Alchemi has provided today’s puzzle for our delectation. It is a while since I have been called upon to blog one of his puzzles.
I found this quite an easy puzzle to make inroads into but a difficult one to finish. In the end, I needed to cheat at 17 and thought that I should have been able to work this one out from the five letters that the intersecting entries had provided, even though it wasn’t the easiest of clues.
It is Tuesday, so something of a theme is to be expected. The clue at 10 is the key to this one and is explained below. Some of the other words from the song, are to be found in the completed grid (18, 19, 20, 21, 24D) and in the following extract:
Mother dear, I’m writing you from somewhere in France,
Hoping this finds you well.
Sergeant says I’m doing fine, a soldier and a half,
Here’s a song that we all sing, this’ll make you laugh!
We’re gonna hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line,
Have you any dirty washing, mother dear?
We’re gonna hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line,
‘Cause the washing day is here.
My favourite clues today were 4, for the smoothness of surface, not always easy to achieve when the answer is hidden in the clue; 14, for concision; 26, for the use of the proverb in the definition part.
I fear that I may be missing something at 20, where I can’t see a convincing definition.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | HANGOUT | Place to relax from Chinese disease
HAN (=Chinese, of dynasty) + GOUT (=disease) |
| 05 | WASHING | Soiled apparel remains in flight
ASH (=remains, of e.g. cigarette) in WING (=flight, as in a bird on the wing) |
| 09 | RACED | Ran club, possibly in Rutherford
ACE (=club, possibly, i.e. in card) in RD (=Rutherford, i.e. unit of radioactive disintegration) |
| 10 | SIEGFRIED | 13 on which Tommy wanted to 1A the 5A feeds rig I constructed
*(FEEDS RIG I); “constructed” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the WW2 marching song “(We’re gonna) Hang out (=entry at 1A) the washing (=entry at 5A) on the Siegfried Line (=entry at 13)” sung by British troops, hence “tommy” |
| 11 | CHAIN MAIL | Armour written about in Malachi
*(IN MALACHI); “written about” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | GORSE | It’s prickly buying or selling trousers
Hidden (“trousers”, i.e. pockets, appropriates) in “buyinG OR SElling” |
| 13 | LINE | Pound home point of fishing tackle
L (=pound, as in LSD) + IN (=(at) home) + E (=point, of compass) |
| 15 | SMOKABLE | Strange bloke, Sam – like a pipe, perhaps
*(BLOKE SAM); “strange” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | SERGEANT | Gets near corrupt police officer
*(GETS NEAR); “corrupt” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | DEAR | Expensive Dutch audio equipment
D (=Dutch) + EAR (=audio “equipment”) |
| 22 | OCHRE | Yellow mineral companion found inside
CH (=companion, i.e. Companion of Honour) in ORE (=mineral) |
| 24 | DEEP WATER | Spooner telling child to cry a river, possibly
Spoonerism of “weep (=cry) + daughter (=child)!” |
| 26 | HEARTHRUG | Gather hoodlum accepts rule for where to let sleeping dogs lie
HEAR (=gather, understand) + [R (=rule) in THUG (=hoodlum)]; the hearthrug is, quite literally, where sleeping dogs lie |
| 27 | LEARN | Find out Rector Slope’s around
R (=rector) in LEAN (=slope, tilt) |
| 28 | RED ARMY | Soldiers back around Germany? That’s amazing!
[D (=Germany, in VR) in REAR (=back)] + MY! (=that’s amazing!, as an exclamation) |
| 29 | SPONDEE | Long, long ship deserted on river
S<hi>P (“deserted” means no letters left on board!) + ON + DEE (=river, in UK); in scansion, a spondee is a foot of two long syllables, hence “long, long” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | HORACE | Possible Rumpole’s vehicle will turn up in garden
RAC (CAR=vehicle; “will turn up” indicates reversal) in HOE (=garden, as verb); Horace Rumpole is the barrister in John Mortimer’s TV series Rumpole of the Bailey |
| 02 | NECTARINE | Explorer gutted with ancient stewed fruit
*(E<xplore>R + ANCIENT); “gutted” means middle letters dropped from anagram, indicated by “stewed” |
| 03 | OLDEN | Ancient yellow head mislaid
<g>OLDEN (=yellow); “head mislaid” means that first letter is dropped |
| 04 | TASMAN SEA | A lot of water a must as man’s eating sandwiches
Hidden (“sandwiches”) in “musT AS MAN’S EAting” |
| 05 | WHEEL | I’m enjoying this left turn
WHEE (=I’m enjoying this) + L (=left); here, to wheel is to turn, revolve |
| 06 | SAFEGUARD | Carefully protect Peter mixing a drug
SAFE (=peter, strongbox) + *(A DRUG); “mixing” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | ICIER | Here in 21, I’m thinking, is much colder
ICI (=here in France, i.e. entry at 21) + ER (=I’m thinking, i.e. sign of hesitation) |
| 08 | GADGET | Starts to go around Debenhams to buy a handy tool
G<o> A<round> D<ebenhams> (“starts to” means first letters only) + GET (=to buy) |
| 14 | EGGBEATER | Chopper for one British consumer
E.G. (=for one, say) + GB (=British) + EATER (=consumer) |
| 16 | OUTWEIGHS | Exchanging parts when announcing exits is more important
WAYS OUT (=exits); homophone (“announcing”) of “out ways (=exchanging parts, i.e. swapping round the two words) |
| 17 | LEAST SAID | Directions that help with plate that is repaired very quickly, some say
L (=plate, i.e. for learner driver) + EAST (=direction) + S (=direction, i.e. South) + AID (=help); the reference is to the expression “least said, soonest mended” |
| 20 | MOTHER | Insect queen
MOTH (=insect) + ER (=queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina); the definition refers to e.g. a queen bee, as mother of all bees in the hive, making the clue something of an & lit. |
| 21 | FRANCE | Tours location of smell left by German artist
FRA<gra>NCE (=smell); “left by German (=G) + RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician)” means letters GRA are dropped; Tours is a city in western France |
| 23 | HEARD | Sensed one hiding among cattle
A (=one) in HERD (=cattle) |
| 24 | DIRTY | Corrupt police officer oddly ratty
DI (=police office, i.e. Detective Inspector) + R<a>T<t>Y (“oddly” means odd letters only) |
| 25 | WILCO | Agreement to fulfil orders with the Italian firm
W (=with) + IL (=the Italian, i.e. an Italian word for the) + CO (=firm, i.e. company); used originally in telecommunications, “wilco” is an abbreviated form of “I will comply” |
Defeated by two interlinked solutions – LEAST SAID and SPONDEE. The first was perfectly fairly clued and a nice definition but just wouldn’t come. Although I recognise the definition of the latter and recognise the word, I couldn’t have come up with it from my own lexicon. I spotted some of the theme – thanks RR for typing out the verse so I can see how much more I might have added. Apart from the references in the SIEGFRIED clue, the them didn’t interfere with the solve which is always nice.
Ticks along the way for WASHING, CHAIN MAIL, TASMAN SEA, OUTWEIGHS and MOTHER which I think is possibly &littish. Although not the hardest to spot, GORSE really tickled me.
Thanks Alchemi and RR.
similar experience to RatkojaRiku.. waded in happily enough but slowed.. I spotted the theme once the Siegfried line was exposed but definitely wasnt aware of the whole song! I probably have heard of SPONDEE but needed prompting … some parsing difficulty so grateful for 21dn which I got from where Tours is!
thanks Alchemi n RatkojaRiku
undrell @2: I got 21d from the reference in ICIER. I’m sure someone will pop up soon who actually got it from the wordplay!
We found this quite an easy puzzle, too. And once we’d unscrambled the anagram for SIEGFRIED the theme became fairly obvious, although we had to google for the words of the song (which also include 21).
14dn elicited a groan, possibly because we’d encountered a similar clue not long ago. A nice clue, though, equating the British and US slang terms for a helicopter.
We were a bit puzzled by 20dn, too. We didn’t see the parsing of MOTH + ER so that it seemed to be somewhere between a straight and a cryptic definition – Chambers has ‘a sexually functional female social insect’ as one definition for ‘queen’.
A satisfying solve. Thanks Alchemi and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks to Alchemi and RatkojaRiku. Loved the theme. Thanks also to allan_c @4: I spent a minute or two on culinary nonsense thinking “but surely you chop solids and beat liquid egg?”, never having come across eggbeater as a helicopter. The things you learn….that, and that there’s no e in smokeable!
I didn’t know of a Rutherford beyond Margaret but managed to get the answer anyway and I thought the Spoonerism was fairly dire!
Good fun elsewhere and I really liked HANGOUT, HEARTHRUG & EGGBEATER.
Thanks to Alchemi for the puzzle and to RR for the review and today’s lesson about Rutherford, whom I shall doubtless have forgotten by the time I next need him………
Enjoyed this – I liked the Spoonerism, and MOTHER worked for me . Favourite was HEARTHRUG although I now do the crossword early every morning whilst our puppy sleeps on me but I couldn’t fit in “struggling-solvers-leg” as the answer
Agree with Jayjay @5 on the Smokable front!
Thanks Alchemi and RR.
Wouldhave preferred ‘artist, German’ to ‘German artist’ in 21D but that’s probably just me.
A quickish enjoyable solve – if not fully parsed.
Thanks to S&B
I confidently wrote in SEASIDE for 1 ac, thinking, as I did that Chinese wasn’t a very appropriate anagram indicator for *disease, until TASMAN SEA put me right. I liked SPONDEE, and got both FRANCE and WASHING from 10ac.
Thanks all. I thought MOTHER was an &lit, but I could be wrong. I also admit to thinking “dammit” when I solved the other EGGBEATER clue to which allan_c refers.
Petert @9 I was another ‘seaside’r !
Petert @9: given the recent shenanigans on the G pages and GD, Chinese would have been an extremely high risk anagram indicator! As it is, the surface is potentially contentious, echoing the phrasing for Covid employed by the previous occupant of the White House. I happily confess to be less sensitive to these things than I should be but recent experience shows clues can be read in ways other than intended by the setter.
Thanks to Alchemi and RatkojaRiku. We enjoyed the theme. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the whole song, so at first I thought the theme was confined to 10ac and the linked clues. It was only on googling the lyric that we realised that other relevant words were in the grid too.
Like you, RR, we started fast, but finished slowly, with MOTHER, HEARTHRUG and OUTWEIGHS taking a long time to fall.
Sorry for the pedantry but, I think that, in 21dn, it is the second “RA” that is removed from FRAGRANCE, and not the first as the blog indicates. I think this deals with the point raised by reddevil @8.
PostMark @12
I was entirely aware of the Orange Thing’s phraseology, and would probably have clued it differently if I hadn’t been because I wouldn’t have found it funny.
Gave up trying to parse LEAST SAID because I never thought of L for plate. Could directions be EASTS rather than EAST plus S?
Left with MOTHER at the end which I put in with a shrug. But now I see that it has an &lit quality. Really enjoyed the rest. At first I thought there might be an additional Rumpole theme with 1D and HEARTHRUG. Favorite clue was SPONDEE which made me laugh.
@DavidO and reddevil: I had meant to block out GRA, rather than RAG, at 21, of course; this typo is now corrected, and the solution has been added to the preamble as a word appearing in the lyrics of the song.
Thanks to setter and solvers alike for confirming my parsing of 20.