A typical CHALMIE-challenge this Friday. Thanks CHALMIE!
Thanks Geoff, for the help.
FF: 8 DD : 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | DICING | Daughter decorating cake and chopping it up (6) |
| D (daughter) ICING (decorating cake) | ||
| 4 | BASEBALL | Diamond type which Abba sell off (8) |
| ABBA SELL* | ||
| 10 | SARTORIAL | After revamping rotas, Iran’s ready for tailors (9) |
| ROTAS* RIAL (iran’s ready, ready being used in the context of money) | ||
| 11 | CHOUX | Pastry like some leather, say (5) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 12 | ARTS | Heart surgeon’s faculty (4) |
| hidden in “heART Surgeon..” | ||
| 13 | GOLD-DIGGER | One marrying money needing yellow spade (4-6) |
| GOLD (yellow) DIGGER (spade) | ||
| 15 | ROBUSTA | Schedule includes transport for coffee (7) |
| ROTA (schedule) around BUS (transport) | ||
| 16 | SHOVEL | Barge with large spade (6) |
| SHOVE (barge) L (large) | ||
| 19 | HEROIC | Very brave man caught by French king (6) |
| HE (man) ROI (french king) C (caught) | ||
| 21 | BIRETTA | Cap fantastic bit-rate (7) |
| BIT RATE* | ||
| 23 | UNWAVERING | Peacekeepers’ faction keeps state inflexible (10) |
| UN (peacekeepers) [ WING (faction) containing AVER (state) ] | ||
| 25 | LIEN | Diamond back, right? (4) |
| reverse of NEIL (diamond) | ||
| 27 | GROWL | Angry sound of Greek bird (5) |
| GR (greek) OWL (bird) | ||
| 28 | IRON OXIDE | Club team gets poem about rust (4,5) |
| IRON (club) [ ODE (poem) around XI (team, eleven in a game of cricket) ] | ||
| 29 | LAP-DANCE | Private performance giving energy to American police party (3-5) |
| LAPD (american police) ANC (party) E (energy) | ||
| 30 | CENTRE | Heart regularly aches? Not true! (6) |
| alternate characters (regularly) of “..aChEs NoT tRuE“ | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DESPAIRS | “Loses hope” is about right after spade breaks (8) |
| [IS around R (right)] after SPADE* | ||
| 2 | CARD TABLE | Spooner’s wire covered by pitch where hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds are used. (4,5) |
| spoonerism of TAR (pitch) CABLE (wire) | ||
| 3 | NEON | Remove admiral’s heart with gas (4) |
| NElsON (admiral, without heart i.e. inner letters) | ||
| 5 | ALLUDES | Refers up what’s boring, in the main (7) |
| reverse of DULL (boring) in reverse of SEA (main) | ||
| 6 | ESCRITOIRE | After key lesson, one ran around desk (10) |
| ESC (key) RI (lesson) [ TORE (ran) around I (one) ] | ||
| 7 | AMONG | Get in the middle of some? Dream on, girl! (5) |
| hidden in “..dreAM ON Girl!” | ||
| 8 | LUXURY | Great comfort unknown under Egyptian city (you get in for nothing) (6) |
| Y (unknown) after [ LUXoR (egyptian city, with U – you, replacing O – nothing) ] | ||
| 9 | NICOLA | Woman I pass in North America (6) |
| [ I COL (pass) ] in NA (North America) | ||
| 14 | ASTON VILLA | Going through block is a way round Los Angeles club (5,5) |
| [ { ST (way) O (round) } in ANVIL (block )] LA (Los Angeles) | ||
| 17 | EXTREMIST | Hardliner fails mixer test (9) |
| MIXER TEST* | ||
| 18 | EAGLE EYE | Old solvers following each singsong have excellent sight (5,3) |
| EA (each) GLEE (singsong) YE (old solvers) | ||
| 20 | CARDIAC | Help artist up after Catholic’s first change of heart (7) |
| { reverse of [ AID (help) RA (artist) ] after C (catholic) } C (Change, first letter) | ||
| 21 | BUNION | Second-rate wedding is something painful (6) |
| B (second-rate) UNION (wedding) | ||
| 22 | CUDGEL | Clued up about German club (6) |
| CLUED* around G (german) | ||
| 24 | WHOOP | Cry of delight with housework (5) |
| W (with) HO (house) OP (work) | ||
| 26 | HOPE | Famous diamond at fifth dance (4) |
| cryptic def; read as HOP E (fifth dance) | ||
*anagram
Very enjoyable with the theme of card suits in many of the clues. I found 4,12,13,16,25,28 and 30 across and 1,2,3,14,20,22 and 26 down, but there may be more.
Blind to the theme and I missed NEIL (not ‘lien’ as in blog above) as the singer didn’t even cross my mind. I couldn’t think what those two pesky letters could be, eventually plumping for ‘well’ which didn’t fit, except for a novel spelling of ‘jewell’. Thanks for explaining EAGLE EYE.
The ‘tarred cable’ and HOP E were both very good.
Thanks to Chalmie and Turbolegs
Chalmie is usually so kind and gentle that I was surprised to get a kicking today. For instance, I was convinced that 10ac was SARTORIAN (which is in the dictionary). That and other similar headstrong exploits detained me for far too long. But thanks, Chalmie, for the much-deserved bruises, and Turbolegs for administering plasters.
Blistered through this. Mind you, upon reading the blog I realised I had meant to come back to parsing ESCRITOIRE and then forgot. As Wordplodder had mentioned, 25a is NEIL (my loi) and the spoonerism for 2d is “tarred cable”. For CHOUX, I took this as a homonym (say) of “shoe”, rather than a cryptic definition.
Never quite sure how I feel about “ye” for “old solvers”, as in 18d. It’s a crossword staple but, nevertheless, the initial letter was a thorn not a y so it does perpetuate a misunderstanding.
Thanks to Chalmie and Turbolegs.
Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs. Great cluing throughout — especially liked DICING and LAP-DANCE. Never heard of ASTON VILLA and couldn’t think of NEIL for Diamond. I’ve heard his music far too often not to have solved the clue.
Thanks all.
Hovis @4 – was the “y” in the old plural form of the second person pronoun really a thorn? It’s definitely a solecism to think the written form of the definite article had a “y”, but I’m not so sure about the pronoun.
Chalmie @6. I’ve always been under the impression that it was always a thorn. As the definite article (ye olde wishing well) I guess this is well known. I was under the impression that ye was also equivalent to thee but I’ve been wrong before. It’s true to say it was printed as a Y being the closest looking letter but, so I’m told, never pronounced that way. Such a pronunciation seems to be a back formation. Not a major issue but, I think, an interesting one. Maybe somebody knows more about this and can correct or confirm.
Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs
Time wise, this puzzle was finished quite quickly, but there did seem to be a bit of meat on it all the same. Was able to finish it all correctly and fully parsed except for mucking up the word play of UNWAVERING. Did get NEIL Diamond around the right way too.
Thought that LAP DANCE, ESCRITOIRE, LUXURY and HOPE (which was my last one in) were the pick of a pretty good bunch of clues.