Note: there is an error in the PDF version of this puzzle: 16 across should be labelled 15, 16 and 20 across should be labelled 19, 20. Other than that an entertaining puzzle. Thank you Basilisk.
In the grid the across solutions are in well known pairs. The down solutions are in pairs too though not commonly recognised ones, I had some fun thinking up situations where they might be applicable. Pitching coffins was interesting but not very tactful at the moment, Idiot Enrollment could be another term for a General Election but Practically Pueblo is my favourite for “a bit of a bumpkin”.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PRINCE | Work out cost of keeping new member of royal family (6) |
| PRICE (work out cost of) contains N (new) | ||
| 4 | CHARMING | Attack government protecting member with substantial appeal (8) |
| CHIN (to attack, by striking the chin) G (government) contains (protecting) ARM (member) | ||
| 9 | TARGET | Misrepresent Greta Thunberg’s principal goal (6) |
| anagram (misprepresent) of GRETA with Thunberg (first letter, the principal) | ||
| 10 | PRACTICE | Moan about having time to kill in rehearsal (8) |
| CARP (moan) reversed (about) then T (time) and ICE (to kill) | ||
| 12 | HIGHLAND | Auditor’s welcome to settle up here (8) |
| HIGH sounds like (auditor’s) “hi” (welcome) then LAND (to settle) | ||
| 13 | CATTLE | Cows Conservative post-war prime minister lacking in character (6) |
| C (conservative) then ATTLEe (Clement Atlee, post-war prime minister) missing (lacking in) one letter (character) | ||
| 15, 16 | SELF FULFILMENT | Novelist let fun film spread feeling of personal achievement (4-10) |
| SELF (Will Self, novelist) then anagram (spread) of LET FUN FILM | ||
| 19, 20 | CORRUGATED IRON | Cast urged actor to decrease uneven material (10,4) |
| anagram (cast) of URGED ACTOR then IRON (to de-crease) | ||
| 23 | FOURTH | Position evident in half our theories (6) |
| found inside (evident in) halF OUR THeories | ||
| 25 | REPUBLIC | Country remains divided by Unionist halving lead (8) |
| RELIC (remains) contains (divided by) U (unionist) inside (halving, in the middle of) PB (lead) | ||
| 27 | INDIRECT | About to charge to go round roundabout (8) |
| RE (about) inside (…to go round) INDICT (to charge) | ||
| 28 | OBJECT | Nine express disapproval (6) |
| target (object) is the solution to clue number nine | ||
| 29 | SMELLING | Humming line following first half of melody in chorus (8) |
| L (line) following MELody (first half of) all inside SING (chorus) | ||
| 30 | BOTTLE | Fail, after losing one’s nerve, to preserve courage (6) |
| triple definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PITCHES | Launches attempts to sell degrees (7) |
| triple definition | ||
| 2 | IRREGULAR | Suspect guerrilla’s left to become resistance fighter (9) |
| anagram (suspect) of GUERRILLA with L (left, one occurrence of) replaced by (to become) R (resistance) | ||
| 3 | CREOLE | Language from mid-Carolina adopted by indigenous Americans (6) |
| carOLina (middle of) inside (adopted by) CREE (indigenous Americans) | ||
| 5 | HERD | Broadcast tried to organise mass movement (4) |
| sounds like (broadcast) “heard” (tried, in court) | ||
| 6 | RACIALLY | Agents infiltrating demonstration on an ethnic basis (8) |
| CIA (agents) inside (infiltrating) RALLY (demonstration) | ||
| 7 | IDIOT | Stupid aspect of personality a little bit curtailed (5) |
| ID (identity, aspect of personality) then IOTa (a little bit, curtailed) | ||
| 8 | GREYEST | Great having positive response for article that’s extremely dull (7) |
| GREaT with YES (positive response) replacing A (indefinite article) | ||
| 11 | INSULAR | Closed urinals in need of refurbishment (7) |
| anagram (in need of refurbishment) of URINALS | ||
| 14 | OFFERED | Did volunteer take case of sweet wine? (7) |
| tOFFEe (sweet) with outer letters removed (case taken away) then RED (wine) | ||
| 17 | ENROLMENT | Enlisting men wanting leadership, mounted men and men flanked by officer (9) |
| mEN missing first letter (wanting leadership) OR (other ranks, men) reversed (mounted) then MEN inside (flanked by) LT (lieutenant, officer) | ||
| 18 | CULTURAL | Extremely popular artworks stripped of aesthetic value (8) |
| CULT (extremely popular) then mURALs (artworks) missing outer letters (stripped) | ||
| 19 | COFFINS | Company set up suggestion boxes (7) |
| CO (company) then SNIFF (suggestion) reversed (set up) | ||
| 21 | NECKTIE | Doing this up could bring a lump to one’s throat (7) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 22 | PUEBLO | Look after English embraced by local Spanish-speaking community (6) |
| LO (look) follows E (English) inside PUB (local) | ||
| 24 | UNDUE | University dons dancing nude without good reason (5) |
| U (university) contains (dons) anagram (dancing) of NUDE | ||
| 26 | ICON | Image could be Apple’s way to extract money from gullible people (4) |
| a CON is a way to extract money from gullible people, so if Apple had one of these (heaven forbid!) it would be an ICon (like the IPhone, IPad etc) | ||
The missing clue numbers weren’t a particular hold up – a nice crossword, thank you Basilisk – and I noticed the pairs of solutions too!
Thanks also to PeeDee
Error in blog for 2d. The definition is just “fighter” and “left to become resistance” is an instruction to replace one of the R’s in GUERRILLA by L.
Fantastic puzzle as always from this setter. Thanks to Basilisk and PeeDee.
Sorry I meant one of the L’s to become R of course.
Thanks Hovis. Fixed now.
There were a few bits I couldn’t parse, eg CHIN for ‘attack’ at 4a and the ‘Novelist’ at 15a, but otherwise the answers went in steadily, helped by the word pairs. I thought the wordplay for INDIRECT was impressively confusing and I also liked the ‘uneven material’ at 19,20a and the ‘Apple’ association with ICON at 26d. Best puzzle of the day for me.
Thanks to Basilisk and PeeDee
“E makes it look so easy!
On ya JC
I loved this puzzle — and very helpful blog since I got quite stuck on the bottom-right having convinced myself that 22d BARRIO was correct in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
Thanks Basilisk and PeeDee
Unsurprisingly an excellent puzzle.
I do have a difficulty in equating ‘cult’ with ‘extremely popular’, though. To me, a band, author or film, say, which is described as having a cult following is one with a small but extremely dedicated set of fans. Over time they may break out into mainstream appreciation as awareness increases, but I’m not convinced the two can be simultaneous. Probably just me.
Thanks to PeeDee and Basilisk
Very very good.
With this setter’s attention to detail I would be surprised if “extremely popular” is to be read as ” very popular”.
I think it is meant to be taken cryptically – “popular with those on the fringe”
Another excellent puzzle from Basilisk. Never spotted the across pairs. I solved this a quarter at a time going anticlockwise from the NW.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
Well at least this was better than yesterday’s FT.
I enjoyed the witticism of 26dn.
Thanks Basilisk for a solid crossword. Not knowing any of the BOTTLE definitions or that “chin” can mean “attack” prevented me from finishing. I was also a bit confused by the adjective “stupid” being the definition for the noun “idiot.” Favorite was CORRUGATED IRON. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Tony @12 Stupid is also a noun meaning “a stupid person”. I’ve only ever seen it used that way in crosswordland but it is in my Chambers. It also mentions that the informal noun “stupe” is sometimes used which I think I may have actually seen.
Many thanks to PeeDee for the excellent blog and to everyone who has been kind enough to leave a comment.
This was the first time we’d encountered Basilisk in the FT, but knowing his other pseudonym in the Indy we were prepared for a challenge and weren’t disappointed. But it was all gettable thanks to the setter’s careful cluing. We only spotted the pairs after finishing, otherwise we might have finished more quickly than we did.
We liked NECKTIE (a bit of a groan when we tumbled to it, though) and the two triple definitions.
Thanks, Basilisk and PeeDee
I thought this was very nice, even without the pairing – which made it even nicer
“19d Company set up suggestion boxes” is a delight, just to name one
many thanks Basilisk & PeeDee
Thanks Basilisk and PeeDee
After not finishing his last puzzle (yet!), found this one quite tough as well. Ended up prising it out quarter by quarter – NW, SW, NE and SE. Failed to see tge double words apart from the two central ones – which may have helped had I twigged to it.
Did enjoy winkling out each solution and getting the triple BOTTLE to finish it off.
This puzzle 16470 is a duplicate, the first printing being number 16451 which appeared with the same errors re two of the twinned across clues. I enjoyed it both times.
Simon – so it is! In the PDF versions on the website The numbering of the clues has been changed very slightly to remove a comma, but is still wrong. What is going on?