A masterclass from Chalmie this Friday morning.
Several tough yet innovative clues peppered throughout the crossword.
FF: 9 DD:10
| Across | ||
| 1 | STAIRS | Flight looks hard, they say (6) |
| sounds like STARES (looks hard) | ||
| 4 | FORCE-FED | In favour of church agent being made to eat (5-3) |
| FOR (in favour of) CE (church) FED (agent) | ||
| 10 | UP IN SMOKE | Top-class legs on donkey suddenly disappeared (2,2,5) |
| charade of U (top-class) PINS (legs) MOKE (donkey) | ||
| 11 | REMIX | Different version in answer to Mark 9 (5) |
| RE (in answer to) M (mark) IX (9, roman numerals) | ||
| 12 | NOIR | 9 in French film genre (4) |
| NOIR in french is BLACK (9 reference is to 9dn – COLOUR) | ||
| 13 | GOLF COURSE | Whip back dish which is full of greens (4,6) |
| GOLF (whip = FLOG, reversed) COURSE (dish) – clever clue I thought | ||
| 15 | EYEWEAR | Possibly shades English tree, getting attention (7) |
| E (english) YEW (tree) EAR (attention) | ||
| 16 | ROBUST | Strong died in brown (6) |
| OB (died) in RUST (brown) | ||
| 19 | CYBELE | Goddess of mercy, be lenient! (6) |
| hidden in “..merCY BE LEnient!” | ||
| 21 | CHEERIO | Farewell performance ends in heroic failure (7) |
| E (performancE, end) in HEROIC* | ||
| 23 | STABLEBOYS | Nag crew for fixed navigation aids on the radio (10) |
| STABLE (fixed) BOYS (sounds like BUOYS – navigation aids) | ||
| 25 | FETA | Exploding, mostly after cheese (4) |
| AFTEr* (mostly) | ||
| 27 | LEFTY | Abandoned baby’s back is red (5) |
| LEFT (abandoned) Y (babY’s last letter) | ||
| 28 | RETOUCHED | Was nearly sick about Oxford University having improved image (9) |
| RETCHED (nearly sick) around O (Oxford) U (University) | ||
| 29 | MELODEON | Instrument showing some lines in fruit (8) |
| ODE (lines) in MELON (fruit) | ||
| 30 | CHERRY | Shout about woman’s 9 (6) |
| CRY (shout) around HER (woman’s) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SQUANDER | Blue team captures northern queen (8) |
| [SQUAD (team) containing N (northern)] ER (queen) – I didnt know this meaning of BLUE | ||
| 2 | ASININELY | Stupidly distilled Islay around 9 (9) |
| ISLAY* around NINE (9) – this was a brilliant misdirection! | ||
| 3 | ROSE | 9 about to be big-hearted (4) |
| RE (about) containing OS (oversize, big) at heart | ||
| 5 | OVERFAR | I’ve finished talking up service that’s too remote (7) |
| OVER (~i’ve finished talking, radio , walkie talkies etc) FAR (service = RAF, reversed) | ||
| 6 | CORDON BLEU | Bend 9 round high-class cookery (6,4) |
| BEND COLOUR* (answer to 9dn) | ||
| 7 | FEMUR | “Bone” is “bird” in French (5) |
| EMU (bird) in FR (french) | ||
| 8 | DEXTER | Old terrorist leader penetrates the German Right (6) |
| [ EX (old) T (Terrorist, leader) ] in DER (the, in german) | ||
| 9 | COLOUR | Pass over, in the end, to you for characteristic ambience (6) |
| COL (pass) OUR (ending leters of ‘..tO yoU foR..” | ||
| 14 | REDEPLOYED | 9 deeply confused about Oscar being given a new job (10) |
| RED (9, ref 9dn) [ DEEPLY* around O (oscar) ] | ||
| 17 | SCREECHER | Loose rock singer imitating an owl? (9) |
| SCREE (loose rock) CHER (singer) – singer could be part of the extended definition . / Thanks Geoff!! | ||
| 18 | COWARDLY | Yellow fish with fight in them likely to be cleared out (8) |
| [COD (fish) containing WAR (fight)] LY (LikelY, cleared out, i.e. without inner letters) | ||
| 20 | EMBARGO | Black mark on counter once this person goes out (7) |
| EGO (this person) around [M (mark) BAR (counter)] | ||
| 21 | COYOTE | Reserved books on European wolf (6) |
| COY (reserved) OT (books) E (european) | ||
| 22 | ASYLUM | Uneasy lumberjack’s shelter (6) |
| hidden in “uneASY LUMberjack’s..” | ||
| 24 | AWFUL | Catastrophic legal line abandoned (5) |
| lAWFUL (legal, without L – line) | ||
| 26 | PUSH | Unpleasant substance found on hard drive (4) |
| PUS (unpleasant substance) H (hard) | ||
*anagram
Thanks TL. I’d have preferred your marks to be the other way round, I’ll admit. I’ll also admit that 16a is a bit contrived for the sake of a getting a colour in the clue.
Sorry, that comment was from my Indy alter ego.
Alchemi / Chalmie / Michael / +++
Thanks a lot for the treat you served up this morning. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although I did come up short on a couple of clues. Looking forward to more doses of your creativity …
Regards,
Turbolegs / Mahesh
I enjoyed this a lot and thought it clever to get so many colours in the clues as well as the answers. Strangely I didn’t solve the gateway clue until I had completed almost three quarters of the puzzle – then everything made sense. Held up for a while on 23 ac. thinking it must begin with STAR – nice misdirection. Thanks TL & Chalmie
A bit late in the day but Le Chaim (Cheers!) for a lovely challenge.
A most enjoyable and impressive puzzle, but I’ll not consider it “done” until I know what the setter means by
“Blue” @1d. Despite the wordplay leading to nothing else, I didn’t enter the answer. Because of the tense, even the vernacular “blew” doesn’t work.
Hi Sasquach@6,
Chambers has an alternative meaning for blue/bloo (informal) as a transitive verb to mean “to squander”.
Regards,
TL
Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs
Didn’t get to this one for a week and what a delight it was to do over a couple of sessions on Friday night / Saturday morning. A clever use of 9 and a host of colours in the clues and in the answers. What I did like about the puzzle is that there seemed to be an even mix of clues where I saw the definition and then deduced the word play and those where the word play generated the answer.
Hadn’t heard of the goddess, CYBELE, before and I think that UP IN SMOKE would have been my favourite clue.
Finished in the SW corner with the goddess, LEFTY (clever misdirection) and MELODEON as the last few in.