Punk knows well how to adjust his difficulty, because when he becomes Mudd in the FT he is more accessible whereas in his Indy form he is often rather difficult, as here. But no complaints: there were as you’d expect plenty of good clues and it was evidently all sound. My occasional failures of understanding will I trust be explained.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
We are in the world of toys, something it’s easy enough to guess from the large number of appearances of ‘toy’ or ‘old toy’ in the clues. Unfortunately, as I say in the blog, many of the old ones were too young for me, although I had heard of several of them.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ACER | Tree, a sure thing to be cut down (4) |
| a cer{t} | ||
| 4 | CORGI | Blimey, Action Man toy people! (5) |
| Cor [Blimey] GI [Action Man, the American soldier] — ref Corgi toys | ||
| 7 | TICK | Instant account (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 9 | ANOTHER FINE MESS | Funny old picture: father in one, it’s inferred? (7,4,4) |
| a mess of (father in one) gives the answer — a Laurel and Hardy film of 1930 | ||
| 10 | SPROCKET | Wheel, let me add, turning on missile (8) |
| (PS)rev. rocket | ||
| 11 | TOKEN | Reminder from 18? (5) |
| 18 is Barbie, and the first four letters of this are barb, a reminder [As pointed out a few times below, Ken was Barbie’s boyfriend, so this is “to Ken”] | ||
| 12 | TRACY ISLAND | List extraordinarily sexy parts with old toy (5,6) |
| t(racy) isl and [with], the tisl being (List)* — I’d never heard of the old toy, but apparently Tracy Island is the home of the Andersons in Thunderbirds (and a game appeared at some point) — well yes old I suppose, but after my time, so I hate to think what that makes me | ||
| 16 | ETCH A SKETCH | Old toy, among other things, contains boat (4,1,6) |
| etc. [among other things] has [contains] ketch — the original ones were called Etch a Sketch and the hyphen only appeared later, but apparently fitfully — Etch a Sketch appeared around 1960 so after my time, but I do remember it | ||
| 19 | ASSAM | Tea in a state, knocked over (5) |
| a (Mass.)rev — Massachusetts | ||
| 22 | NICKLAUS | Lovely short 18 for old Australian driver (8) |
| nic{e} Klaus — Jack Nicklaus played (or still plays, but not at the top level any longer) golf, so was a driver (of golf balls) — but just what’s going on with klaus being ’18 for old Australian’, or possibly kl being ’18 for old’ — 18 being BARBIE it looks like some reference to Klaus Barbie, the SS and Gestapo man — I can’t quite see | ||
| 23 | A BUNDLE OF NERVES | Nun observed performing with flea, jumping easily? (1,6,2,6) |
| (Nun observed flea)* | ||
| 24 | RELY | Bank manager’s back, see (4) |
| {manage}r Ely [the episcopal see that so often appears in crosswords] | ||
| 25 | NUTTY | Fruity bananas (5) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 26 | DATE | See fruit (4) |
| Again 2 defs, the first one of ‘date’ as a verb | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | CONSPIRE | Study part of church plan (8) |
| con {study] spire [part of church] | ||
| 3 | RETROACT | Refer back to Carter after a review (8) |
| (to Carter)* — probably not the first definition of retroact that one thinks of, but it’s there | ||
| 4 | CHECKLIST | European composer’s audible reminder (9) |
| “Czech Liszt” | ||
| 5 | REFUTAL | Disproof of Urdu concept ends certified cases (7) |
| re({o}f {Urd}u {concep}t)al — cases a verb = surrounds | ||
| 6 | INNIT | Drinking house has attractive quality, do you not think? (5) |
| inn [drinking house] it [attractive quality] | ||
| 7 | TOMSK | Russian city in the direction of capital, less popular (5) |
| to M{in}sk — Minsk is the capital of Belarus | ||
| 8 | COSINE | Function in garden is occasionally set up (6) |
| Hidden reversed in gardEN IS OCcasionally | ||
| 13 | NOSE CANDY | Last seen of halcyon days, once winds blow (4,5) |
| ({halcyo}n days once)* — nose candy is slang for cocaine, so a rather good &lit. — I think it’s simply that when winds blow the powder is blown away and the halcyon days of the user (at the beginning of the habit) are lost [Tony@7 says that blow is another slang word for cocaine, something I didn’t know, so that makes it not an &lit, just a straightforwrad clue where blow is the definition and there is anagrammatic wordplay.] | ||
| 14 | DECLARED | Said Irish county inspired by half-hearted deed (8) |
| de(Clare)d | ||
| 15 | SCHUBERT | For songwriter, insert fish? (8) |
| I think this is to be read as ‘put fish in sert’, so it’s s(chub)ert — not a device you very often see in the Indy and not one that pleases the diehards, who would say that ‘in sert’ is not the same as ‘insert’ | ||
| 17 | HANG-OUT | Proceed inside frightful haunt, familiar place (4-3) |
| han(go)ut, the hanut being *(haunt) | ||
| 18 | BARBIE | Australian gathering toy (6) |
| 2 defs — an Australian word for a barbecue and the doll | ||
| 20 | SINDY | Toy sensually at first with this organ (5) |
| s{ensually} Indy — organ as in newspaper — ref. the Sindy doll, which apparently started being made in 1963 and competed with Barbie — so far as I’m concerned Barbie won because I’d heard of her and hadn’t heard of Sindy — apparently Barbie did indeed win, because Sindy was a British rival to the US Barbie and although it did well in the UK it failed in the US | ||
| 21 | MILAN | Children’s author not entirely captivating a European city (5) |
| Mil(a)n{e} — A.A. Milne | ||
*anagram
Thanks, John. This was tough but, luckily, the toys were from my childhood days.
TOKEN – Ken was a doll who was Barbie’s “boyfriend” so a reminder from her would be “to Ken”. I ended up thinking that the Australian in NICKLAUS was an error and should have been American – I agree with you that KLAUS must refer to the notorious nazi.
Yes his Punk is tougher than his Mudd. I guessed ETCH A SKETCH but only got ISLAND and not TRACY-hadnt heard of SINDY
Particularly good puzzle for parents of a certain age.Thanks John and
PaulPunk.Mind-bending, with toys almost none of which I had heard. Agree with NeilW about both NICKLAUS and TOKEN. Managed to guess almost all, except TRACY ISLAND and NOSE CANDY.
Stimulating stuff.
Thanks to Punk for a challenging puzzle and John for the blog.
Managed to finish without aids. Had circled 22a as a “don’t understand” but I think Neil is correct. If so, a bad error to get through. Also parsed 11a as “to Ken”.
I do remember Tracy Island. It was such a popular toy that Blue Peter famously showed how to make your own (presumably with lots of washing liquid bottles and sticky-back plastic).
Thanks to Paul and John.
I enjoyed this very much with its mix of toys old and new – although I did note the Australian/American problem.
Thanks to Punk for the fun and John for the blog
Pretty tough. For the second time today I’ve come a cropper on a fish related clue, with SCHUBERT defeating me, as well as SINDY, which I should have worked out. Still, I was pleased enough to get the unheard of TRACY ISLAND and ETCH A SKETCH, so my luck was due to run out.
I can’t work out what ‘Australian’ is doing in NICKLAUS either, much as I’d like to claim the great man as one of ours.
Thanks to Punk and John
Didn’t actually do this one, just curious as to what a Punk puzzle is like (Paul at the Graun being a fave). I recognised most of the toys, all except Tracy Island.
Is the “Australian” in 22a a leftover bit of discarded wordplay for the letters ‘AUS’ perhaps?
I don’t really understand the proposition that 13d, NOSE CANDY is &lit. ‘Blow’ is another slang word for cocaine and, as indicated, that’s the definition. The rest is just anagrammatic wordplay, isn’t it?
I’d forgotten Punk is also Paul. Can’t seem to do Paul in The Guardian, and couldn’t finish this one either.
I spent a little time on 22a, thinking that there must be another parsing, as such a mistake would surely have been picked up by someone. To no avail though.
Not very happy with the confusion of etc. with inter alia @ 16a, but otherwise very nice.
Apart from the non-word “sert” @ 15d.
IN / SULAR recently – where will it all end?
@Dansar, where will it all end? Infinity?