A straightforward puzzle this weekend. All good, thank you Philistine.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ARTISTS | Dire Straits appearing in Cairo, Lichtenstein and Monaco, among others (7) |
| anagram (dire) of STRAITS – Roy Lichenstein, Lorenzo Monaco and Francesco Cairo are artists | ||
| 5 | ENGLAND | Ultimately, the swollen thyroid may be in a state (7) |
| last letters (ultimately) of thE swolleN then GLAND (thyroid perhaps) | ||
| 9, 16 | ADULT MATERIAL | Erotica in a little drama you finally produced (5,8) |
| anagram (produced) of A LITTLE DRAMA and yoU (final letter of) | ||
| 10 | ENCOURAGE | Anger about half-cousin getting boost (9) |
| ENRAGE (anger) containing (about) COUsin (half of) | ||
| 11 | TABULA RASA | An Arab sultan, ignoring northern borders, turns a clean slate (6,4) |
| anagram (turns) of An ARAB SULTAn missing NortherN (bordering letters of) | ||
| 12 | EYES | Viewers at last safe and all right (4) |
| safE (last letter of) and YES (all right) | ||
| 14 | DISTRIBUTION | Disk tribute in one endless spread (12) |
| DISk TRIBUTe In ONe (all endless) | ||
| 18 | ACHIEVEMENTS | Even a chemist falsified results (12) |
| anagram (falsified) of EVEN A CHEMIST | ||
| 21 | EVER | Woman right at all times (4) |
| EVE (a woman) and R (right) | ||
| 22 | PALIMPSEST | Skipping the introduction, brief look into past rewritten manuscript (10) |
| gLIMPSE (brief look) missing first letter (skipping the introduction) inside PAST | ||
| 25 | INTERVENE | Get involved with gross revenue unit? Not us! (9) |
| anagram (gross) of REVENuE uNIT missing U U (us, two Us) | ||
| 26 | IDEAL | Perfect trader declaration (5) |
| a trader may declare “I DEAL” | ||
| 27 | LENIENT | Soft option, finally, that is stopping fast (7) |
| optioN (final letter) IE (that is) inside (stopping) LENT (fast) | ||
| 28 | TODDLER | Barber and clerk stripped youngster (7) |
| TODD (Sweeny Todd, barber) and cLERk (stripped, not outer letters) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ADAPTS | Makes adjustments to suitable cutting plugs (6) |
| APT (suitable) inside ADS (plugs) | ||
| 2 | THUMBS | Tom’s hitches, when all clumsy (6) |
| triple definition – Tom Thumb’s, hitch hikes and “all thumbs” | ||
| 3 | SATELLITES | They go round the globe finding little trouble in rising oceans (10) |
| anagram (trouble) of LITTLE in SEAS (oceans) reversed (rising) | ||
| 4 | STEER | Cattle drive (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 5 | EXCESSIVE | Too much sex service right away is wrong (9) |
| anagram (is wrong) of SEX SErVICE missing R (right) | ||
| 6 | GAUL | Bitterness expressed in France once (4) |
| sounds like (expressed) “gall” (bitterness) | ||
| 7 | ANALYSIS | Obsessive on why they say relative having breakdown (8) |
| ANAL (obsessive) on Y sounds like (they say) why and then SIS (relative) | ||
| 8 | DRESSING | Putting on clothes — something saucy? (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 13 | MULTIPLIED | Cross, nearly deceived over clue that’s reproduced (10) |
| MULe (cross, nearly) LIED (deceived) containing (over) TIP (clue) | ||
| 15 | THE LATEST | News of athletes running around junction (3,6) |
| anagram (running) of ATHLETES containing (around) T (junction) | ||
| 16 | See 9 | |
| 17 | THREATEN | Use intimidation in theatre with rising right national leader (8) |
| THEATRE with R (right) moved up the way then National (leading letter of) | ||
| 19 | REPEAL | Once again, ring to cancel (6) |
| RE (once again,as prefix) PEAL (ring) | ||
| 20 | STALER | Winter’s Tale remake’s not as fresh (6) |
| found inside (‘s, belonging to) winterS TALE Remake | ||
| 23 | INEPT | Awkward patient not at fault (5) |
| anagram (fault) of PatIENT missing AT | ||
| 24 | FREE | With nothing to do for love (4) |
| double definition | ||
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.
Philistine 3 Feb 18
Thanks PeeDee. All good and as you say straightforward. 1A was nice, when it at last revealed itself, bringing to mind a favourite Cairo painting <a href=”https://nga.gov.au/theitalians/Detail.cfm?IRN=161245&ViewID=2″>cleopatra</a> That left the two long ones in the bottom right: befogged by cross=mul- in 13D but the answer was clear.
: https://nga.gov.au/theitalians/Detail.cfm?IRN=161245&ViewID=2
That left the two long ones in the bottom right: befogged by cross=mul- in 13D but the answer was clear.
<a href=”https://nga.gov.au/theitalians/Detail.cfm?IRN=161245&ViewID=2″>Cairo</a>
The HTML tags are as follows: <a href=”full URL“>display text</a> so if you input <a href=”http://www.fifteensquared.net/”>15² link</a> you will get the result 15² link.
sorry – can’t do the hyperlink nice and concisely
I confess i hadn’t heard of Cairo or Monaco as artists but Lichtenstein is well known even to me so 1ac no problem. But I couldn’t parse MUL and had to await the blog to see it. But overall an easy but enjoyable solve.
Thanks to Philistine and PeeDee. I had much better luck with this puzzle than with several others during the past week. I too did not get the mul(e)-cross for MULTIPLE (though the answer was clear), took a while before seeing “us” as 2 x u, and FREE was my LOI. Very enjoyable.
Thanks to Philistine and PeeDee. I also found this straightforward but pleasant. I hadn’t heard of artists Monaco or Cairo either but fortunately Roy L’s surname is missing an e, so that pointed the way.
I think you have definition and anagrind reversed at 23dn.
I thought this was rather bland for a prize puzzle, and I barely remember doing it. The ‘thumb’ clue was a very fine triple, and ‘palimpsest’ was an answer you don’t see every day, but the rest lacked the outrageous wordplay we usually get from the Guardian.
I had to check the spelling for 22a PALIMPSEST although the wordplay helped me to be sure (to be sure). There is a Palimpsest Arts Festival held in our state of Victoria in a regional city called Mildura on the River Murray, where my Dad was born, which is how I knew the word. I kept trying to fit RECALL into 19d but was pretty certain about 26a IDEAL, and eventually the penny dropped, or the bell rang!!! and I saw it must be REPEAL.
I liked 27a LENIENT, 28a TODDLER, 2d THUMBS, 6d GAUL, 13d MULTIPLIED (despite not parsing MUL either) and 234d FREE. Pleased to see Dire Straits getting a mention in 1a, albeit with “Dire” merely acting as an anagram: Mark Knopfler is one of my favourite artists.
Many thanks to Philistine and PeeDee. A good puzzle with enough challenge to keep me on my toes.
Great puzzle from Philistine! And I was right, there was a triple definition clue in this one. I somehow thought there was one in the last Prize puzzle, but I must have misread it the first time. MULTIPLIED was my LOI(if I remember correctly), and PALIMPSEST was a new word for me. Also. I tried to look up Cairo and Monaco the ARTISTS, but I never could find them. Lichtenstein I knew already. In fact, the geographic location is actually spelled Liechtenstein with an extra E, so that was sort of a “mini-giveaway”, you might say. Great wordplay in this puzzle. I was almost afraid I’d have to know the name of some X-rated movie or something for ADULTMATERIAL, and “us” for U’s did throw me off at first in the INTERFERE clue, although INTERFERE was my first guess but then I almost changed it to INTERVENE. Good thing I changed it back! All in all, another great Prize puzzle! Keep up the good work, Philistine!
Weekly opportunity for this slowcoach to participate in the chat here. I really enjoyed this and was about the right level for me. Being something of a philistine myself I had to go away and check all of the artists in 1a, as well as PALIMPSEST and TABULA RASA but only after putting the answers in (honest!)
Glad I wasn’t the only one not to get MUL-, the other I hadn’t parsed was FREE and I’m still not 100% sure I get it – is the second definition in the sense of ‘free love’?
I guessed INTERFERE for 25a and couldn’t parse it. Now I know why.
Thanks Philistine and PeeDee
Not much to say, though I loved the “us” meaning “two Us” in 25a.
Lorenzo Monaco is very interesting – he is at the cusp between medieval and renaissance art. I’ve seen it suggested elsewhere that “Dire Straits?” would have been a more concise clue for ARTISTS, as they are themselves.
Like nobby@9, I can’t see how FREE means ‘for love’. I guess you can do something for free/love but I’m not convinced.
Thanks to Philistine and PeeDee. I agree with the above, a nice puzzle and a steady solve. Tabula rasa went in straightaway because it was one of the underlying principles of the behaviourist movement in psychology. Last one in palimpsest. Never heard of the word but once the limpse went in in was just a matter of finding how to fit the anagram of past. Favourites for me were the clever artists and adult material. Thanks again to Philistine and PeeDee.
Thanks for the blog. I don’t see how FREE is particularly for love either… surely if you are free then you are for all sorts of things.
The rest was fairly straightforward although I had MUL for cross (as in “x” or cross shortened to MUL for multiply) which conveniently ignored the “nearly”.
Thanks, PeeDee and Philistine.
Nothing to add to the plaudits, except that I can’t see the problem with 24dn: to do something ‘for love’ is to do it for nothing, or ‘free’. [It’s in Collins: ‘for love – without payment’.]
I knew Lichtenstein but I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t notice the missing E- I view vaguely remember Monaco as an artist too. Cairo, on the other hand, I’d never heard of, but as the answer was clearly ARTISTS, he had to be one.
The puzzle as a whole was enjoyable enough but it was quite a quick solve which left me wondering if I’d missed something!
Thanks Philistine.
KLColin @5 – thanks for point that out, my fault. Inept of me.
Ah thanks Eileen and Hovis – I was caught up thinking is was something to do with free love in the hippy sense. That makes sense – glad I asked!
PeeDee — Ithink “with” is included in the definition of INTERVENE. (I had INTERFERE and couldn’t make sense of it.)
Nice puzzle – I wasn’t sure whether it was GALL or GAUL to go in at 6d, had to wait for a crosser. And I was just a teeny bit worried about ENGLAND being a ‘state’? Ouch!
Liked the triple definition for THUMBS. And FREE evoked memories of the immortal Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served: “Are you free?” “I’m free!” 🙂
Thanks to Philistine and PD.
Surprisingly easy for a Prize, but very nicely clued. I got about twenty on first pass. ARTISTS wasn’t one of those, however. Despite seeing the anagram I didn’t recognise the artists’ names (although I have heard of Roy L), so felt unsure. I agree “Dire Straits?” alone would have been a good clue, too.
Good point from Laccaria about state for ENGLAND, although it has been one in the past, I suppose? As for GALL/GAUL, I thought the position of “in” resolved it.
21a, EVER made me laugh.
When I expressed concern about ENGLAND being a ‘state’, I was speculating about it becoming the ‘fifty-first’. Or would that be ‘fifty-second’? Double-Ouch!!!!