Jason got my grey cells working this morning.
It took me a while to get in to this puzzle, with my first run through yielding only 11 solutions that I could parse, and a couple I thought might be right, but which I wanted crossers to be sure of.
The first one I could put in was 22ac, which would actually have been better as a down clue, so I thought that this was going to be disappointing, but, a few minor quibbles aside, I enjoyed the challenge, even if parsing was sometimes a bit difficult.
To the other quibbles – the “couple from” in 6d is a bit vague, and I’m not sure that the method of riding in 28ac is particularly royal, but stand to be corrected.
I eventually made my way through the puzzle, and would have finished quicker had I not convinced myself that the anagram fodder for CHAIN STORE was wrong (until I noticed that it was only CHAIN S that was an anagram), and had it not taken me a good five minutes to parse APSE (not sure about S being “round section” – “rounded” I can see, but “round”?) (see comment #1 below for clarification on where I went wrong with the parsing – thanks, Hovis)
There were also a lot of good clues in here, with my favourites being those for MACARONI and REPLICA.
Thanks, Jason.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BREADSTICK | Grissino, say, with the necessary jam (10) |
| BREAD (“the necessary”, as in money) + STICK (“jam”) | ||
| 7 | CUTE | Pretty cold at the front of Mick Dundee’s truck (4) |
| C (cold) at the front of UTE (Australian term for “truck”, short for “utility vehicle”)
Mick Dundee was the real name of the eponymous fearless Aussie, Crocodile Dundee, played by Paul Hogan in a couple of films. |
||
| 9 | EPIC | Impressive collection of winkle- pickers (4) |
| Hidden in [collection of] “winklE-PICkers” | ||
| 10 | CHAIN STORE | Outlet’s wasting cash in rent (5,5) |
| *(cash in) [anag:wasting] + TORE (“rent”) | ||
| 11 | MISTER | Chap that keeps house plants a little moist (6) |
| Double defintion | ||
| 12 | LIFE RAFT | Long-term con behind item of survival equipment (4,4) |
| LIFER (“long-term con”) + AFT (“behind”) | ||
| 13 | MACARONI | Reduced chocolate substitute in amazing main dish (8) |
| [reduced] CARO(b) (“chocolate substitute”) in *(main) [anag:amazing] | ||
| 15 | ALSO | A line that will do too (4) |
| A + L (line) + SO (“that will do”) | ||
| 17 | APSE | Take off round section in part of church (4) |
| APE (“take off”) round S (section)
I misparsed this at first, but Hovis helped me out (see comment #1) |
||
| 19 | EYEGLASS | Catch a glimpse of good girl in this? (8) |
| EYE (“catch a glimpse of”) + G (good) + LASS (“girl”) | ||
| 22 | PASTRAMI | Smoked beef in one market clot picked up (8) |
| <=(I (one) + MART (“market”) + SAP (“clot”)) picked up
This would work better as a Down clue, as picked up doesn’t indicate reversal in a lateral direction. |
||
| 23 | STARRY | Stellar sons dawdle (6) |
| S (sons) + TARRY (“dawdle”) | ||
| 25 | THOUGHT-OUT | Carefully considered admitting one who solicits brazenly (7-3) |
| THOUGH (“admitting”) + TOUT (“one who solicits brazenly”) | ||
| 26 | AMEN | The last word in steam engineering (4) |
| Hidden [in] “steAM ENgineering” | ||
| 27 | TREK | Leaders of this rove east to west of Kenya? (4) |
| [leaders of] T(his) R(ove) E(ast) to [west of] (ie the first (furthest west) letter of) K (Kenya) and &lit. | ||
| 28 | SIDESADDLE | Pages confuse the royal way of being “up” (10) |
| SIDES (“pages”) + ADDLE (“confuse”)
Not an equestrian, but I thought sidesaddle referred to a way that a woman used to ride a horse, rather than a royal personage? |
||
| Down | ||
| 2 | REPLICA | Pile rumbustiously into new car model (7) |
| *(pile) [anag:rumbustiously] into *(car) [anag:new] | ||
| 3 | ASCOT | Team’s supposed lucky charm scoring first in tie (5) |
| (m)ASCOT (“team’s supposed lucky charm” with its first (letter) scored (out)) | ||
| 4 | SICKROOM | Where to be patient? Disappointed with lash up (8) |
| SICK (“disappointed”) with <=MOOR (“lash” up) | ||
| 5 | IN ALL LIKELIHOOD | Probably I spoil Nike hold-all, not special for a change (2,3,10) |
| I + *(oil nike holdall) [anag:for a change] where OIL is (sp)OIL without the SP (not special) | ||
| 6 | KUNG FU | Martial art’s good fun struggling under a couple from Kuancheng (4,2) |
| G (good) + *(fun) [anag:struggling] under [a couple from] KU(ancheng)
The “a couple from” is a bit vague, in my opinion, but it is obvious which “couple” of letters is required in the clue. |
||
| 7 | CATERWAUL | To supply wide transport husband let out a screech (9) |
| CATER (“to supply”) + W (wide) + (h)AUL (“transport” with H (husband) let out) | ||
| 8 | TARIFFS | Duties sailor’s taking on board whenever fire’s starting (7) |
| TAR’S (“sailor’s”) taking on board IF (“whenever”) + F(ire) [‘s starting] | ||
| 14 | AWESTRUCK | Amazed as we alter dealings (9) |
| *(as we) [anag:alter] + TRUCK (“dealings”) | ||
| 16 | WEBSITES | Such as could be wisest? (8) |
| *(be wisest) and semi &lit. | ||
| 18 | POACHER | In ads, price on asking – dear for French cooker (7) |
| P.O.A. (price on application, in ads) + CHER (“dear in French”)
POA doesn’t appear in any of my dictionaries, but it can be found online. |
||
| 20 | SURREAL | Almost certainly genuine – that’s bizarre (7) |
| [almost] SUR(e) (“certainly”) + REAL (“genuine”) | ||
| 21 | GASHES | Government remains for cuts which run deep (6) |
| G (government) + ASHES (“remains”) | ||
| 24 | AWARD | Possibly a fighting decoration in the first place (5) |
| A + WAR (“fighting”) + D(ecoration) [in the first place] and semi &lit. | ||
*anagram
In 17a, S just stands for Section with “round” denoting the inclusion.
There’s a mistake in the blog for 5d. Need to remove SP for “special”.
A fine puzzle by Jason with several clues cunningly worded to send you in the wrong direction.
Thanks to Jason and loonapick.
Thanks, Hovis – will amend when next at my PC
I too found this one tough. No problem with 28ac SIDESADDLE, though — you could almost caricature the Queen for always riding thus. Thanks, Jason, for giving us a reason for self-isolation. And thanks to loonapick for completing an especially tough assignment.
Can someone elaborate on the definition for 16d WEBSITES, please? Nothing in the clue is even remotely suggesting the answer to me. What am I missing?
I meant to ask that as well, Angstony.
Thanks Hovis. It’s good to know it’s not just me being dim, if you’re not seeing it either.
I think the setter is indicating that websites are a source of wisdom. The one you’re on now certainly is!!
I was looking forward to a good solve after a lovely 7 mile walk in the sunshine followed by a big bacon sandwich.
I started in the SW corner and found it tough, but just about OK. Then I looked at 1 & 7ac and just lost my temper.
Thanks for the blog, Loonapick.
Loonapick @7, if that’s the idea (I’m not convinced), then shouldn’t it be Such as could be be wisest? Which obviously wouldn’t be grammatical. One of those clues where it looks like something’s been left out by mistake, or it’s cleverer than we think.
No clue either about ‘be wisest’. Tried to make it ‘bewise.st’ but (irritatingly) there’s no .st domain suffix and it wouldn’t work anyway.
Still, good puzz, thanks to both.
Thanks loonapick @7, but I have to say that seems like quite a stretch. The internet has about 1.75 billion websites and I imagine the subset of sites that impart wisdom is minuscule.
Thanks to Jason and loonapick. Like others I parsed WEBSITES but could not understand the result, but I also did not know POA for POACHER and missed the carob for MACARONI. I did not have trouble with APSE or SIDESADDLE.
A solid crossword but not very satisfying for me as I solved many of the clues with just partial parsing. I didn’t find much humor in the surfaces but I know that’s not a requirement by any stretch. I thought CHAIN STORE was particularly good. I enjoyed the discussion on WEBSITES and wisdom — the question mark at the end of the clue does modify the idea that the internet is a source of wisdom. Thanks Jason and Loonapick.
Surprised that POA as ‘price on asking’ isn’t in the dictionaries; we knew it anyway, actually as ‘price on application’, usually interpreted as “if you have to ask the price you can’t afford it!”
We agee that 22ac is an excellent down clue but just doesn’t work as an across. And we were a bit mystified by 16dn too.
A bit of a challenge, particularly the NW corner (though in retrospect we can’t see why) but we got it all unaided.
Thanks, Jason and Loonapick.
West of Kenya, he he, that’s where I hail from. COD 11ac.
Thanks to both. I got myself into a bind by tossing CALAMARI into 13a as I was trying for a “main” dish. At the time I thought it interesting that word had come up in two crosswords from different sources recently and gave it no more thought, until I could do nothing with 4d. Big oops, so finishing took a while.
Missed mister and ascot, which I had no idea was a tie. Otherwise tough going but strangely unsatisfying. Thanks.
Thanks Jason and loonapick
Finished this one last weekend, but only got to checking it off now. Found it pretty solid going that was all to do with the crypticness rather than any unknown words, well apart from ‘grissino’. Was eventually able to get it all out and fully parsed which was satisfying.
Lots of interesting devices with I think TREK being my favourite.
Finished with the funky WEBSITES and the tricky MISTER the last couple in.