Tough today it seemed. The theme took me a long time to see, and even now I’ve only got half of it. These crosswords with so many cross-references are very hard to get started on, because many of the clues are initially barred to you. But eventually I almost coped and it was on the whole enjoyable.
Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
This is connected to the song ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, the answer to 4/24dn, and its lyrics, which contain ‘one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready’. That explains the cross-references, but ‘(1 of 1)’, ‘(1 of 2)’, ‘(2 of 2)’ and ‘(1 of 3)’ are complete mysteries I’m afraid.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MONEY | Round figure is Crosophile’s first of three (5) |
| m(one)y — round the outside of a figure [number] is Crosophile’s | ||
| 4/24D | BLUE SUEDE SHOES | Sad and moved, say, by love in the lady’s song of 1Ac, 13 and 18 (4,5,5) |
| blue [sad] suede [“swayed”] sh(0)e’s — see above for why it’s that song | ||
| 9 | BURGLAR | Criminal in fret returning unfriendly look when stopped (7) |
| (rub)rev. glar{e} | ||
| 10 | COMPOSE | 18 is mostly manure and earth (1 of 3) (7) |
| compos{t} E, 18 being ‘get ready’ [compose] | ||
| 11 | LASSO | Is it used to catch young female duck? (5) |
| lass 0 — why not ‘It is used to catch ..’ and no question mark? I’m now not sure quite what the clue-type is. Some sort of CD I suppose. | ||
| 12 | TROLLOPED | Maybe Anthony or Joanna took degree dressed scruffily (9) |
| Trollope d — Anthony Trollope, Joanna Trollope | ||
| 13 | SHOW | Surgeon’s first seen with MO in second of three (4) |
| S{urgeon} how [modus operandi] — see above | ||
| 15 | BANKNOTES | 1Ac prohibits restricting free token (1 of 1) (9) |
| ban(knote)s, the knote being *(token) | ||
| 19 | SIDESTEPS | Avoids returning boxers say being put into teams (9) |
| side(step)s, step being (pets)rev. — boxer dogs | ||
| 22 | FETE | A fair bit taken by cafeteria (4) |
| Hidden in caFETEria | ||
| 24 | SLAM-DANCE | To jump on others at metal gig is initially silly and possibly clean mad (4-5) |
| s{illy} *(clean mad) — not something I’m very familiar with | ||
| 25 | TAPER | On VHS he recorded a spill (5) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 27 | ORIFICE | Opening office with fellow going for scripture (7) |
| Start with ‘office’; remove the first f and replace it with RI [Religious Instruction] | ||
| 28 | AMPHORA | Ancient storage jar of pharaoh (almost broken) for storage of money (7) |
| m in (pharao{h})* | ||
| 29 | SANDSTONE | Sun tan’s done when oiled in ancient section of beach? (9) |
| s (tan’s done)* — the definition wasn’t all that clear, but I suppose sand has been swept by the tides and that sort of thing for millions of years, which makes it ancient | ||
| 30 | ENEMY | Two letters in print seen by unknown adversary (5) |
| en [N] em [M] y | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOBILISE | 18 might be impossible if short of shillings and pence (2 of 3) (8) |
| *(im{p}o{s}sible) — 18 is ‘get ready’ [mobilise] | ||
| 2 | NORMS | Respect, manners, standards, missing from the outset? The usual behaviour! (5) |
| no r{espect}, m{anners}, s{tandards} | ||
| 3 | YELLOW | To scream “That hurt!” is cowardly (6) |
| yell “ow!” | ||
| 4 | BIRETTA | Some matter I brought up that covers a Catholic priest (7) |
| Hidden reversed in mATTER I Brought | ||
| 5 | UNCLOAK | No luck with a fantastic 13 (1 of 2) (7) |
| (No luck a)* — 13 is ‘show’ [uncloak] | ||
| 6 | SEMILLON | Wine grape? With no smell I might be mistaken (8) |
| (no smell I)* | ||
| 7 | EXOSPHERE | Former partner sat with nothing special in this area in the upper circle (9) |
| ex 0 sp here — ‘sat with’ is simply a juxtaposition indicator, there to help the surface | ||
| 8 | EMEND | Correct from the first person up to the last (5) |
| (me)rev. end | ||
| 14 | OXIDATION | Essentially toxic delta area turning into rust (9) |
| {t}oxi{c} d a *(into) | ||
| 16 | NÉE | Originally called on hearing an animal’s cry (3) |
| “neigh” | ||
| 17 | TENDRILS | Climbing aids a number with boring equipment left out (8) |
| ten dril(l)s | ||
| 18 | GET READY | Obtain 1Ac such as 15 in third of three (3,5) |
| get [obtain] ready [money [1ac] such as banknotes [15]] — see above | ||
| 20 | TANGELO | Fruit that’s crossed Thailand with a biker ring (7) |
| T [Thailand] angel 0 — angel = biker? Hell’s Angels, I think — a tangelo is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit; or variations thereof | ||
| 21 | PREPARE | Edited paper about 18 (3 of 3) (7) |
| *(paper) re | ||
| 23 | STAPLE | Put plates out for e.g. rice, sweetcorn … (6) |
| 24 | See 4 Across | |
| 26 | PROVE | 13 cycled over after parking (2 of 2) (5) |
| P rove, rove being over with the last letter cycled to the beginning — 13 is ‘show’ [prove] | ||
*anagram
Really enjoyed this once I figured out what was going on.
“Love in the lady’s” gave me SHOES at 24d and then I got BLUE SUEDE SHOES.
One for the MONEY, Two for the Show, Three to GET READY then explained the “first/second/third of three” references.
Then we have the synonyms: 1 of 1 (money), 2 of 2 (show) – in order 5d and 26d, then 3 of 3 (get ready) – in order 10a, 1d and 21d. Well, BANKNOTES & MONEY aren’t really synonyms but you get the point. 15a is particularly confusing with the reference to 1 Ac (MONEY) and 1 of 1 where 1 now refers to the song lyrics but happens to be at 1a but didn’t need to be (if you get my drift).
Thanks to Crosophile and John.
Couldn’t find TROLLOPED to mean “dressed scruffily” but was easy to get. Hadn’t met SLAM DANCE before so needed a few crossers before I could guess that one. Fortunately, TANGELO crops up a fair bit on the TV programme Countdown, so that went in straight away.
Thanks Crosophile and John
I thought this was a very original piece of setting, and enjoyed it enormously. I saw the subsequent ‘x of y’ references in the same way as Hovis.
Just wondering about “he” in 25a-being generous I’d put it down as a misdirect….Otherwise thiS was great fun and it could turn me into a crossophile fan.I loved the way it slowly unravelled, or rather the slow way I unravelled it.
And I’d like to big it up for Mr Carl Perkins for writing that fine piece-I like his version too.So did the Beatles
Thanks all.
I was mystified by all the number references but still managed to complete this. I was looking for more Elvis songs, or more dances but to no avail of course.
Very clever and even though it was too good for me, I still enjoyed the challenge.
Thanks to Crosphile and to John
Once we got BLUE SUEDE SHOES and googled to remind ourselves of the lyrics we were well away although we missed the significance of the 1 of 1 etc bits.
Plenty to like as well as the themed entries. AMPHORA was our Cod.
Thanks, Crosophile and John.
Well, that was a struggle. I had to cheat a lot. Although I was vaguely familiar with one for the money etc., and I’d heard of a song called Blue Suede Shoes, I had absolutely no idea they were the same song.
I read 29 across as meaning SANDSTONE is possibly a fossilised beach.
Sorry, I forgot to comment on the day.
Many thanks to John and for the nice comments. Havis at #1, and Dormouse at #7 re Sandstone – absolutely right. 🙂 [That is to say, sandstone is always part of what was once a sandy beach somewhere, as I understand it].
crosophile@8: It’s over fifty years since I got my O-level in geology so I looked at the entry for sandstone on Wikipedia. Sandstone could also be formed from a desert, apparently, so it depends if you think a desert is an extended beach. 🙂
Dormouse@9: I think it depends on whether there are any relics of fossilised sandcastles or not, I think. 🙂