An almost perfect offering from Wanderer…
let down, at least in my opinion, by 28ac, where the setter appears to have added in “party” to aid the surface, but it is completely redundant as far as the wordplay is concerned, and the clue could actually have been OK without it.
Other than that minor quibble, the rest of the puzzle was a fun challenge.
I commented in my blog for yesterday’s Guardian puzzle that some solvers don’t like general knowledge in their crosswords, preferring dictionary entries only, but I like general knowledeg as it adds a bit more of a challenge, and you might learn something new into the bargain, so this was my kind of puzzle.
My favourites, in no particular order were 1ac, 23dn (once I got it, it was my LOI) and the composite11/27.
Thanks, Wanderer.
| Across | ||
| 1, 4 | STOLEN PROPERTY | Struggling to sleep? Try porn – hot stuff! (6,8) |
| *(to sleep try porn) | ||
| 9 | LIEBIG | Fiction by great German chemist (6) |
| LIE (“fiction”) by BIG (“great”)
Refers to Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) |
||
| 10 | ACANTHUS | Bloomer having a toilet wrongly shut (8) |
| A CAN (“toilet”) + *(thus) | ||
| 12 | SPHEROID | Posh ride around the earth? (8) |
| *(posh ride) | ||
| 13 | AT EASE | Adult and kid relaxed (2,4) |
| A(dult) + TEASE (“kid”) | ||
| 15, 16 | ALAN SHEARER | Former prolific scorer tried without finishing in Arsenal game (4,7) |
| HEAR(d) (“tried” without finishing) in *(arsenal) | ||
| 20, 21 | CHARLES LAMB | Prince hit hard by bishop and essayist taking part in immature liaisons (7,4) |
| Two ways to get to this answer:
1) (Prince) CHARLES + LAM (“hit hard”) + B(ishop) 2) Hidden in (taking part in) “immaturE LIAisons”, Elia being Charles Lamb’s nom de plume. |
||
| 25 | UNITED | Side one (6) |
| Double definition; for the fisrt think of football teams such as Ayr or Manchester, and for the second think of “as one” | ||
| 26 | BAR CHART | Graphical representation of pub talk? That’s about right (3,5) |
| BAR CHAT (“pub talk”) about R(ight) | ||
| 28 | REINDEER | Dancer, possibly Irene Short, gyrating at stag party? (8) |
| *(iren) (“Irene”, short) + DEER (“stag”)
The “party” in this clue is not needed for the wordplay, so is redundant. |
||
| 29 | SCROTA | Actors ordered manbags (6) |
| *(actors) Is it just me, or are this week’s crossword compilers obsessed with make genitalia? |
||
| 30, 31 | ONE-ARMED BANDIT | Second of houses close to the sea: robber’s source of lucky loot? (3-5,6) |
| (h)O(uses) + NEAR (“close to”) + MED (‘sea”) + BANDIT (“robber”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SALESMAN | Name lass working as shop assistant? (8) |
| *(name lass) | ||
| 2 | OVERHEAD | Where one might find cap for a sort of projector (8) |
| A cap may well be found OVER one’s HEAD, just before it goes on to one’s head? | ||
| 3 | EMIGRE | Label King George put on European refugee (6) |
| EMI (record “label”)+ G.R. (“King George”) put on E(uropean) | ||
| 5, 14 | RICK WAKEMAN | Late actor holding vigil for one of the 8 (4,7) |
| (Alan) RICKMAN (“alte actor”) holding WAKE (“vigil”)
Rick Wakeman was a member of the progressive rock band, Yes, so was a “Yes man” (see 8dn) |
||
| 6 | PINE TREE | Long Island lacks one conifer (4,4) |
| PINE (“long”) + T(i)REE (“island” lacks I (“one”)) | ||
| 7 | REHEAT | Making the earflap warm up again (6) |
| *(the ear) | ||
| 8 | YES-MEN | Toadies from Sweden in Asian republic (3-3) |
| S(weden) in YEMEN (“Asian republic”) | ||
| 11, 27 | RICHARD GERE | Actor uses one vegetable, mostly green, cooked following recipe (7,4) |
| I (“one”) + CHARD (“vegetable”) + *(gree) (mostly “green”), following R(ecipe) | ||
| 14 | See 5 | |
| 17 | SHREDDER | Appearing more embarrassed by second husband’s office equipment (8) |
| REDDER (“appearing more emnarrassed”) by S(econd) H(usband) | ||
| 18 | PARANOID | Suspicious old man fled before rendering of “I do” (8) |
| PA (“old man”) + RAN (“fled”) + *(i do) | ||
| 19 | ABSTRACT | Remove part of sailor’s digestive system? (8) |
| AB’S (“sailor’s) + TRACT (“digestive system”) | ||
| 22 | QUARTO | Book a tour out below Quebec (6) |
| *(a tour) below Q(uebec) | ||
| 23 | SIMILE | One’s about to race as fast as the wind? (6) |
| <=I’S (“one’s”, about) + MILE (“race”, as in Roger Bannister’s famous race)
“as fast as the wind” is an example of a simile. |
||
| 24 | ACACIA | Caught a group of spies sitting under a tree (6) |
| C(aught) + A + C.I.A. (“group of spies”) sitting under A | ||
| 27 | See 11 | |
*anagram
Didn’t know ABSTRACT could mean ‘extract’ but confirmed by my Collins. Took ages to see RICK WAKEMAN, despite being a fan since his time with the Strawbs.
Always appreciate the extra work involved in having several split clues all lining up. I also didn’t like ‘party’ in 28a at first but, thinking of ‘party’ referring simply to a group, I now like it.
Thanks to Wanderer and loonapick.
Enjoyable, with much of this pretty straightforward, but some harder ones such as SIMILE and especially RICK WAKEMAN which I couldn’t parse. CHARLES LAMB was unusual, with the def in the middle and 2 sets of wordplay, the second of which completely escaped me.
I thought ‘party’ was OK for the surface in 28a. Yes I suppose ‘stag’ by itself would still work, but adding the ‘party’ makes it read more naturally, and DEER would be ‘at stag party’.
You’re right about the obsession with male genitalia this week. 29a’s contents (both), one in the FT and the other in the Guardian yesterday. 12a almost counts for today as well.
Thanks to Wanderer and loonapick.
I agree that ‘stag party?’ is fine if you take the DEER to be plural, which I’d guess was Wanderer’s intention.
I thought this was a great puzzle, clever and funny. STOLEN PROPERTY and SCROTA gave me a couple of laughs, and as an unreconstructed prog fan I liked RICK WAKEMAN and the link to YES-MEN.
(On the downside, I used a similar idea to 15/16a to clue ‘Arsenal’ in last week’s Sunday Times clue writing contest (taking try [hear] out of ‘Alan Shearer’), and now I’m wondering whether it’s an old one!)
Here’s another who put a question mark to 28ac but after having read the posts above, I think it’s all right now.
[Nina Palin @3, to rub more salt into the wound 🙁 , in 2011 my alter ego had in his first ever S&B crossword “Football expert to listen to during Arsenal training (4,7)”. Nowadays I am not so sure anymore he’s an ‘expert’ and, also, after the BBC made public how much they pay their employees ….. Well, ‘absolutely superb, Gary’]
Purely coincidentally, last night I listened to an album by Rick Wakeman made in collaboration with folkie Gordon Giltrap, making clear (once more) what a fine musician the man is.
As to the puzzle, very enjoyable (not really news when Wanderer’s involved) and also rather easy (our setter seems to have become milder or is it just that I learnt to see through his tricks and treats?).
Last one in was SIMILE (23d), which was indeed very good, surely one of the best (together with e.g. 1ac).
Only disappointing thing I found ‘bandit’ in 30,31ac being clued by an uncryptic ‘robber’.
Many thanks to loonapick & Wanderer.
Dagnabbit, Sil! 🙂 On reflection I guess it must have been done a few times one way or another, but thankfully the wording of my clue doesn’t appear in a Google search. And I was trying so hard to avoid using ‘arena’ as too obvious!
25a UNITED was also very neat, by the way. Would it mean anything to young CD owners and downloaders, I wonder.
Thanks to Wanderer and loonapick. Lots of fun, though I was defeated by RICK WAKEMAN.
But on the piano you will be defeated by him …. 🙂
Thanks Wanderer and loonapick
Slowly catching up with the holiday backlog … and this was a beauty !! Took it for a coffee, but after finishing the coffee, then ordering a cake and finally getting water – I was still missing the two down long double-worders.
Quickly done on resumption at home after a break, although I did have to look up and see if there was an actor called RICKMAN to complete the clever “yes-man”. Did also have to look up ALAN SHEARER as well – can sort of remember him in despatches but not one that was front of mind.
SCROTA did bring on a schoolboy chuckle after having the contents of them in an earlier puzzle and although I missed the second word play for CHARLES LAMB, thought that it was a good one as well.