A rushed affair this morning…
…I’m running a bit late today, so have done the best I can to get this blog done.
Unfortunatley, I didn’t have time to parse 16dn before I had to get on with other things, but Andrew (comment #1) stepped up to the breach.
Can I take this opportunity to wish all bloggers and setters a very merry Christmas!
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOOB TUBE | Garment that’s a mistake when taking the Underground (4,4) |
| BOOB (“mistake”) + TUBE | ||
| 5 | EROTIC | Blue ice unfortunately contains decayed matter (6) |
| *(ice) “contains” ROT (“decayed matter”) | ||
| 10, 11 | TORVILL AND DEAN | Famous couple from Ireland told van broke down (7,3,4) |
| *(ireland told van) | ||
| 12 | ON END | Upright, single, no date (2,3) |
| ONE + N + D | ||
| 13 | OBSTINATE | Stubborn stain to be specially treated (9) |
| *(stain to be) | ||
| 14 | VALET PARKING | Batman leaving Batmobile, perhaps for a service in Gotham City? (5,7) |
| VALET (“batman”) + PARKING (“leaving Batmobile, perhaps”) | ||
| 18 | ACRYLIC RESIN | Bit of paint needed, if renovating Carly’s ice rink shortly (7,5) |
| *(carlys ice rin) | ||
| 21 | DISLOCATE | Come out of joint as girl starts to strip languorously, taking off coat and first of earrings (9) |
| DI (“girl”) + S(trip) + L(anguorously) + *(coat) + E(arrings) | ||
| 23 | GLOBE | Theatre-in-the-round (5) |
| Cryptic definition; refers to London’s Globe Theatre | ||
| 24, 25 | KISSING COUSINS | Bussing money across the States for distant relatives (7,7) |
| KISSING (“bussing”) + COINS “across” U.S. | ||
| 26 | SKATES | Fish girl brought on board (6) |
| KATE in S.S. (ie on a ship, so “on board”) | ||
| 27 | ASBESTOS | Like an old footballer – great stuff, with a whiff of danger? (8) |
| AS (“like”) + (George) BEST + OS (outsize ~ “great”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BUTTON | Fast driver? Only 100 mph! (6) |
| BUT (“only”) + TON (“100mph”)
Refers to F1 driver. Jensen Button |
||
| 2 | O’BRIEN | Author died with nothing translated into French (6) |
| Ob. (“died”) + RIEN (the French for “nothing”)
There are several authors called O’Brien, but the most famous is probably Edna O’Brien. |
||
| 3 | THIRD RAIL | Train’s source of power is a controversial topic in LA (5,4) |
| Double definition. In the US, “third rail” s a term for a particularly controversial political topic. | ||
| 4 | BILL OF EXCHANGE | Payment method taking account of former coins (4,2,8) |
| BILL (“account”) OF EX (“former”) + CHANGE (“coims”) | ||
| 6 | RADII | A doctor reset two bones (5) |
| *(a dr) + II (“two”)
This verges on indirect anagram territory. |
||
| 7 | THE MAFIA | Gangsters in musical, turning up during a hit that’s gone wrong (3,5) |
| <=FAME (“musical, turning up”) in *(a hit) | ||
| 8 | CONVERGE | Meet with Italian church official briefly (8) |
| CON (Italian for “with”) + VERGE(r) | ||
| 9 | FALSE PRETENCES | Deception used when producing recent EPs, perhaps (5,9) |
| *(recent EPs) – reverse anagram | ||
| 15 | RAIN GAUGE | Drops measuring device? (4,5) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 16 | VANDYKES | Man sitting in vehicle changes colour of beards in paintings, we hear (8) |
| Can’t parse this one, sorry – maybe if I had more time? | ||
| 17 | IRISH SEA | Large quantity of water in which girl, sick, has swallowed tablet (5,3) |
| IRIS (“girl”) + *(has) “swallowing” E (ecstasy “tablet”) | ||
| 19 | FORINT | Home in castle in Hungarian capital (6) |
| IN (“home”) in FORT (“castle”) | ||
| 20 | CEASES | Falling through ice as escapade finishes (6) |
| Hidden in “iCE AS EScapades” | ||
| 22 | ON ICE | Postponed nothing pleasant (2,3) |
| 0 + NICE | ||
*anagram
16d is K (King, chessman) in VAN DYES, definition “beards”, and a homophone of “van Dycks” (paintings).
Thanks, Andrew
Had 4d as Rate of Exchange which screwed up the NW corner .. thanks 🙂
Thanks Wanderer and Loonapick
16dn: I had the K in VAN DYES wordplay as given by Andrew. I had not really thought of the clue as being a three-parter until I read his comment. Chambers 2014 only gives the -KE spellings for both beard and painter, but the word for a beard is a single word, while the painter’s name has two words, so the homophone indicator is still serving a useful purpose. Other authorities may support the -CK spelling.
Thanks Wanderer and loonapick
A challenging puzzle that took the half hour train trip into and most of the way back from the city to fully complete. Full of his customary variety of devices helped a little by a number of the longer anagram type clues in it.
Was able to parse the tricky VANDYKES but didn’t understand that there was a word play part of VALET PARKING until coming here – had (maybe lazily) just put it down as a long cryptic definition.
Finished in the SW corner with IRISH SEA, KISSING COUSINS and that VANDYKES as the last few in.
And trenodia@3 (from Rosa Klebb – 15420 blog) – yep TON can necessarily mean 100 mph !!
Merry Christmas to you too, loonapick, and thanks again for your great work with your informative blogs.
What a horrid crossword. ‘Third rail’ is a controversial topic in LA. Is it really- am I really expected to know that in order to solve a cryptic crossword? And why is Gotham City a clue to ‘Valet Parking’ – it isn’t of course! Kissing = Bussing never heard of it.
Utterly dreadful.
Lost @6: In case you do come back to read this, let me have a go at answering your points.
“am I really expected to know that in order to solve a cryptic crossword?” No, of course not. The point of a cryptic crossword is that the vast majority of clues contain two independent ways of indicating the answer. You may need both of these to confirm some of the answers, especially near the beginning when the grid is blank. However, when you have solved the other clues and are left with T-I-D -A-L, it should be possible to get the answer from one of the definitions. Then you may learn something from the clue. A comment attributed to the much missed John Graham (Cinephile here in the FT, Araucaria in the Guardian) was “who ever learned anything from solving a Sudoku?”
Similarly, once you have enough checked letters, you should be able to get KISSING COUSINS from the definition and the second part of the wordplay, so you can learn Bussing = Kissing.
“And why is Gotham City a clue to ‘Valet Parking’ – it isn’t of course!” The definition here is “a service”. Adding “in Gotham City?” is extra help for the solver, indicating a place where the service might be given – the question mark is necessary as Chambers gives the answer as “especially North American”.
If setters had to restrict to definitions and usages that they could guarantee would be known to all solvers, crosswords would be boring indeed.