Morph has set a good sound puzzle that seems free of messages, gimmicks or themes.
There are a couple of Brexit allusions in the clue and a mention of Trump, but no strong political theme elsewhere that I can see.
My first one in was DEAD RINGER followed by a few more acrosses. I was vaguely aware of the term, DEUS EX MACHINA at 1 across although I wouldn’t have been able to ell what it meant without looking it up in Chambers. I liked the two uses of ‘steers’ in the clue at 2 down. I also liked the clue for CERAMIC
Apart form 1 across, I reckon all the entries were fairly well known words or phrases, as should be the case in national daily crosswords.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Due for repair, orgasmotron perhaps lacking final ecstasy, a rather improbable device (4,2,7) |
Anagram of (for repair) DUE + SEX MACHINE (orgasmatron; fictional device) excluding the final letter (lacking final) E (ecstasy tablet) + A DEU* S EX MACHIN A |
DEUS EX MACHINA (a god brought on the stage by a mechanical device; a contrived and inartistic solution of a difficulty in a plot; a rather improbable device) |
| 8 | Likeness of Quasimodo at end of novel? (4,6) |
DEAD (descriptive of Quasimodo’s state at the end of Victor Hugo’s novel, the Hunchback of Notre Dame) + RINGER (Quasimodo was a bell-RINGER) DEAD RINGER |
DEAD RINGER (a person who, or a thing that, looks exactly like someone or something else) |
| 9 | Cries of murder announcing motive (4) |
CAWS (sounds like [announcing] CAUSE [motive]) CAWS |
CAWS ((cries of crows, a collection of whom are described as a murder; murder of crows) |
| 10 | Break at a time that’s about right for biscuits (8) |
Anagram of (break) AT A TIME containing (that’s about) R (right) AMA (R) ETTI* |
AMARETTI (almond-flavoured biscuits, eaten as a dessert) |
| 11 | Phone that may be suspended (6) |
MOBILE (type of hand held phone) MOBILE |
MOBILE (a moving or movable body or part; an artistic structure, originally consisting of dangling forms, now sometimes having a base, in which movement is caused by air currents) double definition |
| 12 | Follow the money, to encapsulate Trump’s essence (6) |
PURSE (money) containing (to encapsulate) U (middle letter of [essence] TRUMP) PURS (U) E |
PURSUE (follow)
|
| 14 | Craft outlines of campaign launch with Remain backing holding (6) |
STAY (remain) reversed (backing) containing (holding) CH (first and last letters of [outlines of] CAMPAIGN LAUNCH) YA (CH) TS< |
YACHTS (light fast sailing-vessels; craft) |
| 16 | Refuse to die (4,2) |
PASS ON (refuse to answer question; I’ll PASS ON that) PASS ON |
PASS ON (die) double definition |
| 18 | Crack inside tree from the east producing shrub (6) |
(TRY [attempt; have a crack at] contained in [inside] ELM [tree]) all reversed (from the east) (M (YRT) LE)< |
MYRTLE (shrub)
|
| 20 | Wood to do job of sleeper once top’s cut off (6) |
SLUMBER (what a sleeper does) excluding (off) the first letter (top) S LUMBER |
LUMBER (timber, especially sawn and split for use; wood) |
| 21 | Dishevelled, given tie in case (8) |
Anagram of (dishevelled) GIVEN TIE GENITIVE* |
GENITIVE (of or belonging to a case expressing origin, possession, or similar relation)
|
| 23 | Great match, yours truly taking the lead (4) |
GAME (match) with ME (yours truly) moving in front of (taking the lead) GA ME GA |
MEGA (huge; great) |
| 24 | Copy two letters from Croatian into Serbian erratically first time (10) |
T (time) + (CR [{first} two letters of {two letters from}CROATIAN] contained in [into] an anagram of [erratically] SERBIAN) The T is leading as it is described as ‘first’ T RANS (CR) IBE* |
TRANSCRIBE (copy) |
| 25 | Group savaged sexism and system for rating figure (4,4,5) |
BODY (group) + an anagram of (savaged) SEXISM AND BODY MASS INDEX* |
BODY MASS INDEX (an INDEX of obesity calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height in metres; system for rating figure) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Unrealistically planned paper on Brexit finally accepted by unionists (6,2) |
(REAM [480 or 500 sheets of paper] + T [last letter of {finally} BREXIT]) contained in (accepted by) DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) D (REAM T) UP |
DREAMT UP (planned in the mind, often unrealistically) |
| 2 | What steers at outset nibbled? (5) |
RUDDER (device used for steering a boat) excluding (nibbled) the first letter (at the outset) R UDDER |
UDDER (the organ containing the mammary glands of the cow, which a young ox [steer] may nibble at the outset of it’s life) [steer |
| 3 | Romans perhaps sleep uneasily with it (7) |
Anagram of (uneasily … with) SLEEP and IT EPISTLE* |
EPISTLE (In the New Testament, the sixth book is Paul’s EPISTLE to the Romans) |
| 4 | Making great drink that can cause you to see double! (10,5) |
MAGNIFYING (making great) + GLASS (the quantity of liquid a GLASS holds; drink) MAGNIFYING GLASS |
MAGNIFYING GLASS (an instrument that enlarges, possibly enabling you to see double the size) |
| 5 | Like e.g. bowl of unfinished ice cream, melting (7) |
Anagram of (melting) ICE excluding the final letter (unfinished) E and CREAM CERAMIC* |
CERAMIC ( any product that is first shaped and then hardened by means of heat, or the material from which it is formed (esp traditional potter’s clay, but also a large range of modern materials of quite different composition, e.g. a bowl)); |
| 6 | Perhaps with bat juvenile, a high place is what will help early life? (9) |
IN (batting; with bat) + CUB (young person or animal; juvenile) + A + TOR (hill; high place) IN CUB A TOR |
INCUBATOR (apparatus for hatching eggs by artificial heat, or rearing prematurely born babies; something that will help with early life) |
| 7 | A fabric of choice (2,4) |
A + TWILL (fabric) A T WILL |
AT WILL (when or as one chooses)
|
| 13 | Celebrity directors getting right to 14 (9) |
STAR (celebrity) + BOARD (ref BOARD of directors) STAR BOARD |
STARBOARD (on boats [YACHTS, 14 a cross] , the right hand side in relation to the direction of travel is referred to as STARBOARD) |
| 15 | What’s needed to keep one’s hand in before fight? Coach may have it (5,3) |
GLOVE (covering for the hand) + BOX (fight) GLOVE BOX |
GLOVE BOX (the fighter’s coach may keep a BOX for GLOVEs) |
| 17 | Despicables carrying rubbish in manbag? (7) |
SCUM (despicable people) containing (carrying) ROT (rubbish) SC (ROT) UM |
SCROTUM (bag of skin that contains the male reproductive glands in mammals; man bag) |
| 18 | Runner soon knackered during one kilometre uphill (7) |
Anagram of (knackered) SOON contained in (during ) (I [one] and KM [kilometre]) reversed (uphill; down clue) M (ONOS*) K I< |
MONOSKI (SKI [runner] on which both feet are placed) |
| 19 | Fantastic player brought on by way of breaking in (6) |
PER (by way of) contained in (breaking in) SUB (substitute; player brought on during a game in place of another) SU (PER) B |
SUPERB (fantastic) |
| 22 | Beat it, flipping Commie (5) |
IT reversed (flipping) + RED (Communist; commie) TI< RED |
TIRED (exhausted; beat) |
Very easy for a Morph, I thought. Also thought DEUS EX MACHINA was quite well known but may be wrong.
For 15d, I took GLOVE BOX to be something you could find in a coach (vehicle).
Thanks to Morph and Duncan.
Hovis @ 1
I thought about the possibility of a glove compartment on a coach but I reckoned a car was more likely to have one than a coach, so I went for the coach (trainer).
Lovely puzzle. Who can forget “Sleeper”-best gag is where the VW starts first time after an eon.
Thanks Morph and Duncan.
A lovely treat – thank you to Morph – I particularly liked 9a (because I remembered about the ‘murder’) and the misleading but smile-inducing 2d
Thanks also to Duncan
I thought this was a light delight – great fun with lovely surfaces too. The only blot on the landscape for me was the non-homophonic “homophone” in 9a.
My joint favourites were 1a & 8a.
Many thanks to Morph and to Duncan.
Exactly what crypticsue said, 😉
Rabbit Dave @5 – I usually have some sympathy with homophone grouses – or at least see where they’re coming from – but Collins and Chambers both give identical pronunciations for cause and CAWS.
Eileen @7. For me, CAWS rhymes with doors. CAUSE doesn’t even remotely.
I’m with Eileen and the dictionaries on the working homophone – I’ve done a quick check round the office and others would agree with us too
Rabbit Dave @8 – CAWS rhyming with doors is exactly what would arouse the homophone police. 😉
I thought the same as Hovis @1.
Taking campaign launch as single entity in YACHTS caught me a little by surprise, though I’ve seen that craft before.
Otherwise the only notes I have are of clues I liked:
DEUS EX MACHINA CAWS PASS ON MEGA SCROTUM (lol) and MONOSKI.
Many thanks Morph and Duncan.
(I didn’t write that comment with quite the precision I intended: the clues I liked were all of them. Those I listed were particular likes.)
An enjoyable, not too difficult solve. Fooled good and proper by MONOSKI who I took to be a previously unheard of (by me) Eastern European middle-distance athlete.
Maybe a cryptic chestnut (no comment) but SCROTUM brought a smile and once I’d cottoned on to ‘murder’ as a collective noun I liked CAWS (which I confess I pronounce in exactly the same way as ’cause’). Highlight for me though was the &lit UDDER.
Thanks to Morph and to Duncan
Once I’d got past 1a, I smiled all the way through this one – although I did phone a friend for help with the parsing of 6a. I know that a ‘bat juvenile’ is a pup – led well and truly up the garden path!
Tick list included 8,9,11,16&25a plus 15d.
Many thanks to Morph and to Duncan for the blog.
Entertaining solve with particular mention for the clues to UDDER and SCROTUM.
I, too, put in MONOSKI and wondered for a short time whether (s)HE was a Polish runner, doh!
Thanks to Morph and Duncan.
In some ancient plays a ‘deus ex machina’ was an improbable device also because he was often used to resolve plot difficulties by saying “I Apollo [or whoever] hereby make everything all right, because I’m a god”. For a modern example, see the final scene of Joe Orton’s wonderful farce “What the Butler Saw”.
(In which detective Bryan Pringle is literally lowered from above – Orton is full of classical references, probably gleaned from the books he purloined from libraries.) I’ll get me coat now.
the usual high-end gigglefest from Morph. Such fun.
many thanks to S&B
Thanks Morph and DS
Very chucklesome today. If AMARETTI were a MARine form pf paparazzi, would they pursue yachts?
I also thought 1A was well-known; it was my FOI.
I enjoyed this. Some penny drop moments including loi MONOSKI: I thought it must be some famous Russian athlete I’d never heard of (MonOSki). Thanks Morph an Duncan
Finding myself in good company, I will admit to googling runner MONOSKI – arrived at via meticulous wordplay: nice one, Morph. 😉
Thanks to duncanshiell and Morph
I don’t think I’ve come across Morph before – I look forward to the next time.
@15d I thought of COACH as in horse-drawn, which is where the glove box originated. along with “dashboard”
Finally I am a happy bunny! Four different people phoned me this afternoon and evening. My immediate request to each of them was to pronounce CAWS and CAUSE and I delighted to say that in no case did those two words sound the same. Relief!
For some reason, it took me ages to see 12ac, my LOI by quite a long time.
At m school back in the sixties, sixth formers were given lessons on Greek and Roman literature as the classics master was underworked, so I learned about deus ex machina then. More recently I heard about a book reviewer who thought the author of a book cheated by having more than one deus ex machina at the end of the book. So he went to his Latin dictionary and worked out what the plural of the phrase was. His editor changed it to “deus ex machinas”/
I hope Rabbit Dave’s wife shops at Michael Kors.
I’m probably too late now but Rabbit Dave – how do you pronounce cause?
Do you pronounce it as a schwa such that it rhymes with buzz?
If so do you pronounce it like that even in phrases like “without just cause”?