A date appropriate puzzle from Knut with lots of lively and occasionally off-the-wall clueing devices.
On the subject of the unusual fodder items, I was generally happy with those. With clues like 29Across, the answer wasn’t too hard to work out and having the non-standard phrase for quiet in there gave an extra dimension to teasing out the parsing. Having said that, there were a couple I didn’t really follow and I had to resort to a word search for 7 down, mainly because I’d never heard the word and the presence of the word stocking looked too much like an inclusion indicator.
As well as a Poisson d’Avril reference, there seem to be a bit of a financial theme with a few references to money and the 2008 financial crisis. Perhaps it was making a point that wrapping up junk mortgages and corruptly turning them into triple-A bonds was an April fool played on all of us…
| Across | ||
| 1/5 | CHAPMAN PINCHER | Espionage writer‘s tea in the afternoon with a northern thief (7,7) |
| Cha PM + a N(orthern) + pincher | ||
| 9 | APRON | When 2’s caught dropping ecstasy in front of the stage (5) |
| An April fool would be caught on Apr On[e]. | ||
| 10 | TENUOUSLY | Lousy tune played weakly (9) |
| (Lousy tune)* | ||
| 11 | SALLY ARMY | Excursion with Mary, getting flexible super savers? (5,4) |
| Sally + Mary* | ||
| 12 | IGLOO | Knocking back cool gin without touching the sides, chillin’ at home here (5) |
| ([c]ool gi[n])< | ||
| 13 | SWOTS | Crams loads on board for the return journey (5) |
| Stows< | ||
| 15 | FARTHING | 5/4 in Forfar? Thin gruel! (8) |
| Hidden in forFAR THIN gruel. A farthing was a quarter penny, hence 5(=penny) divided by 4. | ||
| 19 | PLANKTON | Board not for turning; it’ll be swallowed by a big fish (8) |
| Plank + ton<. | ||
| 20 | CRIER | He proclaims king that is wearing crown (5) |
| R (which I believe is short for Rex) + i.e. in Cr(own) | ||
| 22 | ROYAL | Ruler, having pledged allegiance, changed sides at the start (5) |
| Loyal with R instead of L at the start. | ||
| 24 | SOAP OPERA | Daughter put aside US soft drink; time for Dynasty! (4,5) |
| So[d]a pop + era. | ||
| 26 | ANCHORAGE | Change oar going round the harbour (9) |
| (Change oar)* | ||
| 27 | SPOOF | Richard III featuring in science fiction parody? (5) |
| Poo in S(cience) F(iction). Richard the Third is Cockney rhyming slang for turd. | ||
| 28 | ENTITLE | Dub hospital department “doctor-lite” (7) |
| ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) + lite* | ||
| 29 | LUSTFUL | Full of passion, Liverpool’s wingers keep United quiet (7) |
| LL (letters on either side of Liverpool) around U + STFU. STFU is an abbrev for “Shut the F*ck up”. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COARSEST | Most rude word for bottoms in bed? (8) |
| Arses in cot | ||
| 2 | APRIL FOOL | One caught in spring trap? (5,4) |
| CD | ||
| 3 | MONEY | Cash in my old points (5) |
| O(ld) + NE in my | ||
| 4 | NET PROFIT | Web expert able to make money after tax (3,6) |
| Net pro + fit | ||
| 5 | PENNY | Tin can in US state (5) |
| Not sure on this. Tin is slang for money, so that could be the def. Maybe penny is US slang for a lavatory or maybe it has something to do with Pennsylvania. Should be can=pen(itentiary) + NY | ||
| 6 | NEOLITHIC | In Chile, to recreate Stone Age (9) |
| (In Chile to)* | ||
| 7 | HOSEL | Section of golf club stocking brand new driver (5) |
| Hose + L. The hosel is apparently the socket head into which the shaft of a gof club screws. | ||
| 8 | RHYTON | Horny old Greek’s vessel sounds groovy, man! (6) |
| Hom of right on. A rhyton was a horn shaped drinking vessel. | ||
| 14 | SINGLE OUT | Make an example of one club dismissed for 100? (6,3) |
| Can’t quite see this one either. I can only think it’s single c(lub) out with the C removed, but it doesn’t quite seem to make sense. Probably too much card knowledge involved for me – it’s singleton with ton replaced by out | ||
| 16 | RING A BELL | To jog the memory, shake Belgian gripped by both hands (4,1,4) |
| [B]elgia[n]* in R + L | ||
| 17 | NOISES OFF | Frayn’s work upset Mrs. Hague, featuring topless poses (6,3) |
| (Ffion around [p]oses)<. Ffion Hague is a Welsh writer/broadcaster and wife of William Hague. | ||
| 18 | DREADFUL | First impression of Dick Fuld era? Shockingly terrible! (8) |
| D[ick] + (Fuld era)*. Dick Fuld is a real person – he was the head of Lehman Brothers at the time of its demise during the financial crash. | ||
| 21 | ARCADE | Radio fundraiser for Noah’s shopping gallery? (6) |
| Hom of “ark aid”. | ||
| 23 | YACHT | It makes sail going about the cay, having left Spain (5) |
| (Th[e] cay)< | ||
| 24 | SHARE | Second husband undressed harem in allotment (5) |
| S(econd) h(usband) + [h]are[m] | ||
| 25 | OASIS | Rowing brothers regularly seen in Roman ships (5) |
| Even letters of “roman ships” – rowing in the sense of having rows, for which the Gallagher brothers were famous. You could be ultra critical here and say that Oasis wasn’t just the Gallaghers. | ||
*anagram
A few left unparsed for me as well. Have finally parsed 14d though. One club (as a card) is a SINGLETON. Now replace TON (100) by OUT (dismissed).
Many thanks to Knut and Neal. I await explanation for 5d.
Thanks, Neal.
5d: Pen[itentiary] is prison i.e. “can” in the US followed by New York state.
Thanks to NealH and Knut
Can =penitentiary NY state
Thanks NeilW and Dansar. Didn’t know the Pen abbreviation. Seems so obvious in hindsight.
Wonder how many of you saw the rhyming slang at 27a and thought of this Ronnie Barker sketch
For some reason the link in my last email didn’t work. I’ll try again. Here hopefully.
On 5D, I believe PEN = “can in US” (i.e. a US term for a prison). Then NY is the state, and as you say “tin” is a definition for money, so can define “penny”
There are quite a few pennies: pincher, dreadful etc., dunno how many. That made me think SWOTS had to be slots.
Didn’t get RHYTON, thought it was something ending in rox. Also didn’t know STFU, but sure as Richard III do know.
5/4 in Forfar a coup.
Thanks Knut, NealH
Thanks for the blog @NealH to to those who have commented, with a particular hon mensh for James who spotted the penny mini-ghost-theme
Best wishes to all, Rob/Knut
Well we got it all with a smidgin of help. We thought 6dn could only be HOSEL so we checked in Chambers and there it was; and as there aren’t too many words beginning R_Y we hunted through the R section and found RHYTON – another new word for us which was obvious once we saw it.
15ac reminded us of the apocryphal football score – East Fife 5, Forfar 4.
Favourites were PLANKTON and ARCADE, with an honourable mention for NOISES OFF.
Thanks, Knut and NealH
Oops – for 6dn read 7dn.
I enjoyed this solve with APRON and SPOOF particularly pleasing.
BTW has anyone seen the BMW ad for lunar paint in today’s newspapers that ‘uses revolutionary photovoltaic technology to passively recharge your battery in the hours of darkness, extending your electric range even further?’
Thanks Knut and NealH.
I meant to say that by totting up the blogs on here (my go-to resource!) I think this might be my 50th puzzle to have been published in the Indy so wa-hey!
Thanks for the blog, Neal. Good puzzle by the little bear, with LUSTFUL very funny.
Congrats to Knut on the half century. They’ve all been good (apart from the g*lf-themed one, obviously …)
A witty and original puzzle. Liked the rowing brothers, the super savers, Noah’s fundraiser and Richard III particularly,
Couple of blogging points.
1D “word” is not part of the definition.
16D the full word “Belgian” is anagrammed within R and L.
Like others, never heard of HOSEL and did not know STFU. Some tricky devices in a good puzzle.
Thanks to Knut and NealH.
The Rowing Brothers were nearly always in the band.Nice clue.
Happy 50th.
Very late to this but we have just been doing this is the pub. The rowing brothers were first in but still my favourite, and we struggled to justify PENNY…