Having prepared myself for some serious lateral thinking Paul plays it straight this week. Thanks Paul, always a pleasure to solve and blog.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DESCRIBE | Illustrate key opening prison after revolution with touch of euphoria (8) |
| ESC (key, on computer) inside (opening) BIRD (prison) reversed (after revolution) then Euphoria (first letter, a touch of) | ||
| 5 | CHEW UP | Destroy vessel, carve into it (4,2) |
| CUP (vessel) containing (with…into it) HEW (carve) | ||
| 9 | BARRISTER | Brief title recalled in trade (9) |
| SIR (title) reversed (recalled) in BARTER (trade) | ||
| 11 | LINKS | Reported feline relationships (5) |
| sounds like (reportedly) LYNX (a feline) | ||
| 12 | ONE LUMP OR TWO | Choice of camels, husband exchanged for fifty — how sweet? (3,4,2,3) |
| ONE HUMP OR TWO (choice of camels) with H (husband) exchanged for L (fifty) | ||
| 15 | OAHU | I see you on old Hawaiian island (4) |
| AH (I see) U (you) on (following) O (old) | ||
| 16 | ECONOMISER | Green no Scrooge, a saver (10) |
| ECO (green) NO MISER (Scrooge) | ||
| 18 | PARTICULAR | Certain fact (10) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | TEEN | Youth getting through cigarette ends (4) |
| found inside (getting through) cigaretTE ENds | ||
| 21 | OBSOLESCENCE | Celebs so unrecognisable in previously outmoded state (12) |
| anagram (unrecognisable) of CELEBS SO in ONCE (previously) | ||
| 24 | DUMMY | Idiot, a blend of parents? (5) |
| squash together Daddy and mUMMY you get DUMMY | ||
| 25 | RED SALMON | Fish me, dorsal fin at the back, swimming (3,6) |
| ANAGRAM (swimming) of ME DORSAL and fiN (back letter of) | ||
| 26 | ROYALS | Eliminate gold counters, as sovereigns (6) |
| SLAY (eliminate) OR (gold) reversed (counters, going in the opposite way) | ||
| 27 | KRAKATOA | A blast from the past, one pulled by puller, we hear? (8) |
| KRAKA TOA sounds like (we hear) “cracker, tower” (one pulled, puller) – scene of huge volcanic explosion in 1883 | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEBT | Obligation to lift bottom onto end of seat (4) |
| BED (bottom) reversed (to lift) on seaT (end letter of) | ||
| 2 | SURE | Sound of the seaside? Yes! (4) |
| sounds like “shore” (seaside) | ||
| 3 | REIGNS | Singer breaking rules (6) |
| anagram (breaking) of SINGER | ||
| 4 | BATTLECRUISER | Large ship, huge fighter transporting stock, heading for the bottom (13) |
| BRUISER (huge fighter) contains (transporting) CATTLE (stock) with first letters moved to the end | ||
| 6 | HALLOUMI | Introduction to a Persian poet not right — it’s cheese (8) |
| HALLO rUMI (introduction to a Persian poet) missing R (right) – Jala ad-Din Muhammad Rumi | ||
| 7 | WINE TASTER | Someone enjoying alcohol, one not saving water in Newcastle, says Spooner? (4,6) |
| a Spoonerism of TYNE WASTER (one not saving water in Newcastle) | ||
| 8 | PISTON RING | Good cord that binds on engine component (6,4) |
| PI (pious, good) STRING (cord) containing (that binds) ON | ||
| 10 | ROMAN CALENDAR | Almost everything in book and novel runs an old dated system? (5,8) |
| ALl (everything, almost) in ROMANCE (book) then anagram (novel) of AND followed by R (runs) | ||
| 13 | SOAP POWDER | Held by communists after uprising, veteran prisoner getting ground cleaner (4,6) |
| OAP (veteran) POW (prisoner) inside (held by…) REDS (communists) reversed (after uprising) | ||
| 14 | THERESA MAY | Told you so! Cameron always PM! (7,3) |
| THERE (told you so) SAM (Samantha Cameron) AY (always). Normally I would say that SAM for Cameron is tenuous but the context of the surface reading makes it quite clear who Paul is referring to. | ||
| 17 | DISLOYAL | Daily Mail ultimately so shabby, not to be trusted? (8) |
| anagram (shabby) of DAILY maiL (ultimately, last letter) and SO | ||
| 20 | ACK-ACK | Two groups without leadership getting flak (3-3) |
| pACK pACK (two groups) missing leading letters | ||
| 22 | SMUT | Filth seems moderate under Tories for starters (4) |
| starting letters of Seems Moderate Under Tories | ||
| 23 | ANNA | Girl who may turn up? (4) |
| a palindrome (reads the same when turned up) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks PeeDee. I agree, enjoyable and uncomplicated. The crossing letters tempted me to put in SURF for 2d and I had to think carefully about OAHU. LOI was ROYALS for no good reason.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. I needed help parsing DUMMY and DESCRIBE (I missed the reversing of bird-prison) and HALLOUMI was new to me. I read 14d as There’s AM (not PM) Ay.
In 21ac CELEBS is left out of the parsing.
Thanks PeeDee. Only the cheese was off, the rest of it delightful including the camel clue, the mummy-daddy merger and the PM lurking in 14D. The large ship went straight in but the bruiser on board took a moment to sort out.
Thanks both. Am I alone in thinking that SURE is not a homophone for shore? Unless you are a Sloane Ranger. (Autocorrect wanted “homophobe” which is very confusing!)
Thanks Paul and PeeDee
All very straightforward. I didn’t know the Persian poet, but it couldn’t be anything other than HALLOUMI.
Major giggle over ONE LUMP OR TWO!
I can’t find the paper copy but I remember enjoying this and I think I had lots of smileys with KRAKATOA being my favourite by a nose. Thanks Paul and PeeDee.
Hello Shirl, I’m from Manchester originally and shore and sure sound identical to me. What part of the world do you come from and how do they differ for you?
ACD @2 – how could I not see that? I’m hopeless trying to proof read my own writing, I see only what I intended to write. Fixed now.
I am with muffin@5 and WhiteKing@6 in really enjoying 12a ONE LUMP OR TWO and 27a KRAKATOA.
Like Shirl@4, yes I have also had that experience with “homophone”/”homophobe”.
I am with the Mancunians: the way we say “shore” and “shore” in Oz sounds the same to me, but we can be lazy speakers in many cases (the old story is that we don’t enunciate clearly because there are so many flies here it is dangerous to open our mouths too widely when we speak).
Fortunately I know Rumi well, though I am more used to one “l” in the cheese at 6d.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. This was fun.
More straightforward than some in the week- today’s looks quite challenging- but it’s Paul so I’ve no complaints. I had CHOP UP for 5ac originally but WINE TASTER put paid to that! Liked ACK ACK and KRAKATOA.
Thanks Paul.
PeeDee@7 – for me (estuary English) sure = “”shu-er” and shore = “shaw”
Whereas for my sarf London accent, sure is one syllable and a definite homophone for shore.
Not many comments on this one – perhaps we just get too many Paul prizes to find anything fresh to say. I found this one pretty straightforward perhaps due to the GK on Rumi and Hawaii that made those two write-ins. Favourite was the THERESA MAY clue.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee
Spent quite a while trying to make 6d end in OMA(r) (as in Khayyam) but knew of Rumi too so when I guessed at HALLOUMI I realised how it all fitted together. How sweet it was tumbling ONE LUMP OR TWO. I thought LINES as a homophone for lions was a bit weak (and “relationships” not a vg defn) — till the penny dropped, so LOI (correctly, at least).
Sure and shore are homophones for me, I think, but I’m conflicted over poor, sometimes rhyming it with shore and sometimes with Shirl’s sure (which I don’t think is two syllables, actually, just represented as such to indicate the vowel sound of boot, maybe).
Loved the camels. Thanks to Paul.
For most Americans, I think, “sure” and “shore” are not homophones, except maybe the cowboys who say, “I shore do, ma’am,” if there are any such outside movies. For me the two are as different as “poor” and “pour”, or “dour” and “door” — confusing as the spelling of those two pairs of words may be. Let’s say “boor” and “bore” or “tour” and “tore.”
Oh, and definitely thanks to PeeDee. Nice blog.
To Valentine and others re my sure/shore problem …. Let’s call the whole thing off!
And not only ‘sure’, but also ‘krakatoa’. The way I speak cracker is crack – er not crack – a, and tower is tow – er not tow – a! But then I’m from Norn Iron and we speak funny. Just as well my English wife was with me to help….
@Valentine
“as different as …”
Those are all homophones for a lot of English people too. I think there’s a post about it somewhere on Separated By A Common Language
Re the sure/shore saga: I’m originally from Bolton, have been in Oz for 46 years, and for me they’re not homophones. But they are for my Australian wife.
Did anyone else have MADDY at first for 24A?