A pleasant crossword from Knut today. I shall say no more because if I do the casual viewer of the top of this post may be alerted.
Definitions in dark orchid, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
This is apparenty a homage to Eric Clapton, and, as always in similar cases, I’m not really the person to be blogging. There are no doubt countless references to his songs, but I can only see one or two. Aficionados of Eric Clapton will be able to see them.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FILTHY RICH | Like someone proving “where there’s muck there’s brass”? (6,4) |
| a CD playing on the saying and on the meanings of muck and filthy | ||
| 7 | WICK | I must visit the loo quick! Finally – a village! (4) |
| W(I)C {quic}k — this may refer to one of the many villages around Britain that are called Wick, or to the ancient derivation of the word — either, one can’t tell | ||
| 9 | BESMIRCH | Dirty, base sado-masochism – into the cane (8) |
| b(e S&M)irch — e is the base, the base of natural logarithms in maths | ||
| 10 | APNEA | With which some chap nearly suffocates in the US? (5) |
| Hidden in chAP NEArly — sort of &lit. — see 22ac below for my views on ‘some’ — the US spelling of apnoea, the sleeping disorder | ||
| 11 | BICARB | White powder frequently used by Hollywood TV star? (6) |
| ‘Hollywood TV star’ is ‘Hollywood, the TV star’, Paul Hollywood of Great British Bake Off fame, who uses bicarbonate of soda frequently in his cooking | ||
| 12 | TRECENTO | Toledo evacuated around late 14th century (8) |
| t{oled}o round recent | ||
| 13 | THE NORTH | Next, old king starts to tame hostile region above the Trent (3,5) |
| then O R t{ame} h{ostile} | ||
| 15 | FUNK | Dance music bringing pleasure to Kelvin (4) |
| fun K [the SI unit of thermodynamic temperature] | ||
| 17 | SLOW | Dull-witted, one reportedly gin-soaked (4) |
| “sloe” — sloe gin: one puts sloes into gin, so a sloe is soaked by the gin | ||
| 19 | SUBTLETY | Be slutty when drunk, eschewing this? (8) |
| (Be slutty)* | ||
| 22 | OTOSCOPE | Some photos cop exhibited considered instrumental in hearing (8) |
| Hidden in phOTOS COP Exhibited — why do setters persist with ‘some’ when it’s a hidden? It’s such a giveaway, and in any case is arguably not even accurate: it should surely be ‘some of’ | ||
| 23 | DOPING | Party animal, about 13, taking drugs (6) |
| do pi(N)g — 13 being ‘the north’ | ||
| 25 | TEARS | Rips odd bits out of thesaurus (5) |
| t{h}e{s}a{u}r{u}s | ||
| 26 | IDEOLOGY | Starts off video blog “My World View” (8) |
| {v}ideo {b}log {m}y | ||
| 27 | HAND | Solo daughter’s ovation (4) |
| Han [as in Han Solo, of Star Wars fame] d | ||
| 28 | SAFETY NETS | They hedge against falls from fastest yen volatility (6,4) |
| (fastest yen)* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ICE FISH | Island chef’s going out to catch one piece of seafood (3,4) |
| i (chef’s)* round 1 — hadn’t heard of it but the wordplay suggested that such a thing existed — it doesn’t seem much, because this Wikipedia page doesn’t even have a picture of one, and also calls it an icefish | ||
| 3 | TAMPA | OAP mate turned up naked in Florida resort (5) |
| Hidden reversed in OAP MATe | ||
| 4 | YARDBIRD | US convict‘s waggon turned up on time (8) |
| (dray [waggon, US spelling])rev. bird [time in prison, possibly Cockney Rhyming Slang, bird-lime] — one of Eric Clapton’s groups was The Yardbirds | ||
| 5 | I SHOT THE SHERIFF | Vocal admission of a serious breach of martial law? (1,4,3,7) |
| The song by Eric Clapton — martial – “marshal” | ||
| 6 | HEAVEN | Nightclub in Roxburghe Avenue (6) |
| Hidden in RoxburgHE AVENue — I’m not all that knowledgeable about nightclubs but there are ones in both Ibiza and the Algarve with that name — I looked a bit further and there’s a major one in London, near Charing Cross Station — not quite sure what Roxburghe Avenue (which isn’t in my A-Z) is all about | ||
| 7 | WONDERFUL | Amazing bats flew round (9) |
| *(flew round) | ||
| 8 | CLAPTON | One partnering Fender to applaud century (7) |
| clap ton — the misleading references are to Eric Clapton, who plays the stratofender (? fender; anyway some type of electric guitar called a Fender or a Stratofender or a Strat fender), and to Percy Fender (1892-1985) the cricketer | ||
| 14 | NEWSSTAND | Press agent wants send-off (9) |
| (wants send)* — a press agent in a wide sense | ||
| 16 | OBEDIENT | It’s an honour to lose one’s life not heartlessly following orders (8) |
| OBE die n{o}t | ||
| 18 | LETITIA | Beatles hit – live – going out for 1A girl? (7) |
| ‘Let it Be’ [the Beatles hit] with Be [live] removed and replaced by 1A — nothing to do with 1ac — I’m not quite sure why there’s a question mark: is there any doubt? Maybe Letitia isn’t a very common girl’s name — was ‘Letitia’ perhaps a song performed by Eric Clapton? But I can find no evidence of this. | ||
| 20 | TONIGHT | Little ‘un to hold close later, at bedtime (7) |
| to(nigh)t — nigh = close | ||
| 21 | HORSES | Run found in stockings on the Sabbath nags (6) |
| ho(r)se S | ||
| 24 | PYLON | One performing high-wire supporting act? (5) |
| CD | ||
For starters, YARDBIRD(s) and SLOW HAND (presumably after “slow hand clap(ton)
TEARS in HEAVEN , You look WONDERFUL TONIGHT
I Shot the Sheriff (written by Bob Marley
I would not include 1 or 23 as themers. FUNK… maybe?
LETITIA- doesnt quite scan like LAYLA!
Great fun
Thanks all
Did spot the theme but also not that knowledgeable of his works. I knew those mentioned by copmus other than TEARS in HEAVEN. Couldn’t parse BICARB. I was aware of the chef but didn’t know he frequently used it (nor did I think of him at all).
Messed up 24d, writing in “talon” thinking about birds balancing on high wires. Should have seen DOPING to put me right. Ah well!
Thought 7d was a WONDERFUL anagram.
Not sure about 2d. I also googled it to see if it was a “piece of seafood” without much luck. I also wondered if it could be a semi &lit referring to ice fishing but that didn’t work for me.
Thanks to Knut and John.
Fun grid, though I did not get BICARB and YARDBIRD, and missed the theme too. Thanks Knut and John.
I am not an expert on the theme, but in one or two it helped even so (YARDBIRD). I really liked the Hollywood star and the Beatles one: very neat cross-referencing of the sort that makes you smile. Quick solve but only because his wavelength is accessible to me.
No wonder I couldn’t parse 11a. Forgot about Paul in TGBBO.
Didn’t know Clapton was in the Yardbirds (I remember For Your Love) or that he did I Shot The Sheriff (I remember Bob Marley).
Good puzzle, thanks to Knut and John.
Is that a Nina in column 9?
I spotted the theme – that’s the second time today our setter has left me suffering with ear worms!
thanks to Knut and John
The theme completely passed me by, not my scene. However, I did spot that the unches down column 9 spell ‘crude’, which apparently has some Clapton connection according to an online search; someone else might like to elucidate. I enjoyed the puzzle nevertheless, so thanks to Knut and John.
Having done a Clapton puzzle myself not that long ago, I spotted the song titles and names. As for anything else, I think it’s slightly off to call him filthy rich, although if he did amass his wealth by DOPING HORSES in TAMPA, I suppose it’s fair enough. Great fun.
We missed the theme, too, although we did know enough about Fenders to get CLAPTON, and one or two other entries sounded vaguely familiar. ICE FISH of the nototheniidae family are the sea food of the clue – used to be sold as ‘antarctic sea bass’.
An enjoyable solve – Thanks, Knut and John.
Lovely, 7d is wonderful, liked 19a 28a 20d, though 16d, good clue, felt slightly unsettling
Great theme. My mother was always trying to get me to play wonderful tonight. I was going to do with the band at my wedding, but I was too drunk