This is the first Lohengrin puzzle we have blogged, and it really had the old grey matter whirring!
At one point we were so stumped we thought we’d have to give up on 24 and 25ac and 16 and 19d (the last due to our lack of interest in football!). We also couldn’t parse some entries that we had guessed at from the crossing letters and definitions. However, coming back to it after a short break, we think we’ve managed to sort everything out.
There was some very nifty wordplay (including a lot of clever charades) as well as some crafty definitions – all in all, a good Thursday challenge.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Guy behind delivery? (7) | |
| POSTMAN | Cryptic definition – the MAN (guy) who delivers the POST | |
| 5 | Close to launch, engineer heads for spacecraft (7) | |
| SHUTTLE | SHUT (close) + first letters or ‘heads’ of To Launch Engineer | |
| 9 | Film about end of “Charlotte’s Web” (5) | |
| SKEIN | SKIN (film) round E (‘end’ of ‘Charlotte’) | |
| 10 | College minor coming across loud and clear (9) | |
| CLOUDLESS | C (college) LESS (minor) round or ‘coming across’ LOUD | |
| 11 | Give out street aid around shelters, retrospectively (7) | |
| RADIATE | Hidden or ‘sheltered’ and backwards or ‘retrospectively’ in ‘streET AID ARound | |
| 12 | Cosmopolitan students separated during rambling (7) | |
| WORLDLY | L and L (students) separately inserted (‘during’) into WORDY (rambling, as in verbose) | |
| 13 | Anger left in some boxing matches? (12) | |
| FIRELIGHTERS | IRE (anger) L (left) in FIGHTERS (‘some boxing’) | |
| 17 | Money firm enclosed for investment in Madras, say (4,8) | |
| HARD CURRENCY | HARD (firm) + ENC (enclosed) ‘invested’ in CURRY (Madras, say) | |
| 20 | Concerning display in golf lesson (7) | |
| READING | RE (concerning) AD (display) IN G (golf) | |
| 21 | Perhaps girl’s favourite boy band (7) | |
| SQUEEZE | Double definition – SQUEEZE being the 1970s band which included Jools Holland on keyboards | |
| 22 | Two rods, for example, rotating inside means of propulsion (9) | |
| BARGEPOLE | BAR (one rod) POLE (another) with EG (for example) reversed or ‘rotated’ inside | |
| 23 | Slope on far edge of forest walk (5) | |
| TRAMP | RAMP (slope) after T (the last letter or ‘far edge’ of ‘forset’) | |
| 24 | Child princess regularly seen in play (7) | |
| CINDERS | Cryptic definition – an anagram of the alternate letters of ChIlD pRiNcEsS – anagrind is ‘seen in play’ | |
| 25 | Decline to live by American rule (7) | |
| FORBEAR | FOR (to) BE (live) A (American) R (rule) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Food store changing name for Sabbath (6) | |
| PASTRY | PA |
|
| 2 | Regular but small returns – that’s banking these days (6) | |
| STEADY | YET (but) S (small) reversed or ‘returning’ round or ‘banking’ AD (these days) | |
| 3 | Language chairman needs in management (8,7) | |
| MANDARIN CHINESE | An anagram of CHAIRMAN NEEDS IN – anagrind is ‘management’ | |
| 4 | Specialist hotel opening national reserve (5) | |
| NICHE | H (hotel) in or ‘opening’ N (national) ICE (reserve) | |
| 5 | Film news and how it breaks (4,5) | |
| SNOW WHITE | An anagram of NEWS and HOW IT – anagrind is ‘breaks’ | |
| 6 | Criminal? He turned out to be above board (5-3-7) | |
| UNDER-THE-COUNTER | An anagram of HE TURNED (anagrind is ‘out’) + COUNTER (board) | |
| 7 | It means more in tearful row! (8) | |
| TRENDIER | REND (tear) in TIER (row) | |
| 8 | Influence exists through established writer (8) | |
| ESSAYIST | SAY (influence) IS (exists) in EST (established) | |
| 14 | Shocking case of editing on government debt records (9) | |
| EGREGIOUS | EG (first and last letters or ‘casing’ of ‘editing’) RE (on) G (government) IOUS (debt records) | |
| 15 | Angelic singer opening posh swinging clubs (8) | |
| CHERUBIC | CHER (singer) U (posh) BI (swinging) C (clubs) | |
| 16 | Divide up casework for experiment (5,3) | |
| TRIAL RUN | ‘Casework’ is divided to create TRIAL (case) RUN (work) | |
| 18 | Member at election admitting rebuke (6) | |
| BERATE | Hidden in or ‘admitted to’ ‘memBER AT Election’ | |
| 19 | Man City’s manager for season? (6) | |
| PEPPER | PEP (Pep Guardiola, apparently the manager of Manchester City FC) PER (for) | |
| 21 | Silence the Spanish following support (5) | |
| SHELF | SH (silence) EL (‘the’ in Spanish) F (following) | |
Yes, certainly had to think a bit, but a v. satisfying and enjoyable puzzle. Liked FIRELIGHTERS for its misdirection, BARGEPOLE as a ‘means of propulsion’ and both the def and wordplay for TRENDIER, my COD. I’m going to reveal my ignorance here, but is CINDERS an &lit, with the whole clue being both the def and comprising the wordplay? If, as is likely, I’m wrong, I’m sure someone will put me right!
A big thanks to B&J and Lohengrin.
I was hoping that someone would praise this first so dont really like being the first to post a negative comment.
His cluing is often not in on my wavelength and I sort of lost the will to finish it.
Whereas with Paul, I just had to get there and it was enjoyable.
Chacun ow you say….Well blogged.
No, I couldn’t get on with this. Extensive cheating required – wordfinder, anagram solver, even looking up the answer here. Sometimes just cheating for one answer in a seemingly impossible puzzle will open the floodgates and lead to the rest, but not today. And even after getting the answers there were too many that I couldn’t parse. But I did like HARD CURRENCY – one of the few I did get without cheating.
But, as copmus says, well blogged.
Took quite a while and several visits to finish, the last two in being POSTMAN and PASTRY (not the two hardest one would think). Some very interesting and tricky wordplay. Couldn’t parse TRIAL RUN. At least the long anagrams, providing plenty of letters, were of assistance with the rest.
Thanks to Lohengrin for a splendid puzzle and Bertandjoyce for top notch blogging.
By my count 14 single letter abbreviations plus the use of lots of first or last letters gave this a very one dimensional feel.
@rinsp
There are 3 firstly/lastly types. Charlotte, TLE and T if I’m not mistaken. If you want to include ‘doubles’ you didn’t count EG from case of editing.
You’re really pulling me up on using dictionary abbreviations in a cryptic crossword?
Lg.
Oops, I meant to say thanks for the other comments and the blog bertandjoyce
I’m normally a Monday guy, so I assume this puzzle’s appearing on a Thursday meant it was considered more difficult than normal. Glad you got it all straightened out in the end.
Back to my PS VR for the evening now – if you’re on the fence, it’s brilliant.
Cheers
Lohengrin
@ Lohengrin
I’m saying that you resorted to an awful lot of abbreviations to tidy up ‘stray letter’ problems, far more than I would expect in a single puzzle. It was sufficiently noticeable to make me go back and count them and I felt it made the solve unbalanced and repetitive. Honest and constructive feedback I would have thought?
I liked this puzzle. I don’t see what’s wrong with single-letter indicators.
@rinsp, yes your second comment is constructive crit, thanks, but I don’t really agree with you. I went back through it – and the blog – and I can’t really decide what you’re picking up on regarding tidying up as opposed to abbreviations.
Thanks, Tramp.
Lohengrin.
@WordPlodder, sorry for the delay, yes, I intended CINDERS as &lit, as well as POSTMAN