I had a big smile on my face all the way through this puzzle. Thanks Julius!
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHATTERBOX | One using plenty of gas to deep-fry Mars Bars, according to Spooner? (10) |
| a Spoonerism of “batter chocs” (to deep fry Mars Bars) – a cryptic definition | ||
| 7 | RUFF | Trump: Republican leader, upper- class, fine fellow (4) |
| Republican (leading letter of) U (upper-class) F (fine) F (fellow) | ||
| 9 | BURR | About Rory: regularly going missing (in a manner of speaking) (4) |
| every other letter missing in aBoUt RoRy | ||
| 10, 16 | OLD ENGLISH SHEEPDOG | Oh God; he’s sleeping fitfully, hogging leopard’s skin – we should let him lie (3,7,8) |
| anagram (fitfully) of OH GOD HES SLEEPING containing (hogging) LeoparD (skin of) – let sleeping dogs lie | ||
| 11 | RED BUG | Creepy individual used in FSB honeytrap? (3,3) |
| the FSB is the Russian intelligence service | ||
| 12 | IN DEMAND | Some revolting fathead named Nigel is amazingly popular (2,6) |
| found reversed (revolting) inside fatheaD NAMED NIgel | ||
| 13 | GREAT TIT | On the way back, laugh about a golf birdie (5,3) |
| TITTER (laugh) contains (about) A then G (golf, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 15 | DATE | See Alighieri becoming disheartened (4) |
| DAnTE (Dante Alighieri) missing middle letter (no heart, becoming disheartened) – to be romantically involved with | ||
| 17 | CARP | Beef or fish? (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | NIHILIST | Nighy: Liszt reportedly “an absolute non-believer” (8) |
| sounds like (reportedly) Nighy Liszt | ||
| 22 | PASADENA | Californian city as soon as possible returned DNA sample, finally enclosed (8) |
| ASAP (as soon as possible) reversed (returned) then DNA containing (…enclosed) samplE (finally, last letter of) | ||
| 23 | EMBRYO | Sometimes the result of an accident; more by design (6) |
| anagram (design) of MORE BY | ||
| 25 | CREW-NECKED | Like a top vintage reportedly quaffed? (4-6) |
| CREW sounds like (reportedly) “Cru” then NECKED (quaffed) | ||
| 26 | AGIN | Not a fan of American spirit (4) |
| A (American) GIN (spirit) | ||
| 27 | EMMY | Madame sent back Yankee award (4) |
| MME (Madame) reversed (sent back) and Y (Yankee, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 28 | ALTOGETHER | Leather got ruined completely (10) |
| anagram (ruined) of LEATHER GOT | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | HAUTEUR | Arrogance of hotel director (7) |
| H (hotel) AUTEUR (director, cinema) | ||
| 3 | THROB | Pound found in dressing gown (5) |
| found inside baTH ROBe (dressing gown) | ||
| 4 | ELONGATE | Draw out scandal at Tesla? (8) |
| ELON-GATE (a scandal involving Elon Musk at Tesla, cf Watergate etc) | ||
| 5 | BADMINTON RACKET | One providing shuttle service covering fraud trials lasting three days (9,6) |
| RACKET (fraud) preceded by (with…covering) BADMINTON (horse trials, a Three Day Event) – confusingly the link for Three Day Eventing on the Wikipedia article for the Badminton Horse Trials is 5 day event (shurely shome mishtake?) | ||
| 6 | XANADU | Sex, an adulteress admits, an attraction for Kubla Khan when hot (6) |
| found inside (admitted by) seX AN ADUlteress – a palace made of ice | ||
| 7 | ROLE MODEL | Lord Mellor runs off, embarrassed – kids should look up to him! (4,5) |
| anagram (embarrassed) of LORD MELLOr missing (off) R (runs). Hovis, who is more on the ball than I am, points out that the anagram fodder gives ROLL MODEL | ||
| 8 | FISHNET | Kinky fetish trousers – new, fine mesh fabric (7) |
| anagram (kinky) of FETISH contains (trousers) N (new) | ||
| 14 | APPIAN WAY | A very quiet Scotsman with a yen to see the road to Brindisi (6,3) |
| A PP (pianissimo, very quiet) IAN (a Scotsman) W (with) A Y (Yen) | ||
| 16 | See 10 | |
| 18 | ANAGRAM | Piers Morgan is pro-German suddenly, thanks to this (7) |
| PIERS MORGAN is an anagram of IS PRO GERMAN – fabulous! | ||
| 20 | SKYLINE | Small Aussie pop star’s getting to grips with northern city scene (7) |
| S (small) KYLIE (Aussie pop star) contains (getting to grips with) N (northern) | ||
| 21 | GENEVA | English archdeacon turned up in Georgia (famous for its Red Cross) (6) |
| E (English) VEN (venerable, an archdeacon) reversed (turned up) inside GA (Georgia) | ||
| 24 | BEAST | Bully beef? (5) |
| double definition – see Julius @7 below | ||
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.
Wonderful crossword despite the errors. Namely, 7d doesn’t work – anagram fodder gives ROLL MODEL which is wrong. Also there’s a typo in 15a.
Thought the Spoonerism at 1a was brilliant, as was ELONGATE.
Couldn’t solve 24d and put in an unparsed BEAST.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
Lots to smile at as you’d expect from Julius. I particularly liked 23a
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Hovis – you are right about 7dn. I just looked at the anagram fodder and saw an answer, I didn’t actually stop and check them all off. I just assumed it would be correct.
BEAST it is, a double def: ‘bully’ as in Billy Bunter’s ‘Stop it, you beasts!’ and a farmer’s or butcher’s name for their cattle for slaughter (‘He keeps about fifty beasts’).
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. Some good jokes indeed today.
Grant – I thought of BEAST as a double definition too but it seems to be just as tenuous as BLAST to me
To PeeDee:
I think they’re both common enough. Dennis Skinner MP is eg known as ‘the beast of Bolsover’ for his aggressive rhetoric and our butcher Geoff Mycock would certainly say – he farms as well – ‘nice steaks, these, off a very nice beast’.
Btw, a pedant (guilty!) might say that ‘cru’ and ‘crew’ aren’t precise homophones, the former being said in the Fr manner with the lips forming O over a pronounced ‘ee’ sound. But close enough, I s’pose.
dear PeeDee, thanks for your blog and to those who have commented – especially to Hovis for pointing out the daft error in the anagram fodder for ROLE MODEL and the missing i in becoming in the wordplay for 15a. I’m very sorry for these blunders and will reorganise my folders to make sure I know which puzzles have been tested before sending them to the ed. (mind you, it’s not unheard of for mistakes to survive that process, either).
The two word dd at 24d “bully beef” is intended to give BEAST. “To beast” is an army term for essentially pushing recruits to the limit and it has made its way into some schools too for bullying, and “a beef” (charming plural beeves) can be an ox or similar (Collins).
warmest regards to all, Rob/Julius
Thanks for a fine blog, PeeDee and Julius for a clever and hilarious puzzle.
I chuckled all the way through and I’m with crypticsue re 23ac – see here [if it works].
Apart from all the laughs, my favourite was 14dn: entering it immediately from the definition and enumeration, I wondered if it was a bit obscure but the wordplay is immaculate – every component is a crossword classic, so if you’ve never heard of this road, you just do what it says on the tin and Bob’s your uncle.
The Spoonerism too, was exactly what a Spoonerism should be [but they so rarely are] – an absolute classic. [I think you meant ‘chocs’, PeeDee. 😉 ]
You’ve put a big smile on my face for the rest of the day, Julius – many thanks again.
Eileen – thank you, I do indeed mean chocs!
Thanks PeeDee
For 11ac I initially considered ‘red bug’ but this isn’t given as two words in any of my references. Collins has ‘redbug’ as another name for ‘chigger’ but this is only used in N America. In the end I decided that the ‘honeytrap’ reference was leading us to BED BUG, but again Chambers, Collins and the ODE only give this as a single word so perhaps the enumeration is wrong.
Gaufrid – I found “red bug” in Wikipedia and I didn’t look any further. Does it matter?
After considering red bug, I entered bed bug which I thought was funnier wrt the honey trap – but didn’t check enumeration. I had entered blast, thanks for all the enlightenment. Very enjoyable solve with plenty of laughs, many thanks Julius and peedee.
sorry, me again. I intended the answer to 11 to be BED BUG as suggested by the sexual nature of espionage used in a honeytrap. It’s an enumeration error – it should be BEDBUG (6) not (3,3) and I assume I didn’t verify this at the time, for which I can only apologise. Again. Blimey I hope the ed isn’t reading this or I’ll get sacked….
Didn’t spot the errors, went with BEAST but with no great conviction, but as always really enjoyed this one.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
I thought 4dn and 18dn were magical clues.
Also had BED BUG instead of RED RUG.
Thanks to PeeDee and Julius
Lots to like but a couple of strange ones.
NIGHY : LISZT ??
3d I don’t object to it but I can’t recall another example of an entry hidden in a synonym.
18d What is SUDDENLY doing?
And 11a.
My LOI and now I understand why. I couldn’t fathom why FSB was used if the answer wasn’t RED BUG, but as I don’t think anyone now sees Russia as communist then how does that give it anyway. I then decided that it was a clever misdirection to make us think RED but it was actually BED so I entered that and then came here to find I was wrong, then right, then wrong because I didn’t know BEDBUG was one word.
My SOED gives RED BUG as two words. If it was the CIA doing the bugging that might have worked. It also gives COTTON-STAINER as a synonym for RED BUG. Given the honeytrap setting that may have been useful.
Good,fun crossword, that’s the main thing.
Julius @13 – aha, I see where you were going with this one now. I hadn’t thought of a honeytrap being something sexual, just bait put out to trap a wrongdoer. I was peripherally involved in a few honeytraps while working on anti-fraud measures at a bank, sadly I don’t remember there being any sex involved at all. Work could have been so much more interesting if we had only known how to do it properly!
Not to disagree with James @15, but I preferred the one about Nigel.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Did this one over the weekend and couldn’t finish it with my coffee at the first sitting and needed another go to get it done. Was well and truly worth the effort all the same with some cracking clues throughout with my favourites being ELONGATE and BEDBUG (when the penny dropped with the ‘honeytrap’ – didn’t end up finding the PSB, so the RED BUG didn’t come into calculation). A couple of new learnings with AUTEUR and the pronunciation of NIHILIST (always ignorantly thought it was like ‘nil-list’.
Did smile when I saw our ‘little budgie’ make an appearance at 20d.
Was pleased to get BED BUG and BEAST (an unparsed and hopeful entry) and be oblivious to the erroneous anagram fodder at 7d. Finished with the clever CHATTERBOX, the even cleverer (or trickier) THROB and that BED BUG as the last few in.