Great fun! Thank you Paul.
| Across | ||
| 5 | GLOBAL | All over the place, miss catching ball that’s gone up (6) |
| GAL (miss) contains (catching) LOB (ball that’s gone up, in the air) | ||
| 6 | GALLOP | Fast pace cut, time cut back (6) |
| POLL (cut) AGe (time) shortened (cut) all reversed (back) | ||
| 9 | IRAQIS | Asians in a queue, say, captivated by bit of a looker (6) |
| A Q (sounds like, say, queue) inside (captivated by) IRIS (part of the eye, a bit of a looker) | ||
| 10 | COOLANTS | Old couple in the family way rejected, might these take some heat off? (8) |
| O O (old, a couple of) in CLAN (the family) then ST (street, way) reversed (back) | ||
| 11 | PERI | Fairy caught by vampire, pixie in retreat (4) |
| found inside (caught by) vampIRE Pixie reversed (in retreat) | ||
| 12 | WINDSOR TIE | Flatulence offensive, put a knot in it! (7,3) |
| WIND (flatulence) SORTIE (offensive) | ||
| 13 | CONFLAGRATE | Kindling after log can catch fire (11) |
| anagram (kindling) of AFTER LOG CAN | ||
| 18 | INSULATING | Covering article inoffensive? (10) |
| A (indefinite article) in INSULTING (offensive) | ||
| 21, 5 down | ROSE GARDEN | Pants one regards where bloomers on display (4,6) |
| anagram (pants, rubbish) of ONE REGARDS | ||
| 22 | SINGABLE | Wrong part of house noted well enough? (8) |
| SIN (wrong) GABLE (part of house) | ||
| 23 | NAILED | Caught, famous Smith and Wesson finally turned over (6) |
| DELIA (Delia Smith, a famous person) and wessoN (final letter) reversed (turned over) | ||
| 24 | EXOCET | Missile sees helmsman in river shortly reversing (6) |
| COX (helmsman) inside TEEs (The River Tees) shortened and all reversed | ||
| 25 | MORSEL | Inspector Lynley’s first scrap (6) |
| MORSE (Inspector Morse, fictional detective) then Lynley (first letter of) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOSQUITO | Buzzer in tiny temple arguably for announcement? (8) |
| sounds like (for announcement) “mosque-ito” (a tiny temple, arguably) – cheeky or what! The suffix -ito denotes small in Spanish and gets carried over to English in loan words. | ||
| 2 | WARSAW | Capital, sharp tool used in action? (6) |
| WAR SAW might be a sharp tool used in a war (in a battle, action) | ||
| 3 | CAROUSER | Drunken reveller, driver stopped by officer originally (8) |
| CAR USER (driver) contains (stopped by, like a cork) Officer (first letter, originally) | ||
| 4 | ALTAIR | Star key, look (6) |
| ALT (key, on a computer keyboard) and AIR (look) | ||
| 5 | See 21 | |
| 7 | PATOIS | Common talk a steamy thing on Love Island (6) |
| PAT (a cow pat perhaps, a steamy thing) on O (love) IS (island) | ||
| 8 | SCANDALISED | Look at artist’s uncovered bed, shocked (11) |
| SCAN (look at) DALI’S (artist’s) bED (uncovered, no first letter) | ||
| 14 | FLAMBEED | Farm animal tucking into provender served in a flash? (8) |
| LAMB (farm animal) inside FEED (provender) | ||
| 15 | TARDIEST | Furthest behind, I started to crack up (8) |
| anagram (to crack up) of I STARTED | ||
| 16 | INCITE | Prompt perceptible to the audience? (6) |
| sounds like (to the audience) “in sight” (perceptible) | ||
| 17 | AS WELL | A heaving of water on top (2,4) |
| A SWELL (heaving of water) | ||
| 19 | URGE ON | Encourage operator to doff cap (4,2) |
| sURGEON (someone who operates) missing first letter (to doff cap) | ||
| 20 | GUN DOG | Free horseboxes for animal involved in a blood sport (3,3) |
| UNDO (free) inside (boxed by) GG (horse) | ||
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.
5ac I just read it as LOB = Ball that’s gone up in the air.
Thanks PeeDee. Two classy anagrams (eg 13 and 21,5) in fact went in first helped by the well worn-out ‘pants’ indicator. It was the novelties that delightfully vexed – the horseboxes = GG (19D) and LOI’s ‘inoffensive’ as in fact two words (18A). Just right, Paul, tks.
Thank you Bodge – fixed now.
Thanks PeeDee. Fun, I agree without being too taxing. Not sure about 12a, in the distant past I’ve tied a windsor knot in a tie but that didn’t make it a windsor tie. It was just a tie. Have to confess my LOI was 6a and it is so obvious but I couldn’t get past LOP = CUT.
Thanks both.
Unusually for me with a Paul puzzle, I had a couple of niggles with this one. I agree with Biggles A about the Windsor tie, and I didn’t like ‘kindling’ as an anagrind in 13a.
On the other hand, there were some trademark inventive defitions, especially ‘served in a flash’ and ‘noted well enough’.
Overall, as you say PeeDee, great fun!
Much fun as always. Thank you both. I couldn’t see Pat as a steamy thing until I remembered who was setting this. Laughed out loud – a rare event in crosswording.
Thanks Peered and Aul. Mr K and I defeated by the top right corner forgetting (once again) our keys on the keyboard we use everyday. Agree about Windsor ?not not tie but can take kindling although it took us ages to spot the 11 letters of AFTER LOG CAN. Our favourite solve was Coolants.
Cannot see why As Well means on top even though we got a swell and duly wrote it in.
joleroi – on top means as well in the sense of getting something extra: “they gave us a room and on top of that we got tea and biscuits as well”
Re Windsor Tie: it isn’t listed in Chambers but does get a mention in the OED:
Windsor tie n. U.S. a broad bias-cut necktie or scarf.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. At my first go at this puzzle on Saturday I came up with only one solution (PERI). Later in the day I filled in ROSE GARDEN and two or three more, but one of them (“traumatise” at 8 down) did not quite parse. At that point I was ready to quit. That night we got hit with a snowstorm (roughly a foot accumulated), then freezing rain and sub-freezing cold so that we were house-bound (and I am located in the US “South”). Out of stubbornness I then spent much of Sunday with this puzzle. My breakthrough came with CONFLAGRATION which in turn helped me with adjacent clues (and I moved ahead once I scrapped “traumatise” in favor of SCANDALISE). I did not know Delia Smith, and SINGABLE, MORSEL, and COOLANTS were among the last in. I was happy to finish, but the process was very tough going.
I didn’t care for WINDSOR TIE either and had never heard of the American term. Still, I got the answer so it couldn’t have been that bad. That apart this was a fun puzzle. Liked MORSEL.
Thanks Paul.
Thanks to both. The sort of puzzle that gives a feeling of satisfaction as the last one goes in. One cannot claim any clue being too difficult, too abstruse, or stretching conventions too thinly or cheekily if one solves them all!
‘Old couple’ at 10a is one the best misleads for some time.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. Typical Paul solve for me, very little on first couple of passes and then gradually began to unpack. That said, I do not no if it’s a grid thing, but almost like four puzzles in one to me. It went in in four quadrants, NW, SE, NE and finally SW. The last one was insulating and I liked patois, urge on and gun dog (spent ages trying to fit fox in). Thanks again to Paul and PeeDee.
I enjoyed this. Paul used to have too many convoluted clues for me but either he’s changed his style a bit or I’ve got better at solving them and so don’t see them as convoluted!
Despite the reservations expressed by others I thought WINDSOR TIE was a great clue. I had COPULATING (unparsed apart from the “covering” definition which I thought would be Paulesque). This held up getting INCITE (loi) which along with MOSQUITO I didn’t parse. PATOIS was a fun clue and I double ticked GUN DOG.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee.
Thanks Peedee for explaining meaning of As Well. Apologies for autocorrect in original post!
Very enjoyable. MOSQUITO was cute. It was only after I’d entered WINDSOR KNOT that I had the same thought as Biggles A and others. Maybe it’s the American neckwear (indicator preferred). Nice wordplay anyway.
” … I’d entered WINDSOR TIE”, I mean
Late response – I’m running more than a week behind – but I have to add my praise. One of Paul’s best, IMHO – lots of nice constructions, misdirections, etc, with better surfaces than is normal for him. Favourite was MORSEL (two of the best TV detectives), and other ticks were CONFLAGRATE, ROSE GARDEN, CAROUSER (surface trumps difficulty), and INCITE.
Thanks Paul for a gem, and PeeDee for an excellent blog.
A gem? You must be joking. This was Paul at his most classic. Completely impenetrable unless you ignore the rules of crossword compilation.
Thanks Paul, another Wunderbar crossword.
I put in Fossil instead of Morsel, deduced from the Inspector Fossi character of Diego Marani’s magical novels.