This was a challenging Thursday work-out from Anglio.
There are some ingenious definitions (e.g. 13ac, 8d) crafty wordplay, and several clever cryptic definitions. Great for stirring up the grey matter while we’re on holiday in the Canaries!!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Stand back? At the back visibility’s restricted (4) | |
| POKY | KOP (stand – as in the Liverpool stand at Anfield) reversed or ‘back’ + Y (the last letter or ‘at the back’ of ‘visibility’) | |
| 3 | Robins delivering outside broadcast? (8) | |
| BIRDSONG | Cryptic definition – an a anagram of ROBINS and D and G (first and last letters or ‘outside’ of ‘delivering’) – anagrind is ‘broadcast’ | |
| 10 | Humour‘s in short supply following Trump’s latest plan to banish extremists (7) | |
| PLACATE | CATE |
|
| 11 | Norm doesn’t have a smooth bit of tin foil (7) | |
| PREVENT | P |
|
| 12 | Whereafter, coats may be out of place? (7,8) | |
| WEATHER FORECAST | Cryptic definition – an anagram of WHEREAFTER COATS – anagrind is ‘may be out of place’ | |
| 13 | Head to European facility where runners may be trained (8) | |
| BEANPOLE | BEAN (head) POLE (European). Thanks Jason@1. | |
| 14 | Bowler’s right to be banned, this being misaligned? (5) | |
| ELBOW | Cryptic definition – an anagram of BOWLE |
|
| 17 | Next to motorway, get hurt flying drone (5) | |
| THRUM | M (motorway) after or ‘next to’ an anagram of HURT – anagrind is ‘flying’ | |
| 18 | Frogman comes across ship with stern centrally split (8) | |
| DISSEVER | DIVER (frogman) round or ‘coming across’ SS (ship) E (middle or ‘centre’ of ‘stern’) | |
| 21 | Force worker to conceal slip and be disingenuous (6,9) | |
| POLICE CONSTABLE | An anagram of TO CONCEAL SLIP and BE – anagrind is ‘disingenuous’ | |
| 23 | Braun, finally turning to husband in Germany’s capital – “What can we do to win this war?” (7) | |
| NOTHING | N (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘Braun’) + TO reversed or ‘turning’ + H (husband) IN G (first or ‘capital’ letter fo ‘Germany’) | |
| 24 | One by one, students are forgetting what’s essential – perhaps they could use some deodorant? (7) | |
| AXILLAE | A (one) X (by) I (one) L,L (learners – students) A |
|
| 25 | Cheap transport primarily unrestricted in western city (8) | |
| TWOPENNY | T (first or ‘primary’ letter of ‘transport’) + OPEN (unrestricted) in W (western) NY (New York – city) | |
| 26 | “Not a true Blue“, John Terry finally admitted (4) | |
| CYAN | CAN (toilet –‘John’) round or ‘admitting’ Y (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘Terry’) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Hands over a soft fruit (6) | |
| PAPAWS | PAWS (hands) round or ‘over’ A P (soft) | |
| 2 | Stand below deck, in the manner of a diminutive Victorian, maybe? (5,4) | |
| KOALA BEAR | BEAR (stand) after or ‘below’ KO (knock out – ‘deck’) A LA (in the manner of) – the ‘Victorian’ being a resident of the Australian state | |
| 4 | Better acting technique comes with a little direction (7) | |
| IMPROVE | IMPROV (acting technique) with E (abbreviation for east – ‘little direction’) | |
| 5 | See relic – ‘Deltic’, possibly? (6-8) | |
| DIESEL-ELECTRIC | Cryptic definition – an anagram of SEE RELIC DELTIC – anagrind is ‘possibly’ – a ‘Deltic’ is a type of diesel electric locomotive | |
| 6 | Greek Resistance character? (5) | |
| OMEGA | OMEGA is the Greek symbol for ‘ohms’ – a measure of electrical resistance | |
| 7 | Wearing frock, a friend of Dorothy gets to overindulge (2,2,4) | |
| GO TO TOWN | GOWN (frock) round or ‘worn by’ TOTO (Dorothy’s dog in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ | |
| 8 | When I’m chasing a suspect – perhaps one on a cycle … (7,7) | |
| WASHING MACHINE | An anagram of WHEN I’M CHASING A – anagrind is ‘suspect’ | |
| 9 | … I frequently radio for support – getting on top, we capture oddball (6) | |
| WEIRDO | I + alternate or ‘frequent’ letters of R |
|
| 15 | Worker, perhaps the second to drop clanger at yard, is making bay window (4,5) | |
| BEER BELLY | BEE (worker perhaps) R (second letter of ‘drop’) BELL (clanger) Y (yard) – we had to check the definition, but it is apparently a synonym, albeit not in Chambers! | |
| 16 | Having raised money, old favourites don’t hang about! (4,2,2) | |
| STEP ON IT | TIN (money) O (old) PETS (favourites) all reversed or ‘raised’ | |
| 18 | Put a little weight on after a month, being a certain shape (7) | |
| DECAGON | A G (gramme – ‘little weight’) ON after DEC (December – ‘month’) | |
| 19 | One may be needed when it’s hot in Tunisia, somehow hiding the eyes, so to speak (6) | |
| SUNHAT | An anagram of H (hot) and TUN |
|
| 20 | Nice of Mike to visit area in East End of London – it makes one humble (6) | |
| DEMEAN | DE (French for ‘of’, as in Nice) M (Mike in the phonetic alphabet) + A (area) in E (east) N (last letter or ‘end’ of ‘London’) | |
| 22 | Game‘s tight – get bowled out (5) | |
| LOTTO | ||
I think “facility” needs to be part of the definition in 13A. Never come across that meaning of “bay window” (15A) before, but it was easy enough from the crossers and wordplay. I am used to “PAPAWS” from the Listener and so on, but I’m not sure this obscure variant belongs in a normal daily crossword.
I loved this, with plenty of lengthy, complicated clues which took a bit of nutting out. What would I know, but the cd’s at 3 and 12 seem to be dangerously close to &lits to me. Particularly liked KOALA BEAR (I’m not fussed at all that the animal in question is neither ‘diminutive’ nor a BEAR), BEANPOLE, the surface for AXILLAE and NOTHING. Bearing the ‘Victorian’ in mind, I was itching to enter ‘Greer’ for 6d, but of course it didn’t fit. Never heard of BEER BELLY for ‘bay window’ before (worth keeping in mind!) or DISSEVER.
The best of the week for me.
Thanks to B&J (and during your hols too!) and Anglio
Thanks Angio and B-J
I loved 5D!
I think 14 verges on &lit too, as in cricket a bowler can be banned if (s)he overextends/misaligns their elbow and is deemed to be throwing.
Pretty much a perfect Thursday puzzle for me. Initially the puzzle seemed like it was going to be impenetrable, but it slowly and regularly opened up and made me feel clever as it did. Agree with Jason@1 that there were quite a few uncommon words – so much so that I thought there might be a theme or nina afoot (though didn’t spot one), but the wordplay got me there so all was good for me. Lots of nice stuff in here with lovely defs and several nice &lits, but my COD honours go to the excellent 26a for its neatness, def and surface so thanks to Anglio for a super puzzle and to B&J for the blog (happy holidays!).
Wordplodder@2 – glad to see you all the way back to yourself today after yesterday (the perils of late night posting are something I can relate to.) 🙂
Thanks to all those who have commented and wished us a happy holiday!
As far as ‘&lits’ go, we both tend to avoid using the term. It seems to cause more arguments than it solves and we prefer to use ‘cryptic definition’ instead.
Thought this was brilliant, really inventive cluing, some really tough ones, sure this is much harder than any previous Anglio I’ve seen. Felt triumphant when on about the fourth visit I broke the NW corner.
Curious that the answer, with an almost identical clue, to 7D appeared very recently in 9468 by Serpent.
Many thanks to Anglio for a brilliant puzzle and Bertandjoyce for an exemplary blog.
To me there is a big difference between cryptic definitions and &lits. Cd’s have no wordplay, rather they rely on two possible readings of the clue. &lits have the whole clue as definition and the whole clue as wordplay. I would have clearly labelled 3a and 12a as &lits.
I thought this was brilliant. Took me a while, mind. Didn’t know the stand in 1a, or the armpits, but nice to learn something.
I thought 23d was excellent, and a fine example of when a long clue is great – as long as it tells a coherent story – and I loved the definition. I did think ‘turning to husband in German’ might have used an acceptable abbreviation, removing the need for capital – but very nice.
And how much more was great? Smooth bit of tin foil, European facility, flying drone, force worker, cheap transport, put a little weight on after a month, etc etc – Anglo is a master of creating nice surface from different elements of wordplay.
Loved BIRDSONG, KOALA BEAR, AND OMEGA
well done Anglio, many thanks
Got there (almost) in the end – wasn’t sure if 1ac was POKY or POKE, and couldn’t parse PLACATE or POLICE CONSTABLE. Delayed, too, for a bit by putting OCTAGON at first for 18dn.
A lot to like, favourites were BEANPOLE and OMEGA.
Re 5dn, although the term ‘Deltic’ does indeed refer to a class of Diesel-electric locomotive (of which a few “relics” are preserved and even appear occasionally on the main line) the name derives from its power unit, also called ‘deltic’ from the arrangement of the cylinders in a triangular configuration resembling the Greek letter ‘delta’.
Thanks, Anglio and B&J
Many thanks to B&J for an excellent blog (once again) and fair play for not choosing to take a holiday from FS!
Thanks to all for the comments – it’s great to receive feedback.
Yes, there are several, ‘&lit’ clues in this one – this wasn’t particularly intentional, although it is the type of clue I find most satisfying, if I can find one and make it work.
14 was the most pleasing, having taken an age to get it right. Thanks Simon S, that’s indeed what I intended.
I don’t know whether there are different camps regarding ‘&lit’ but Dutch pretty well sums up the clue types as I know them.
This puzzle took a lot of time to do for some reason and I struggled at times, so I really appreciate the positive response.