I got confused about dates and forgot it was my turn to blog. I have explained the solutions but I cheated copiously to get the blog out quickly so I won’t pass any further comment. Apologies for the lateness and to Paul for not giving the puzzle the attention it deserved.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DADAIST | Style said to be warped by traditionalists for a start, anti-bourgeois (7) |
| DA (duck’s arse, hairstyle) anagram (warped) of SAID then Traditionalists (starting letter of) | ||
| 5 | FELT HAT | Soft item with no end to flatten, not this then? (4,3) |
| FELL (to flatten, missing last letter) and THAT (not this then) | ||
| 9 | NONET | Person in book group (5) |
| ONE (person) in NT (New Testament, a book) | ||
| 10 | MOONSCAPE | Desolate scene where love in poems can degenerate (9) |
| anagram (degenerate) of O (love) POEMS CAN | ||
| 11 | INTANGIBLE | Machinations of Belgian in Poirot ultimately impossible to grasp (10) |
| anagram (machinations) of BELGIAN IN and poiroT (ultimately, last letter of) | ||
| 12 | CALF | Knee higher – this lower? (4) |
| cryptic/double definition – lower than a knee and an animal that lows | ||
| 14 | See 25 | |
| 18 | See 28 | |
| 21 | GAIT | Step by entrance, we hear? (4) |
| sounds like (we hear) gate (entrance) | ||
| 22 | STARGAZING | Daydreaming male catching end of member on a zip (10) |
| STAG (male) containing (catching) membeR (end of) on A ZING (zip) | ||
| 25, 14 | PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER | Deduce how to make a square? (3,3,3,3,8) |
| 2 and 2 = 4 (a square number) | ||
| 26 | DHOTI | Indian garment pinned back by pandit – oh dear (5) |
| DHOTI found (pinned) reversed (back) inside pandIT – OH Dear | ||
| 27 | NANKEEN | Material in bread, sharp (7) |
| NAN (bread) and KEEN (sharp) | ||
| 28, 18 | ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT | Part of house in need of refurbishment? It could be better (4,3,11) |
| cryptic/double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 2 | DUNKIN DONUTS | Idiotic supporting cruel feeding swindle in fast food chain (6,6) |
| NUTS (idiotic) following UNKIND inside (feeding) DO (swindle) | ||
| 2 | See 1 | |
| 3 | INTONATION | Enthusiastic about country’s rise and fall? (10) |
| INTO (enthusiastic about) then NATION (country) | ||
| 4 | TEMPI | After a rise, police on good rates (5) |
| MET (police) reversed on PI (pious, good) | ||
| 5 | FOOTLOOSE | Moving freely, ankle screws removed? (9) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | LUSH | Sumptuous boozer (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 7 | HEADACHE | A bounder stood up amid laughter – why no sex tonight? (8) |
| A CAD (bounder) reversed (stood up) in HE HE (laughter) | ||
| 8 | TREE FERN | Bird circling ridge to find tropical plant (4,4) |
| TERN (bird) contains (circles) REEF (ridge) | ||
| 13 | WESTWARD HO! | A marked village showed wart, unfortunately (8,2) |
| anagram (unfortunately) of SHOWED WART. The name contains an exclamation mark, which invites debate as to whether the definition still stands as the exclamation mark is not part of the wordplay or the entered solution. | ||
| 15 | OVERTRAIN | Plain wet to practise excessively (9) |
| OVERt (plain) and RAIN (wet) | ||
| 16 | WINGSPAN | For example, tit measurement spawning novel (8) |
| anagram (novel) of SPAWNING | ||
| 17 | SPLIT TIN | Bread – Croatian money? (5,3) |
| SPLIT TIN might be money from Split, so Croatian money | ||
| 19 | TIP-OFF | Hint – problem with cue? (3-3) |
| double definition | ||
| 20 | UGLIER | One tucks into revolting gruel, less appealing (6) |
| I (one) inside anagram (revolting) GRUEL | ||
| 23 | RIDER | Qualification for Bellerophon, say? (5) |
| double definition – rider of Pegasus in Greek mythology | ||
| 24 | TWEE | Precious little deeper than bottom of pit (4) |
| WEE (little) underneath (deeper than) piT (bottom of) | ||
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 Paul and PeeDee.
re 1a. DA (duck’s arse) is a hairstyle where the hair at the back of the neck is quiffed(?) upwards to resemble a duck’s tail.
ps. That was my first ever submission to fifteensquared, and I’m in at No. 1!
Thanks Greensward, I had just found my dictionary was in the process of updating the blog as you were posting your comment. I might have been unsure about this except for it having “arse” in the definition which makes it a dead cert for Paul.
Thanks both. I thought that the “marked” in 13d referred to the exclamation mark, so the clue works for me
Thank you Paul and PeeDee.
I got all tied up with 1a, I entered DADAISM for ‘style’, then ‘warped’ it to DADAIST…
Favourite clues were those for RIDER and STARGAZING !
Many thanks Paul and PeeDee for help with a couple I could not parse. I know it is a bit of ‘the same old same old’ but I found this a touch easy for a Prize. Paul’s Thursday offering which was a lot more meaty would surely have been better suited. I particularly liked OVERTRAIN and DADAIST
Sancho Panza@6 – my thoughts exactly. Plenty of nice clues nevertheless and trademark Paulisms – 7d is worth a mention as well and I too liked RIDER.
Greensward@1 – I posted on 225 for the first time a few months ago and have been welcomed and felt at ease contributing. I hope you feel the same and become a regular if you have the inclination.
I enjoyed this. It took the best part of one hour to solve (without assistance) on a long-haul flight and was unquestionably the highlight of that trip.
I was stuck in the NW corner until I got lucky and managed to dredge up DUNKIN’ DONUTS from the depths of my memory, given only the ‘I’ and the ‘T’.
[I didn’t know that DUNKIN’ DONUTS was still going until I saw a kiosk serving their ‘donuts’ at Changi Airport, which is where my flight landed on Saturday.]
I didn’t like the first three across clues very much, and 28/18A was an unexpected double-CD more like a Rufus clue, but the rest of the puzzle showed off Paul’s range, and it was great fun.
I’m grateful to Greensward for explaining the DA in 1a DADAIST, and to Shirl for explaining ‘marked’ in 13d WESTWARD HO!, which I’m sure must be right.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. Enjoyable but easier than I expected. I needed help parsing DADAIST, and SPLIT TIN was new to me (though I did parse it). In 22ac the blog has STAG (make) not male.
Well spotted ACD, fixed now.
Duck’s Arse My Foot
17 Down
I thought was simply Croatian = Split (Croatian Town) and Money = Tin (Old word for money)
Didn’t really know about Westward Ho!, but it rang a bell, so biffed it. Words should not contain punctuation marks! it undermines the ability to use them in meaningful sentences.
Anyone got a clue for HEAR’SAY? And should that be (7), (8), or (4’3)?
WhiteKing@7 and Alan B@8
Thanks to you both for your comments, I feel welcome already. Looking forward to further participation.
A very user friendly Paul. Certainly more so than his puzzle this week but a Paul is always welcome as far as I’m concerned. I liked PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER and CALF.
Thanks Paul.
Thanks PeeDee. Only problem top left where it had to be a fast food outlet, and Google did the trick. Like the tit measurment and winced at the zip reference in 22A. Vintage Paul, rhanks mate.
I thought this was hard at the time but looking back on it now it is entirely fair and I wonder why it took me so long. I made the NW corner difficult by convincing myself 1a had to be ‘elitist’ an anagram of stile (style spoken) even though I couldn’t account for the extra t. I’d never heard of DUNKIN DONUT and had to consult Google so DADAIST was my LOI. I also spent some time looking at 22a after deciding STAG was made up by the first three and last letters and wondering what a gazin was.
Gosh, just checked, the COED gives for DA abbr. slang = DUCK’S ARSE – why the capitals?
Never heard of DA, although solved the clue without it. ‘Style’ is a bit broad for something clued as an abbreviation of a hairstyle. Had no hope with DUNKIN DONUTS. Thanks Pee Dee.
Didn’t know there was a town called WESTWARD HO! Wordplay fair though. Google led to a very interesting history of the town, and the Kingsley novel, and an earlier play before that.
Agree with Shirl @ 4 that the ‘marked’ village refers to the exclamation mark.
Aside from my GK deficits, I didn’t really enjoy this offering from Paul. Kind of a goldilocks meal, either too hard or too soft, and mostly clunky surfaces. Liked RIDER and MOONSCAPE.
WESTWARD HO! is marked as it contains an exclamation mark. WESTWARD HO! is also a town. My observation was that the solution WESTWARD HO (without the exclamation) is neither marked nor a town, so the definition and wordplay both come up short.
Non-alphabetic characters would normally be indicated in a blocked puzzle by the letter count (3-3) for example in 19dn, but I guess (8, 2!) would have been be too obvious so the exclamation mark has been missed out entirely.
I’m not really trying to say the clue is invalid, just ruminating on the problems of having names that contain punctuation.