So farewell, then, 2017 … as E J Thribb would say.
And on the last day of the year, Morph is saying farewell to a number of people who died in 2017. The clue is in 22ac: ADIEU, with the surface hinting at what is elsewhere among the solutions. There are 11 ‘prominent characters’ mentioned:
Tony BOOTH, actor and father-in-law to Tony Blair
Colin DEXTER, creator of Morse (and big crossword fan)
Bruce FORSYTH, entertainer
Helmut KOHL, German Chancellor
Fats DOMINO, American rock and roll star
Liz DAWN, Corrie actress who played Vera Duckworth
Tom PETTY, of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fame
John HURT, one of the greatest actors of his generation, or any generation for that matter
Michael BOND, children’s author, most famous for creating Paddington Bear
Lord SNOWDON, photographer and sometime husband of Princess Margaret
Joni SLEDGE, American singer-songwriter and founder of Sister Sledge.
Did I spot the theme by myself? What do you think?
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
7 Goody-goody interrupting, I suppose
OPINE
First clue; my LOI. I got fixated with separating out the two parts of ‘goody-goody’, but you didn’t have to: it’s simply PI (short for ‘pious’ and only ever encountered in crosswords) in ONE for ‘I’.
8 Can US city with eyesore on outskirts see arterial congestion as a result of it?
BLOOD CLOT
An insertion of LOO for ‘can’, US slang for ‘lavatory’ and (Washington) DC for the ‘US city’ in BLOT.
10 Tense rowing team losing lead, caught by one having two extra crew?
TIGHTEN
An insertion of [E]IGHT in TEN, since a crew with two extra oars would be a TEN and not an EIGHT.
11 What’s the point in pig put on mountain?
SNOWDON
The Welsh peak is a charade of N inserted into SOW followed by DON for ‘put on’.
12 Strange dam on Dee
WEIRD
A charade of WEIR and D for the letter ‘Dee’.
13 Samples plant in back street
TASTERS
An insertion of ASTER in ST reversed.
17 Unfolding vista – troops, be on lookout
OBSERVATION POST
(VISTA TROOPS BE ON)*
20 Devilled cutlet with ‘reduction’ of endive leaves
LETTUCE
A charade of (CUTLET)* and E. I suppose Morph is using ‘reduction’ to get rid of all but one of the letters in ‘endive’ ([ENDIV]E or E[NDIVE], take your pick) in the cooking sense: if you ‘reduce’ a sauce then you boil it until it’s nearly all disappeared. Don’t try to reduce endive in this way though.
22 Farewell all, distinguished individuals exiting – universally prominent characters
ADIEU
The first letters of the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth words of the clue.
26 They may be shaped using basins or a dish, badly
HAIRDOS
(OR A DISH)* A pudding basin haircut is not an attractive look, imho. This is as good as it gets.
27 More air needs to circulate in cupboard
ARMOIRE
(MORE AIR)* gives you the French word for a wardrobe, used in English for that, or a cupboard.
28 Craft beer turning bad – atmospheric gases rising
REBELLION
A charade of (BEER)*, ILL reversed, and O and N for oxygen and nitrogen, the main components of air.
29 Nearly time when one retires?
NIGHT
A charade of NIGH and T.
Down
1 Kick heading over rugby posts perhaps for ticket office
BOOTH
A charade of BOOT for ‘kick’ ‘over’ (since it’s a down clue) H for ‘rugby posts’. The H bit, reflecting the shape of the posts, is becoming increasingly common, I think.
2 Do karaoke? Why not in undergarments!
SINGLETS
I could think of a number of reasons why not, but it’s a play on words: SING? LET’S!
3 Right to stop accepting wrong?
DEXTER
Took me ages to get this. Good clue though. An insertion of X for ‘wrong’ in DETER for ‘stop’. From the Latin word for ‘right’ (as opposed to left, SINISTER).
4 Cultivate soft, hairy plant
FORSYTHIA
(SOFT HAIRY)*
5 Harass one who’s in vehicle going downhill?
SLEDGE
Kind of a cd cum dd, I think, otherwise I can’t make it work. SLEDGE for ‘harass’ is a term peculiar to cricket. I have tried to find out the origin of the usage, but I’m not convinced by any of the explanations. SLEDGING is intimidating a batsman verbally, often in a personal way, to put him off his game. There are many famous examples, most of which are far too rude to reproduce here.
Edit: as Toni L and swatty point out, it’s just a dd. The two separate definitions are ‘harass one who’s in’ and ‘vehicle going downhill’.
6 Amazeballs? The reverse!
STUN
A lift & separate clue. You need to do that to ‘amazeballs’ to give you ‘amaze’ and ‘balls’. If you ‘reverse’ NUTS, which is a synonym for ‘balls’, you get STUN, which is a synonym for ‘amaze’. ‘Amazeballs’ is a word: it’s slang for ‘extremely good or impressive’. Morph is so down with the kids these days.
8 Carbon dioxide’s attraction
BOND
Hidden in carBON Dioxide. The inclusion indicator is ‘has’, indicated by the apostrophe S.
9 Calls on to abandon evil
DROPS IN
Well, to ‘abandon evil’ you’d need to DROP SIN, wouldn’t you?
14 Place where what’s seen is heard
SITE
A homophone of SIGHT.
15 Cosmetic I extracted from fish raised on lake
KOHL
If, like me, you’d never heard of – or forgotten – HOKI and KOHL, you might have struggled. The setter is asking you to invert HOK[I] and add L.
16 Risks a wet upset?
WATER-SKIS
(RISKS A WET)* with an extended definition.
18 Ruled on corrupt ring
ROUNDEL
(RULED ON)*
19 Love to write and sing chaotic overtures
OPENINGS
A charade of O, PEN and (SING)* with ‘chaotic’ as the anagrind.
21 Go to put one pound in hat
TRILBY
An insertion of I LB in TRY.
23 It’s used in game theory
DOMINO
A dd. I couldn’t remember what exactly the theory was about; if you are interested, it is explained here.
24 Martial artist, having gained weight, to start getting lighter
DAWN
An insertion of W in DAN.
25 Mean cutie runs away
PETTY
P[R]ETTY
26 Injure end of finger in chalet
HURT
An insertion of R for the last letter of ‘finger’ in HUT.
Many thanks to Morph for this Sunday’s puzzle. My last blog of 2017, so thanks to all who’ve contributed to them and made crossword life more interesting and educational.
Nicely done Morph and Pierre
5d I think is just a dd, Harass one who’s “in”
Just right for a Sunday. I didn’t spot the theme, as usual. I must take a few moments to contemplate the completed grid before rushing off to this blog to check my parsings.
I’m also not familiar with the DOMINO theory, but I do know hoki (aka blue grenadier). I particularly liked DEXTER.
I agree with Toni @1 re the cricket reference in 5d, which makes the clue work so much better. Thinking of things said during a cricket match led me to this collection of Brian Johnston’s commentary clangers. I defy anyone to listen to the first clip and not need a hanky.
Did not notice the theme either, so thanks Pierre (or your adviser). Enjoyable puzzle, which at first I thought was a bit tougher than usual for Sunday, but soon warmed to it. LOI was DEXTER.
Agree with two earlier commenters about 5D, but did not see this until I read them.
8D I don’t think the ‘s is a contraction of “has”, it’s just a possessive ‘s, BOND being the “attraction” of carbon dioxide; or does that mean something’s doing double duty?
Anyway thanks to Morph for the fun and Pierre for the blog. Assume the other commenters above are also from down under; hope it doesn’t annoy UK/European solvers that the time difference means we can get in first. I usually postpone comments until later. Now 2.10 pm Australian Central Daylight Saving Time.
Thanks, Toni and swatty – the cricket SLEDGE makes sense the way you have parsed it; I have amended the blog. I don’t think any of us Poms have a problem with our Antipodean friends having first dibs on the blog. Just let’s not talk about the cricket (although thank you for the Johnners’ clips, swatty).
Thanks to Morph for the workout and to Pierre for the explanations. Wish I had spotted the theme – it would have made PETTY easier to get. As it is, I ended up using a word fit until I spotted something that worked. Not used to PRETTY as a noun, although Gollum used it a lot. Didn’t know HOKI but did know KOHL, so not hard to get. I wondered if the E in 20a came from END IVE, i.e. end of ive, but can’t see how ‘reduction’ translates’ to a separation. Why is it in inverted commas though? Nice way to end the year.
Thanks to Morph and Pierre; great puzzle nicely done.
@swatty
Re theme spotting etc. (Need to be careful since last time I raised this subject it unleashed the hounds of hell). Rather than look at the completed grid, might I suggest that you look at it naked, as it were? With all due homage to Morph, this is not a thing of beauty and it must be that way for a reason. The Indy is the only main publisher which allows compilers free(ish) rein with grid design.
Happy new year to everyone
Thanks for the blog. Morph wins – we managed every Indy crossword this holiday week but failed on the top right of this one and had to admit defeat on booth and opine. And of course didn’t see the theme (but it wouldn’t have helped).
I meant to pleat of course
Or even top left
No, I didn’t spot the theme despite having solved a rather more complex puzzle in another place yesterday which had exactly the same theme and contained several of the same answers! It was only 11a that rang a bell………
Very proud of myself, however, for remembering the H in 1d although the cricket reference in 5d went over my head.
Top three for me were 29a plus 9&14d.
Thanks to Hovis for the reminder of Gollum – I was going to query pretty=cutie.
Wishing Morph, Pierre and everyone else on the blog a very happy New Year – enjoy whichever way you choose to celebrate this evening.
No, we didn’t spot the theme either, although the grid design screamed nina and/or theme and we wondered if the top and bottom unches were going to spell out HAPPY NEW YEAR – which is what we’ll wish everybody and refrain from further comment…
… except to thank Morph and Pierre, not forgetting Gaufrid who keeps the site going and us in order.
For a change, I did spot the theme, but still failed to get several answers at the end.
HNY all.
Yes gwep @3, you rightly deduce that I’m also down under, though half an hour ahead of you in AEDST (GMT+11), making it half-way through the first day of 2018. So on summer weekends and holidays this means I think of 11am as crossword and cuppa time.
Thanks baerchen @6, I didn’t know that about grid construction. Now that you mention it, this grid is indeed unusual. I was expecting a new year’s theme but because those being farewelled here mostly had ordinary words as names (and I was only aware of about half of them anyway), none of them triggered anything for me. FORSYTHIA and SNOWDON were amongst my last in and by then I’d forgotten all about a potential theme.
Thanks Pierre – we struggled with the parsing for SLEDGE so thanks for the explanation. We’re not great fans of cricket but we did enjoy the clips swatty. We also struggled with OPINE and DEXTER. Had we spotted the theme it may have helped.
Despite spending some time looking for a theme we were completely stumped so thanks to Pierre again.
Thanks Morph – We’re still enjoying your book!
After getting lulled into a false sense of security I found some of this distinctly tricky and cheated a weeny bit.
Thanks Morph and Pierre and a Very Happy New Year to all.
Thanks Pierre, and all of you – and a very Happpy New Year.