We really enjoyed this Crosophile offering today.
The theme became apparent early on, although at first we thought it was based on 1d-ic drinks until we realised that there are a lot of mixers in there too. Plenty to enjoy in the surfaces too – the toilet humour at 23ac and 20d being particularly appreciated.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Sailor’s naughty love, free of responsibility (7) | |
| ABSOLVE | AB’S (sailor’s) + an anagram of LOVE (anagrind is ‘naughty’) | |
| 5 | E.g. Benedictine rule spreads to include current queen (7) | |
| LIQUEUR | An anagram of RULE (anagrind is ‘spreads’) round or ‘including’ I (current) QU (queen) | |
| 9 | Apple product got from dodgy credit mainly (5) | |
| CIDER | An anagram of CREDI |
|
| 10 | Raw meat Mike left out turned bad (9) | |
| UNTREATED | An anagram of |
|
| 11 | By all means hang around – so we got drunk (9) | |
| HOWSOEVER | HOVER (hang) around an anagram of SO WE – anagrind is ‘got drunk’ | |
| 12 | Wow! A soldier – one attached to the queen? (5) | |
| CORGI | COR (Wow!) GI (soldier) | |
| 13 | Toy company admits leader of tour for free (3,2) | |
| LET GO | LEGO (toy company) round or ‘admitting’ first letter or ‘leader’ of Tour | |
| 15 | Blend in on the way round motorway with the French (9) | |
| COMMINGLE | COMING (on the way) round M (motorway) + LE (‘the’ in French) | |
| 18 | Cover boy caught in onset of torrential rain storm (9) | |
| TARPAULIN | PAUL (boy) ‘caught’ in T (first letter or ‘onset’ of ‘torrential’) and an anagram of RAIN – anagrind is ‘storm’ | |
| 19 | Renewable sort of energy in the main? (5) | |
| GREEN | An anagram of ENERG |
|
| 21 | Outstanding argument right from the start (5) | |
| OWING | ||
| 23 | Old boy has two spurts in Duchamp’s urinal, say? (5,4) | |
| OBJET D’ART | OB (old boy) + JET and DART (‘two spurts’) – a reference to the infamous ‘Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp – a standard urinal exhibited in 1917 and considered an icon of 20th century art | |
| 25 | Maybe Raphael‘s timeless art movement getting left behind (9) | |
| ARCHANGEL | AR |
|
| 26 | Innocent drinks company making a comeback (5) | |
| NAÏVE | EVIAN (drinks company) reversed or ‘making a comeback’ | |
| 27 | Society to encourage operator (7) | |
| SURGEON | S (Society) URGE ON (encourage) | |
| 28 | Pots on table? 6 of them will be needed (7) | |
| POCKETS | A reference to a snooker or billiards table which has six POCKETS into which the balls can be ‘potted’ | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Ordinary hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, all in a compound (7) | |
| ALCOHOL | An &lit (thanks to dutch and Hovis). It’s an anagram of O (ordinary) H (hydrogen) C (carbon) O (oxygen) and ALL – anagrind is ‘in a compound’ – |
|
| 2 | Moving toward sea, this might make a splash (4,5) | |
| SODA WATER | An anagram of TOWARD SEA – anagrind is ‘moving’ | |
| 3 | Unhurried movement getting stuck in vehicular go-slow (5) | |
| LARGO | Hidden or ‘stuck’ in vehicuLAR GO-slow | |
| 4 | Horse just 2/3 length in lead, whinnying perhaps – it’s uncertain (9) | |
| EQUIVOCAL | EQUI |
|
| 5 | Succeeding learner is promoted in change (5) | |
| LATER | ALTER (change) with the ‘L’ (learner) moved to the front or ‘promoted’ | |
| 6 | Crumbly new quiche’s no good for slaking thirst (9) | |
| QUENCHING | An anagram of N (new) QUICHE (anagrind is ‘crumbly’) + NG (no good) | |
| 7 | Begin in the middle of America originally going west (5) | |
| ENTER | ||
| 8 | About to kidnap Hubble? This might be found in a bin (3,4) | |
| RED WINE | RE (about) round or ‘kidnapping’ EDWIN (Edwin Hubble of space telescope fame) | |
| 14 | Mineral drinks agenda surprisingly offering this? (9) | |
| ORANGEADE | ORE (mineral) round or ‘drinking’ an anagram of AGENDA – anagrind is ‘surprisingly’ | |
| 16 | It’s refreshing seeing new summer month record for year (4,5) | |
| MINT JULEP | MINT (new) JULy (summer month) with EP (record) replacing (‘for’) ‘y’ (year) | |
| 17 | This syrup‘s sort of endearing (9) | |
| GRENADINE | An anagram of ENDEARING – anagrind is ‘sort of’ | |
| 18 | Viruses of a kind to return around beginning of year (7) | |
| TROJANS | SORT (kind) reversed or ‘returning’ around JAN (first month of the year) | |
| 20 | Men with guts in a bad way and dribbles between legs (7) | |
| NUTMEGS | An anagram of MEN and GUTS – anagrind is ‘in a bad way’ – we couldn’t believe this (especially given the surface reading!) but apparently, according to Chambers, to ‘nutmeg’ in football etc is to ‘pass or kick the ball through the legs of an opposing player’ | |
| 22 | Suffer by way of scoundrel (5) | |
| INCUR | IN (by way of) CUR (scoundrel) | |
| 23 | Hack’s run out all over newspaper (5) | |
| ORGAN | NAG (hack) RO (run out) all reversed or ‘over’ | |
| 24 | Pick-me-up is extremely pleasant but never finished (5) | |
| TONIC | TO |
|
Good to have Tuesday as a theme day again. Not too difficult to get most of the drinks, although some such as GRENADINE only exist in crossword land for me. Had no idea how NUTMEGS worked, but liked the surface anyway. Top marks for OBJET D’ART as the wittiest clue, and the humble ENTER as the trickiest.
Thank you to Crosophile and B&J.
Thanks, both.
Gentle theme, gentlish puzzle. Couldn’t parse ENTER, so thanks for that (convinced myself that it was a down clue masquerading as an across with the ‘going west’ bit). OBJET D’ART was a clever clue. The famous urinal on display is a copy; I think the original was lost or destroyed.
NUTMEG would be no problem for the footie fans. It is indeed the manoeuvre where the defender is standing with his legs apart and the attacker plays the ball through them then nips round him to collect the ball again. It even has an abbreviation: ‘Look at that, he’s megged him.’ Where it comes from, I have no idea.
Bravo, Crosophile.
Brilliant stuff, I thought. Didn’t find it an easy solve, but was thoroughly engaged throughout, chuckled lots and finished within the hour. Loads of great clues, defs and WP devices, but standouts for me were 23a and 20d for the lolz. Theme was good too (though a few too many mixers in there for my boozy tastes, of course). Many thanks to Crosophile for a first-class puzzle and to B&J for the blog.
Didn’t finish this but very enjoyable nonetheless. I think 1d works as an &lit as alcohol is composed of carbon, oxygen and ordinary hydrogen (as opposed to deuterium or tritium).
Yes, very enjoyable, and a theme I spotted before finishing for once, although it wasn’t necessary to know it in order to solve the puzzle. Held up a bit by 1ac thinking it was an anagram of SAILOR + O, till light dawned.
I did know NUTMEG from having encountered it in other crosswords fairly recently. As to the origin of the term, a number of theories have been put forward here.
But my favourite comes from a different game: POCKETS.
Thanks, Crosophile and B&J
many thanks Crosophile, I enjoyed this very much. Thirsty now. I liked Apple product in addition to all the other clues mentioned so far. I also thought 1d was &lit.
Thanks B&J for the parsing of 7d, which I missed completely.
Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. Chemistry didn’t feature further than O Level in both our educations so we had no idea that the different elements were included in alcohol. We will amend the blog accordingly.
Thanks very much Bert&Joyce and for all the nice comments. I think a drink is in order. Cheers! 🙂
Cheers for the link Mr C @5 – after reading it I surprised myself by hoping the etymology was because of the selling of fake nutmeg rather than the more corporeal explanation. Will wonders never cease!
And cheers to you Crosophile @8 – not quite sure how I missed your post when writing my previous comment, but just wanted to again say how much I liked your excellent puzzle (and not just liked it coz of the theming being close to my heart). Excellent stuff it was. 🙂