Easy-peasy but far from boring. A very nice puzzle from Crux this morning.
I don’t usually time myself but I’m guessing this would be close to a PB.
A classic crossword: no lazy cliches (well, one, -ish), several pleasing ‘tut’ moments, one very clever clue and an altogether enjoyable solve.
Thanks, Crux.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ACROBATICS | Basic act or complicated performance in gym (10) |
| Anagram (‘complicated’) of BASIC ACT OR. | ||
| 7 | IDLE | Regularly find clue that’s unused (4) |
| Alternate letters (i.e. ‘regularly’) of fInD cLuE. | ||
| 9 | CLOT | A fool caught by fate (4) |
| ‘C’ (‘caught’, on a cricket scorecard) then LOT (‘fate’). | ||
| 10 | ON ONES TOES | Quite alert, being inches taller presumably (2,4,4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 11 | VINOUS | After six we French like wine (6) |
| VI (Roman numeral for ‘6’), then NOUS (French for ‘we’). | ||
| 12 | ETHEREAL | Heavenly place the realist embraces (8) |
| Inclusion in ‘placE THE REAList’. | ||
| 13 | BRAINIER | Black Prince appears more intelligent (8) |
| B’ for ‘black’, then RAINIER, late prince, popular and effective ruler of Monaco, ludicrously rich, a dashing World War II hero, renowned philatelist, married Grace Kelly, smoked 60 a day and lived to 81. Not a bad life. | ||
| 15 | LUDO | Only 40% lucky at party game (4) |
| LU (i.e. 2/5 or 40% of LUcky), then DO (‘party’). The ‘party game’ misdirection was nice. | ||
| 17 | TRIO | Central district needs 10 for 3 (4) |
| Again, Crux’s subterfuge has us scrabbling elsewhere for that which is before our eyes: the ‘central’ letters of disTRict and the number ’10’. Sweet. | ||
| 19 | GERMANIC | Family that includes English marine with George Cross, strangely (8) |
| Linguistic crypticism and anagram of MARINE (not your usual ‘RM’ this time) and ‘GC’ for the medal. | ||
| 22, 23 | STRAIGHT-BACKED | With military bearing, unlike Richard III, we presume (8-6) |
| Double definition. After recent excavations of that Leicester car-park, the clue would also appear to work without ‘we presume’. | ||
| 25 | STEEP CLIMB | The trend in household debt, say, may be literally breathtaking (5,5) |
| Another double def. The first, doubtless supported by statistics, seems rather wide to me. | ||
| 26 | PEAK | Height of a dog to the ear (4) |
| Homophone of ‘peke’, or pekinese (not yet Beijingese) lap-dog. | ||
| 27 | IRIS | A goddess of Erin, nearly (4) |
| Almost IRISh (‘of Erin’). | ||
| 28 | PADDY FIELD | Cereal crop grown here, not in Ireland, surprisingly! (5,5) |
| H’mm. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | COLLIER | Miner’s dog seen on end of pier (7) |
| COLLIE (‘dog’) + end of ‘pieR’ | ||
| 3 | OUTDO | Best sort of al fresco event (5) |
| ‘Best’ as verb, and, as it were, an OUTside DO or party. | ||
| 4 | ACOUSTIC | Scottish cattle prod, you could say, to do with sound (8) |
| Accurate, groanworthy pun (‘you could say’) on ‘a coo stick’. | ||
| 5 | IN ONES RIGHT MIND | Ending this minor upset might be sensible (2,4,5,4) |
| Anagram (‘upset’) of first 3 words. | ||
| 6 | SEETHE | These possibly require energy to boil (6) |
| Anagram (possibly’) of THESE + E for ‘energy’. | ||
| 7 | INTER ALIA | Where outlaw hides in Albania (among other things) (5,4) |
| Clue of the day by a mile. In the word ‘Albania’, ‘ban’ (‘outlaw’) hides ‘among’ (Latin INTER) the letters of ALIA. Clever, logical and perfectly formed. | ||
| 8 | LEEWARD | General Hospital area away from the weather (7) |
|
LEE (American civil war ‘general’) + WARD (‘hospital area’). Nice surface, among many today. ‘Leeward’ is still usually pronounced ‘Loo-ud’, btw. |
||
| 14 | IDOLATERS | Image worshippers from isolated Rwandan capital (9) |
| Anagram of ISOLATED + ‘R’, capital first letter of ‘Rwandan’. I entered this first as ‘idolators’ without checking the anagram, which put the brakes on later solving. Silly man. | ||
| 16 | PROBABLY | Professional boxing starts with skill most likely (8) |
| PRO (‘professional’), ‘B’ (that’s how ‘Boxing’ starts) then ABLY (‘with skill’). | ||
| 18 | ROTATOR | It goes round, up or down (7) |
| Vertically palindromic crossword chestnut. | ||
| 20 | ICEFALL | Feeling bad about injured face, make glacial descent (7) |
| ILL (‘feeling bad’) around anag. of FACE. | ||
| 21 | EGG-CUP | Shell-hole in China, perhaps (3-3) |
| Whole-clue joke cryptic and not a bad ‘un, at that. | ||
| 24 | CAPRI | Goat short of grass in a small island (5) |
| Capricorn, mown. | ||
*anagram
This was good, but I made things difficult for myself by confidently entering “the” instead of “one” in both 5d & 10ac! Favourites were 21d (my LOI) & 28ac.
Thank you Crux and Grant.
Thanks Crux and Grant
This would have to be the best puzzle by this setter that I have done. As you say, not terribly difficult, but with some exquisitely disguised misdirection of numerous clues and the majority of them elegantly put together. A couple that were too good for me to parse properly were GERMANIC and your c.o.d. ALBANIA (which on seeing what was happening instantly became mine).
Thought that the groan-worthiness of PADDY FIELD and ACOUSTIC were a mini highlight as well.
It just goes to show that a puzzle doesn’t need to be mind-numbingly hard to have multiple layers of meaning and a sense of cunning on how the clues are constructed. Great effort, Crux !!