A great work-out from Crosophile today.
It was only when we wrote up the blog that we realised there is a theme here (although we do expect one in a Tuesday Indy). We (and everyone else, it seems) missed the theme in Crosophile’s last puzzle – this one is a little more obvious, but as with the best themes, it was not necessary to identify the thematic entries in order to complete the puzzle.
The twelve thematic entries we have identified are shaded green below – they are all games that are (or can be) played indoors – five are card games. We found 19ac, 28ac and 23d by checking alternative meanings in Chambers. Great clue for 23d!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Bloody paperwork, huge amount where trials are conducted (9) | |
| BADMINTON | B (bloody, as a swear word) ADMIN (paperwork) TON (huge amount) – a reference to the Badminton Horse Trials | |
| 6 | Violin returns for fast movements (5) | |
| DARTS | STRAD (Stradivarius – violin) reversed or ‘returning’ | |
| 9 | Power units seeing delays after I left for short time (5) | |
| WATTS | WA |
|
| 10 | Unfolding sales opportunity for a racecourse (9) | |
| NEWMARKET | A NEW MARKET could be an ‘unfolding sales opportunity’ | |
| 11 | Over half in area around 10 reserve for do (7) | |
| SUFFICE | ‘Over half’ of SUFF |
|
| 12 | Georgian post-Reformation clergymen left mass out (7) | |
| REGENCY | An anagram of C |
|
| 13 | Very depressed hearing such a piece? (4) | |
| SOLO | A homophone (‘hearing’) of SO LOW (very depressed) | |
| 14 | Spurs mess up tie with rioting (9) | |
| IMPETUSES | An anagram of MESS UP TIE – anagrind is ‘rioting’ | |
| 17 | Utterly heartless he plans to break inside – this is not pretty (9) | |
| UNSHAPELY | U |
|
| 19 | Where water flows in the open ocean (4) | |
| MAIN | Water flows in a MAIN | |
| 22 | Oil platform put back in position surrounded by the briny (7) | |
| SEAGIRT | RIG (oil platform) reversed or ‘put back’ in SEAT (position) | |
| 24 | Where to find eggs when heading off to a supermarket (7) | |
| HENCOOP | ||
| 26 | Legal document needed for one new false tooth? (9) | |
| INDENTURE | I (one) N (new) DENTURE (false tooth) | |
| 27 | Sharp-witted bogus doctor after one-to-one heart transplant (5) | |
| QUICK | QU |
|
| 28 | Bird moves tail around to protect egg (5) | |
| GOOSE | GOES (moves) with the last two letters or ‘tail’ reversed or ‘around’ round or ‘protecting’ O (egg) | |
| 29 | He’s driven to overtake green convertible (9) | |
| PASSENGER | PASS (overtake) + an anagram of GREEN – anagrind is ‘convertible’ | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Flipping layabout drinking whiskey in basins (5) | |
| BOWLS | SLOB (layabout) reversed or ‘flipping’ round or ‘drinking’ W (whiskey in the phonetic alphabet) | |
| 2 | Conscientious lord holding Athletic and United up (7) | |
| DUTIFUL | LUD (lord) round or ‘holding’ FIT (athletic) and U (united) all reversed or ‘up’ | |
| 3 | Implant – it’s left in accidentally (6) | |
| INSTIL | An anagram of IT’S L (left) IN – anagrind is ‘accidentally’ | |
| 4 | Fruit with a sharper taste, one left for later and nine cored (9) | |
| TANGERINE | TANGIER (with a sharper taste) with the ‘I’ (one) moved to the end or ‘left for later’ + N |
|
| 5 | Norse jug? Or more recent? (5) | |
| NEWER | N (Norse) EWER (jug) | |
| 6 | Doses of medicine from medic, anything at all with sulphur (8) | |
| DRAUGHTS | DR (medic) AUGHT (anything at all) S (sulphur) | |
| 7 | From what we gather family is in tatters (7) | |
| RAKINGS | KIN (family) in RAGS (tatters) | |
| 8 | Clock adjusted? Quite a long time to hang around (3,4,2) | |
| SET EYES ON | SET (adjusted) + YES (quite) with EON (a long time) ‘hanging’ around | |
| 13 | Do the vocals when full of scotch and jamming (9) | |
| SQUASHING | SING (do the vocals) round or ‘full of’ QUASH (scotch) | |
| 15 | These changes in the country of France, they show what’s due to the workers (9) | |
| PAYSHEETS | An anagram of THESE (anagrind is ‘changes’) in PAYS (French for ‘country’) | |
| 16 | Coppers catching group in piratical centre in G & S opera (8) | |
| PATIENCE | PENCE (coppers) round or ‘catching’ the middle or ‘central’ letters or ‘group’ in ‘pirATIcal’. We suspect that we may not be alone in spending time trying to figure out why this should be Penzance – as in the ‘Pirates of….’ but we couldn’t get the ‘NZA’ and it wouldn’t work with the ‘A’ from 17ac. A google check confirmed that there is a Gilbert and Sullivan opera called ‘Patience’ | |
| 18 | Average as well as, at heart, a vaguely unpleasant person (2-3-2) | |
| SO-AND-SO | SO-SO (average) with AND (as well as) in the middle or ‘at heart’ | |
| 20 | Being a professor attached to the Authorised Version I can be seen in flowing gown (7) | |
| AVOWING | AV (Authorised Version) + I ‘seen’ in anagram of GOWN – anagrind is ‘flowing’ | |
| 21 | Last 60% of official announcement is unparalleled (6) | |
| UNIQUE | Last six letters (60%) of commUNIQUÉ (official document) | |
| 23 | Idiot, just the ultimate duff president (5) | |
| TRUMP | T (‘just’ the last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘idiot’) RUMP (duff) – it took us a while to convince ourselves that Crosophile hadn’t put the definition at the front of the clue! | |
| 25 | Hot rod‘s parking fine about to be overturned (5) | |
| POKER | P (parking) OK (fine) + RE (about) reversed or ‘overturned’ | |
Missed the theme, as usual. ‘Patience’ raised a nostalgic smile: it was the answer to the first cryptic clue I ever solved, aged 10, in my dad’s Telegraph the day after we’d been to the opera. Wasn’t sure about RUMP=DUFF, but Chambers confirms that one’s ‘duff’ is one’s bottom. Always nice to expand vocabulary. Thanks to all.
Crossophile has just risen in my league table of setters.
Didn’t know NEWMARKET, MAIN or GOOSE as games but picked the rest after initially falling for the ‘Penzance’ trick. The penny has just dropped for AVOWING and thanks for the parsing of UNIQUE which I couldn’t work out.
I liked the charmingly obsolete (almost) SEAGIRT.
Thanks to B&J and Crosophile.
Thanks Crosophile and BnJ
Excellent puzzle, I thought.
The G&S opera is known to graun solvers of a certain age, as the full title is “Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride”.
Missed the theme (again!) but enjoyed the solve anyway. Interestingly, we got NEWMARKET after realising that 11ac had to be SUFFICE. Liked the misdirection in 16dn.
As for 23dn, we thought it might be a double definition!
Thanks, Crosophile and B&J
I knew the opera as my daughter had a leading role in it at Middlesbrough Theatre as a meber of the Tees Valley G&S Tociety. I’m dissapointed that my first thought for the definition of 23d as duff president turned out not to be the case:-) I was held up for at least 5 minutes by my LOI, MAIN. Seemed so obvious once I’d thought of it! Liked SEAGIRT and HENCOOP. As usual didn’t spot the theme. Nice puzzle. Thanks Crosophile and B&J.
My typing is getting worse! “member” and “society” above:-)
Thanks for blogging, B&J.
Pleasing puzzle, just right for a weekday cryptic. Vaguely saw that there was some sort of games theme, but wasn’t that bothered to explore more (mainly through laziness, because I knew I’d get to find out here …)
TRUMP was very good. The gift that keeps on giving.
Thanks to Crosophile too.
Whence the pseudonym of the great Bunthorne, of course.
NHS @ 9: see my post @ 4…
I really enjoyed this. Couldn’t readily think of the official announcement to be reduced and imPATIENCE got the better of me there so I sneaked a look at ????UNIQUE in the electronic dictionary. Silly. Even sillier, a bout of the anagram blindness to which I am prone severely delayed the installation of INSTIL.
TRUMP went straight in from the clue but took a bit of parsing.
(He wasn’t the SO-AND-SO that came to mind elsewhere.)
I liked the one-to-one transplant in QUICK, and the swap of G&S in PATIENCE. I also rated GOOSE, PASSENGER and POKER.
Spotted the theme only afterwards, but that will SUFFICE.
Thanks to Crosophile and Bertandjoyce.
Let me join the chorus of solvers who appreciated the mischievous PENZANCE/PATIENCE misdirect. The answer seemed so obvious, I knew something fishy had to be going on…
Thanks for the blog and all the positive comments. Much appreciated.
And apologies, for the second month in a row, for forgetting to look here on the day of publicaion!
Thanks for the blog and all the po.sitive comments Much appreciated.
And apologies for forgetting to come here on the right day two months running!