The Observer crossword from Jan 17, 2021
A fine crossword that we enjoyed just a bit more than the one from the week before.
Everyman’s puzzles may somewhat vary in difficulty and tightness of the clueing itself, but let’s not forget that he tries to please us every single week!
Something not to be taken for granted, in my opinion.
Today’s rhyming pair are the two long ones in the 7th and 9th row, highlighted in the blog below.
My first one in? I think it was 17dn …..
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HORNPIPE | Dancing will get you prone with hip replacement (8) |
| Anagram, indicated by replacement, of: PRONE + HIP I assume ‘dancing’ for ‘hornpipe’ is just about OK? |
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| 5 | ERUPTS | Holy man, righteous, flips, goes bananas (6) |
| ST (holy man, short for Saint) + PURE (righteous), then together reversed, indicated by flips | ||
| 10 | ICEBERG | I see diving bird returning to very cold water (7) |
| I + C (see), followed by a reversal, indicated by returning, of GREBE (diving bird) The definition is, in my opinion, rather loose but an iceberg is indeed very cold and was, at some stage, surely ‘water’. See others below. Some solvers like to see an indicator when a setter uses C = ‘see’, but it’s in Chambers. |
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| 11 | SAPPORO | Poor misguided fool in the lead somewhere in Japan (7) |
| Anagram, indicated by misguided, of POOR, preceded by SAP (fool) The city where the 1972 Winter Olympics took place. |
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| 12 | DUE TO | Because of odour, eat cod only now and then (3,2) |
| The even letters, here indicated by only now and then, of: ODOUR EAT COD | ||
| 13 | NAIVENESS | Van is seen moving with simplicity (9) |
| Anagram, indicated by moving, of: VAN IS SEEN | ||
| 14 | CASH MACHINES | Bread boxes? (4,8) |
| Cryptic definition ‘Bread’ is slang for money [see also 6dn]. At first, I tried to find something for ‘boxes’, however one should see the clue as a whole. |
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| 18 | ANAGRAMMATIC | Like Enid Blyton vis-à-vis tiny blonde? (12) |
| ENID BLYTON is an anagram of TINY BLONDE Really nice find. |
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| 21 | LEYLANDII | Earl finally – finally! – has estate ringed by 52 hedges (9) |
| E (earl) + [finall]Y + LAND (estate), together inside LII (52, in Roman numerals) A few days before this crossword appeared, Aardvark used the same word in his FT puzzle. So it was still fresh in my mind. Leylandii (plural: the same) is a fast-growing cypress, often used for hedging. |
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| 23 | OMANI | Perhaps Muscat resident will be back soon (5) |
| Reversal, indicated by back, of: IN A MO (soon) | ||
| 24 | GAINFUL | Productive government losing power, irritating (7) |
| G (government), followed by PAINFUL (irritating) with the P (power) removed My solving partner found this a rather inelegant clue – Who is losing power? Not the government! |
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| 25 | DESKTOP | Oddly, drew a little shrine; close to flock, highest screen displaying icons (7) |
| The odd letters of DREW, followed by S[hrine] + [floc]K + TOP (highest) | ||
| 26 | TROLLS | Provokes some toilet-roll shortages (6) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by some: TOILET-ROLL SHORTAGES | ||
| 27 | DEWY-EYED | We’re prepared to go back to the old you, once a little delightful innocent (4-4) |
| DEW, which is the reversal of WE’D (we’re prepared to), indicated by go back, followed by YE (the, old) + YE (you, once) + D[elightful] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HAIRDO | Difficult, love, to get over Everyman’s coiffure (6) |
| HARD (difficult) + O (love, zero), together around I (Everyman) | ||
| 2 | REELED | Staggered, seeing fish in merlot, perhaps (6) |
| EEL (fish) inside RED (merlot, example of a red wine) | ||
| 3 | PTEROSAUR | Prehistoric beast – monster – spotted, in reports (9) |
| Two consecutive homophones, indicated by in reports, of: TERROR (monster) + SAW (spotted) | ||
| 4 | PIG-IN-THE-MIDDLE | In impeded light, playing game (3-2-3-6) |
| Anagram, indicated by playing, of: IN IMPEDED LIGHT I am more familiar with [Hey Diddle Diddle] Piggy-in-the-Middle [remember Neil Innes who sadly left us last year? 2019, thx Blorenge. How time flies.]. |
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| 6 | RUPEE | Regularly fry up pieces of bread in Asia (5) |
| Regular choice of letters, the even ones this time, of: FRY UP PIECES Some more bread, please! |
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| 7 | PHONE-INS | Spooner’s expressed anti-Scandinavian policy as radio programming (5-3) |
| Spoonerism of: NO FINNS (anti-Scandinavian policy) And an amusing one, we thought. |
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| 8 | SCORSESE | Director adding touch of silliness to film’s music before vacuous scene (8) |
| S[illiness] put into SCORE (film’s music), followed by S[cen]E Martin Scorsese (b.1942), director of films such as Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ. |
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| 9 | AS FIT AS A FIDDLE | If fat, side salad could make you healthy (2,3,2,1,6) |
| Anagram, indicated by … could make you …, of: IF FAT SIDE SALAD Nice anagram! |
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| 15 | HEINOUSLY | He and I sense lobby will be evacuated in an awful way (9) |
| HE + I + NOUS (sense) + L[obb]Y | ||
| 16 | DAYLIGHT | Riotous lady, topless, drunk after sunrise (8) |
| Anagram, indicated by riotous, of LADY, followed by TIGHT (drunk) with the T at the beginning removed Don’t know why I wrote here (LADY minus L) + LIGHT, made no sense, sorry. I’m pretty sure when solving, I parsed it as @12, @15 and @37/38 did. |
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| 17 | BABYCINO | Primarily bubbly, a beverage your child is nowadays offered? (8) |
| Indicated as ever by Primarily, the first letters of: Bubbly A Beverage Your Child Is Nowadays Offered New word to me but so incredibly easy to get …. |
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| 19 | GANTRY | Little Morgan trying to get support (6) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by little (in the sense of a little bit of): MORGAN TRYING Whether the solution is ‘a little bit’ of the fodder, is questionable (as it’s half of it). |
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| 20 | NIPPED | Bit hurried (6) |
| Double definition ‘Bit’ as the past tense of the verb ‘(to) bite’. |
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| 22 | AWFUL | Pollarding allowed – that’s terrible (5) |
| LAWFUL minus, indicated by pollarded, the L at the start (the top, actually) | ||
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