Oh, hullo, it’s Hamilton again…
Always interesting, always fun and always slightly infuriating though this one’s less extreme than some of his past tests.
Perhaps I’m just getting used to him but I’ve definitely become a Hamilton convert over these past couple of years.
Thanks to him once more. Enjoy.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CANOPY | An ape crosses the treetops (6) |
| Topmost layer of branches in a forest, says Chambers. Good def. AN surrounded by C.OPY (to ‘ape’). | ||
| 4 | SCREW-TOP | Ship’s company entering bar requires particular sort of bottle (5-3) |
| CREW (‘ship’s company’) in S.TOP (to ‘bar’). | ||
| 9 | NOTING | Observing that bell is silent? (6) |
| I.e., has ‘no ting’, tee-hee. | ||
| 10 | KNEE-DEEP | Want to have backward look around at water level (4-4) |
| NEED (‘want’) has PEEK (‘look’), reversed, around it. | ||
| 11 | OPIATE | Old privateer has no right to drug (6) |
| O[ld] PIrATE (‘privateer’), without R[ight]. | ||
| 12 | ENTIRETY | Everything is about body holding on (8) |
| ENTITY (‘body’) holds RE[ferring to] = ‘on’. | ||
| 13, 15, 16, 25 across | ONE FOR HIS NOB | Bonus earned by Jack Robinson, he of dubious character (3,3,3,3) |
| Anagram (‘dubious character’) of ROBINSON HE OF. You need to know the rules of cribbage or ‘crib’, an excellent pub card game if you haven’t come across it. It involves many formulaic declarations, e.g., “Fifteen two, fifteen four; shut your mouth and say no more”, or “Two pairs, Kelly’s orchard”. “One for his nob”, on correctly playing the Knave, is another such. | ||
| 14 | MASSIF | Service provided for Highlands (6) |
| MASS (church ‘service’) + IF (‘provided’), ref e.g. Massif Central de la France. | ||
| 17 | LOBELIA | Bloomer liable to crumple without oxygen (7) |
| Anagram (‘to crumple’) of LIABLE around (‘without’, city wall & all that) O[xygen]. | ||
| 21 | SURETY | Guarantee fatty will have second breakfast (6) |
| SU.ETY (‘fatty’, I guess) includes 2nd letter of ‘bReakfast’. | ||
| 25 | See 13 | |
| 26 | LORDSHIP | Cricket ground takes joint title (8) |
| LORDS (London ‘cricket ground’) + HIP (‘joint’). | ||
| 27 | PODIUM | Platform for quiet disapproval (6) |
| P[iano], ‘quiet’, + ODIUM (‘disapproval’). | ||
| 28, 29 | ONE-ARMED BANDIT | Handicapped law-breaker traced to amusement arcade (3-5,6) |
| Sort of cryptic D.D. | ||
| 30 | DESTROYS | Devastates two guys on the Sabbath (8) |
| DES & TROY (though I don’t know any Troys) being the 2 guys in question, + S[unday], I s’pose. | ||
| 31 | ENERGY | Go for revitalised green youth leader (6) |
| Anagram (‘revitalised’) of GREEN + Y(outh). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CONSOMME | Party therefore has French woman making soup (8) |
| CON[servatives] + SO (‘therefore’) + M[ada]ME (‘French woman’). | ||
| 2 | NATTIEST | When the third most horrible is changed it can become most fashionable! (8) |
| NAsTIEST (‘most horrible’), 3rd letter rather randomly substituted. | ||
| 3 | PONYTAIL | Tiny opal possibly worn behind the ears (8) |
| Anagram (‘possibly’) of TINY OPAL, w cryptic def. | ||
| 5 | CANINE | Dogtooth (6) |
| Double def, once you split ‘dog/tooth’. | ||
| 6 | EMETIC | Laxative packaged with remarkable meticulousness (6) |
| Hidden (‘packaged with’) in ‘remarkablE METICulousness’. | ||
| 7 | TEETER | Waver about forwarded message, ignore wife heading north (6) |
| Upward reversal (‘about’), ignoring W[ife], of RETwEET (‘forwarded message’, how modern). | ||
| 8 | PAPAYA | Fruit for dad mid-voyage (6) |
| PAPA + mid-‘voYAge’. | ||
| 12 | ENVELOP | Cover for record about awful novel (7) |
| E[xtended] P[lay] (‘record’) around anagram (‘awful’) of NOVEL. | ||
| 15 | See 13 | |
| 16 | See 13 | |
| 18 | AUTOBAHN | Road motor shows muscle reversing on deserted hairpin (8) |
| AUTO (‘motor’, bit of a duplicate?) + AB (a muscle, reversed) over exterior letters of ‘HairpiN’. | ||
| 19 | REMINDER | Deliver across motorway to jogger? (8) |
| RE.NDER (‘deliver’) around M1 (‘motorway’) w cryptic def (memory ‘jogger’). | ||
| 20 | SYMMETRY | Mystery man begins to unravel correspondence (8) |
| Anagram (‘to unravel’) of MYSTERY + beginning of M(an). | ||
| 22 | ALMOND | Nut regularly mails, day after day (6) |
| Alternate letters of ‘mAiLs’ + D[ay] after MON[day]. | ||
| 23 | BRIEFS | With which Rumpole represents boxers? (6) |
| Jocular, cryptic double def, ref Rumpole of the Bailey, John Mortimer’s fictional barrister and kecks, of course. | ||
| 24 | USURER | United more certain he’s a rip-off merchant (6) |
| U[nited] + SURER (‘more certain’). | ||
| 25 | NICETY | Naomi, Catherine and Tracy are disheartened by subtlety (6) |
| Outside letters of the 3 women. | ||
*anagram
Thanks Grant and Hamilton for an enjoyable blog and puzzle but since when did emetic (6d) mean laxative rather than something that causes vomiting?
Still haven’t warmed to Hamilton but, nevertheless, enjoy the challenge. Great start with CANOPY, my foi. This was a beautifully constructed clue. I’m with Barbican on EMETIC though. Too many extraneous words for my liking but you attempt a Hamilton with this in mind. Thanks all.
Same comment as Barbican @1 and Hovis @2; an EMETIC causes vomiting, a ‘laxative’ works at the other end of the gastrointestinal tract.
I semi-guessed the correct answer, but I didn’t know what was going on at ONE FOR HIS NOB and didn’t spot the anagram. I (semi-) parsed ONE-ARMED BANDIT as a cryptic def. It turned out not to be a difficult clue, but I too liked the surface for CANOPY and it held me up for a while.
Thanks to Grant and to Dr. Hamilton
On 30a, I’ll just add “Troy Tempest” for any Stingray fans out there.
Hovis @ 4. I’d add the non-fictional Troy Aikman, former QB of the Dallas Cowboys. I think the clue for ONE-ARMED BANDIT would have been better with “in” instead of “traced to”.
Nevertheless a fun solve. Thanks Hamilton and Grant.
Thanks to Hamilton and Grant. Easy going for me except for ONE FOR THE NOB, so thanks for the parsing.
To Hovis:
Supercar for me. Best bath-toy ever. Oh, and I see your Tempest and raise it one Kennedy Martin, writer of The Italian Job. But not a common name.
‘Emetic’ is just Hamilton being Hamilton.
Thanks Hamilton for a good crossword. Particularly enjoyed the parsing for 18d and 19d, the latter being my LOI. Thought it amusing that the plural version of ONE-ARMED BANDIT appeared in Canada’s National Post on Saturday with the clue being “mobster and Diane playing casino machines.” Thanks Grant for the blog.
Thanks Hamilton and Grant
A reasonably quick grid fill, but missed the anagram fodder of ONE FOR HIS NOB and wasn’t trendy enough to pick up RETWEET.
EMETIC was the only one to lift one eyebrow. Did like the construction of ENTIRETY, SURETY, NATTIEST and REMINDER.
Finished in the SW with ALMOND and USURER before realising that I had missed the circular cribbage phrase which I had to look up.
i enjoyed this puzzle; and most pertinent comments have already been posted.
Perhaps I am quibbling: but the French Madame (mme) is in English a lady rather than a woman