The usual varied and entertaining puzzle from Julius, thank you.
In the grid we have Lets Go Fly a Kite from Mary Poppins:
With tuppence for paper and strings
You can have your own set of wings
With your feet on the ground
You’re a bird in a flight
With your FIST holding TIGHT
To the STRING of your kite
Oh, oh, oh!
LET’S GO FLY A KITE
UP TO the HIGHEST HEIGHT!
LET’S GO FLY A KITE and send it SOARING
Up through the ATMOSPHERE
Up where THE AIR is CLEAR
Oh, LET’S GO FLY A KITE!
| Across | ||
| 1 | LETS GO | Drops to the floor, as does Spooner’s limbo dancer (4,2) |
| a Spoonerism of “gets low” (what a limbo dancer does) | ||
| 4 | FLY A KITE | Issue an unsecured cheque to test the water (3,1,4) |
| double definition – and a mixed metaphor | ||
| 10 | MAELSTROM | Eddy breaks Ishmael’s trombone (9) |
| found inside (breaks) isMAEL’S TROMbone | ||
| 11 | TIGHT | Before 19, 21 down regularly gets squiffy (5) |
| sTrInG (21 down regularly, every other letter) before HT (height, 19 across) | ||
| 12 | NULL | Northern university lecturer left invalid (4) |
| N (northern) U (university) L (lecturer) L (left) | ||
| 13 | ATMOSPHERE | PM Theresa struggling to get to grips with ordinary mood of the party (10) |
| anagram (struggling) of PM THERESA contains (to get to grips with) O (ordinary) | ||
| 15 | HIGHEST | Top shopping centre accepts rouble at last (7) |
| HIGH ST (shopping centre) contains (accepts) roublE (at last, final letter of) | ||
| 16 | NOD OFF | Fall asleep with cap on? (3,3) |
| NO DOFF (so keeping one’s cap on) | ||
| 19 | HEIGHT | In 1545, the king’s diminished stature (6) |
| H EIGHTh (diminished, unfinished), Henry VIII king of England in 1545 | ||
| 21 | SOARING | Sticks oar in, grouching somewhat, going through the roof! (7) |
| found inside (somewhat) stickS OAR IN Grouching | ||
| 23 | HECTOLITRE | Theoretical problem’s missing a measurement of volume (10) |
| anagram (problem) of THERORETICaL missing A | ||
| 25 | FIST | Duke is featured in newspaper (4) |
| IS inside (featured in) FT (newspaper) | ||
| 27 | AZERI | Almost nothing in the main road from Baku? (5) |
| ZERo (nothing, almost) in AI (A1, main road) | ||
| 28 | KING PRIAM | Trojan family doctor treating Amir (4,5) |
| KIN (family) GP (doctor) then anagram (treating) of AMIR | ||
| 29 | RURALITY | Russia’s principal river, it winds up finally in bucolic location (8) |
| first letter (principal) of Russia then URAL (river) IT and last letter (winds up, finishes) of finallY | ||
| 30 | BOWYER | Fletcher’s partner creating material for The Archers? (6) |
| cryptic definition – someone who makes bows (partner to a fletcher who makes arrows) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LA MANCHA | Spanish region’s alternately lean, mean, nice head (2,6) |
| alternate letters of LeAm MeAn NiCe HeAd | ||
| 2 | THE PLAGUE | Armstrong’s fifth huge leap turned out a disaster for mankind! (3,6) |
| armsTrong (fifth letter of) then anagram (turned out) of HUGE LEAP | ||
| 3 | GUST | American in fast car, possibly a Zephyr (4) |
| US (American) in GT (a fast car) | ||
| 5 | LAMPOON | Boone’s content to support light satire (7) |
| bONe (content, middle letters of) underneath (to support, in a down solution) LAMP (light) | ||
| 6 | ANTIPODEAN | Design painted on a digger? (10) |
| anagram (design) of PAINTED ON A – someone form Australia | ||
| 7 | INGLE | “Fire elected government!” – Liberal Earl (5) |
| IN (elected) G (government) L (liberal) E (earl) | ||
| 8 | ENTREE | English conservationists note European introduction (6) |
| E (English) NT (National Trust, conservationists) RE (note, of the scale) and E (European) | ||
| 9 | FRET AT | Worry, being overweight about to be retired (4,2) |
| FAT (being overweight) contains (about) RET (retired) | ||
| 14 | SEIGNORIAL | Lordly seal concealing foreign origin (10) |
| SEAL contains (concealing) anagram (foreign) of ORIGIN | ||
| 17 | FRIGIDITY | France firm; Italian, Yankee exhibiting coldness (9) |
| F (France) RIGID (firm) IT (Italian) and Y (yankee, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 18 | EGG TIMER | It’s a feature of kitchen cabinet to incite send-up (3,5) |
| EGG (to incite) hen REMIT (send) reversed (up) | ||
| 20 | THICKET | Voucher admitting Henry Wood (7) |
| TICKET (voucher) contains (admitting) H (henry) | ||
| 21 | STRING | Way to call some horses? (6) |
| ST (street, a way) and RING (to call) | ||
| 22 | See 24 | |
| 24, 22 | CLEAR THE AIR | Girl orbiting earth twice to settle a dispute (5,3,3) |
| CLAIR (a girl) contains (orbiting) EARTH and E (earth, twice) | ||
| 26 | UP TO | As much as leaders of United paid trainer Mourinho in the end? (2,2) |
| first letters (leaders) of United Paid TRAINER then the last letter (in the end) of mourinhO | ||
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.
Lovely puzzle-I could see some sort of link but thanks for zooming in on it, Pee Dee and thanks Julius.
Liked the uplifting theme, even if I only recognised it post solve and couldn’t identify all the references.
SEIGNORIAL is one of those words you could use in just about any circumstances and pretend it means whatever you want as no-one is likely to have ever heard of it. I hope to be able to trot it out soon. RURALITY was also new, though not quite as appealing.
Thank you to Julius and PeeDee
I went round anti-clockwise from top left; LOI FLY A KITE, with a massive clang. I liked ATMOSPHERE, ANTIPODEAN and CLEAR THE AIR, the more so since it’s thematic. 12 blue solutions pretty impressive for a sensible grid.
Thanks Julius, PeeDee
Missed that theme completely but musicals have never been a strong subject for me, so I’m not surprised. An entertaining solve, with the SW corner last to crack.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Liked this one, thanks to Julius and Peedee.
Just one niggle. Is it OK for “it” to do double duty in the parsing of 29A?
Hi Stephen – the double use of “it” was my mistake. Fixed now.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. Very enjoyable (though as usual I missed the theme). I took a while getting the combination of AZERI, HEIGHT, and SEIGNORIAL (my LOI).
Thank you Julius and PeeDee, this was very enjoyable. I’m glad I’m not the only one who missed the theme.
Any particular (Poppins-related?) reason for 1545? Could have been any one of Henry’s 56 years?
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Another cracking puzzle from Julius, made all the more special with the theme that I did look for post solve, but couldn’t spot – don’t think that I have ever saw Mary Poppins. The actual solve time was quite a bit shorter than normal for this setter with the parsing of HEIGHT the only thing that I didn’t see. Talking of which, it needs to be abbreviated to HT in 11a to get the full TIGHT.
Always thought that a zephyr was a gentle breeze, whereas a gust was a more forceful one but see that they were listed as synonyms in the online Oxford.
Finished with the clever BOWYER, ATMOSPHERE (with the interesting PM fodder) and FRET AT as the last few in.
Well spotted Bruce, fixed now.
In 19 across, I took 1545 to be football halftime (HT) which contains eigh (Henry eight diminished). Maybe I’m wide of the mark.