Mudd provides our Thursday morning challenge today.
Apart from a minor quibble with 13ac, I found this a fun solve with a few answers going in before I was able to fully parse them, especially the very clever RED SNAPPER.
Thanks, Mudd.
| Across | ||
| 8 | REFILL | Another drink made judge queasy (6) |
| REF(eree) (“judge”) + ILL (“queasy”) | ||
| 9 | LATHERED | Turner has colour spread liberally (8) |
| LATHE (“turner’) has RED (“colour”) | ||
| 10 | EMMA | Novel this writer rejected, to a degree (4) |
| <=ME (“this writer”, rejected) + MA (Master of Arts, so “degree”)
Emma is a novel by Jane Austen, published in December 1815, her last novel to be published while she was still alive. |
||
| 11 | SATURNALIA | Australian drunk partying wildly (10) |
| *(australian) | ||
| 12 | EURO | Currency in lieu, rouble (4) |
| Hidden in “liEU ROuble” | ||
| 13 | ENTERPRISE | Key to open mission (10) |
| ENTER (“key”) + PRISE (“open”)
Not keen on “prise” = “open” |
||
| 17 | RHEA | Bird’s tail caught? (4) |
| Homophone [caught] of REAR (“tail”)
A rhea is a large flightless South American bird similar to an ostrich. |
||
| 18 | ILIAD | Long story died alongside bones (5) |
| D (died) alongside ILIA (“bones”) | ||
| 19 | VICE | Corruption that’s gripping (4) |
| A vice is a tool used for gripping. | ||
| 21 | STRAIGHTEN | Shape as right, figure put right (10) |
| *(as right) + TEN (“figure”) | ||
| 23 | LILT | Song books, about fifty (4) |
| LIT(erature) (“books”) about L (“fifty” in Roman numerals) | ||
| 24 | BRANDY SNAP | Biscuit: sort with violet back (6,4) |
| BRAND (“sort”) + <=PANSY (“violet”, back) | ||
| 28 | TEST | Dip one’s toe in river (4) |
| Double definition, the second referring to the River Test in Hampshire. | ||
| 29 | BEWIGGED | How judges appear to have asked about Women’s Institute (8) |
| BEGGED (“asked”) about WI (“Women’s Institute) | ||
| 30 | EARFUL | Visibly upset having lost head delivering reprimand (6) |
| (t)EARFUL (“visibly upset”, without its initial [having lost head]) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | VERMOUTH | It is done without opening hole (8) |
| (o)VER (“done”, without opening) + MOUTH (“hole”)
It (as in “gin and it”) is short for Italian vermouth. |
||
| 2 | PINA COLADA | Alcoholic drink prohibited, for a start, in a company car (4,6) |
| P[rohibited) [for a start] + IN A Co. (“company”) LADA (“car”)
Pina colada is Mrs Loonapick’s favourite cocktail, a mixture of rum, coconut milk and pineapple juice, served shaken with ice. |
||
| 3 | BLISTERING | Very quick record claimed by Danish explorer (10) |
| LIST (“record”) claimed by (Vitus) BERING (“Danish explorer”) | ||
| 4 | PLOT | How romance goes, perhaps, in bed (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | STAR | Brilliant opening, finale ignored (4) |
| STAR(t) (“opening”, with its finale (last letter) ignored) | ||
| 6 | MEGA | Lifting a beauty, giant (4) |
| [lifting] <= A GEM (“beauty”) | ||
| 7 | HELIOS | He has earth looking to the heavens, as Greek deity (6) |
| HE has <=SOIL (“earth”, looking to the heavens, ie up)
Helios was a Greek god of the sun, who drove his fiery chariot across the sky every day. |
||
| 14 | TAINT | Defined by “stain”, this? (5) |
| Hidden in [defined by] “sTAIN This” | ||
| 15 | RED SNAPPER | Fish on dish, oddly kipper? (3,7) |
| RE (“on”) + D(i)S(h) [oddly] + NAPPER (“kipper”, i.e. one taking a nap or a kip) | ||
| 16 | REVELATORY | Unexpected, a politician supporting party (10) |
| A TORY (“politician”) supporting REVEL (“party”) | ||
| 20 | COLOSSUS | Officer overcoming deficit, American giant (8) |
| C.O. (commanding “officer”) overcoming LOSS (“deficit”) + U.S. (“American”) | ||
| 22 | TURKEY | Bird that’s lame? (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | NAIL | Nothing securing a tack (4) |
| NIL (“nothing”) securing A | ||
| 26 | YOGA | Stretching exercises excruciating looking up, position finally lost (4) |
| <=AGO(n)Y (“excruciating”, looking up, with (positio)N [finally] lost) | ||
| 27 | NUDE | Artist’s subject rolled over in bed, undressed? (4) |
| Hidden backwards [rolled over] in “bED UNdressed” | ||
*anagram
Thanks Mudd and Loonapick.
I enjoyed the crossword which gradually evolved.
Satisfying to complete.
A ‘flat’ for PLOT for the what should have been the simple 4d – not the first time I’ve come a cropper on one of those four letter clues.
Apart from that little frustration I enjoyed this with a few clues proving quite difficult including the ‘It’ at 1a and BLISTERING. I knew nothing about BERING and it was fascinating to read about him on Wikipedia. I agree that RED SNAPPER was very good.
PRISE for ‘open’ was OK with me, though I agree that it’s not often used by itself and you usually see the words together, eg ‘prise the window open’, not just ‘prise the window’.
Thanks to Mudd and loonapick
Thanks Mudd and loonapick
Genrally enjoyable, but I too had one or two quibbles with this, the largest being 3. BLISTERING doesn’t simply mean very fast: a blistering attack isn’t necessarily fast, but it is excoriating. So for me, that one comes from Mudd’s (in his various guises) stock of “that’ll do” clues.
Thanks to Mudd and loonapick. Lots of fun. I did not have a problem with “prise” (though my spell-checker rejects it), but once again I was slow seeing “caught” as a homophone indicator in RHEA and needed help parsing RED SNAPPER.
Thanks Mudd and loonapick
A solid workout which took about the double the time that it usually does to finish his puzzles. Also found that I was getting the answer from the definition and then spending more time with working out how it was pieced together – agree that RED SNAPPER was among the hardest to think through.
Had no real issues with either PRISE (Oxford: to use force to move or open something – although as you say, it is most often paired with open in a phrase or sentence) nor BLISTERING (Oxford: extremely fast, forceful or impressive – as in ‘he set a blistering pace’).
The one that I did hum and ha about the most was with PLOT, where I too thought FLAT was almost as good an option and potentially more aligned to the surface reference of the clue. It was my last one in and I came here with PLOT without being surprised if I had of been wrong.