It’s Tuesday so what are we looking for?
The theme today relates to (1D) but is unusual in that it includes some homophones and shortened words to describe ‘coffee’ related words.
We can stiill remember the day we went into a coffee bar and said that all we wanted was a coffee. We received some strange looks from the ‘BARRISTER’ who decided we wanted an AMERICAN(O).
We would welcome any thoughts about 24d.
Thanks Crosphile for the Tuesday ‘caffeine fix’.
We are out of the country at the moment so will not be able to respond quickly if there are any omissions or amendments.
Across
1 Give a hack gin cocktail for confessing to a crime (8)
COUGHING
COUGH (give a hack) plus an anagram of GIN – anagrind is ‘cocktail’
5 Rating little Elizabeth as a superior officer (6)
ABBESS
AB (rating – able-bodied seaman) BESS (little Elizabeth). The ‘superior officer’ refers to a mother superior in a nunnery.
9 Maybe jousted say for a couple of weeks? (9)
FORTNIGHT
A homophone (‘say’) of FOUGHT KNIGHT (‘maybe jousted’)
11 Joint firsts in race on athletics speed track (5)
ROAST
Initial letters or ‘firsts’ of Race On Athletics Speed Track
12 E.g. write on headstone, a small space, solemnly (7)
ENGRAVE
EN (a small space) GRAVE (solemnly)
13 Who is missing out on Oscar according to rumour? (7)
WHISPER
WHo IS (missing ‘O’ or Oscar) PER (according to)
14 Setter’s devious ways (7)
STREETS
An anagram of SETTER’S – anagrind is ‘devious’
16 The head abandons certain parents – and the rest (6)
OTHERS
mOTHERS (‘certain parents’) without the first letter or ‘head’
19 He ridicules how ordinary man’s entitled to snort dodgy coke (6)
MOCKER
MR (the title for an ordinary man) around or ‘snorting’ an anagram of COKE – anagrind is ‘dodgy’
21 Tabloid paper caught out in debauchery – Public Relations brought in (7)
EXPRESS
EXcESS (debauchery) missing ‘c’ (caught) or ‘caught out’ around or ‘bringing in’ PR (Public Relations)
25 A number leaving jazzy clarinet concert (7)
RECITAL
An anagram of CLARInET without the ‘n’ (number)- anagrind is ‘jazzy’. Being a bit fussy, we don’t like the inclusion of ‘A’ at the beginning. The clue would read fine without it and in our opinion would make better sense for the parsing.
26 Standing miserably wet in body of water is a bit simple (3-4)
LOW-TECH
An anagram of WET (anagrind is ‘miserably’) ‘standing’ inside LOCH (a body of water)
28 Brought over some Frappuccinos and a tea (5)
CUPPA
Hidden and reversed or ‘brought over’ in ‘frAPPUCinos’
29 Turkey’s extra bit of duty extracted in customs (9)
TRADITION
TR (Turkey) ADdITION (extra bit) with ‘d’ (first letter or a ‘bit of’ duty) missing or ‘extracted’
30 Remarking Henry’s fallen out of love (6)
NOTING
NOThING (love) with H (Henry) missing or ‘falling out’
31 They don’t believe article penned by RA as a group right away (8)
ATHEISTS
THE (article) inside or ‘penned by’ ArtISTS (‘RA as a group’ as in Royal Academy artists) without RT (right)
Down
1 Small firm following price charged for alternative to 28? (6)
COFFEE
CO (small firm) F (following) FEE (price charged)
2 Respectable puritan’s hot in Utah (7)
UPRIGHT
PRIG (puritan) H (hot) inside UT (Utah)
3 Will S’s wife come round for some hair dye? (5)
HENNA
A reversal of ‘coming round’ of ANNE H (Anne Hathaway – wife of Will S (William Shakespeare))
4 Doesn’t care for stormy glens etc (8)
NEGLECTS
An anagram of GLENS ETC – anagrind is ‘stormy’
6 Inn frequenter and pub Romeo tries to get drunk (9)
BARRISTER
BAR (pub) and an anagram of R (Romeo) and TRIES – anagrind is ‘get drunk’. The ‘Inn’ refers to the Inns of Court in London.
7 A role model, previously rather bulky (7)
EXAMPLE
EX (previously) AMPLE (rather bulky)
8 Such a one sends up stars – I might explode with it (8)
SATIRIST
An anagram of STARS I and IT – anagrind is ‘might explode’
10 Ipswich perhaps draw – Norwich at the top (4)
TOWN
TOW (draw) N (first or ‘top’ letter in Norwich)
15 Tired of looking? (9)
EYESTRAIN
A play on the fact that if you are tired by looking you may have EYESTRAIN – not our favourite clue in the puzzle!
17 Continental 1D left unfinished (8)
AMERICAN
AMERICANo (‘coffee’ – 1D) without last letter of ‘left unfinished’
18 Sent a late letter last month carried by worker for 7 (8)
EXULTANT
We’re not entirely sure about this one – We think the EX refers to the letter X which occurs ‘late’ in the alphabet. The rest is straightforward – ULT (last month) on top of or ‘carried by’ (as it’s a down clue) ANT (‘worker for example’ (7d)) If ‘letter’ wasn’t included we would have parsed it as EX = ‘late’. Any thoughts?
20 Pick bananas in bed where F1 ones might be found (7)
COCKPIT
An anagrma of PICK (anagrind is ‘bananas’) inside COT (bed)
22 A particular type of critter that is kept in glasses (7)
SPECIES
IE (that is) inside SPECS (glasses)
23 Unexciting accommodation (4)
FLAT
Double definition
24 Trousers coming from Far East in first place and then Sweden (6)
CHINOS
CHINO (‘coming from the Far East’ – as a prefix) plus S (Sweden). This had us puzzled for quite a while as we were hooked on CHINOISE as an adjective
27 Setter and solvers drinking punch and Chablis? (5)
WHITE
WE (setter and solvers) around or ‘drinking’ HIT (punch)
Yes, I know ‘Sino-‘ well enough, but in my ignorance I’d never come across ‘Chino-‘ before – ‘Denoting of or relating to China’ Chambers tells us. I therefore couldn’t work out what the ‘O’ was doing in 24d, but thought the answer had to be right. I was also stumped by the ‘late letter’ bit of 18d, just thinking it had something to do with ‘ex-‘ meaning ‘former’ = ‘of late’ but as you say that doesn’t account for ‘letter’.
An interesting take on the theme. I thought a few other types may appear as a Nina (I could really do with a latte), but couldn’t find any.
Not a thematic clue but I liked the surface for 2d.
Thanks to Crosophile and to B&J
Thanks Crosophile and B&J. An easy theme to spot, with the homonyms providing extra amusement. I parsed 18D the same as B&J.
Despite the linked 1D and 28D, failed to spot the theme; which was quite amusing when I found out about it from Bertandjoyce. I managed to find a reference to “chinas” being some sort of garment, but have had to change that. Also now agree with the parsing of 18D.
Some nice stuff and a little easier than the usual Tuesday fare.
In 6D R is simply R for Romeo; it is just “tries” that is anagrammed.
Thanks to Crosophile and Bertandjoyce.
Greetings from Mull. Thanks B&J and for comments so far. 28Ac+24Dn could go together, by the way 🙂
Thanks crosophile – How did we mss it?
PS I still remember the day when I found out that what I used to call ‘a coffee’ is now a ‘white Americano’. Makes me feel like a member of the KKK!
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Crosophile
Lovely crossword. I wondered about 12a “grave” = “solemnly”, but Chambers and Collins both give it as musical notation – new to me.
I wondered if 15d might be alluding that if you “train” your eyes on something you are looking at it intensely and may get “eyestrain”, but Crosophile has popped in and not mentioned it so maybe not.
I made my annual pilgrimage to Devon recently and stopped at an empty roadside cafe as soon as I was in the county. For £1 and no insistence that I explained myself any further I received a perfectly fine “black coffee”. Back on the main road, within 800m I passed a crowded Starbucks. People are bonkers.
Re ‘EYESTRAIN’, no it was simply an attempt at a cryptic definition. As a solver I quite like encountering the occasional one and don’t mind putting one in for the sake of variety, but they don’t seem to be universally popular. With my other setter hat on [Charybdis] I wouldn’t put one in a barred thematic cryptic. It doesn’t seem right somehow.
We did spot the theme, but not till we’d finished, so we thought at first it was just an easy Monday solve that had been bumped from yesterday, Clearly, knowledge of the theme wasn’t necessary for solving.
In 25ac we would agree about the A in the clue – when we see a noun preceded by an A our first assumption is that the A is a necessary part of the clue.
And we were fooled by 24dn, thinking Crosophile was being devious and using ‘trousers’ in the slang verb sense for ‘steals’. The trouble with cryptics is that you start looking for subtleties that sometimes aren’t there!
Thanks, Crosophile and B&J