Another Pierre blog of another Tees puzzle. People will begin to talk. Tees is a precise and fair setter, so even when – as here – there are one or two less well-known words, if you follow the instructions he’ll get you over the line.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Something tasty one’s fed to doctor
MISO
An insertion of I and S in MO for Medical Officer or ‘doctor’ gives you the traditional Japanese seasoning.
3 How Buñuel may have interpreted White House film?
CASABLANCA
Luis Buñuel was a renowned filmmaker, so he is relevant to the surface, but he is, more importantly, relevant for having Spanish as his mother tongue: CASA BLANCA, of course, means White House. And as I’m sure I’ve mentioned a million times before, Ingrid Bergman’s character never said ‘Play it again, Sam’.
10 Means to reduce capital growth?
HAIRCUT
A cd. ‘Capital’ in this case is used in its ‘of the head’ sense (more commonly heard in the Latin expression per capita).
11 Substantial domestic plot — study extracted mineral
REALGAR
A new word for me, but with some crossers gettable. A charade of REAL and GAR[DEN].
12 Weariness seen in pupil regularly
ENNUI
The even letters of sEeN iN pUpIl.
13 Seriously old walls in home
EARNESTLY
An insertion of NEST in EARLY. The insertion indicator is ‘walls in’.
15 Virgin and Pole drowned in beer
BRAND-NEW
An insertion of AND and N for one of the ‘poles’ in BREW.
16 Erstwhile partner works to return bonus
EXTRA
A charade of EX and ART reversed. If I remember well, EXTRA is the most common solution in cryptics, mainly because nowt else sensible fits the E?T?A pattern.
17 Mature blue
ADULT
A dd.
18 Tomb, cold, seen by Pound coming into Italian city church
CROMLECH
A charade of C, L for ‘Pound’ inserted into ROME and CH. A word that is in the very outer reaches of my passive vocabulary. As you might guess, it’s a word of Welsh origin.
22 Catch tense boy round north in important region
HEARTLAND
A charade of HEAR for ‘catch’ (‘I didn’t hear/catch what you said’), T, and N inserted into LAD.
24 Get wisdom about current in French river
LOIRE
An insertion of I for the symbol for electric current in LORE.
25 King visiting apparently empty county?
NORFOLK
If a county were empty, it would have NO FOLK. Insert your king (R) in that and you’ve got the East Anglian version.
26 Is a name recollected? Not with this!
AMNESIA
(IS A NAME)* and a cad.
27 Water to swallow very quietly in throat part
ADAMS APPLE
An insertion of PP for the musical instruction for ‘very quietly’ in ADAM’S ALE, a colloquial expression for ‘water’ (beer wasn’t invented in the Garden of Eden, only temptation).
28 Some work needed in joint
KNEE
Hidden in worK NEEded.
Down
1 Frenchman Lehár trained as composer
MAHLER
(M LEHAR)* M stands for ‘Monsieur’.
2 Top criminal seizing power
SPINNER
An insertion of P in SINNER.
4 Hunter in exploit over enormously long period
ACTAEON
Tees will often throw you a bit of Classics. ACTAEON was a huntsman in Greek mythology who was transformed into a deer and torn to death by his own dogs. Life was tough back then. A charade of ACT and AEON. ‘Over’ works to give you the word order because it’s a down clue.
5 High-flyers must have raw rice boiled
AIRCREW
(RAW RICE)*
6 Keep away from bore — don’t get involved
LEAVE WELL ALONE
A dd cum cd, using ‘bore’ in its Jack and Jill sense of WELL.
7 Darkness is terrible thing
NIGHT
(THING)*
8 Aussie river rising in impressive display
ARRAY
A reversal (‘rising’, since it’s a down clue) of the River YARRA.
9 Conflicting positions?
ACTION STATIONS
A cd. If conflict was imminent, then these would be the positions you’d adopt.
14 Tree line to extend over
LARCH
A charade of L and ARCH.
15 Star appearing in many westerns
BADGE
A cd. In the old Saturday morning black and white Westerns, the sheriff always wore a BADGE in the shape of a star.
18 Rent increased? Go to pieces
CRACK UP
A charade of CRACK and UP. ‘Rent’ is in its ‘tear’ sense.
19 Red, green, blue or black card?
ODDBALL
Please tell me this was your LOI as well. Another cd cum dd. The reference is to snooker colours: the red, green, blue and black balls have values of 1, 3, 5 and 7 respectively, which are all odd numbers.
20 Watertight chamber is thus enclosed in metal
CAISSON
I was pleased to be able to work this out from the wordplay. It’s IS SO inserted into CAN.
21 Guard against black sheep eating a rook
BEWARE
A charade of B, and A and R inserted into EWE.
22 Bird initially near atomic plant
HENNA
A charade of HEN, then N and A for the initial letters of ‘near’ and ‘atomic’.
23 Vessel and wine, unopened, brought into sober meeting
AORTA
And a final insertion: of [P]ORT in AA for Alcoholics Anonymous. The reduction indicator is ‘unopened’ and the insertion indicator is ‘brought into’.
Many thanks to Tees for the Sunday morning entertainment.
Tees continuing with his mission to keep us amused and entertained during the lockdown. Lots to enjoy so thank you to him and Pierre
Another struggler for me, but got there eventually over a very extended Sunday breakfast. Realgar was new to me also and I needed help from a word list, since ‘real’ = ‘substantial’ didn’t occur to me. Last to solve was Badge, and I thought the clue was a bit of a stretch, but I suppose it works. Otherwise much enjoyed, so thanks Tees and Pierre.
Thanks for the explanations and help.As a newbie to cryptic solving I was pleased to get realgar, though I had to look it up. Badge totally escaped me.
A nice coffee-time diversion with no real problems, although it took us a while to remember the YARRA river, our LOI. We knew REALGAR to be a mineral, but had to remind ourselves what it consists of (arsenic sulphide, if you really want to know).
Favourites were CROMLECH and ODDBALL.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
Thanks guys ‘n’ gals.
Cheers!