Another excellent themed puzzle. Thank you Gozo.
The theme is measurements and units thereof. I thought this was an interesting mixture of modern units and historical curiosities. I will be impressed if anyone managed to complete this puzle without a dictionary. I needed help with TOISES and CRAN.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ANGSTROM | Anxiety around heath, nothing less (8) |
| ANGST (anxiety) then MOoR (heath) reversed (around) missing O (nothing) | ||
| 5 | FATHOM | Sound, you understand (6) |
| double defintion and cryptic definiton | ||
| 9 | SEA MILES | Sesame oil spilt – nothing lost (3,5) |
| anagram (split) of SESAME oIL missing O (nothing) | ||
| 10 | GALLON | Capacity of old vessel reduced by one quarter (6) |
| GALLeON (old vessel) reduced by E (a quarter of the compass) | ||
| 12 | LIGHT YEAR | Land on time from long distance (5,4) |
| LIGHT (land) on YEAR (time) | ||
| 13 | PERCH | A creature caught with a rod – a rod (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 14 | ELLS | Cloth to dispose of first to last (4) |
| SELL (dispose of) with first letter at the end – a measure of cloth | ||
| 16 | KILOTON | A lot of explosive too unstable in oven (7) |
| anagram (unstable) of TOO in KILN (oven) | ||
| 19 | ACREAGE | Area about to be bordered by a goal (7) |
| RE (regarding, about) inside A CAGE (goal, eg in ice-hockey) | ||
| 21 | CRAN | Fish caught and smuggled (4) |
| C (caught) and RAN (smuggled) – a unit of measurement for uncleaned herring. Fascinating! | ||
| 24 | LITRE | Left Italian red, not finishing contents of carafe? (5) |
| L (left) IT (Italian) and REd (not finishing) | ||
| 25 | BECQUEREL | German tennis player suggested Nadal’s article (9) |
| BECQUER sounds like (suggested) Becker (German tennis player) and EL (the, definite article in Spanish, for Nadal) | ||
| 27 | TOISES | Lengths to which they move slowly when placed on high ground (6) |
| TOISES placed on TOR (high ground) becomes Tortoises (they move slowly) – an old French measure of length, about 2 metres | ||
| 28 | HOGSGEAD | Monopolises the principal (8) |
| HOGS (monopolises) and HEAD (the princial) | ||
| 29 | DEGREE | To an extent, it denotes education (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 30 | CENTIARE | Meg left corrupt race meeting (8) |
| anagram (corrupt) of RACE meETINg missing MEG – one hundredth of an ARE, one square metre | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ANSELM | Holy man coming from Le Mans (6) |
| anagram (not explicitly indicated) of LE MANS – Saint Anselm of Aosta | ||
| 2 | GRANGE | Country house’s grand spread (6) |
| G (grand) RANGE (spread) | ||
| 3 | TAINT | Stigma, albeit isn’t common (5) |
| ‘T ‘AINT (isn’t, common speak) | ||
| 4 | OPENERS | Batsmen 1 and 2 in key roles (7) |
| cryptic double definition – think cricket and locks | ||
| 6 | A CAPPELLA | Unaccompanied singing in palace – and lap dancing! (1,8) |
| anagram (dancing) of PALACE and LAP | ||
| 7 | HILARITY | Fun having vermouth during Oxford term (8) |
| IT (Italian, vermouth) in HILARY (Oxfoed term) | ||
| 8 | MUNCHING | Artist in German capital filling his face (8) |
| MUNCH (artist) IN German (capital, fitst letter of) | ||
| 11 | ERIK | Viking Red explorer, terribly heartsick but chats away (4) |
| anagram (terribly) of hEaRtsIcK missing CHATS – Erik the Red who founded the first Norse settlement on Greenland | ||
| 15 | LEADERENE | Merkel’s description of broken reed in unproductive bit of enterprise (9) |
| anagram (broken) of REED in LEAN (unproductive) and Enterprise (first letter, bit of) – a domineering female leader | ||
| 17 | BALLOTED | Voted to assign shares in plot (8) |
| ALLOT (to assign shares) in BED (plot) | ||
| 18 | FRETTING | Worrying about ornamenting (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 20 | ELBA | Expert returns to exile location (4) |
| ABLE (expert) reversed (returns) | ||
| 21 | CYCLONE | Bowling during series creates storm in Sri Lanka (7) |
| ON (bowling, cricket?) in CYCLE (series). I am just guessing about on=bowling in cricket. I can’t find it in the dictionary. | ||
| 22 | ORTEGA | President no longer – disgusting toerag? (6) |
| anagram (disgusting) of TOE RAG – I assume this refers to the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega, but he is still serving | ||
| 23 | SLEDGE | Santa likely, initially, to move cautiously on it? (6) |
| Santa Likely (initially, first letters of) with EDGE (to move cautiously) | ||
| 26 | UPSET | Disconcerted – but following increase, hardened (5) |
| UP (increase) followed by SET (hardened) | ||
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 Gozo and PeeDee
Agree that this was a fantastic themed puzzle which I was able to get started with SEA MILES and LIGHT YEARS. Did this one by squeezing it into whatever gaps I could find during the course of the day.
Knew of CRAN as a measure of herrings (purely from past crossword experience) but didn’t know BECQUEREL, CENTAIRE or TOISE.
A couple of interesting clues:
At 30a, I’d initially parsed it as C (left corrupt) + anagram of AINTREE (corrupt race meeting) – needed a double use of ‘corrupt’ and no use of ‘Meg’ though.
At 21d, had heard of the term ON in the context that “Warne was on at the city end”. Also think that there is a play on a storm (anagram) of CEYLON (former name of Sri Lanka) but could not find the extra C.
A lot of fun which ended with CENTAIRE and that TOISES.
Too many obscurities for my liking. I think that taint means ‘it isn’t’, as you have also written, not ‘isn’t’ by itself as clued in 3d.
Very enjoyable – parts of the Across solutions, including the cran (of herrings) I knew from those old exercise books which in my childhood you could buy from Woolworths for 6d, and which had all those useful measurements listed on the back. Never heard of 6a but like my other ‘unknowns’ 25a and 30a, the wordplay was very helpful
Thanks to Gozo for the trip down memory lane and PeeDee for the explanations.
great puzzle from Gozo; thanks to PeeDee for the blog. Saw the shtick instantly with BECQUEREL (poor old Michael Stich is the forgotten man of German tennis) but by no means themo collapso…some pretty tough stuff
Once again, I agree largely with crypticsue [ah, those exercise books…].
They didn’t include TOISE but I managed to drag that up from a Bank Holiday Maskarade / Gozo puzzle that I blogged last year. I did know A CAPPELLA [I think you mean 6dn, Sue] – and loved the surface – but my other two new words were the same.
Most enjoyable – many thanks to Gozo for the instruction and entertainment and to PeeDee for the blog.
Eileen@5 – the reference to 6d was referring to the cost of the exercise books being a whole sixpence!
Sue @6 – yes, I know [2 1/2 pence – outrageous!] but you also said you’d never heard of 6ac and there isn’t one!
Eileen – I think I meant 27a – I think I’ll blame the fact that its been a very long hot day