Super, a mix of all sorts in here to keep me entertained. Thank you Julius.
There is a lot of loanliness in this grid. I hope Julius is not giving us any sort of message here.
| Across | ||
| 1, 30 | SLOANE RANGER | Arsenal Gooner half-heartedly teased Chelsea toff (6,6) |
| anagram (teased) of ARSENAL GOoNER (half-heartedly, half middle letters) | ||
| 4 | LONE WOLF | That’s funny, taking Owen back on board; fellow’s hardly a team player! (4,4) |
| LOL (laugh out loud, that’s funny) containing (taking on board) OWEN reversed (back) then F (fellow) | ||
| 10 | LOAN SHARK | Applying Koran, lash usurer (4,5) |
| anagram (applying) of KORAN LASH.
If you are new to crosswords you might be wondering how “applying” is obviously an anagram indicator meaning “rearranged”. The answer is that anagram indicators have been part of cryptic crosswords for over 80 years and by now setters are running out of ways to indicate an anagram that solvers have not seen 100s of times before. Hence there is an informal understanding that definitions of anagram indicators do not need to be as tight as other definitions in the puzzle. Anything that hints at rearrangement, however obliquely, will do. In this case I think “applying” indicates “using these letters you can get…”. |
||
| 11 | ALONE | Bitter, working in solitary (5) |
| ALE (bitter) contains (with…in) ON (working) | ||
| 12 | SLEW | In America, plenty swing (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 13 | HOME CINEMA | Machine designed to attract uninhibited women for private entertainment (4,6) |
| anagram (designed) of MACHINE contains (to attract) wOMEn missing outer letters (uninhibited, no bounds) | ||
| 15 | ABALONE | A poison coating Lake Ontario’s premier shellfish (7) |
| A BANE (poison) containing L (lake) Ontario (premier, first letter of) | ||
| 16 | FLATLY | Absolutely lovely empty apartment at the front (6) |
| LovelY (empty, no middle letters) following (with…at the front) FLAT (apartment) | ||
| 19 | SEPTIC | On the first of the month, Charlie got infected (6) |
| SEPT I (1st of the month) then C (charlie, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 21 | BALONEY | American cobblers’ links traceable back to Emilia Romagna? (7) |
| cryptic definition. The word BALONEY meaning “rubbish” derives from the Bologna Sausage (links) originating in Bologna in the Italian region Emilia Romagna. | ||
| 23 | COMPLACENT | Smug, being able to have lake in Provence for most of summer there (10) |
| COMPetENT (able) with LAC (lake in French, in Provence) replacing ETe (summer, French, there in Provence) | ||
| 25 | KEPI | Swapped sides of stupid boy’s hat (4) |
| PIKE (stupid boy) with PI swapping sides with KE. I think Pike refers to the Dad’s army character Private Pike who was referred to by Captain Mainwearing as “You stupid boy!”. | ||
| 27 | TELCO | They connected a line in motel corridor (5) |
| found inside moTEL COrridor | ||
| 28 | ONLY CHILD | One ignorant of sibling behaviour merely told off detained student (4,5) |
| ONLY (merely) CHID (told off) contains (detains) L (learner, student) | ||
| 29 | HAY FEVER | Play causing discomfort for the viewers? (3,5) |
| double/cryptic definition – Hay Fever is a play by Noel Coward | ||
| 30 | See 1 | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SALESMAN | One whose death was staged in rep? (8) |
| double/cryptic definition – sales representative and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (staged in rep, Repertory Theatre, established works) | ||
| 2 | ON AVERAGE | Reagan vote took time to build, as expected (2,7) |
| anagram (to build) missing T (time, taken away) | ||
| 3 | NOSH | Lad’s thrown up hotel food (4) |
| SON (lad) reversed (thrown up) H (hotel) | ||
| 5 | OAK LEAF | Part of a cluster used in decoration (3,4) |
| I’m guessing this is a cryptic definition that refers to an Oak Leaf Cluster on a medal | ||
| 6 | ERADICABLE | Able to get rubbed out any time, Italian island detectives are in revolution (10) |
| ELBA (Italian island) CID (detectives) ARE all reversed (in revolution). A shame that ABLE is also in the definition, gives the game away a little. | ||
| 7 | OZONE | Regular intake of booze own men described as potentially toxic (5) |
| regular selection from bOoZe OwN mEn – something that may be toxic | ||
| 8 | FOEMAN | Boris Johnson’s department title repelled warring opponent (6) |
| FO (Foreign Office, Boris Johnson’s apartment) then NAME (title) reversed (repelled) | ||
| 9 | See 24 | |
| 14 | POSTAL CODE | Pal scooted round to help with delivery (6,4) |
| anagram (round) of PAL SCOOTED | ||
| 17 | LINGERING | Unfinished underwear no good for hanging around (9) |
| LINGERIe (underwear, unfinished) then N (no) G (good) | ||
| 18 | CYLINDER | Curry containers left in the German tube (8) |
| CurrY (outside letters, containers of) L (left) IN DER (the, German) | ||
| 20 | CYCLONE | Storm over replica Twombly (7) |
| CLONE (replica) under (with…over) CY (Cy Twombly, artist) | ||
| 21 | BANGLE | British view gets slapped on the wrist! (6) |
| B (British) and ANGLE (view) – something worn on the wrist | ||
| 22 | SCOTCH | Crush the spirit (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 24, 9 | MOLLY MALONE | Lonely ol’ mam working with Meals on Wheels? (5,6) |
| anagram (working) of LONELY OL’ MAM – in the song sweet Molly Malone sold cockles and mussels alive, alive-oh from her wheelbarrow. | ||
| 26 | ACTA | Shell tycoon upset for a few minutes (4) |
| fAT CAt (tycoon) with no outer letters (shelled) reversed (upset) – a record (minutes) of a public event | ||
*anagram
definitions underlined
Thanks for a fine blog, Peedee – and well done for spotting the lonely theme, which had passed me by [although I did note to myself that we hadn’t seen the crossword shellfish for a while].
I knew I was in for a treat when I saw Julius’ name on this and even more so after immediately entering 1,30, which put a smile on my face.
Excellent cluing throughout and many splendid story-telling surfaces, favourites being 21 and 23ac and 1 and 14dn.
I think there’s another definition [rep] in 1dn.
Huge thanks to Julius for yet another gem.
Thank you for the additional rep definition Eileen, I hadn’t spotted that.
Found this too hard a slog to really enjoy it, but that is a reflection of my lack of knowledge rather than a criticism of Julius. Failed to get the crossing answers at 1d and 12a even though, on hindsight, 1d isn’t that difficult. Never thought to see rep as salesman, despite it appearing as such frequently in cryptics. I was particularly pleased to get COMPLACENT. ACTA was a new word for me and parsing it took a bit of thought. Needed google’s help to understand BALONEY and to find out who ‘Twombly’ was.
I agree with your comment on 6d and thought at the time that using ‘can’ in place of ‘able to’ would have made a better clue imo.
Thanks to Julius for the challenge and to PeeDee for the blog.
Lovely puzzle from Juius and great blog from Pee Dee who did it alone.i didnt google twomby as American cobblers plus crossers sufficed- but I will.maybe.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
A very enjoyable puzzle. I did think it a shame though that the second letter of 21A was unchecked, as both BALONEY and BOLONEY are valid spellings. Still, it wasn’t a prizer.
Thanks Julius, Peedee
Favourites were LOAN SHARK, MOLLY MALONE, SLEW, LONE WOLF, CYLINDER.
I didn’t get ACTA, not knowing the word and not cracking the wordplay. I did get BALONEY from American cobblers, but the rest of that one went way over my head.
I liked Peedee’s note about anagram indicators. I don’t like it when anything goes, but applying seems perfectly ok to me – applied and appliance are both in Chambers
Interesting that the Latin gerundive ‘Agenda’ – ‘things to be done / discussed’ is widely used and known, while the past participle ‘Acta’ – ‘things [having been] done / discussed’ isn’t.
If I hadn’t waited until lunchtime to solve this treat, and been able to comment before Eileen, she’d be able to say ‘what crypticsue said’.
Great fun, thank you Julius, the second crossword today that’s left me with a smile on my face
Great blog PeeDee, thanks.
I hope the lonely theme is nothing to do with Julius having become a German citizen this morning. But a super puzzle as always, nevertheless. Cheered my morning up.
On a personal note, my life is not improved by knowing the work of Cy Twombly. No need to go there if you don’t want to IMHO.
On a general note, ‘complacent’ is an answer in today’s Times puzzle.
Grumble when church is seen as one being smug
Coincidences do happen.
Conrad – how are church and smug connected? You have lost me there.
Of course your advice to stay away prompted me to look up more on Cy Twombly. I listened to a video commentary on his paintings and I am none the wiser. I didn’t know what I was expecting to learn as I have no natural affinity with painting at all. I can’t tell a child’s scribblings from a modern masterpiece.
PeeDee. I’m glad I am not a blogger (I am just a dedicated solver) but this is my take, written in an amateur style, far removed from your work.
Grumble equals complaint. (it is a viable noun after all.) ‘Church is seen as one’ means replace the ‘i’ with ‘ce’.
Works for me. (Said as goes back under stone.)
Right, I get it now!
Always find Julius an enjoyable solve and this was no exception. Saying that I failed on 27 and 12 as I very often do with small words, many thanks to PeeDee for enlightenment.
Many thanks to PeeDee for the blog and to those who have taken the trouble to comment.
@SimonS
quite right. BALONEY is the thematic-friendly spelling but as you say it’s not a prize puzzle.
@Conrad
It’s a rum do becoming German (although since I can be dual UK/German while the UK is still in the EU, it’s a no-brainer). I need to be able to stay here- my son has 5 more years of Gymnasium+ uni – so it’s not just for “nicht Schengen Schlangen Steher” purposes.
Alas, it has come too late in life for a full Rudi Völler mullet.
warmest regards, Rob/Julius
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
A really entertaining puzzle that I found quite challenging and took one quite long session and a shorter mop up one some time later to finish it off. On this occasion, I did happen to notice all of the LONE / LOAN / ONLY references.
Found there were quite a number of clues that required retrospective parsing and that would often take much longer than getting the word itself. KEPI in particular – even though I stumbled on to the fact of swapping the KE and PI, I couldn’t understand how PIKE was related to a ‘stupid boy’ until coming here. BALONEY was another that took some tracing back through references to the administrative region in north Italy.
Thought that SALESMAN was the pick of many high quality clues.