A stylish start to the year from Crux.
Not the easiest Tuesday blog I’ve ever had, hardish but fair and with some very pleasing clues. Thanks, Crux, and a Happy New Year to all.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EXPOSURE | Trade fair certain to be feared by crooks (8) |
| EXPO (a ’trade fair’) + SURE (‘certain’). | ||
| 5 | FILL-IN | Substitute not quite satisfying hunger (4-2) |
| FILLINg (‘satisfying hunger’), shortened by 1 letter. | ||
| 9 | AT A PINCH | A measure to contain strike in an emergency (2,1,5) |
| A + INCH (a ‘measure’) contain TAP (‘strike’). | ||
| 10 | OPTIMA | The best things to choose with first-class degree (6) |
| OPT (‘choose’) + 1 (‘first class’) + MA (‘degree’). | ||
| 12 | LATHE | The Mill at Henley is partly Turner’s work (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘milL AT HEnley’. Nice surface. | ||
| 13 | ALEHOUSES | A dreadful hole employs old boozers (9) |
| A + anagram (‘dreadful’) of HOLE + USES (’employs’). | ||
| 14 | ARMFUL | Dangerous for Yorkshire folk but you can bear it (6) |
| I.e., hARMFUL as commonly pronounced in Yorks (and elsewhere). | ||
| 16 | ON PAPER | It could be written down in theory (2,5) |
| Double def, I‘ve decided. ‘Let’s get this thing [written down] on paper’. | ||
| 19 | ALFALFA | Twin boys arrive initially in Lucerne (7) |
| ALF + ALF + A[rrive]. I don’t know that I’ve seen this before, but it feels so wonderfully ‘crosswordy’ that I must have. | ||
| 21 | BHUTAN | Outlaw takes refuge in mountain country (6) |
| HUT (‘refuge’) in BAN (‘outlaw’). Smooth clue. | ||
| 23 | LIP-READER | Boss keeps a PR who can understand speech (3-6) |
| LEADER (‘boss’) contains 1 (‘a’) + PR. | ||
| 25 | TENON | Saw a danger for funambulists going backwards (5) |
| NO NET (reversed) being the riskiest way of tightrope-walking. | ||
| 26 | GORGON | Monster cheese a French writer avoided (6) |
| GORGONzola without Émile. | ||
| 27 | CAPTAINS | Army or Navy officers of unequal rank, oddly (8) |
| This is that occasional device, a straight clue whose crypticism is that it looks cryptic but isn’t. | ||
| 28 | TISANE | It’s possibly an English drink such as camomile tea (6) |
| Anagram (‘possibly’) of ITS + AN + E[nglish]. | ||
| 29 | UNDERFED | Friend due to run wild without one, like Oliver Twist? (8) |
| Anagram (‘to run wild’) of FRiEND DUE, without its I (‘one’ in Roman numerals). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENABLE | Allow what would be rational without its head (6) |
| tENABLE (‘rational’) without its 1st letter (‘head’). | ||
| 2, 24 | PLASTER OF PARIS | Opera star flips out – white powder implicated (7,2,5) |
| Anagram (‘out’) of 1st 3 words. | ||
| 3 | SEINE | Sensible sounding flower seen at 24 (5) |
| Homophone (‘sounding’) of ‘sane’ (‘sensible’), giving the river which ‘flows’ through Paris at 24 down. | ||
| 4 | ROCKALL | Astonish everyone in a tiny remote island (7) |
| ROCK ALL (‘astonish everyone’). | ||
| 6 | IMPROMPTU | I’m on time at university, yet unprepared (9) |
| IM + PROMPT + U[niversity]. | ||
| 7 | LAIRS | Places to hide from landlords when penniless (5) |
| LAIRdS (Scots ‘landlords‘) without D, symbol for old UK penny, hence ‘penniless’. | ||
| 8 | NOAHS ARK | Prototypal wildlife refuge (5,3) |
| Whole clue cryptic. | ||
| 11 | MEMO | Your setter needs a second reminder (4) |
| ME (‘setter’ in 1st person) + MO[ment], a ‘second’. Disconcertingly, literally as I typed MO it appeared in email alert because my missus MO[ira] wants toast and coffee. Scuse me a minute. | ||
| 15 | FALSE COIN | Legal tender? Not a bit of it! (5,4) |
| Jocular whole-clue cryptic, a ‘bit’ being a coin as in old threepenny- and sixpenny-bits. | ||
| 17 | PLAINTIFF | A simple falling-out with the defendant? On the contrary (9) |
| I.e., a ‘plain tiff’. | ||
| 18 | FANLIGHT | Some steps outside an upper window (8) |
| FLIGHT (of stairs, i.e. ‘some steps’) surrounds AN. | ||
| 20 | ADDS | Puts on assorted dishes Delia suggests, for starters (4) |
| 1st letters (‘for starters’) of words 3 to 6. | ||
| 21 | BARGAIN | A pub has to profit by a good deal (7) |
| BAR + GAIN. | ||
| 22 | UNUSED | Not familiar with the meaning of pristine (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 24 | See 2 | |
| 25 | TITHE | It goes up on the tenth (5) |
| IT reversed above THE. Another excellent little clue. | ||
*anagram
I’m surprised that there are as yet no other replies. Although it would spoil 12a’s surface, a lathe seems more a turner’s tool than his work. Otherwise, I enjoyed this somewhat offbeat puzzle and “stylish” is an excellent description. Thanks to you and Crux for your efforts on our behalf.
Thanks Crux and GB
Sasquach @ 1: I too was surprised at the lack of comments: maybe a sign of a good, solid and uncontroversial puzzle?
I was also a little bemused by 12, but according to Chambers LATHE can be a transitive verb, in which case I think the clue works, ie the turner works/lathes the piece of timber.
Until four or five years ago, Crux was one of the main setters of the Monday Prize.
Therefore, as its blogger I’ve seen quite a lot of Crux puzzles in my life. For some reason, I always had (and still have) a soft spot for his puzzles as he likes to step away from the middle of the road. In 2012, the well-known Flashling stood in for me on more than a couple of occasions (during the time of selling my house ‘over there’) and he sometimes compared Crux’s style to Dante’s. Something I found rather odd but to each his own. Anyway, in my Crux blogs I was regularly critical about his cryptic definitions which I thought were very much below par. Not much has changed: 27ac, 8d and 15d are all so-so.
But, apart from that, Crux is indeed a setter slightly off the beaten track (which I like).
I enjoyed the puzzle.
Thanks Grant.
Thanks Crux and Grant
Like Sil, I can remember this setter being in the regular Monday slot. Having moved from there, I notice that he has racheted up the degree of difficulty over recent times with this puzzle being close to the hardest that I’ve seen from him. It was a pleasure to do !
Whilst agreeing that 27a may have approached so-so status, I thought that was one of the better and trickier clues for NOAH’S ARK that I’ve seen for ages and the surface of 16d was worth it on its own.
That NOAH’S ARK was my second to last in with OPTIMA my last one.
Seasons greetings to all from the antipodes !!
I’d interpreted the breaking point of 22a as between “of” and “pristine”, myself. To each his own.
To Brian @5:
I’m happy to debate this all night (swot we all like to do) but…
In each case, there’s a missing preposition: ‘Not familiar with the meaning of…’ = not ‘unused’ but ‘unused to…’, I think. Likewise, ‘not famiiar’ = not ‘unused to’ but ‘unfamiliar with’, I think. Both are technically slightly unsatisfactory but what the hell, I plumped for the one because I had, literally, to draw the line somewhere. Good puzzle anyway, I thought.
Thanks to Crux and Grant Baynham. I took a while getting started, but only the “coin” in FALSE COIN gave me trouble. A good workout.