Took me a while to get the whole picture…
…with some of the answers slotting in very quickly, I thought this was going to be an easy solve.
However, some of the clues held me up for a while with COALFIELDS being my last one in, and it took me a while to parse GRADUAL.
There is a theme of sorts, with “picture” appearing in a few guises, as anagram fodder, and indicating art and movies.
Thanks, Chalmie.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GARISH | Loud decoration missing central point (6) |
| GAR(n)ISH (“decoration” missing its central point) | ||
| 4 | SPACIOUS | Easily able to accommodate pushing back limits on debts (8) |
| <=CAPS (“limits”, pushed back) + IOUS (“debts”) | ||
| 10 | EDAMAME | Compelled to return in the morning with low-grade beans (7) |
| <=MADE (“compelled”, to return) + A.M. (“in the morning”) + E (a “low grade”) | ||
| 11 | IMAGINE | Picture international soldier in shock (7) |
| I(international) + G.I. (“soldier”) in MANE (“shock” of hair) | ||
| 12 | NETS | Catches alien between poles (4) |
| E.T. (extraterrestrial, so “alien”) between N and S (North and South – “poles”) | ||
| 13 | EAST OF EDEN | Brewing of tea needs picture (4,2,4) |
| *(of teas need)
A 1955 Elia Kazan movie, loosely based on a Hemingway novel, and starring James Dean. |
||
| 16 | CAMERA | One taking picture of artist arrived earlier (6) |
| R.A. (member of the Royal Academy, hence “artist”) + CAME (“arrived”) earlier, so CAME-R.A. | ||
| 17 | IN PEACE | Popular bishop possibly reported as enjoying calm (2,5) |
| IN (“popular”) + homophone of (chess) PIECE (“bishop possibly”), indicated by “reportedly” | ||
| 20 | STUMPED | Out in poker game, politician essentially clean (7) |
| In STUD (“poker game”), M.P. (“politician) + (cl)E(an), so STU(MP-E)D | ||
| 21 | ODDEST | Extremely strange wood destined to be cut down (6) |
| Hidden in “woOD DESTined” | ||
| 24 | UNDERSTAND | Get picture below spectator accommodation (10) |
| UNDER (“below”) + STAND (“spectator accommodation”) | ||
| 25 | TIER | Bank’s relationship to the monarch (4) |
| TIE (“relationship”) + R(ex), so “king” | ||
| 27 | HAWKING | Clearing his throat, Hemming’s usual partner welcomes Kelvin (7) |
| HAWING (“Hemming’s usual partner” i.e. hemming and hawing) welcomes K(elvin) | ||
| 29 | GRADUAL | Allow a pair of books to be removed step by step (7) |
| GRA(nt) DUAL (“allow a pair”, with N.T. (New Testament, so “books”) removed) | ||
| 30 | MONA LISA | Picture of animal so moving (4,4) |
| *(animal so) | ||
| 31 | OSTEND | City where large number died (6) |
| OS (outsize, so “large”) + TEN (“number”) + D(ied) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GUERNICA | Picture showing a nice rug damaged (8) |
| *(a nice rug)
Refers to Picasso’s painting, a response to the bombing pof the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. |
||
| 2 | REATTEMPTED | Lure in a 50s dandy after engineers had another shot (11) |
| TEMPT (“lure”) in A TED (“a 50s dandy”) after R.E. (Royal “Engineers”) | ||
| 3 | SNAP | Picture game (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | PAINTING | Being short of breath inspires one picture (8) |
| PANTING (“being short of breath”) inspires I (“one”) | ||
| 6 | COALFIELDS | Complaints about picture being mine, mine, mine! (10) |
| COLDS (“complaints”) about ALFIE (“picture”)
“Alfie” refers to the classic Michael Caine movie, or the not-so-classic remake with Jude Law. |
||
| 7, 28 | OBI-WAN | Jedi now a bit cut off, surprisingly (3-3) |
| *(now a bi), where the BI is “bit” cut off | ||
| 8 | SIENNA | After climb, old queen is a burnt colour (6) |
| <=ANNE IS (“old queen is”), with “climb” indicating that the letters need to go upwards. | ||
| 9 | MEDAL | Award lunch for one entertaining director (5) |
| MEAL (“lunch, for one”) entertaining D(irector) | ||
| 14 | DECREPITUDE | Dreadful picture taken by journalist in Delaware shows old problem (11) |
| *(picture”) taken by ED (“journalist”) in De (“Delaware”), so D(E(CREPITU)D)E | ||
| 15 | PRIMORDIAL | Original note omitted from strait- laced prayer-book (10) |
| PRIM (“straight-laced”) + ORDI(n)AL (“prayer-book”, with N(ote) omitted)
According to Chambers, an ordinal is an ecclesiastical order book. |
||
| 18 | VESTIGES | Traces letters about unpleasant people returning (8) |
| VEES (“letters”) about <=GITS (“unpleasant people” returning) | ||
| 19 | STARTLED | Surprised the beginning came first (8) |
| START (“beginning”) + LED (“came first”) | ||
| 22 | DURHAM | University’s head of drama the original bad actor (6) |
| D(rama) + UR (“original”) + HAM (“bad actor”)
According to dictionary.com, ur- is a combination form meaning “earliest” or “original” |
||
| 23 | SNAGS | Problems getting horse aboard ship (5) |
| NAG (“horse”) in S.S. (steam“ship”) | ||
| 26 | JAWS | Picture Johnson arguing with Saudi leaders (4) |
| Initials (“leaders”) of “Johnson Arguing With Saudi”
Refers to the Spielberg movie, “Jaws”. |
||
| 28 | See 7 | |
*anagram
Got there in the end, but used a word fit to get COALFIELDS. A few unfamiliarities but were all guessed correctly then checked: the Picasso painting GUERNICA, the soy bean EDAMAME, HEMMING AND HAWING I may have met but, alas, forgotten. Pretty sure I’ve met ORDINAL in the sense of 15d before but checked anyway. Thanks to S&B.
I thought this was going to contain the names of a whole lot of films I’d never heard of, but thankfully ‘picture’ was cleverly used in a number of senses which made things easier. Didn’t know UR- for ‘original’, EDAMAME beans or ‘hemming and HAWING’ but all were gettable from def or wordplay.
Once I’d worked out the parsing, I liked GRADUAL and COALFIELDS which was my last in. My favourite though was DECREPITUDE, one of those words I find very appealing and with which I’m becoming personally more acquainted as time passes.
Thanks to loonapick and Chalmie
Thanks Chalmie, loonapick
A very similar experience – a decelerating rush, finishing with a bit of a hiccup and favourite COALFIELDS. Also liked DURHAM, JAWS and OSTEND. Couldn’t see past the monarch in TIER being ER, so missed the relationship bit.
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Was late to this one with a busy finish to last week, only getting to it on Monday … and another busy week to delay getting here. It was a lot of fun with the clever mix of plays on ‘picture’. Also a good variety of devices used throughout to disentangle them. Think that my favourite was ‘Burnt SIENNA’ as the colour at 8d.
Like Jame@3, I plumped for the ER monarch, unfortunately found PI as the relationship and then PIER as an embankment (is that the same as a bank?) and be caught out !!
As with others, hadn’t heard of the prefix UR- nor the soy bean dish.
COALFIELDS was one of my last in along with JAWS (which took a while to see the first letter trick for some reason) and STUMPED (that even having seen STUD poker, took longer than it should have to see the cricket ‘out’).