Another super puzzle from Julius. Thank you.
It is a very damp and grey day here in Scotland. Is Julius try to taunt me or cheer me up with all these beach holiday references?
| Across | ||
| 1 | LIBERALISED | “Misspoke” about Belgium, Israel labouring to become more enlightened (11) |
| LIED (misspoke) contains anagram (labouring) of B (Belgium) and ISRAEL | ||
| 7 | JAW | Rabbit bone (3) |
| double definition | ||
| 9 | TAMED | Subdued, thanks to medicine (5) |
| TA (thanks) with MED (medicine) | ||
| 10 | ALIENATOR | He turns away a poor relation (9) |
| A then anagram (poor) of RELATION | ||
| 11 | ON-SHORING | Ending foreign outsourcing of ordinary NHS groin surgery (2-7) |
| anagram (surgery) of O (ordinary) and NHS GROIN | ||
| 12 | BIKER | One reportedly peddling German ale laced with potassium (5) |
| BIER (ale, in German) contains (laced with) K (potassium) – one pedalling a bicycle | ||
| 13 | AUTOBUS | It transports gold to America, billions on board (7) |
| AU (gold) TO US (America) contains (with…on board) B (billions) | ||
| 15 | EDGE | Move gradually along narrow parapet, crumbling at the front (4) |
| LEDGE (narrow parapet) missing the first letter (crumbling at the front) | ||
| 18 | WASH | Launder cash won for $100 (4) |
| cASH with W (won) replacing C ($100) | ||
| 20 | STYRENE | Special rubber ring’s new English hydrocarbon (7) |
| S (special) TYRE (rubber ring) has N (new) E (English) | ||
| 23, 27 | BREAKWATER | A beach structure, Buddhist temple gets swamped by wave (10) |
| WAT (Buddhist temple) inside (gets swamped by) BREAKER (wave) | ||
| 24 | SAND YACHT | I visited the Strand; it blew me away (4,5) |
| cryptic definition? | ||
| 26 | COASTLINE | Cliff’s here, social networking (9) |
| anagram (working) of SOCIAL NET – sneaky! | ||
| 27 | See 23 | |
| 28 | SEA | Assegai regularly chucked in the ocean (3) |
| every other letter (some letters regularly chucked out) of aSsEgAi | ||
| 29 | DINNER DANCE | Called in nerd Ancelotti to retain possession of the ball (6,5) |
| found inside (to retain possession of) calleD IN NERD ANCElotti | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LITTORAL | Excessive rise in Turkish currency left high rollers getting washed up here (8) |
| OTT (excessive) reversed (rise) in LIRA (Turkish currency) then L (left) – the shoreline | ||
| 2 | BOMB SITE | Bikini, for example, will go down very badly on location! (4,4) |
| BOMB (go down very badly) on SITE (location) – Bikini Atoll, site of atomic bomb tests | ||
| 3 | RADIO | On which Queen’s speech might be gaga? (5) |
| All we hear is radio gaga, radio goo goo… – song by Queen | ||
| 4 | LEAD-INS | Intros to heavy metal, fashionable at the start of the 70s (4-3) |
| LEAD (heavy metal) IN (fashionable) with Seventies (starting letter of). A pedant might say the clue indicates the start of The seventies. | ||
| 5 | SHINGLE | Beach hotel squeezed in accommodation for one (7) |
| H (hotel) inside (squeezed into) SINGLE (accommodation for one) | ||
| 6 | DUNE BUGGY | Subtly nudge guy to acquire British sports car (4,5) |
| anagram (subtly) of NUDGE GUY contains (to acquire) B (British) | ||
| 7 | JET SKI | A hazard to swimmers in Skopje? Tsk! Infuriating! (3-3) |
| found inside skpkJE TSK Infuriating | ||
| 8 | WAR CRY | Sally Ann issues this bloodcurdling scream (3,3) |
| double definition – the War Cry is the magazine of the Salvation Army (Sally Ann) | ||
| 14 | BRACKETED | (Well qualified teacher concealing criminal conspiracy) (9) |
| BED (Bachelor of Education, well qualified teacher) contains RACKETD (criminal conspiracy) – definition is the containing brackets | ||
| 16 | BEACH TAN | Record of Summer Holiday by Sandie Shaw broadcast; that‘ll show The White Stripes! (5,3) |
| sounds like (broadcast) a record of a holiday by a sandy shore | ||
| 17 | RENT-FREE | No tears tenancy agreement? (4-4) |
| double/cryptic definition – a rent is a rip | ||
| 19 | HESSIAN | Sackcloth in ashes? That‘s wrong (7) |
| anagram (that’s wrong) of IN ASHES | ||
| 20 | SINCERE | Because religious education’s free from pretence (7) |
| SINCE (because) RE (religious education) | ||
| 21 | ABACUS | A coach fitted with air conditioning and a computer (6) |
| A BUS (coach) contains (fitted with) AC (air conditioning) | ||
| 22 | NEVADA | Dave turned up in North American state (6) |
| DAVE reversed (turned up) in NA (North American) | ||
| 25 | YAWED | Yankee, consumed with dread, zigzagged at sea (5) |
| Y (Yankee, phonetic alphabet) and AWED (consumed with dread) | ||
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.
Damp and grey in East Kent too but Julius certainly knows how to brighten up a Wednesday morning.
Thanks to him for the super fun and PeeDee for the explanations
Enormous fun — I loved BRACKETED. I think, PeeDee, you mean ‘pedalling’ in 12ac — that’s the joke. Thanks, both.
BEACH TAN is a tremendous clue. I am still laughing. Although its been beyond that in North Queensland.
Thanks J and PD.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. I knew land yacht but not SAND YACHT so that I failed to get HESSIAN as well and needed help parsing RADIO and WAR CRY.
Failed to spot the brackets in 14a (in my defence, I had a very small print-out and had difficulty reading the clues) and wasn’t too keen on 24a either.
Thanks to RJ and PD.
Thanks Julius for a bit of sunshine in November. I liked the hidden at 29a (foi) and also ON-SHORING for it’s ghostlike appearance in the theme. And bikini for the opposite.
Thanks also peedee. I wasn’t sure my first word in 16d was right.
A particularly good Julius puzzle. I liked the way a lot of the clues tried to tell you that they were of a different type to what they actually were.
Got all bar 20a and 16d. COD 1d.
Hornbeam @2 – yes that is what I meant. Fixed now, thanks for pointing these things out.
Just realised I forgot to comment on this yesterday, but as always from Julius this was an entertaining puzzle. Not too tricky to solve.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
I enjoyed this, but don’t understand where SAND YACHT comes from. Please could someone explain? Thanks.
Hello Grumpy,
I think we are supposed to read the clue as “I visited the famous street in London (the Strand) and it amazed me”. Since a strand is a beach and a sand yacht is wind powered, ignoring the capitalisation the cryptic reading is “I visited the beach and was blown away in a sand yacht”.
Personally I think it is the wind that blows Julius away not the yacht and this is not the finest clue in the puzzle, but Julius gives such good value everywhere else that it seemed a bit churlish to criticise.
Thanks PeeDee. I didn’t get strand=beach.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
An entertaining puzzle although not as difficult as they can be from this setter with the interesting beach shoreline theme. Particularly liked the Queen Radio Ga Ga clue as well as the trick with the brackets at 14d.
Finished in the SE corner with SAND YACHT (which was a new term), BREAKWATER and the amusing BEACH TAN.