Lots of fun – my favourites were 18ac and 19dn. Thanks Brummie
There are a few books, plays and a film, but I haven’t been able to spot a deeper theme.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ENMITY | Ill-will from being masculine, not tense (6) |
| ENTITY=”being”, with M[asculine] replacing T[ense] | ||
| 4 | HAY FEVER | Theatre classic that’s an irritation (3,5) |
| =a play by Noel Coward [wiki]; and =a nasal irritation | ||
| 9 | PANAMA | Old man with retro one-piece hat (6) |
| PA=father=”Old man”; plus a reversal/”retro” of: A MAN=”one piece” e.g. in chess | ||
| 10 | MOLASSES | After a short time, misses sweet stuff (8) |
| MO[ment]=”a short time”; plus LASSES=”miss-es” | ||
| 11 | A ROOM WITH A VIEW | Novel justification for hotel’s higher rate? (1,4,4,1,4) |
| =a novel by E M Forster [wiki]. Also can be a reason for a higher rate on a hotel room |
||
| 13 | BUTTERMILK | Dairy product cheat takes absolute millions (10) |
| BILK=”cheat” around UTTER=”absolute” and M[illions] | ||
| 14 | See 16 | |
| 16, 14 | CORN BELT | Born wild in Scot’s part of the USA (4,4) |
| =a part of the American Midwest. (Born)* inside CELT=”Scot” |
||
| 18 | UNFAMILIAR | Fun novel about airmail novel (10) |
| (Fun)* with anagrind=”novel”; plus (airmail)* with anagrind=”about” | ||
| 21 | BRIEF ENCOUNTER | Weepy case meeting (5,9) |
| =a 1945 film [wiki] or a “Weepy”. BRIEF=”case” plus ENCOUNTER=”meeting” |
||
| 23 | AGITATOR | Activist, a good one, thanks to queen (8) |
| A plus G[ood] plus I=”one” plus TA=”thanks” plus TO plus R[egina]=”Queen” | ||
| 24 | OCTAVO | Book shows round about zero tax return (6) |
| =a “Book” with pages of a certain size. O=”round” plus C[irca]=”about” plus a reversal/”return” of: O VAT=”zero tax” |
||
| 25 | DARKENED | Naked with Red Rum — delighted! (8) |
| as in de-lighted=>made less light=>made more dark. (Naked Red)* |
||
| 26 | SEXTET | “It” — the heroin-dropping, techno top band (6) |
| SEX=”It”; plus THE minus H[eroin], plus the top letter of T[echno] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EXPO | Show past name for “chamber pot” (4) |
| EX=”past” plus PO=”name for chamber pot” | ||
| 2 | MINARET | Lives in brand new tower (7) |
| ARE=”Live[s]”, in MINT=”brand new” | ||
| 3 | TOM JONES | Book a pop singer (3,5) |
| =a book by Henry Fielding [wiki]; =a Welsh singer [wiki] | ||
| 5 | AMONTILLADO | Drink gets a youth in hazy moonlit setting (11) |
| =a sherry. A plus LAD=”youth” in (moonlit)* |
||
| 6 | FRACAS | French mediator’s argy-bargy (6) |
| FR[ench] plus ACAS=Advisory, Conciliatory and Arbitration Service=a mediator in UK industrial disputes [wiki] | ||
| 7 | VESTIGE | Underwear, I say, raised suspicion (7) |
| =a small trace amount. VEST=”Underwear”, plus I, plus a reversal/”raised” of E.G.=”say” |
||
| 8 | ROSE WATER | Ace setters turned up in list that’s fragrant (4,5) |
| A[ce] plus WE=”setters”, reversed and inside/”turned up in” ROSTER=”list” | ||
| 12 | WOMEN IN LOVE | The volume of females who’ve fallen (5,2,4) |
| =novel by D H Lawrence [wiki] WOMEN IN LOVE=”females who’ve fallen” |
||
| 13 | BUCKBOARD | Simple carriage entails small amount of money management (9) |
| =a light horse-drawn carriage BUCK=a dollar=”small amount of money” plus BOARD=”management” |
||
| 15 | PINNACLE | Rogue clan hiding in tree top (8) |
| (clan)* in PINE=”tree” | ||
| 17 | RAINIER | Prince‘s downfall more obvious (7) |
| Prince RAINIER [wiki] was the ruler of Monaco; or RAINIER=more rainy=”downfall more obvious” | ||
| 19 | INEXACT | Trendy, topless means of reproducing? Not nice! (7) |
| IN=”Trendy” plus [s]EX ACT=”means of reproducing” without its top letter | ||
| 20 | AFLAME | Burning a celebrity takes loathing at first (6) |
| A plus FAME=”celebrity” around L[oathing] | ||
| 22 | LOOT | Play pawn the wrong way (4) |
| =a play by Joe Orton [wiki]. TOOL=”pawn” reversed/”the wrong way” |
||
Re 2: is this meant to be “lives” = “live’s” = “live is” = “are is”? Otherwise I don’t see how ‘lives’ (sing.) can = ‘are’ (pl.)
Very enjoyable. Many thanks to Brummie and manehi.
I liked that little literary theme; when I saw “Women in Love” quite early, I thought it may be a D.H. Lawrence themed puzzle, but like you, manehi, I could see no particular link between the literary clues.
Like Flavia@1, I thought the “are” for “Lives” in 2d didn’t quite match tense-wise.
I couldn’t parse the “ACAS” part of FRACAS 6d, but learned a new acronym referring to industrial matters in the UK from the blog.
Brummie clearly had sex on the brain with sexual references in both 26a SEXTET and in INEXACT in 19d.
My favourite was 25a DARKENED – when I saw the light, I was delighted with the clever anagram and definition!
I do enjoy a literary theme (as long as I can get the answers! Fortunately, nothing was too obscure here).
BUCKBOARD was new to me, though it had to be right from the clue.
Favourites were RAINIER and my LOI, DARKENED.
Thanks, Brummie and manehi.
Lovely puzzle, neatly clued. I particularly liked MOLASSES, MINARET, RAINIER and VESTIGE. Many thanks to Brummie and manehi.
Thanks Brummie and manehi
Not difficult (SE last to fall), but very entertaining. Favourite was DARKENED too. I didn’t parse ENMITY, and also wondered if “Lives” in 2d was a misprint.
I toyed with ANIMATOR for 23a – he “activates” drawings” – but it doesn’t parse, of course.
Many thanks, manehi, most enjoyable crossword.
I had the same reservation as Flavia @1 re MINARET. Perfectly getable so no real complaint but I’d like to know how it works. For me, “Live in brand new tower” works but not “Live“.
I always thought OCTAVO was simply a size or format but Chambers gives it as the book of that size also.
Loved DARKENED clued as ‘de-lighted’, and ENMITY was neatly done.
Top job, Brummie, many thanks.
Nice week, all.
Chris in FRance @3
I knew BUCKBOARD from this, one of my favourite films when I was little. (The reference is some way in to the song.)
…apologies, should have ended with “Lives“.
Hi, muffin @7
I know the song, but clearly just the words to the chorus as I’d never picked that up. I’ll never forget it now.
Thanks!
I was hoping to find that I had missed something with the mini-theme, because this seemed unusually straightforward for Brummie, apart from a few of the little ones in the corners. All quite enjoyable.
Thanks to Brummie and manehi
I thought there was going to be a Noel Coward theme after I’d found HAY FEVER, A ROOM WITH A VIEW (which is a Coward song as well as a Forster novel) and BRIEF ENCOUNTER, but I can’t see any other connections.
Thank you Brummie and manehi.
A fun puzzle. I read 2d as “live’s in brand new tower”, we solvers are told to ignore punctuation etc., so I guess setters can ignore inserting punctuation etc.
The clue for DARKENED was great!
Cookie @12 ‘Spose. (Exits in a mild grouch).
Thanks Brummie, Manehi
Great fun. Favourites were DARKENED, RAINIER, INEXACT and UNFAMILIAR.
Buckboard and bilk – nice word – new to me.
Thanks to Brummie and manehi.
I enjoyed this greatly: like others I first thought E. M. Forster from my foi, 11ac, then novels in general from 12dn.
25ac was my favourite. I also liked 26ac – sextets are usually staid classical ensembles, but here they are involved with sex, heroin and techno.
Celt for Scot is stretching things a bit. It would be not unlike using Jamaican for English.
Cookie@12 and William@13: my understanding of the “ignore punctuation” convention is that solvers should be free to gloss over punctuation in the clue, not supply punctuation the setter has omitted. This clue could just as easily have used “live” rather than “lives”, so I’m inclined to think it was simply a mistake.
My favourite was RAINIER.
Thanks to Brummie and Manehi.
Lots to like in this puzzle, my personal favourites being MOLASSES, CORN BELT, DARKENED, MINARET (in spite of the grumbles!) and FRACAS. Thanks to Brummie and manehi
Thanks Brummie and manehi.
At least the literary references were not UNFAMILIAR for once. Clever use of novel in that clue.
I stared at DARKENED for a short while before the tea tray dropped.
I struggled with 2 as well. Agree with Flavia and Poc. One query; I’m sure I’ll kick myself, but why does inexact = not nice?
Eric @20 It’s a rather unusual but (I think) elegant use of the word “nice”. A nice shot in (say) billiards would be one that is simple yet perfect.
Helps?
I was thinking more of a “nice distinction”, meaning a precise one.
Thanks to Brummie and manehi. Very enjoyable. I took a while before getting DARKENED as de-lighted and had to look up ACAS, and LOOT was my LOI even though I know of the Orton play (I’ve only actually seen What the Butler Saw).
muffin @20 Yes, better still.
Why is there no fuss about de-lighted?
Cookie @25 I thought it was just a bit of fun but think you should be the one to kick-off the fuss.
It made me smile, Cookie!
William @26, agreed, I have no complaints, but everyone else is fussing about lives = live’s…
I thought ‘lives’ in 2d MINARET was well worth mentioning. I took it as a simple misprint and can see no other satisfactory explanation for it. I had no difficulty solving it because it was easy to guess what was intended.
I completely missed 22d LOOT, having tried it once with no crossing letters. Having seen the answer I don’t think I would have got it anyway.
The NW corner was my last, and because 3d TOM JONES was a double definition of the sort I really don’t like, and not having all the crossers for it, I decided to cheat on just that one answer: by doing so I treated myself to my last three clues to solve, all in that corner and all of them excellent.
I thought this was a super puzzle, and great fun. 4d HAY FEVER was a similar type of clue to 3d TOM JONES but was less daunting and, for me, solvable. I liked the variety of the wordplay throughout the puzzle, and, as with J in A @2, 25d DARKENED was a favourite.
Many thanks to Brummie and manehi.
Great fun and lots of nice surfaces. Not the hardest one from this excellent setter but still a great way to spend lunchtime. Thanks to everyone.
I had trouble with CORN BELT and VESTIGE-the latter had to be right but I couldn’t parse it: the former was a guess. The rest was rather enjoyable. I got A ROOM WITH A VIEW and expected a theme but there isn’t really unless I’m really missing something. I liked RAINIER, DARKENED and INEXACT. EXPO made me smile
Thanks Brummie.
Thanks for the puzzle and the analysis.
I was happy with 2d. Isn’t “Mr and Mrs Smith LIVE in Brighton” synonymous with “Mr and Mrs Smith ARE in Brighton”?
Peter @32
Yes indeed….unfortunately the clue has “lives”. “Mr and Mrs Smith lives in Brighton”? I don’t think so!
Muffin @33 Spot on…that’s what I’ve been trying to say, but not very well.
Marienkaefer @15 Some modern jazz sextets were almost certaily not “staid” and probably indulged in sex and heroin, if not techno. Charlie Parker (of the sextet of that name) certainly used H.
Usually “Live” = “is”; singular, and we are all used to that.
So “Lives” is the plural of “Live” and therefore = “are”; or at least that’s the way I saw it.
I convinced myself the first part of 4a was THE (before I got the FEVER part), and couldn’t get 5d.
Thanks Brummie and maheni.
Apologies, manehi.
Dave Ellison @36
Mmm – he lives (singular), they live (plural); he is (singular), they are (plural), yes?
Another puzzle without an editor.
muffin@38 You are quite right – slight brainstorm here. I for some reason thought setters used “live” = “is”, but it is of course “lives” = “is”. (and “live” = “be”, sometimes)
Are is the plural of is, to go inside ‘mint’ for 2d?
Jseegee@41 “Lives” as a noun is plural of life (not live) and is not synonymous with “are”, which is a verb. As a verb, “lives” is used with a singular subject such as “he” and is synonymous with “is”, not “are”. If you can come up with a sentence construction where “lives” is interchangeable with “are”, I’ll concede.
I enjoyed this a lot. After quite a struggle early on, the last half came out relatively quickly. As Julie@2 said, here in OZ, we’ve not heard of ACAS. And BUCKBOARD was new to me too. I was convinced at first that the weepy clue 21a started with GRIEF, as my grid read –I-F.