Crosophile is in the Wednesday slot this week and no complaints from us – it’s been a while since we blogged one of his puzzles.
There were quite a few anagrams today which helped as there were a few that had us ‘head-scratching’. We needed all the crossing letters we could get.
Across
1 Entire groups about to emerge mostly in accounts? (15)
POPULARISATIONS
POPULATIONS (entire groups) about ARISe (to emerge) missing last letter or ‘mostly’
9 A wild animal seen around river level (7)
ABREAST
A BEAST (wild animal) around R (river)
10 Pay slips secreted by spy in dance centre? (7)
MAYPOLE
An anagram of PAY (anagrind is ‘slips’) inside or ‘secreted by’ MOLE (spy). The maypole is at the centre of the dancing!
11 Natural source of water receives backing (5)
NAIVE
A reversal of EVIAN (source of water)
12 Pharmacist rides roughshod over compounds for animal use (9)
DISPENSER
An anagram of RIDES (anagrind is ‘roughshod’) over PENS (compounds for animals)
13 When there might be news by letter he’ll be there (8)
ATTENDEE
The news is often broadcast AT TEN plus DEE (letter)
15 Like the man who won Wimbledon? (4)
ASHE
AS (like) HE (the man). The winner refers to Arthur Ashe.
18 Essentially detest bad language (4)
OATH
The middle or ‘essential’ letters of lOATHe (detest)
20 Injured person’s left for a little time without concern (8)
CASUALLY
CASUALtY (injured person) with L (left) replacing T (time)
24 Badly designed bra as some sort of practical joke? (5,4)
BOOBY TRAP
A play on the fact that a badly designed bra may TRAP a BOOBY (breast)
26 Trunk initially treated roughly (5)
TORSO
T (initial letter of ‘treated’) OR SO (roughly)
27 Popular ascetic with no money to come by some wealth (7)
INHERIT
IN (popular) HERmIT (ascetic) with no M (money)
28 It’s whispered corrosion was in the van (7)
RUSTLED
RUST (corrosion) LED (was in the van – at the front)
29 Guru in tree hasn’t abandoned seeking riches (8,7)
TREASURE HUNTING
An anagram of GURU IN TREE HASN’T – anagrind is ‘abandoned’
Down
1 Flats arranged horizontally in an afterthought (6)
PLAINS
LAIN (arranged horizontally) in PS (afterthought)
2 Sir’s distraught and in a bother – keep going! (7)
PERSIST
An anagram of SIR (anagrind is ‘distraught’) in PEST (a bother)
3 Having risen, go off to meet bad end (8)
LEAVENED
LEAVE (go off) ‘meeting’ an anagram of END (anagrind is ‘bad’)
4 Assessed as flipping expensive after adding hint of truffle (5)
RATED
DEAR (expensive) reversed or ‘flipping’ around or ‘adding’ T (first letter or a ‘hint’ of ‘truffle’)
5 Doctor sees terms for what they are (9)
SEMESTERS
A clue as definition – The doctor at a university may call terms ‘SEMESTERS’ which is an anagram of SEES and TERMS (anagrind is ‘doctor’)
6 Newspaper reported for culinary supplements? (6)
THYMES
A homophone (‘reported’) of TIMES (newspaper)
7 Orchestral players sit with boos flying around (7)
OBOISTS
An anagram of SIT and BOOS (anagrind is ‘flying around’)
8 South German man is touring Spain for its drinks (8)
SHERRIES
S (South) HERR (German man) IS around or ‘touring’ E (Spain)
14 He might paint magnolia coat or red coat when plastered (9)
DECORATOR
An anagram of OR RED COAT (anagrind is ‘when plastered’)
16 Pitch to initially impressionable senior Tories? Maybe he does (8)
LOBBYIST
Another clue as definition – LOB (pitch) BY (to) and IST (‘initial’ letters of Impressionable Senior Tories). We had to check that TO=BY but it is in Chambers as an adverb.
17 Some sort of aspirant guerrilla (8)
PARTISAN
An anagram of ASPIRANT (anagrind is ‘some sort of’)
19 For a poet, foot of tree with heart that’s old, cold and hard (the core rotten) (7)
TROCHEE
There are two parsings here – TREE around or ‘with a heart’ of O (old) C (cold) H (hard) or an anagram of THE CORE (anagrind is ‘rotten’)
21 Legends garland a siren of the Rhine (7)
LORELEI
LORE (legends) LEI (garland)
22 Conifer, they say, in island in Med (6)
CYPRUS
A homophone (‘they say’) of CYPRESS (conifer)
23 Greedy person consuming Tango with party snack (3,3)
HOT DOG
HOG (greedy person) around or ‘consuming’ T (Tango) DO (party)
25 A rod for freshwater fish (5)
PERCH
Double definition
*anagram
Very good. I parsed 2d as PET around (SIR’S)* but either works.
In 6d, I took “lobby” to be “pitch” but much prefer your parsing.
Thanks to Crosophile and Bertandjoyce.
Pleasant solve, with the NE corner and ‘Essentially detest’ in 18a giving me most trouble. I also took LOBBY to be ‘pitch to’ but agree that yours is probably the intended parsing.
I liked the reminder of the great Arthur ASHE, the ‘Badly designed bra’ in 24a and the not often seen double wordplay for TROCHEE.
Thanks to Crosophile and to B&J.
Agree with @2Hovis’s parsing of 2D and also with his first thought about 6D; though I prefer the parsing as “lobby” (pitch as a noun)+ ist.
Couldn’t see 1D for ages.
Thanks to Crosophile and Bertandjoyce.
@1Hovis.
In 4 down, “adding” is used as an insertion indicator – I don’t think that works.
Some good clues here (15ac is nicely redolent of H M Bateman), but a pity about the comparatively large number of plurals, one of which (6 dn) is a a little bit iffy!
19dn works, but it does make for an excessively long clue.
I’m in the “pitch as lobby” camp
Richard @5. I also put a question mark against the plural at 6d but forgot to mention it.
Just the right amount of difficult (for me at least), with everything making sense in the end. Much fun, and many thanks to B&J and Crosophile.
Richard@5 and Hovis. The thymes are quite a family. Common thyme, Lemon thyme etc.
Agree with Hovis re parsing for2d.
Enjoyed the solve. Thanks to C and B and J.
An enjoyable solve, with a smile for BOOBY TRAP. But we’re not sure our pharmacist son would take kindly to being called a mere DISPENSER – the latter works under the direction of a pharmacist, who is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the dispenser gets things right.
Thanks, Crosophile and B&J.
Kryptickate@8 Yes, a good point, and thanks, but it doesn’t convince me that the plural is to be preferred as “thymes” rather than “thyme”, and I’m not aware of any recipe that requires the inclusion of more than one type. My point is, however, in essence, that the grid contains too many plurals, and that the elimination of strange ones (such as “thymes”) could have helped to make this a better crossword.
Richard@10 you are entitled to your view re a superfluity of plurals. However I suspect that you are not a confirmed plantaholic like myself. I grow several different thymes in my garden and my favourite herb nursery stocks many more. For plant enthusiasts there is nothing strange here especially as my co-solver supplied the answer and he only identifies himself as the garden labourer.
Allan @9 we also were not comfortable with dispenser being equated with pharmacist.
Nobody will see this so late but thanks for the blog and appreciative comments.
Not surprised nobody noticed the very obscure nina based on [misspelt ‘trees you’re hunting’] such as popular…, ashe, maypole [maple], plains, cyprus, perch [birch, I couldn’t manage to squeeze in beach], s[c]herries and lorelei. It keeps me happy though 🙂