A new setter to me, PABUS weighs in to Tuesdays with a themed puzzle.
We’re invited onto a 1a, 11, with about a dozen clues on the theme of transport or travel. I found this hard going, and not always for the right reasons (there were a few infelicities, I thought, which I’ve mentioned below). Good effort, though, and mostly fair. Thanks Pabus, and welcome.
| Across | ||
| 1, 11 | A TRANSPORT OF DELIGHT | Great happiness induced by Flanders omnibus? (1,9,2,7) |
| Whole-clue charade on Flanders & Swann song-title. Altogether now; “That big six-wheeler, scarlet-painted…” | ||
| 6 | JEEP | Military conveyance; drugs confiscated by magistrate (4) |
| JP (Justice of the Peace, ‘magistrate’) surrounds 2 x E[cstasy]. | ||
| 10 | COUPE | Sporty conveyance; sound surprised over remuneration (5) |
| Homophone of “Coo! Pay!”. | ||
| 11 | See 1 | |
| 12 | ODYSSEAN | One’s days represented as ten years of wandering (8) |
| Anagram (‘represented’) of ONES DAYS. Ref. Ulysses’ travels in Homer’s Odyssey. | ||
| 13 | RADIO | Device found these days in the capital (5) |
| A[nno] D[omini], ‘these days’ in RIO (de Janeiro, state ‘capital’, though not of all Brazil). | ||
| 15 | UPRIGHT | Standing as a type of music maker? (7) |
| Sort of double definition: ‘upright’ piano. | ||
| 17 | SNOWCAT | Jazz currently in winter conveyance (7) |
| NOW (‘currently’) in SCAT (vocal ‘jazz’). | ||
| 19 | LAPPING | Beating MP departing very quietly in passing (7) |
| LAmpING, (‘beating’), without MP but includind PP (‘very quietly’). | ||
| 21 | WESTERN | Film that you and I get back for (7) |
| WE (‘you & I’) + STERN (‘back’). | ||
| 22 | IMAGE | In management, any good executive starts with a vision (5) |
| First letters (‘starts’) of 2nd to 5th words. | ||
| 24 | APRES-SKI | Party when a squeeze gets a bit of a smooch! (5-3) |
| A + PRESS + KIss, last 2 letters deleted, so just a bit of a kiss. | ||
| 27 | HYDROFOIL | Watery conveyance: contrast to the rear of spa (9) |
| HYDRO (‘spa’) + FOIL (‘contrast’). | ||
| 28, 29 | CLOUD NINE | Blissful state: include no other option (5,4) |
| Anagram (‘other option’) of INCLUDE NO. | ||
| 30 | CABRIOLETS | Road vehicles: shall we follow taxi to the Ebro, say? (10) |
| LETS (‘shall we?’) after CAB + RIO (again, this time as Sp. for ‘river’, the Ebro being one in Spain). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARCH | Researchers have to be a bit shrewd (4) |
| Inclusion (‘a bit’) in ‘reseARCHers’. | ||
| 2 | ROUND TRIP | The Circle Line is! (5,4) |
| Jocular cryptic. | ||
| 3 | NEEDS | Requires senior to rise, holding young man (5) |
| SEN[ior], reversed in this down clue, containing ED. | ||
| 4 | PROTECT | Expert PI has time for guard (7) |
| PRO (‘expert’) + TEC, a private eye, + T[ime]. | ||
| 5 | RIDINGS | Working dining cars cannot be found in parts of Yorkshire (7) |
| Anagram (‘working’) of DINInG caRS, without CAN (i.e., ‘can not’. H’mm.) | ||
| 7 | EDGED | Went slowly, prevaricated; lost an hour (5) |
| hEDGED (‘prevaricated’) without H[our]. | ||
| 8 | PETROL TANK | Opel taken short badly without hose or one of these (6,4) |
| Another partial anagram (‘badly’) of OPEL TAKeN shoRT without the letters of HOSE, plus sort of whole-clue def. | ||
| 9 | GLORIOUS | The 12th clue is magnificent (8) |
| Ref. the ‘Glorious’ 12th (of August), start of the game-shooting season. | ||
| 14 | KUBLAI KHAN | King greets posh ex-PM, almost meeting Mongol ruler, former Chinese emperor (6,4) |
| K[ing] + U (‘posh’) + Tony BLAIr (‘almost’) + KHAN (‘Mongol ruler). Confusingly, KK was both Mongol ruler and emperor of China by conquest. Some duplication, I think. | ||
| 16 | GUIDE DOG | Tailed conductor? (5,3) |
| Another jokey cryptic. | ||
| 18 | CHEEKBONE | Lip of one holding book that defines the features (9) |
| CHEEK (‘lip’) + ONE surrounding B[ook]. | ||
| 20 | GRANOLA | Cereal for nanny with a Scandinavian name (7) |
| GRAN (‘nanny’) + OLA (Scandy name, M or F, apparently). | ||
| 21 | WARBLER | Conflict when graduate met royal soprano (7) |
| WAR (‘conflict’) + B[achelor] of L[aw] (‘graduate’) + ER (‘royal’). Bit unspecific, but all avian warblers sing soprano, I suppose. | ||
| 23 | ARDEN | Wooded area, mostly hot, as you like it? (5) |
| ARDENt (most of ‘hot’), Shakespearean ref to Forest of Arden, setting for his As You Like It. | ||
| 25 | SECCO | Opponents about to enter Colorado dry (5) |
| S[outh] & E[ast], (bridge ‘opponents’) + C[irca], ‘about’ in CO[lorado]. | ||
| 26 | ODES | No extremes in modest songs (4) |
*anagram
Thanks Grant for a neat blog of this crossword by Pabus, his or her third actually.
As on the previous occasions the setter showed a love for means of conveyance.
Did I like the puzzle? Not really, I’m afraid.
I couldn’t find 27ac but that was purely my fault as I entered ‘Kublai Kahn’ at 14d.
Yes, in 13ac the use of ‘capital’ for RIO is somewhat dubious.
I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the definitions in 8d and 18d – too loose, in my opinion.
More of a serious problem, I found things that happened in 24ac, 9d, 18d and 21d.
Is KI[ss] really ‘a bit of a smooch’?
What is the word ‘clue’ doing there in 9d?
The same question I ask about ‘of’ in 18d.
A link word? Don’t think so, it’s right in the middle of the construction.
In 21d I do not like ‘met’ (the past tense), which would not have passed the test in The Times.
Why not ‘meets’ or ‘(i)s meeting’?
I found it often a bit imprecise and iffy, although the majority of the clues were fine – as it should be.
Some things are just a matter of taste.
Like in 17ac, where ‘Jazz currently in’ apparently gives us ‘currently inside Jazz’.
There are other setters doing it too but I just don’t like this kind of the-other-way-around-clueing.
Anyway.
Thanks (again) to blogger & setter.
Thanks for blog, Grant but after 1/11 i didnt feel like continuing-especially after a cracker from Vlad.Didnt mind Radian though.
In 3d, why is ED a ‘young’ man? Is young just there for the surface – not that it reads well in any case. Bit of a mixed bag this one. OK overall but not great. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks Pabus and Grant
See that I have done both of his past puzzles (Sept ’14 and Jan ’16) which were both themed around buses and which were both quite quirky. This one is quite similar with a theme that is launched from a bus ‘key clue’ … and is again quite quirky.
I didn’t particularly love the puzzle but didn’t particularly dislike it. Actually had the most difficulty with three clues that were not called out – GLORIOUS (not aware of the reference to the hunting season), LAPPING (didn’t know the North English slang ‘lamping’ for hitting someone) and HYDROFOIL (didn’t know the old meaning of a ‘hydro’ as a hotel near a spa).
There were some clues that I did like – COUPE, CABRIOLETS, APRES SKI and ARDEN.
Don’t mind seeing these quirky puzzles come through from time to time – was able to get the grid completed, even if there were some question marks around the three that I mentioned above and the variety is worth it !!