack it.
Thanks for the comments and for sorting out ‘cream’ amongst yourselves whilst I was out gardening for the NT. I have to admit that I questioned it at first, despite being a cook.
In 3d I didn’t use &lit to describe the parsing at it’s often one of those expressions that people seem to argue about!
Most I’ve enjoyed a crossword in some time due to good clues and lovely surfaces.
1A and 14D were my favourites but there were many to admire and smile at.
Looking forward to more from this setter.
Thanks Anglio (and Joyce)
Thank you Anglio and Joyce.
A super crossword, but I needed help with some of the parsing, THREADBARE and DEKKO in particular, extra thanks to Joyce. AMERICAN INDIAN was great.
Very good stuff indeed. Awesome surfaces and neat clues across the board.
Very Dac-like I thought. And that can only ever be a good thing.
Today it was the NW corner that was the last to fall, and 1ac was my last one in after resorting to a wordfinder – but I did manage to parse it once I saw it.
If I may make so bold as to suggest a correction to the parsing of 23ac, it should be H AND C + RAM with E inserted. RAM in the sense of ‘ram it in’ = ‘stuff it in’.
Quite a bit of head scratching required in some clues to determine what was the anagram fodder. But it was all great stuff. A toss-up for clue of the day between DEKKO and SACKCLOTH.
Thanks, Anglio and (B&)J
Thanks allan_c@15 – you are absolutely correct about 23ac. Many thanks.
Many thanks to everyone for your kind comments. I hope the puzzle was entertaining and, yes, I was aware that ‘cream’, as a definition for ‘beat’, may have been a touch obscure. Hopefully it was fair though.
Thanks to Joyce for the blog and hopefully I can entertain you again in the near future.