I enjoyed this a lot. Pretty tricky with much lateral thinking is needed to finish – not one to rattle of in a tea-break! Thank you Io.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SUNNY SIDE UP | Answer to early question about table fine team’s leading (5,4,2) |
| SUNNY (fine) SIDE (team) UP (leading) – a question about eggs at breakfast (an early table) | ||
| 8 | EON | A cycling period (3) |
| ONE (A) with the letters cycled. My first entry here was ARE: definition A (unit of area) and ERA (period) with the letters cycled (moved around). | ||
| 9 | UNTREASURED | Robbed of riches counted out of case by safe in study (11) |
| coUNTed missing outer letters (out of case) then SURE (safe) inside READ (study) | ||
| 11 | CUTIE | She’s smashing items seen at Crucible and Belfry, so we hear (5) |
| CU sounds like “cue” (an item found at the Crucible, snooker venue) and TIE sounds like “tee” (an item found at The Belfry, golfing venue) | ||
| 12 | RESTRINGS | Sounds bell after prop makes right racket! (9) |
| RINGS (sounds bell) following REST (prop) – a tennis racket | ||
| 13 | BREVE | Accent at all British, in retrospect? (5) |
| EVER (all) B (British) all reversed (in retrospect) | ||
| 14 | LEG-CUTTER | Going-away ball repelled college set, say? (3-6) |
| C (college) GEL (set) all reversed (repelled) then UTTER (say) – a delivery in cricket that moves away from the leg-side | ||
| 16 | BATH CHAIR | What’s bearing man in hospital check? Earlier (4,5) |
| AIR (bearing) following (with…earlier) BAT (batsman, a man in) H (hospital) CH (check) | ||
| 17 | DREAM | Only an ideal shot will capture the end of time (5) |
| DRAM (shot) contains (will capture) timE (end letter of) | ||
| 18 | LOHENGRIN | Knight put smile on the face of little old woman (9) |
| GRIN (smile) following (on) Little (first letter, the face of) with O (old) HEN (woman) | ||
| 20 | HIT ON | Discover Paris, maybe forget Lima (3,2) |
| HILTON (Paris Hilton maybe) missing L (Lima, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 21 | SILVERSMITH | Orwell protagonist stalks Stevenson antagonist, a craftsman (11) |
| SMITH (Winston Smith, Orwell protagonist, in 1984) follows SILVER (Long John Silver, Stevenson antagonist, in Treasure Island) | ||
| 22 | USB | Reduced bus terminus beside garages (3) |
| found inside (garaged by) terminUS Beside – reduced indicates abbreviation (Universal Serial Bus) | ||
| 23 | LEAVE IT TO ME | I’ll do that, love! (Teatime sorted) (5,2,2,2) |
| anagram (sorted) of LOVE TEATIME | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPEECH BUBBLES | Can they bear what characters say in storyline? With BBC training, he bleeps us out (6,7) |
| anagram (training) of BBC inside anagram (out) of HE BLEEPS US. This all seems to be one anagram to me, why two indicators? | ||
| 2 | NINETEENTH HOLE | Where one buys round after round? (10,4) |
| cryptic definition – the bar at a golf course where one buys a round of drinks following a round of golf | ||
| 3 | YOU NEVER CAN TELL | Play Gessler’s “Apple Taunt”? (3,5,3,4) |
| double/cryptic definition – a play by Bernard Shaw and possible taunt from arch-villain Albrecht Gessler to William Tell | ||
| 4 | INTER ALIA | Very lacking in space between Institute and Academy, from a bigger set (5,4) |
| V (very) missing from (lacking in) INTERvAL (space between) then I (Institute) and A (Academy) | ||
| 5 | EVENS | Odds not desirable for bet – v. meanest (5) |
| odd-numbered letters missing (not desirable) from bEt V mEaNeSt | ||
| 6 | PASS ROUND THE HAT | Invite contributions for performance, as some bands do (4,5,3,3) |
| double definition – as buskers and hat-bands do | ||
| 7 | GRAND THEFT AUTO | Game ragout simmering – then this is introduced (5,5,4) |
| anagram (simmering) of RAGOUT contains (…is introduced) AND (then) THE FT (this, the newspaper) – popular computer game | ||
| 10 | DISCRIMINABLE | “Rise” and “climb”, I suspect, easily told apart (13) |
| anagram (suspect) of RISE AND CLIMB I | ||
| 15 | GERUNDIVE | Briefly get to manage seedy bar that should be revamped? (9) |
| GEt (briefly) RUN (to manage) DIVE (seedy bar) – I am out of my depth here but I’m guessing that revamped is an example of a gerundive. Wikipedia explains it thus: The term is occasionally used in descriptions of English grammar, to denote the present participle used adjectivally or adverbially e.g. ‘take a running jump’. That form, ending in -ing, is identical to that of the English gerund, but it is generally called a gerund when it is used as a noun, not as an adjective or adverb e.g. ‘the running of the deer’ |
||
| 19 | RASTA | For whom an emperor’s in the ascendant? (5) |
| A TSAR (emperor) all reversed (in the ascendant, upward in a down solution) – Rastafarians revere the Emperor Haile Selassi | ||
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.
As soon as I solved 23 ac I knew I was going to enjoy this one! A fabulous puzzle ! Thanks Io and PeeDee.
Encota @1 That was my FOI. This looked intimidating to start with but things like 1a and 6d got the ball rolling.I have the Shaw plays but have not read them as yet. But 3 lead to the answer and I checked with google to get Chuck Berry which still sounds great.I also googled Gessler and it completed the gag.I thought 14 was just about a perfect clue and 20 was very neat.
Last in was 7- I dont have grandkids so I had to guess.I”l look above for parsing.
Thanks PeeDee and JH great puzzle.
The usual heartsink moment when I saw this setter’s name at the top of a puzzle, but this wasn’t as hard as Io / Nimrod / Enigmatist can be, and I ended up with all answers in, even if I missed the parsing of a few, such as not being familiar with the GBS play. Everything I know about ‘gerunds’ and GERUNDIVE(s) I learnt from “The Private Life of a Gerund” in “How to be Topp”, but despite this, I’m afraid they’re still a mystery to me!
First in as well for me was 23a, which gave me a bit of confidence. Favourites were CUTIE, the misdirection of ‘Going-away ball’ and then ‘college set’ for LEG-CUTTER and my last in, the clever RASTA.
Thanks to Io and to PeeDee
There’s a small error in the parsing for INTER ALIA. It is INTER(V)AL (space between) followed by I + A.
I had a similar problem with 8a, although “cycling” should not really indicate reversal or a general anagram so ARE/ERA doesn’t work. I do dislike the placing of “cycling” since it doesn’t tell you if ONE or EON is the desired answer but 1d and 2d were quite easy leaving you in no doubt.
The cricket term at 14a was unknown to me but I worked it out. Similarly, the cricket term in 16a held me up but got there in the end.
Thanks to IO and PeeDee.
As soon as I saw the name IO, I hoped I was going to enjoy the crossword and this proved to be the case
Hard to pick a favourite from so many so I’ll just say a big thank you to IO and PeeDee
Thank you Hovis, fixed now.
A corker. It’s a bit lazy to say “too many good ‘uns to pick favourites” but never truer than today.
There are several ‘roll-over’ words in the across lights – NUN, TIER, REVEL, THUS – but I’m thinking they’re just coincidence.
Many, many thanks to both.
P.S,.
I still don’t really understand GERUNDIVE.
In my far from expert opinion: revamped is a verb, the past tense of to revamp. However, it is being used in the clue as an adjective: the bar should be green/blue/big/small/revamped. Ergo it a verb used as an adjective so, as any fule kno, it must be a gerundive.
My knowledge of gerundives has almost faded, but I suspect a key word in 15 is “should”. My copy of Kennedy’s Revised Latin Primer says “The gerundive is also used to express that something must or ought to be done”. “Should be revamped” is thus an example of a gerundive.
Wikipedia has an article on “Carthago delenda est” (“Carthage must be destroyed”) that includes a grammatical analysis of this use of the gerundive.
Great crossword, even if 2 clues defeated me.
And the icing on the cask is Nick @10s hark back to Latin lessons with Carthago delenda est, nice. Caesar’s gallic wars?
I’m glad to have been of service, George @11. It was Cato – Carthage is/was in North Africa, so unlikely to have been mentioned in the Gallic context.
Which gives me the opportunity to correct my omission of thanks to both Io and PeeDee. I much enjoy both the puzzles and the blogs – and am slowly improving my solve rate (in both senses).
Thanks Io, PeeDee
My Latin is also faded but I think we need the ‘that’ too. ‘that should be revamped’
Thanks Io and PeeDee
A good midweek challenge which seems as though handed us all a gift at the bottom to start off with. Didn’t help the cause by forgetting which way the ball goes and writing in OFF CUTTER initially at 14a – a bit like the Aussies in Day 1.
Totally entertaining puzzle with that multi-dimensional clueing style that is his trademark.
Finished in the NW corner with SPEECH BUBBLES (that had to be gradually teased out letter by letter from the anagrind), CUTIE (which I was confident enough of, but had no idea about the snooker venue or the golf course) and EON (which was a ‘biff’ not seeing ONE for ‘a’.