A very enjoyable puzzle which I found easy to start but not so easy to complete. Thank you Chalmie.
P stands for Penguin, which provides a diverse and entertaining set of solutions: not just a list-ticking exercise of penguin species.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HEATHS | Hat she lost in open spaces (6) |
| anagram (lost) of HAT SHE | ||
| 4 | SHRIMPER | Silly smile welcomes Henry King, the beach forager (8) |
| SIMPER (silly smile) contains H (henry) and R (rex, king) | ||
| 9 | RITZY | Stylish ceremony cut short with axes (5) |
| RITe (ceremony) and YZ (axes, on a graph). It took me ages to see the alternative meaning of “axes”. | ||
| 10 | CAN-OPENER | As an example, Magritte comes back with policeman holding a new household tool (3-6) |
| RENE (Rene Magritte for example) reversed (comes back) following (with) COP (policeman) containing A N (new) | ||
| 11 | CARVE-UP | Complain about Brussels after very unfair distribution (5-2) |
| CARP (complain) containing (about) EU (European Union, aka “Brussels”) following V (very) | ||
| 12 | BISCUIT | P for one is copper in part (7) |
| IS CU (copper) in BIT (part) – a Penguin Bar is a chocolate coated biscuit | ||
| 13 | EATS | One going across wasted hours and hours getting food (4) |
| hEAThS (1ac, one going across) missing H and H (hours and hours) | ||
| 14 | NDJAMENA | African capital needing North American club host to call round before (8) |
| N (north) A (American) following (needing…before) DJ (club host) inside (with…round) NAME (to call) | ||
| 17 | CATARRHS | Complaints of sailor in terrible crash (8) |
| TAR (sailor) in anagram (terrible) CRASH | ||
| 19 | SUIT | P possibly seen in clubs? (4) |
| double definition – a penguin suit is dinner dress or Tuxedo | ||
| 22 | EMBLEMS | British Library surrounded by spaces with special signs (7) |
| B (British) L (library) inside EM EM (two spaces, printing) with S (special) | ||
| 24 | EMPEROR | A capital back outside P (7) |
| A (per, two-a-penny) inside (with…outside) ROME (capital) reversed (back) – a type of penguin | ||
| 25 | TWO-HEADED | Spooner says which person made hay like Zaphod Beeblebrox (3-6) |
| a Spoonerism of “who tedded?” (which person made hay?) | ||
| 26 | INGLE | Endless records to play by the fireside (5) |
| sINGLEs (records, endless). I’m not sure about “to play”, it seems a but redundant. | ||
| 27 | ON SAFARI | Looking for game supported by browser (2,6) |
| ON (supported by) SAFARI (web browser by Apple) | ||
| 28 | EXTANT | Books on old soldiers still around (6) |
| NT (books, of Bible) following (on) EX (old) TA (Territorial Army, soldiers) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HERSCHEL | Woman’s companion, the Spanish astronomer (8) |
| HERS (woman’s) CH (Companion of Honour) and EL (the, Spanish) | ||
| 2 | ANTARCTIC | About to get into pictures, caper around P’s domain (9) |
| C (circa, about) in ART (pictures) all inside (with…getting round) ANTIC (caper) | ||
| 3 | HOYDEN | Cyclist’s short impression of a tomboy (6) |
| HOY (Sir Chris Hoy, cyclist) and DENt (impression, short) | ||
| 5 | HUNG BY A THREAD | The bun Gary had prepared barely survived (4,2,1,6) |
| anagram (prepared) of THE BUN GARY HAD | ||
| 6 | IMPASSE | Mostly drive round fool in a standoff (7) |
| IMPEl (drive, mostly) contains ASS (fool) | ||
| 7 | PINGU | Children’s P found in bookshop in Guildford (5) |
| found inside bookshoP IN GUilford | ||
| 8 | RARITY | Artist’s artistry oddly not an uncommon thing (6) |
| RA (Royal Academician, artist) then aRtIsTrY (oddly, every other letter of) | ||
| 10 | CAPED CRUSADER | Limit on red card use irritated P’s opponent (5,8) |
| CAP (linit) on anagram (irritated) of RED CARD USE | ||
| 15 | AQUA REGIA | Very strong acid, say, kept in fish tanks (4,5) |
| EG (say) in AQUARIA (fish tanks) | ||
| 16 | STARKEST | Most inhospitable small boat in river (8) |
| S (small) then ARK (boat) in TEST (river, in south of England) | ||
| 18 | THEREOF | Article about ring following from it (7) |
| THE (article) RE (regarding, about) O (a ring) and F (following) | ||
| 20 | GENTOO | Officer, also P (6) |
| GEN (general, officer) and TOO (also) – a type of Penguin | ||
| 21 | SPHINX | P’s first to break bone by ancient statue (6) |
| Penguin (first letter of) inside SHIN (bone) then X (by, eg 3 x 2 or three-by-two). “P’s first” looks a bit odd as P stands for penguin, whose first letter is just P again. | ||
| 23 | BOOKS | Black birds not right for product of P? (5) |
| B (black) and rOOKS (birds) missing R (right) – Penguin is a publishing company | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee for the blog. Quite enjoyed this one.
PeeDee – some minor corrections:-
9a – parsing as axes as XY, it should be ZY (solution is correct though).
22a – BL inside EM EM (spaces) followed by S (special)
5d – should be HUNG instead of HANG
Regards,
TL
Nice use of the theme. Didn’t know 3D or 14a and only vaguely remember 15d, which added to the difficulty. I think ‘to play’ in 26a helps the surface and distinguishes from other types of records. 25a will be tricky for those who haven’t read the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy – I’m a big fan myself. Also a Batman fan, so enjoyed 10d.
I think 8d has to be read as “… oddly not…”, as it’s the even letters of aRtIsTrY that are used.
I had the plausible KING (type of penguin, and playing card) for 16d for a while until AQUA REGIA proved me wrong.
Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee.
Andrew – I had KING in there for a while too. In retrospect I think I had fallen into the list-ticking trap; I was just thinking of possible types of penguin and writing them in.
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee
For me this was also harder to finish than to start, though I did like the varied use of the theme.
Minor point on 11A: ‘about’ is simply ‘surrounding’, there’s no need for RE/regarding.
Thanks, PeeDee and commenters.
I’ve never been much of a fan of list-ticking themes; and while I agree that using “P’s first” was a bit odd, it was the only way of getting the theme to be used in wordplay rather than as definition I could think of. (All right, so I’m not very imaginative. Sue me.)
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee
Another challenging puzzle that did take a while to finish off with a couple of harder words – N’DJAMENA (the capital of Chad which I can never remember) and AQUA REGIA (which I have not come across at all before).
Thought that the theme was very cleverly composed with an interesting variation of the different PENGUIN meanings. Wouldn’t simply having “P to break bone …” have sufficed at 21d ?
Hadn’t come across ‘Zaphod Beeblebrox’ before (am I the only one who hasn’t read or listened to ‘Hitchhikers’ Guide’ ?) and had to look him up to see that he was TWO-HEADED. Didn’t know of the Penguin biscuits either. So new learning there as well.
@ brucew – It’s a great suggestion, but the trouble is that the rubric says P has the same meaning throughout.
Chalmie – that makes sense. I suspected you might have a reason but I couldn’t see what it was.
P has another meaning in this crossword – Pangram!
So it is, well spotted!