The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27254.
ROPE, TERMINATOR, MADAGASCAR hardly make a theme, even with other answers suggesting film titles (and HITCH for ROPE). So the answers stand for themselves, and mostly very well, with some particularly tricky definitions.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PROGRAM | Good to run golf competition over US course (7) |
| An envelope (‘over’) of G (‘good’) plus R (‘run’) in PRO-AM (an event open to profesionals and amateurs, which may be – and often is – a ‘golf competition’). | ||
| 5 | HITCHER | Sock around empty house — right one needs picking up (7) |
| A charade of HIT (‘sock’) plus C (circa, ‘around’) plus HE (’empty HousE‘) plus R (‘right’). | ||
| 9 | REDEPOSIT | Jockey rides top horse, ultimately, to place again (9) |
| An anagram (‘jockey’) of ‘rides top’ plus E (‘horsE ultimately’). | ||
| 10 | PAINT | One wearing long coat (5) |
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of I (‘one’) in PANT (‘long’). | ||
| 11 | YEAR | Student class needs no introductions to two body parts (they’re sensible) (4) |
| [e]YE and [e]AR (‘two body parts’) minus their first letters (‘no introductions to’). ‘They’re sensible’ indicates the connection with two of the five senses. | ||
| 12 | MADAGASCAR | Cross range with cliff to see island (10) |
| A charade of MAD (‘cross’) plus AGA (‘range’) plus SCAR (‘cliff’). | ||
| 14 | FLEECE | Do run to church (6) |
| A charade of FLEE (‘run’) plus CE (‘church’). | ||
| 15 | EXCITED | Left accepts Conservative is up (7) |
| An envelope (‘accepts’) of C (‘Conservative’) in EXITED (‘left’). | ||
| 16 | DILEMMA | Fix novel, after bending back cover (7) |
| A charade of DIL, a reversal (‘bending back’) of LID (‘cover’) plus EMMA (‘novel’, notably the one by Jane Austen) | ||
| 18 | BUNION | Digital growth in book club (6) |
| A charade of B (‘book’) plus UNION (‘club’). I suppose that the connection of the inflamed joint with the big toe justifies the definition. | ||
| 20 | CLEAN SLATE | Wipes behind for fresh start (5,5) |
| A charade of CLEANS (‘wipes’) plus LATE (‘behind’). | ||
| 21 | BEER | Carry on and let me think about that drink (4) |
| A charade of BE (‘carry on’) plus ER (‘let me think about that’). | ||
| 24 | ROOST | Perch small bottom on the outside (5) |
| An envelope (‘on the outside’) of S (‘small’) in ROOT (‘bottom’). | ||
| 25 | UPLIFTING | Winning trophy? Clubs knocked out, giving hope (9) |
| [c]UP LIFTING (‘winning trophy’ as Federer did) minus the C (‘clubs knocked out’). | ||
| 26 | MANURES | Fertilises horses with seed, mostly injected (7) |
| An envelope (‘injected’) of NU[t] (‘seed’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’) in MARES (‘horses’). | ||
| 27 | SUSPEND | Stop American heading for president to interrupt address (7) |
| An envelope (to interrupt’) of US (‘American’) plus P (‘heading for President’) in SEND (‘address’. Perhaps “I’ll send/address a letter to you” is close enough). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PARTY | Right to cut benefit for individual (5) |
| An envelope (‘to cut’) of RT (‘right’) in PAY (‘benefit’). “The party of the third part” | ||
| 2 | ODDBALL | Character is unusually bold lad (7) |
| An anaram (‘unusually’) of ‘bold lad’. | ||
| 3 | ROPE | Guy, perhaps burglar, opening houses (4) |
| A hidden answer (‘houses’) in ‘burglaR OPEning’. | ||
| 4 | MASSAGE PARLOURS | Are orgasms a plus, wearing rubbers here? (7,8) |
| An anagram (‘wearing’) of ‘are orgasms a plus’. Any suggestion of an extended definition is purely coincidental. | ||
| 5 | HOT WATER BOTTLES | Dissolve two other tablets with cold relief (3-5,7) |
| An anagram (‘dissolve’) of ‘two other tablets’. | ||
| 6 | TAP DANCING | New captain? Newcastle’s David Ginola primarily entertaining with fancy footwork (3,7) |
| An anagram (‘new’) of ‘captain’ plus NDG (‘Newcastle’s David Ginola primarily’). David Ginola did play for Newcastle United for a time (1995-1997). | ||
| 7 | HAIRCUT | Bob is one hard character visiting nick (7) |
| A charade of H (‘hard’) plus AIR (‘character’ as “he had the character/air of an honest person”) plus CUT (‘nick’). | ||
| 8 | RETIRED | Left concerned with old (7) |
| A charade of RE (‘concerned with’) plus TIRED (‘old’). | ||
| 13 | TERMINATOR | One ending spell governing country: one Conservative finally ousted (10) |
| A charade of TERM (‘spell’) plus IN (‘governing country’ as in “The Conservatives barely remained in at the last election”) plus A (‘one’) plus TOR[y] (‘Conservative’) minus its last letter (‘finally ousted’). | ||
| 16 | DECORUM | Grace period at end of year with no booze (7) |
| A charade of DEC (December, ‘period at end of year’) plus O RUM (‘no booze’). | ||
| 17 | LIE DOWN | Rest of song personal (3,4) |
| A charade of LIED (‘song’) plus OWN (‘personal’). | ||
| 19 | ONE-TIME | Late drink, when pub stops serving (3-4) |
| A charade of ONE (‘drink’ “one over the eight”) plus TIME (‘when pubs stop serving’). | ||
| 22 | RIGID | Firm‘s doctor with badge (5) |
| A charade of RIG (‘doctor’) plus ID (‘badge’) | ||
| 23 | EFFS | Swears and points very strongly inside (4) |
| An envelope (‘inside’) of FF (fortissimo, musically ‘very strongly’) in E S (compass ‘points’). | ||
Thanks PeterO and Tramp.
Very delightful puzzle…had to come here for fully parsing many clues..even though answers were obvious..
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO.
As I noted yesterday on the Pasquale forum, I like long answers, and today Tramp did not disappoint, with 4d MASSAGE PARLOURS and 5d HOT-WATER BOTTLES both proving very satisfying (!). I also enjoyed 12a MADAGASCAR, 20a CLEAN SLATE, 3d ROPE, 7d HAIRCUT and 16d DECORUM. On reflection though, I took far too long to see some solutions. Excellent misdirection was the reason for some delays, for instance the use of “Guy” in 3d and “Bob” in 7d.
I needed your help, PeterO, to parse the “in” part of TERMINATOR (13d) and the “one” part of ONE-TIME in 19d.
I thought BUNION was fine for 18a as I associate bunions with toes.
“Jockey” was an interesting anagrind in 9a.
A fun puzzle which I found very challenging.
The magnificent massage parlours is the best end of pier clue in a long time! Couldn’t parse Year or rigid, but an excellent puzzle.
A challenge, as ever from this setter.
On first reading, I think the only “obvious” answer was 2d being an anagram of “bold lad” – but could I find it? ODDBALL was one of my last few in! I guess we all have days like that.
CLEAN SLATE, MASSAGE PARLOURS and HOT WATER BOTTLES were the highlights.
Thanks, Tramp and PeterO.
a great puzzle from Tramp; upon seeing the word-play for 1a I had assumed we were on for a golf theme (today is the first day of The Open).
I normally consider myself a bit of an anangram whizz but like @ChrisinFrance I took a while to see ODDBALL
Thanks to Tramp & PeterO
PS Pleasing tipping of the hat to Jane Austen in the week of the hundredth anniversary of her death, in 16a DIL-EMMA.
Aren’t eyes and ears sensitive rather than sensible?
The Hitcher is a great movie and was recently remade…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091209/
Thanks Tramp, PeterO
Excellent puzzle. In general, I find myself having more and more trouble with hidden words, but I thought ROPE was particularly cunning. Also liked CLEAN SLATE, BUNION, BEER, PARTY, MANURES, ONE-TIME.
MASSAGE PARLOURS is certainly funny, and a fab anagram, but has anyone seen ‘wearing’ as an anagrind before? It’s nearly always used as a container. I suppose it’s not used here in the ‘putting on’ sense, rather in the ‘eroding’ sense, but it still doesn’t suggest rearrangement/movement/oddness to me, which slightly takes the gloss off the clue. Does it matter?
Very enjoyable indeed, thank you Tramp and PeterO
Not sure what it says about me that I’m still giggling at the wonderful 4d
Found this very difficult and gave up quite early. Great cluing though.
PeterO and James@9: Isn’t “wearing” not so much an anagram indicator, more a verb relevant to places like massage parlours and thus a distractor, since the 15 letters of “are org…” are indication enough of an anagram, or am I just being difficult?
Many thanks all the same to Tramp and PeterO
@11 Martin: To wear is to fray, so wearing is good anagram indicator.
Thank you Tramp and PeterO.
Very devious and great fun. I stupidly got tied up with BEER wanting to use ‘bier’ as “carry on” with “think about” as a homophone indicator. Too many favourites to list.
The blog for PARTY reminded me of the Marx Brothers and the Contract Scene in the “Night at the Opera”
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO. Like others I found this puzzle a challenge but enjoyable, especially the long solutions. I too needed help parsing several: BEER; the AIR in HAIRCUT; rig = doctor in RIGID; and YEAR was my LOI.
I found all of the following movies on IMDB:
The Program
The Dilemma
Clean Slate
Beer
Oddball
and there’s no doubt a few more since pretty much any word or phrase could conceivably be a film title.
I didn’t look for a film called Massage Parlours just in case 😉
He wouldn’t stop effing as he tried to move the pendulum fro.
What is an “end of pier” clue?
Valentine @16, what the butler saw?
I was slow to start this and have to confess using an anagrind thingy for BOLDLAD. But unscrambled the two long clues with no help.
Took a while to get BUNION, OK with BEERr(always am). RIGID had to be but thanks PeterO for the parsing which eluded me at the time.
Wasnt too sure about ONE for drink but it had to be-“one for the road”
The NW held me up the most as I missed right being RT as opposed to R and thanks for parsing of YEAR-I could see EAR which fooled me somewhat.
SO great puzzle and great blog. Thanks all.
Thanks Tramp. 4D is brilliant, I’m still chuckling.
Julie asked about drink = ONE. I took it in the sense of “Time for another one?” “Just popped in for a quick one” etc.
Tramp is always challenging, but for me this was a smoother solve than his can be, though the NE corner took a bit of cracking until PROGRAM became apparent. Liked both of the long anagrams.
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO
Valentine @16, I thought that actual end of pier shows no longer existed after Brighton Pier burnt down, but apparently they do at Cromer.
Martin @11
About as near as you can get to an inflexible rule of cryptics is that a clue should not just present you with anagram fodder, with no more corroboration than that a portion of the clue has the right number of letters. There should always be something to indicate the anagram. I agree with James @9 that ‘wearing’ is an unusual anagrind, but a definition on the lines of “Damage, erode, or destroy by friction or use” is perhaps sufficient justification. I have seen worse – and I am sure that Tramp chose the word for the clue’s surface (which in this case is close to justification in itself).
Wow, what a cracker. Seeing how some otherwise fine setters struggle with surfaces, then seeing Tramp nail every one, is an object lesson in itself.
No one has mentioned TAP DANCING yet. Not only did David Ginola play for Newcastle, he was undoubtedly a twinkle-toed entertainer. But could someone confirm whether he was ever captain?
[beeryhiker
I hope you delegate the orienteering when you’re scrambling up and down the Cuillins :)]
Tough going to start with but we got there in the end. Like beeryhiker we left the NE corner until last. Thanks to everyone.
PeterO@22
Thanks very much for taking the time to respond to my it now seems naive query. “wear(ing)” duly noted as an anagram indicator.
Brilliant.
4d is spectacular – made my day.
I almost stopped doing the puzzle, what could beat that?
many thanks Tramp & PeterO
Baer @24 for some reason I still get East and West wrong sometimes however stupid it must look. Doesn’t seem to affect my ability to navigate from a map…
Martin@11
Of course, what PeterO says is right, but you’re also right, that the letter count is really the indicator here, as well as the choice of words. No one will have read the clue and thought ‘Ah, wearing, let’s look for some anagram fodder.’ Wearing is only in there for convention’s sake, whereas in principle, the indicator should be what alerts you.
A bit too hard for me. I couldn’t parse PARTY,PROGRAM,YEAR or ONE TIME and only managed BUNION in retrospect,so not my finest hour. I usually find this setter tricky but this seemed more difficult than usual. Not that the majority of this was less than enjoyable but—.
Thanks Tramp.
How many other folks wasted time googling “BOLLADD” and “BODDALL” and suchlike? 🙂 Took me all day, too!
Mostly a fine puzzle, after quite a struggle! I didn’t get 19d though I was toying with OLD-TIME and ONE-TIME (“OLD” = “Old Ale”?) Personally I don’t like “ONE” as a synonym for ‘drink’ – especially since the ‘one-over-the-eight’ trope has surely gone down the toilet, long ago!
Or has it?
Oh – and I asked (more indirectly – on GU) whether there was some thematic connection between MASSAGE PARLOURS and HOT-WATER BOTTLES. One likes to know these things!
Slow and steady got us there. Tramp is a master of hiding and misdirecting away from the definition. As in 8a where i spent ages trying to find a synonym for “jockey” and as the answer likely began with R then went down the RIDER dead end. And then 7d was exactly the opposite – I never saw “bob” as the definition until I got the answer. Brilliant.
I also struggled in the NE and made life even more difficult by having (unparsed) DAD DANCING. Lots of great clues throughout – favourite was probably BUNION – second last in before YEAR – also unparsed.
Many thanks to Tramp for the puzzle and PeterO for the parsing.
Great puzzle, full of fun and cheeky misdirection – 4d has to be the clue of the year so far for me. Firmly Dirac @32, do wish you hadn’t asked that question – my imagination is now working overtime!
Thanks so much to Tramp for making my day and to PeterO for the blog.
Many thanks PeterO for the blog and thanks to others for the kind comments.
The clue for 4d has been in my notebook for a few years. I wrote this puzzle only a few months ago.
Neil
I am with Peter Aspinwall @30, on this one, as often is the case.
Thanks to PeterO and Tramp
It was the two hundred years on Tuesday since her death, and she was commemorated in a lovely service at Winchester Cathedral. It was the sort of thing the C of E does really well, with a full choir, robed clergy, beautiful music and readings, including some of her own words. Flowers were laid on her grave. The cathedral was, of course, completely packed with Austen fans and Hampshire people honouring her memory.
Great puzzle with some really good surfaces.
Agree with several others that MASSAGE PARLOURS was brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant! Neil, this is the best crossword for ages, and 4 down a fabulously enjoyable clue that I am going to share with my sad, benighted, non-cruciverbalist friends to try and convert them. You are simply the best, Tramp.
This was excellent – I enjoyed the trickery and originality very much.
As well as the two long anagrams I particularly liked 10a PAINT, 11a YEAR, 12a MADAGASCAR, 14a FLEECE, 21a BEER and 7d HAIRCUT. I was puzzled by ‘drink’ = ‘one’ while solving that clue (to 19d ONE-TIME), but Eric @19 has shown me what I couldn’t see!
Many thanks to Tramp and to PeterO.
Thanks Tramp and PeterO
Came to this late, but most went in quickly (though with great enjoyment), with the SW taking as much time as the other three quarters. I particularly liked (not the same as some others!) EXCITED, DILEMMA, BUNION and CLEAN SLATE.
Not quite sure about RETIRED – I’ll accept “tired” = “old”, but why “left”?
Also 1d presented a problem, in that I think of “pay” as being earned directly, whereas a “benefit” isn’t. I do remember with fondness the “party of the first part” sketch, though.
Another really good Tramp puzzle, not restricted by any theme words.
And – dare I say? – all at once the surfaces become very smooth and natural.
Like others, we couldn’t immediate see where ‘bold lad’ would lead to.
Perhaps, some anagrams are better ‘disguised’ than others [just like in the case of hidden answers].
Three in the NW (year, program, party) took about a fifth of the total time.
We’d never heard of ‘pro-am’ but thought it had to be one of the building stones.
I was reluctant to accept it as Tramp used “A B over” for “A inside B” – a bit unlike Tramp’s usual style.
Anyway we got there in the end and liked it all very much.
muffin @41: ‘to retire’ can mean ‘to leave’, simple as that.
Thanks PeterO and Tramp [CoD? Dunno …. 🙂 ]
Thanks both,
A tussle in which Tramp came out on top, I’m afraid to say. On the subject of ‘wear’ as an an anagrind, I wonder if a nautical connection exists. To ‘tack’ is to ‘go about’, which makes a a good anagrind. Wearing (gybing) has much the same effect.
As Tramp is a “top favourite” for me, I try to save for weekend when I can derive most pleasure (there’s always so much more to his puzzles than just solving; I’m a pretty fast solver and also tend to solve midweek while doing something else but Tramp deserves – and rewards – a more relaxed approach). There are several other setters I also delay similarly (Arachne, Screw to name but two). It’s not easy – especially since I’m not naturally patient and just seeing certain setter’s names makes my heart beat that little bit faster; I’m of an age where great cryptics are one of my few vices!
No surprise – my forebearance paid off!
So once again, Master Tramp, thank you!
…and Peter O, of course, for his ever excellent blogs…