Sorry about the lateness of this blog. But it is Christmas, after all.
Hoskins referred to this puzzle the other day, suggesting that it wasn’t going to be easy; I was very concerned, remembering how difficult he can be: I am one of the slower solvers around but I hardly ever fail to solve crosswords eventually, although the time taken can be embarrassing. However, shortly after Hoskins started to set for the Sunday Times he inflicted on us what was the hardest crossword I have ever done and I had to admit defeat. (But it was football-themed, so that’s my excuse.)
But this one was not in the same league, ho-ho. It was a very pleasant crossword, easily accessible, and with a whole lot of excellent clues. Over the years there must have been a vast number of Christmas-themed crosswords, but without my looking back at them all, I’d say confidently that many of these clues used ideas that have never been used before.
Definitions underlined in maroon; anagram indicators in italics.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PACE ONESELF | Go steadily or make your Xmas worker walk up and down? (4,7) |
| pace one’s elf | ||
| 7 | RED | Flipping costly to lose article like Santa’s suit (3) |
| (de{a}r)rev. | ||
| 9 | EVENING | How Carol says snow settles in Freiburg finally around 6pm? (7) |
| even in {Freibur}g — “deep and crisp and even” | ||
| 10 | HOORAYS | After snarfing food endlessly, husband beams and cheers (7) |
| h ({f}oo{d}) rays | ||
| 11 | EATS | Worries escalate after turkey’s served for starters (4) |
| e{scalate} a{fter} t{urkey’s} s{erved} | ||
| 12 | POINSETTIA | Bloomer associated with Xmas in Thailand misbehaving with opiates (10) |
| (in T opiates)* | ||
| 14 | THUSLY | In this way son left Boxing Day party at the end? On the contrary! (6) |
| Thu{rsday} (S L) {part}y — Boxing is an inclusion indicator, and since it’s ‘on the contrary’, it’s (Thu y} which is boxing (S L) rather than the reverse — yes, the word does exist (in Collins at any rate although not in Chambers) although I can’t think why, since it seems to mean exactly the same as thus | ||
| 15 | REINDEER | Hot duke chasing soldiers? Always a few on the pull at Xmas! (8) |
| RE in [= hot] d. eer | ||
| 18 | FESTIVAL | Around four, cook large feast for Christmas Day? (8) |
| (l feast)* round IV | ||
| 19 | PSALMS | No substance in pious charity songs like Millennium Prayer? (6) |
| p{iou}s alms — Millennium Prayer, about which I was rather vague, was a single by Cliff Richard which was the Christmas No. 1 in 1999, which was hardly a psalm I imagine, so presumably there is a looser connection to psalms | ||
| 22 | OPHTHALMIC | After losing head, Catholic MP drunkenly wins hearts of viewers (10) |
| ({C}atholic MP)* round H | ||
| 24 | BRRR | Three Republicans put on first side of Baby, It’s Cold Outside! (4) |
| B{aby} R R R — yes there really is such a word: it’s in Chambers and Collins | ||
| 26 | ROLLING | Heaving pub expends its last gallon after large Latin men returned (7) |
| (in{n} g) after (L L OR)rev. | ||
| 27 | TABLEAU | Scene in story about Balthazar originally taking gold (7) |
| ta(B{althazar})le Au | ||
| 28 | TOY | Lad loses head after the opening of this! (3) |
| t{his} {b}oy, &lit., very nice clue although to be picky one doesn’t open a toy, and you don’t know that the lad is going to lose his head, so perhaps the exclam could have been a question mark instead | ||
| 29 | ENTERPRISES | Endeavours to go in for things one might win on radio (11) |
| enter “prizes”, ‘on radio’ indicating the homophone | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PRESENT | Give out something you might want to receive this Xmas (7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 2 | CHESTNUTS | Xmas food box with bit of tuck that student group wraps (9) |
| chest NU(t{uck})S | ||
| 3 | ODIN | God is love? That’s a racket! (4) |
| 0 din | ||
| 4 | EGGNOG | American’s Xmas drink finished up? Turned out Greg tucked into it! (6) |
| G{re}g in (gone)rev. — gone = finished in the sense “Since he was hit on the grille of his helmet, Broad as a batsman is gone” | ||
| 5 | ENHANCED | Nurse with bad acne hospital department initially made better (8) |
| EN (acne h)* d{epartment} — and nowhere the expected ENT | ||
| 6 | FROZENNESS | State of severe cold affected one’s ferns, head of zoo held (10) |
| (one’s ferns)* round z{oo} | ||
| 7 | ROAST | Queen has browned bread with no topping for Xmas dinner? (5) |
| R {t}oast | ||
| 8 | DESPAIR | Abandon hope (especially after daughter gets gas) (7) |
| d esp. air | ||
| 13 | SLEIGH RIDE | Having saved one grand, relished travelling for Xmas jaunt? (6,4) |
| (1 g) in (relished)* | ||
| 16 | ENLARGERS | They make shots bigger in flipping Tyneside (and beers with drop of rye in there!) (9) |
| (NE)rev. la(r{ye})gers — enlargers as in photographic enlargers, which maks shots [= photos] bigger | ||
| 17 | FANLIGHT | Xmas illumination not well-ventilated? A knight should open that window (8) |
| f{airy} light round (a N) — N = knight in chess notation | ||
| 18 | FOOT ROT | Sheepish complaint climbing hill and also peak of fells (4,3) |
| (tor too f{ells})rev. — I took it on trust that there is a complaint of sheep called foot rot | ||
| 20 | SPROUTS | Bit of rust in jet on small wind generators this time of year? (7) |
| sp(r{ust})out s — referring to the flatulence that is apparently generated by sprouts | ||
| 21 | WINTER | Victor half-heartedly bears temperature in the cold season (6) |
| win{n}(t)er | ||
| 23 | HOLLY | Xmas decoration completely lacking in width (5) |
| {w}holly | ||
| 25 | UBER | Transportation company over in Germany (4) |
| 2 defs; ‘over’ in German is über | ||
*anagram
Found this pretty simple but fun. FANLIGHT took a bit of thought. For 28a, I took T to be ‘the’ opening but either way can work. Thanks to all.
Yes, a nice pleasant solve but we couldn’t parse FANLIGHT properly. We didn’t think of ‘fairylight’ but thought of ‘fan light’ meaning ‘short of fans’ and hence poorly ventilated – but obviously couldn’t see the relevance of ‘Xmas’ or how a knight came into it.
We liked the topical reference in 25dn – intentional or just coincidence?
Favourites were POINSETTIA and SPROUTS
Thanks, Hoskins and John.
THUSLY is in Chambers 13th edition, though it does suggest its use is ‘often facetious’.
Took me a little while to work out the parsing of 14a & 17d but not such as tough solve as Harry had led us to understand. Presumably he believes that Christmas is not the time for his usual brand of humour – definitely short on sex, drugs and Rock’nRoll!
I wonder whether Harry ever takes his own advice (1a)? Somehow I suspect that it comes under the heading of ‘paved with good intentions’!
Many thanks to Hoskins and to John – belated festive wishes to you both.
For me the best Xmassy puzzle of the year, possibly ever. Thanks Hoskins and John. I hope you all had a good day yesterday and enjoy the rest of the season too.
Happy Christmas to John, Hoskins and everyone else reading the blog.
A very entertaining themed puzzle to solve over the festive period. We laughed at SPROUTS – none on our plates at Christmas as no-one ever really likes them. Early on we thought that ‘a few on the pull’ may have something to do with crackers – again something missing at our Christmas dinner now that Joyce’s father died in February. He was the only one who wore the hat all afternoon and laughed at the ‘jokes’!
Thanks again.
great fun and a mensh for Freiburg….cool.
Happy Xmas, thanks to H&J
Had problems doing this but I’m a bit under the weather. Great fun to finish though. Hah Rob saw Freiburg and thought it must be aimed at you. Cheers HH and John for the blog.
Good fun, with PACE ONESELF alone worth the entry fee.
Thanks to Hoskins and to John for blogging. Festive wishes to all.
A fun puzzle which I did in 2 sessions before and after tea. THUSLY was new to me but seemed likely enough. I always struggle to spell OPHTHALMIC, but a choice between T and H as the first letter of 23d gave me both clues. POINSETTIA was my LOI after correcting 8d from DESPPAR to DESPAIR. Loved PACE ONESELF, and SPROUTS gave me a laugh. Thanks Harry and John.
Many thanks to John for a super blog and to all Indy bloggers and solvers who have done and/or commented on the Indy puzzles throughout the year. Lots of great stuff to come from us lot in 2018 so I hope you’ll join us then – and also for the few remaining days of 2017, of course! Only remains for me to say Happy Xmas to all and hope everyone has a great New Year full of the things you want and less of the things you don’t.
Cheers and chin chin from a rather drunken Boxing Day Harry (who, needless to say Jane @4, didn’t take his own advice). 🙂
Came belatedly to this as couldn’t really access the indie crosswords online. Help from bertandjoyce with an app has solved that, and this puzzle was lovely froth. Thanks for parsing fanlight, which was buffed. Sprouts promoted a chortle here too.