The puzzle can be found here.
Hello everybody. Duncan is away, but he’s left the catflap unlocked, so I’ve been able to help myself to this tasty Maize. Thanks!
I’m a lot busier than I anticipated when I agreed to blog today, so no pictures. I’ll also leave it to you to highlight the, er, highlights and to enlighten me as to what else might be going on. I can’t see any nina or theme, but it’s a Maize so there must be … surely?
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
1a Sauce boat not completely put back (7)
KETCHUP
KETCH (boat) plus most of (not completely) PUt reversed (back)
5a Prisoner starts to tunnel after getting into pipe (7)
HOSTAGE
The first letters of (starts to) Tunnel After Getting go into HOSE (pipe)
9a Use minimal amount of special clothing for Ms Kardashian (5)
SKIMP
SP (special) goes around, or is clothing for, KIM (Ms Kardashian)
10a Draw attention to thin trousers pocket (9)
SPOTLIGHT
SLIGHT (thin) contains (trousers) POT (to pocket, in snooker etc.)
11a Lyceum emptied after debut of Elijah Wood (3)
ELM
After the first letter of (debut of) Elijah, we have L[yceu]M without its middle letters (emptied)
12a Spoil several balls during largely boring and empty game (11)
OVERINDULGE
The concatenation of OVER (some balls bowled in cricket), IN (during), most of (largely) DULl (boring), and the outer letters of (empty) GamE
13a Cryptic Raich’s postgraduate qualification in magnetism (8)
CHARISMA
AN anagram of (cryptic) RAICH’S followed by MA (Master of Arts, postgraduate qualification)
15a Turn of aviator’s learner to turn 45 degrees (5)
PIVOT
PILOT (aviator) with the L to be rotated 45 degrees anticlockwise making a (rather wide) V
18a Simple bit of mathematics keeping late starter in the dark (5)
UNLIT
UNIT (simple bit of mathematics) containing (keeping) the first letter of Late (late starter)
19a His dream broken, as was 1D by Hardy? (8)
MISHEARD
HIS DREAM, anagrammed (broken). Nelson’s famous words to Hardy as he lay dying have been subject to much debate (but are unlikely to have featured 1d!)
21a Elderly relative may visit Bahrain regularly, a place for winter sun (4,7)
GRAN CANARIA
We have GRAN (elderly relative — not always so elderly!) and CAN (may), then we’re instructed to take regular letters of (visit … regularly) bAhRaIn, finishing with the A
24a Part of forest fire remains? (3)
ASH
Two definitions
25a Small country’s itinerant Romanians (3,6)
SAN MARINO
AN anagram of (itinerant) ROMANIANS
26a Hipbone is losing its upper mobility first of all (5)
ILIUM
Initial letters of (… first of all) Is Losing Its Upper Mobility
27a Cutters‘ chief engineer on board recruits youth leaving Oxford University (7)
SCYTHES
Russian dolls time: CE (chief engineer) inside SS (on board), all of which contains (recruits) Y[ou]TH without OU (leaving Oxford University)
28a What a Bonsai grower avoids is said to be intolerance (7)
BIGOTRY
This sounds like (… is said to be) what a Bonsai grower avoids growing: a BIGGER TREE (groan! 🙂 )
Down
1d Reckless mistake, throwing away a lot in life (6)
KISMET
An anagram of (reckless) MIST[a]KE without (throwing away) A
2d Celebrating upper speed during test (9)
TRIUMPHAL
U (upper) and MPH (speed) in (during) TRIAL (test)
3d Doctor takes this large mammal and this small one in chaotic hybrid (11,4)
HIPPOCRATIC OATH
HIPPO (large mammal) and RAT (this small one) inside an anagram of (… hybrid) CHAOTIC
4d One way to fix a stage when cycling (5)
PASTE
A STEP (a stage) with its letters cycled, or moved round (when cycling); in this case the last letter is moved to the front. (This device is different to the arbitrary indirect anagram because it’s specific as to how the letters are rearranged, if not how many places to cycle)
5d Problem I can have to begin with raising delinquents (9)
HOOLIGANS
The combination of SNAG (problem), I (from the clue), LOO (can, toilet) and the first letter of (… to begin with) Have, all reversed (raising, in a down answer)
6d Modest little fellow capered about wearing fleece (4-11)
SELF-DEPRECATING
ELF (little fellow) and an anagram of (… about) CAPERED are inside (wearing) STING (fleece, financially)
7d Briefly irritate Labour leader somewhere in Islington (5)
ANGEL
Most of (briefly) ANGEr (irritate) plus the first letter of Labour (Labour leader)
8d Jobcentre at York covers application for assistance (8)
ENTREATY
JobcENTRE AT York contains (covers) the answer
14d Maize’s perverse fun and games with word meanings (9)
SEMANTICS
ME (Maize, the setter) and the ‘S from the clue, reversed (perverse), plus ANTICS (fun and games)
16d Getafix is one trading drug for very wordy customer (9)
VERBALIST
[H]ERBALIST (Getafix is one in the Asterix comics) exchanging (trading) H (horse, drug) for V (very)
17d Solicitor general appears on show promoting union with counsels (8)
SUGGESTS
SG (Solicitor General) + GUESTS (appears on show) with U (union) moved up (promoting union)
20d My wish is fanciful? (6)
WHIMSY
MY WISH is anagrammed (is fanciful)
22d No time for speaker to get angry (5)
ANNOY
T removed from (no time for) [t]ANNOY (speaker)
23d Diamond ring acquired by extremely rich doctor (5)
RHOMB
O (ring) inside (acquired by) outer letters of (extremely) RicH and MB (doctor)
I found this generally straightforward but a lot of fun. Like Kitty, I’m not entirely convinced that a rotated L gives you a V, but it’s an unusual and rather nice idea.
I must admit that I don’t fully understand all the cryptic grammar rules, many of which seem to differ depending on whom you talk to, but Maize has twice used the construction “wordplay” WITH “definition”. Is that considered OK?
My page has far too many ticks to list them all, so I’ll just mention 19a, 28a & 7d.
Many thanks to Maize and to a very busy Kitty for slipping in through the catflap today.
Seeing ‘cycling’ in a clue throws me into almost as much of a panic as the mention of the good reverend – answer first, parse later is my default setting where both are concerned.
I think that both Kitty and RD are being generous in their remarks about the rotated L in 15a – a bridge too far for me.
Plenty that I did enjoy though with 19 & 28a coming out on top.
Thanks to Maize and to a Kitty who will definitely be in need of more than a catnap tonight!
Is anyone else getting rather tired of toilets (loos, cans, johns, bogs etc.) in crosswords?
Geoff @3. I agree with you, but sadly it seems to be de rigueur (along with drugs references) for the Independent.
A bit of a challenge, but we got there in the end. 17dn took us a while to sort out, but we twigged the 45 degrees device in 15ac at once and thought it a neat touch. Favourites were SPOTLIGHT and OVERINDULGE.
Apropos Geoff’ and RD’s comments at 3 & 4, another device that seems to be used a lot at present is ‘my’ for ‘cor’ – not today, though.
Thanks, Maize and Kitty.
Devices and wordplay components come into and go out of fashion, it’s true. And not all of those will always be to everyone’s taste. Personally, I really like the Indy’s style.
Rabbit Dave@1 – sorry, it slipped my mind that you’d asked a question. Since most clues give us exactly that: wordplay with definition, I can’t see any problem at all with “with” as a link word.
Another good one from Maize, thoroughly enjoyed. On the easy side, only 14d at the close causing any rule problems. Getting from Maize’s to MES required a little more mind bending than I’m capable of this time of night. Copious toilet references? I’m evidently not looking hard enough. More Maize please.
Thanks for the blog Kitty – detailed accurate and jolly as ever. 🙂
I am a bit late to this one but we enjoyed tackling it in the pub.
Thanks to Maize and Kitty
Beery, I’m even later. Copmus never mentioned it. I just spotted it this afternoon.
A bit easier than usual from Maize, and nothing going on in the final grid? No matter, I usually miss it anyway.