It’s been 2 years since I last blogged an Alchemi and this I found rather tricky in places
This looks like a vanilla crossword without themes or messages but I could be wrong. Some of the clues felt a little close to unfair for a Monday workout.
Thanks Alchemi
Across
1 Surprising Romeo with astronauts’ antechamber (5,4)
WHITE ROOM
[ROMEO WITH]* surprisingly. it’s the little room Apollo astonauts used to gain access to the ship, why white? well it was painted that colour…
6 Chopped up and down and frozen (5)
DICED
D(own) & ICED
9 Old mosquito net I mended a bit (3-4)
ONE-TIME
a bit of mosquitO NET I MEnded
10 Business expert gets mad without small marsupials (7)
NUMBATS
They’re marsupial anteaters. M.B.A. inside NUTS (mad)
11 May perhaps cut back on computers one is able to keep current (10)
POLITICIAN
LOP (cut) reversed & I.T. (computers) & 1 & I (electrical current) in CAN (is able)
12 Second person’s uniform, covered in gold, given to unknown (4)
YOUR
Y (maths unknown) & U(niform) in OR (gold)
14 Fool spun round getting dose of medicine (8)
SPOONFUL
[FOOL SPUN]* round
16 Lie around Malta getting wild (6)
STORMY
M(alta) inside STORY (lie)
18 More affected one possibly raving, being powerless (6)
ARTIER
P(ower) removerd from (P)ARTIER which I guess just about works for someone attending a rave
19 Smaller group sending us over the edge (8)
SUBORDER
US over & BORDER edge
21 Objectionable person round in a bit (4)
TOAD
O(round letter) in TAD (a bit)
22 Angry Poles besiege a junction (10)
CROSSROADS
CROSS (angry) & A in RODS (poles)
26 Eclipses possibly caught deer (7)
OUTDOES
OUT (caught for example in cricket) & DOES female deer
27 Do over some waiter at El Bulli (7)
ITERATE
As in repeat – hiddden answer
28 Sign for one fish to go backwards (5)
BADGE
E.G. (for one) & the fish DAB all reversed
29 Pigs take little time for drink with dessert (5,4)
SWEET WINE
WEE (little) & T(ime) inside SWINE
Down
1 With housework, a joyous shout (5)
WHOOP
W(ith) & HO(use) & OP(us) work. I know this kind of split annoys some folks
2 Perfect ravioli and sauce ultimately a luxury starter (5)
IDEAL
last letters of (raviol)I (an)D (sauc)E & A & start of L(uxury)
3 With English explanation of Roman numeral, church finally saves lives (10)
EXISTENCES
E(nglish) & the answer that X IS TEN in Roman numerals & C.E. & end of (save)S
4 Use too much iron on part of suit (8)
OVERCLUB
Golfing term I guess, don’t play the game myself, OVER (on) & CLUB (part of the suit of clubs)
5 Dynamo works for just 24 hours (6)
MONDAY
DYNAMO* worked
6 Order in French from the top of St Paul’s? (4)
DOME
Took a while to spot this wordplay, I was trying to think of French orders of monks etc but I think it’s O(rder) of M(erit) inside DE (french for from)
7 Made a lot of noise and could remain homeless, unfortunately (9)
CLAMOURED
Home-less means take IN (home) from [COULD REAM(in)]* unfortunately
8 Maybe Shiva‘s lost city can be found in mostly barren waste (9)
DESTROYER
TROY (lost city) inside most of DESER(t)
13 Buy toaster for upset solver on top form (2,4,4)
AT YOUR BEST
[BUY TOASTER]* upset
14 According to Spooner, Marge Simpson gets advanced weaponry (5,4)
SMART BOMB
Marge is BART’S MOM which the spoonerism sounds like smart bomb, well a bit. Maybe. Not my favourite clue.
15 A lost duet unexpectedly survived (9)
OUTLASTED
[A LOST DUET]* unexpectedly
17 Limitless energy source rising American cardinal keeps quiet (8)
SUNSHINE
U.S. reversed & SH (quiet) & NINE (a cardinal number)
20 Understands king snakes (6)
GRASPS
King George (GR) & ASPS
23 Counters vehicle reversing in the Great North Road (5)
ABACI
CAB reversed in the A1, the Great North Road
24 Material which changed minds, they say (5)
SUEDE
Sounds like swayed
25 Wingless bird has strong feeling (4)
LOVE
Where’s Pierre to provide the bird link when you need him? it’s a wingless (p)LOVE(r)
Nice puzzle for us Cream fans ; thanks both
This got the old brain cells working. I had a similar experience with 6d. Took a while to get the Spoonerism at 14d, but rather liked it when the penny dropped. Also liked the X IS TEN part of 3D. 24d rings a bell – an almost identical clue appeared recently somewhere.
Thanks flashling: it’s the editor who decides which day a puzzle appears, so if it’s too hard for a Monday, blame Eimi. He actually singled out 14d as a clue he particularly liked, so it’s clearly a matter of taste.
As baerchen points out, it does have a Cream ghost theme: WHITE ROOM, POLITICIAN, TOAD, SPOONFUL, CROSSROADS, SWEET WINE, BADGE and SUNSHINE of YOUR LOVE were all part of their original repertoire, and they performed a killer version of STORMY MONDAY at the 2005 reunion concerts.
Got the heads up from a good friend on ‘the other side’ to try this one and so glad that I did. Loved it, Alchemi!
Learned something new at 1&10a and also at 14d – can’t do Spoonerisms at the best of times so that one was a real challenge.
I’m not familiar with Cream’s tracks so didn’t pick up on the theme but that didn’t detract from the enjoyment of an excellent puzzle.
Hope to see you again soon, Alchemi, whichever ‘side’ you’re on!
Thanks for the blog, Flashling.
Engaging and tough stuff, I thought. Bit of a crossword of two halves for me solvewise, with the northern diagonal falling before the southern – not that I totally completed as is my wont (though had I clocked the nice theme I mighta). Fave clue was 3d for the wordplay so thanks to Alchemi for the puzzle and to The Flash for the blog.
Thanks to Alchemi for the puzzle and to flashling for the blog.
I too found this tricky. No particularly obscure words, just got stuck for ages. I’m not a fan of Spooner clues full stop, mainly because you get stuff like BART’S MOM/SMART BOMB, which I can’t explain as a Spoonerism. Some good stuff elsewhere.
The theme passed me by.
Held up for ages in the SW corner, partly because I thought 18ac might be GUTTED (= powerless?). I didn’t put it in because no way could I parse it, but I couldn’t help thinking then that the first word of 14dn had to be SIGHT. Eventually got LOVE from going through a list of birds, which then confirmed my tentative BADGE for 28ac and the rest fell into place once I realised ‘eclipses’ was a verb. But then it was a real groan when I got SMART BOMB – there are great spoonerisms and not-so-great spoonerisms, and this was in the latter group, imho.
Needless to say I didn’t get the theme, but thanks, Alchemi and flashling.
I completely missed the theme too!
Enjoyable stuff, but really tough in places I thought. OVERCLUB was very nicely done. With my setter’s hat on though, I did wonder about the seemingly redundant ‘Bulli’ in 27a until I looked it up and saw that it is/was actually elBulli, so presumably just a typo.
Thanks to Alchemi for a good Monday work-out and to Flash for the blog
Thanks for the memories Alchemi. Bert and Joyce got engaged at the last Cream concert at the Albert Hall and were there again when they reunited a few years ago.
A tricky but enjoyable puzzle especially once we saw the theme.
Sorry flashling that we are a day late but we have a bit of catching up to do on the crossword front.
Thanks again to S&B.