Yet another witty and entertaining puzzle from Julius. Thank you.
| Across | ||
| 1 | REALLY | Measure all your trousers without cheating (6) |
| found inside (trousered by, pocketed) measuRE ALL Your – to really do something | ||
| 4 | ALL-ROUND | Versatile old lunar module (3-5) |
| anagram (module?) of OLD LUNAR. Why is module an anagram indicator? | ||
| 9 | DENUDE | American guy inviting nurse to strip (6) |
| DUDE (guy, American) contains (inviting in) EN (Enrolled Nurse) | ||
| 10 | STICKLER | Special, tricky puzzle for pernickety individual (8) |
| S (special) and TICKLER (tricky puzzle) | ||
| 12 | INST | Upload photos here; losing a tiny bit of weight this month! (4) |
| INSTagram (place to upload photos) missing A GRAM (a tiny bit of weight) | ||
| 13 | NOEL COWARD | He gave us “bitter sweet” Christmas chicken (4,6) |
| NOEL (Christmas) and COWARD (chicken) – Bitter Sweet is an operetta by Noel Coward | ||
| 15 | CLEAR AS A BELL | Unambiguous, like early telephonist’s sound quality? (5,2,1,4) |
| double/cryptic definition – the early telephonist would sound “clear as Alexander Bell”, producer of the first commercial telephone | ||
| 18 | ASTI SPUMANTE | Putin’s mates relaxed over a bottle of bubbly (4,8) |
| anagram (relaxed) of PUTIN’S MATES containing (over) A | ||
| 21 | PROSECUTES | Sues 18’s competitor company, having withdrawn Australian SUVs (10) |
| PROSECco (Asti Spumanti’s competitor) missing (having withdrawn) CO (company) then UTES (Australian SUVs) | ||
| 22 | CHOP | Composer dropped in for a bite to eat (4) |
| CHOPin (composer) missing (dropped) IN | ||
| 24 | CAROLINE | Woman’s naked frolic? Stick around! (8) |
| fROLIc (naked, missing clothing of outside letters) inside (with…around) CANE (stick) | ||
| 25 | VANDAL | One attacking art lecturer attached to London museum (6) |
| L (lecturer) following (attached to) V AND A (Victoria and Albert museum) | ||
| 26 | DESTROYS | Wipes out a contingent of Palamedes’ Troy soldiers (8) |
| found inside (a contingent of) palameDES TROY Soldiers | ||
| 27 | MUTTON | Dog leg – a meat benefitting from slow cooking (6) |
| MUTT (a dog) with ON (leg, the leg-side or on-side in cricket) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | REDDITCH | Embarrassed to crash-land somewhere in Worcestershire (8) |
| RED (embarrassed) and DITCH (to crash-land) | ||
| 2 | AGNUS DEI | I sang duet (not tenor part) arranged for the liturgy (5,3) |
| anagram (arranged) missing I SANG DUEt missing T (tenor). For some reason I have a long-standing compulsion to mistype this as Angus Dei. It buggers up my grid fill every time. | ||
| 3 | LADY | Woman, overweight, has heart failure (4) |
| LArDY (overweight) missing middle letter (heart fails) | ||
| 5 | LITTLE BO PEEP | Incompetent shepherdess left Tibet people struggling (6,2,4) |
| anagram (struggling) of L (left) with TIBET PEOPLE – she who lost her sheep and didn’t know where to find them | ||
| 6 | RACK OF LAMB | Spooner mentions failing memory; could it be the joint? (4,2,4) |
| A Spoonerism of “lack of RAM” (failing memory). I would say that a lack of RAM is a loss of memory rather than a failure of memory. A very minor point, said as an observation not a criticism. | ||
| 7 | UPLOAD | Puppy Leonard regularly starved put on eBay (6) |
| pUpPy LeOnArD with every other letter dropped (regularly starved) – eBay here is just intended as an example of a Internet site to which something may be uploaded | ||
| 8 | DERIDE | Mock the German papers’ English (6) |
| DER (the, German) ID (papers) and E (English) | ||
| 11 | CONSTITUENCY | Which votes Bucks nicest county? (12) |
| anagram (bucks) of NICEST COUNTY | ||
| 14 | ARMS DEALER | Naughty Esmeralda, resistance gun-runner (4,6) |
| anagram (naughty) of ESMARELDA then R (resistance) | ||
| 16 | ON THE DOT | Month we’d got starters out punctually (2,3,3) |
| found inside mONTH w’ED gOT missing starting letters | ||
| 17 | ZEPPELIN | Inflatable craft evacuating Zaire past president on rising river (8) |
| ZairE (evacuated, with nothing inside) P (past) P (president) in NILE (a river) reversed (rising) | ||
| 19 | SPACED | Spread better’s odds on a hole- in-one on the 1st at Dornoch (6) |
| SP (starting price, better’s odds) on ACE (a hole-in-one) on first Dornoch (the 1st letter of) | ||
| 20 | COBRAS | Firms maintaining support for those striking when angry? (6) |
| COS (company plural, firms) contains (maintaining) BRA (something that supports) | ||
| 23 | BAKU | Leaders of United Kingdom antagonised Brussels over capital (4) |
| first letters (leaders) of United Kingdom Antagonised Brussels reversed (over) – capital of Azerbaijan | ||
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.
An entertaining challenge with my only question mark being the use of ‘module’ as an anagram indicator in 4a. Thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
My only question mark is whether 23d is part of the theme.
muffyword – what is the theme?
I may not have figured the whole theme, but there are lot of ovine references.
Dont think there was intended to be a theme but the mutton chops and lack of ram(tee hee) got me interested and Agnus Dei sounds heavenly . But it was the wine list
that put me off. A nice claret instead of the Italian fizz.
Lovely puzzle as usual. Thanks Peedee and Julius.
…and Lady Caroline Lamb and Little Bo Peep….
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
An enjoyable puzzle that took just under the hour to nut out. Didn’t help myself at the end by having written in ANGUS DEI instead of AGNUS which beggared up getting what should have been a fairly straightforward DENUDE. LADY and REALLY were then my last couple in.
Can only think that 4a works if read as a whole … that is, doubling up on the use of ‘versatile’ then ‘module’ refers to the set of parts that make up the whole answer – probably not that correct but that’s how I made it work.
Did notice lots of sheepy bits but didn’t really put them all together as a theme.
Super anagrams, as per, particularly CONSTITUENCY. Also really liked REALLY.
Thanks, Julius, PeeDee
Enjoyable as ever
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee for an enjoyable puzzle and blog.
Although 6d was not difficult, I find it a bit of a stretch to equate “lack of RAM” with “failing” memory, or “loss” of memory. I agree that if the RAM were failing or you had a loss of RAM for any reason, you might find yourself with a lack of RAM, or you might not, depending on how much RAM your programs needed. However, if your programs required more than the amount of good RAM available, either because of loss or failure, or because the computer was not provided with enough RAM initially (a much more likely cause), you would have a problem. So, a better word might be “inadequate” memory, although that might have ruined the surface.
Enjoyable as always, less challenging perhaps.Am finding the FT’s interactive experiment marvellous, so much more immediate than print-outs.Means a whole new pack of setters is available, not to mention relief from the idiosyncratic experience of the Indy’s interactive, which prevented my complete solve of the latest Knut, which I was really into.
So thanks, Julius/Knut and PeeDee.
A bit late but many thanks to PeeDee and to Julius for an ‘enjoyable as ever/always’ puzzle.
I didn’t spot the lamb theme but, if that’s what it is, I like it!
Like James @8, I particularly admired all the anagrams but I would have highlighted ASTI SPUMANTE – we’re so used to seeing wine=asti [Beery could tell us how often] and it was refreshing to see its full title and to link it to PROSECCO in the very next clue was brilliant, I thought. [I’ll even try to forget how much time I spent teaching students to distinguish between ‘sue’ and ‘prosecute’, 😉 ]
I also like 1ac, which set me off with a smile on my face and SPACED.
[I was inspired [thank you, Julius – that’s the kind of earworm I can cope with, having sung it so many times, though I so envy the tenors!] to play this while I continued the solve.]
Got to this rather late, busy today. I never spot a theme but loved this. Thank you, PeeDee and Julius.
Thanks dear PeeDee for your blog and to those who have commented.
I accept the raspberries about “module” and “failing memory”…of course I’d argue that there is a bit of chalk dust but it’s clearly surface enhancement.
I didn’t set out to fill this grid with a sheepish look but I realised that Little Bo Peep, rack of lamb, and the Agnus Dei were thus linked so chucked in MUTTON, CHOP, and LADY, CAROLINE
best wishes, Rob/Julius
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. I needed help parsing LADY and PROSECUTES but did get through and much enjoyed the process.
Thank you Julius fro a gentle stretch and PeeDee for the blog. Feeling rather mellow today, aren’t we?
CONSTITUENCY ‘s a keeper & `ANGUS DEI` is laugh of the day. Thanks.
Eileen @12 – I can’t do stats for the FT, but in the Guardian ASTI has 27 appearances to ASTI SPUMANTE’s 3 and one for SPUMANTE on its own.
Just a further thought on 4d. It is accepted an &lit is a clue that as a whole provides the definition and whose parts make up the word play. Could this not be a variation of that – to have a clue that as a whole provides the word play with a part of it that contains the definition – an inverse &lit if you will?
bruce – in that case would “module” play any part in the clue at all? It would be neither part of the definition nor the wordplay.
For surface reading … and it would be better as ‘modules’. Still the inverse &lit is an interesting concept all the same don’t you think?
Actually not just the surface … it describes the components to be used in the anagram. From the Oxford dictionary:
module – each of a set of standardized parts or independent units that can be used to construct a more complex structure.
Hi Bruce – Last Saturday Boatman had a clue in the Guardian that might might fit your inverse &lit definition:
3 If man performs evil acts, charge him – leaders included (7)
IMPEACH – the initial letters of If Man Performs Evil Acts Charge Him
This has the whole clue as the wordplay but only the middle word as the definition. There were a couple of people who thought it didn’t work as it wasn’t a traditional construction but on the whole most people didn’t seem to have any issue with it. It wasn’t mentioned at all in most people’s comments.
I get what you are saying about the “reverse &lit” for 4dn but it doesn’t really work for me. If module is an anagram indicator then adding flexible into the mix would make a pointless anagram of an anagram. If module indicates a grouping, then it implies a completed sub-assembly not a collection of raw materials for anagram fodder.
Hi PeeDee … thanks for your response and I don’t want to flog a dead horse …
I was thinking that ‘versatile’ (changeable; inconstant – from the online Oxford) was the anagram indicator with ‘module(s)’ used to nominate ‘old lunar’ as the fodder and to create the better surface – that gives my inverse &lit. I guess the issue is that only ‘versatile’ (ALL ROUND) has to double as the definition as well!
Your Boatman example is better – the whole clue can be both the definition and the wordplay.
Late I know (we tear them out and do when time permits) 4a -surely just a typo for “model”?