Typically accurate stuff from today’s setter. Fun, too.
Liked this but I’m not at all sure of 13. I have that low-level “h’m…” which makes me think I’m missing something. Enlightenment welcome. Otherwise pretty much an enjoyable stroll in the park. Thanks, Slormgorm.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SADISTIC | Sadly it’s said cruel leader could be thus (8) |
| Anagram (‘sadly’) of ITS SAID &lit. | ||
| 5 | STAPLE | Pressure will break tired principal (6) |
| P[ressure] in STALE (‘tired’). | ||
| 10 | EXAMPLE | Old politician puts on brew for model (7) |
| O[ld] + MP in ALE (‘brew’). | ||
| 11 | LEATHER | Material in article must be screened by king (7) |
| THE (‘article’) in LEAR (‘king’). | ||
| 12 | EMIGRATES | Record label, to get good taxes, relocates abroad (9) |
| EMI (‘record label’) + G[ood] + RATES (‘taxes’). | ||
| 13 | LIGHT | The answer to this clue is window (5) |
| A subtle double definition. I think. 1.’The answer to this clue is’ is, as a clue, lacking a definition and is therefore ‘definition-LIGHT’ 2.Window = ‘light’. I think. Other interpretations welcome. | ||
| 15 | ANGER | Park warden loses head, displaying this? (5) |
| rANGER (‘park warden’) lacing 1st letter. | ||
| 16 | BREAKING | Infringement that’s just coming to light (8) |
| Double def. | ||
| 19 | CONTACTS | Associates of criminals full of discretion (8) |
| TACT in CONS. | ||
| 20 | ERATO | Some sneer at old and inspiring female (5) |
| Hidden in ‘snER AT Old’. The crossworder’s favourite Muse. | ||
| 21 | ADMIN | Office worker and a male engaged in row (5) |
| A + M[ale] in DIN. Noun, as in, ‘This is Jenny. She’s admin.’ | ||
| 23 | SALACIOUS | Awfully asocial American is coarse (9) |
| Anagram (‘awfully’) of ASOCIAL then US. | ||
| 25 | HOTHEAD | Fiery type books into hotel by promontory (7) |
| O[ld] T[estament] in H[otel] + HEAD (‘promontory’). | ||
| 27 | INUTILE | At home, posh roofing material is not worth using (7) |
| IN + U (‘posh’) + TILE. | ||
| 28 | NARKED | Annoyed the Queen comes in wearing nothing (6) |
| R[egina] in NAKED. | ||
| 29 | AGITATED | A crowd gathering round relations daughter upset (8) |
| A + GATE (size of ‘crowd’) around IT (sexual ‘relations’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SKELETAL | Steal elk for butchering, being thus? (8) |
| Anagram (‘for butchering’) of STEAL ELK, & sort-of whole-clue def. | ||
| 2 | DRAWING ROOM | Artist’s studio could be an entertaining place (7,4) |
| Double def. | ||
| 3 | SUPERBRAT | Hugely ill-mannered sort involved in new pub arrest (9) |
| Anagram (‘new’) of PUB ARREST. | ||
| 4 | INEPT | Hopeless Time writer I sent up (5) |
| Reversal (‘up’) of T[ime] + PEN + I. | ||
| 6 | TRAIL | Path leads to terribly riotous trouble (5) |
| 1st letters of ‘Terribly Riotous’ + AIL (to ‘trouble’). | ||
| 7 | PAH | Secretary gets with husband and I’m disgusted! (3) |
| P[ersonal] A[ssistant] + H[usband]. | ||
| 8 | EGRET | Flapper feels bad about robbing banks (5) |
| rEGRETs (‘feels bad about’), robbed of its outside letters (loosely, ‘banks’). | ||
| 9 | BLISTERS | Second-rate celebs can be annoying people (8) |
| Double def: ‘B-listers’ and the rather Wodehousian pests. | ||
| 14 | GENEALOGIST | I study trees and gloat seeing larks around (11) |
| Anagram (‘larks around’) of GLOAT SEEING. Family trees, of course. | ||
| 16 | BACKSIDE | Support team that’s behind (8) |
| BACK + SIDE. | ||
| 17 | KEEP COUNT | Take note of figures seen in Castle Dracula? (4,5) |
| KEEP (can be ‘castle’ & not just part thereof, Chambers confirms) + COUNT, e.g. Dracula. | ||
| 18 | LOOSE END | Can southern belle finally finish unfinished business? (5,3) |
| 4-parter: LOO (lavatory, ‘can’) + S[outhern] + last letter of ‘bellE’ + END (‘finish’). I probably wouldn’t have parsed this properly if I wasn’t blogging. | ||
| 21 | ASHEN | When one’s soon to get hitched in white (5) |
| A bride-to-be might be celebrating AS HEN. | ||
| 22 | NIECE | Earl welcomed by pleasant relation (5) |
| E[arl] in NICE. | ||
| 24 | LYING | After leaving force, brief is serving up Whoppers (5) |
| fLYING (‘brief’, as in ‘flying visit’) without F[orce]. | ||
| 26 | TAR | One who sings about one on board? (3) |
| RAT (‘one who sings’, betrays), reversed. A very crosswordy clue to finish. | ||
*anagram
13a: “Light” is often used to mean the answer to a clue, or the word in the grid.
https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2016/06/lights-white-squares-in-crossword-grid.html
Thanks, Andrew. Very enlightening (!). I only knew ‘light’ in this context as referring to the individual squares in the grid. We live and demonstrably fail to learn.
I sort of parsed 13a, but not really and I wasn’t aware of the double meaning of LIGHT – thank you for the link Andrew @1. I’m embarrassed to admit I missed the parsing for EGRET and I didn’t know INUTILE was a word in English, though it wasn’t difficult to work out.
SADISTIC, ANGER, SALACIOUS, HOTHEAD, NARKED and AGITATED and we were only half way through! I’m glad Slormgorm was able to regain a bit of control over the unruly mob and even though we still had to deal with John McEnroe, we could eventually finish in relative peace.
Thanks to Slormgorm and to Grant
Thanks Slormgorm and Grant
With doing a number of backlog puzzles, I’ve come across a few puzzles by this setter of late – all of them enjoyable with a variation on the difficulty factor. I found this one was on the slightly easier side.
INUTILE and BLISTER (as an annoying person) were both new to me.
Is it only me or do setters seem to use an extraordinary number of informal / slang words to fill the grid – seemed to be a lot in this one.
Finished with BREAKING (which took a while to understand it as a noun) and ADMIN (where I needed to be fixing up a weak-ish TIMER entry from early on)
In-print The Chambers Dictionary (1998) has, for light the following definition: in a crossword, the word (or sometimes an individual letter in the word) on the diagram that is the answer to a clue
Thanks Slormgorm and Grant. New words to me were NARKED and INUTILE. How does the “U” in INUTILE mean posh?
Hi Tony @6
U in crosswords is often clued by ‘University’ or ‘for all’, as in film classification, or by ‘posh’, as here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English
Rishi @ 5: my eChambers of c2014 maintains that definition.
Thanks Eileen. Even though I’ve been solving crosswords (including cryptics) in the States for decades, I am relatively new at the British puzzles. It seems that I pick up a hint or two everyday thanks to this blog.
Hi Tony @9 – many of us say that we learn something new most days. 😉
I met a new word at 27a but think it’s not worth using.
A Slormgorm puzzle is always worth doing. Unless you don’t like smiling. 🙂
Many thanks Slormgorm and Grant.
To Kitty:
Didn’t want you to think that yr neat joke went unnoticed. Tee-hee.