Always good to meet Bluth for a bit of crossword fun.
There are some great surfaces here: 5a (I can just picture the stern-faced committee saying “non”), 9a (with its apparently topical misdirection), 4d (a good word for anagrams, but this is the best one I’ve seen for it), 17d (let’s just not start that discussion), 22d (ditto). A few less-common words, but all clearly clued.
Bluth often gives us some sort of theme or nina, but I can’t see one here. I’m sure someone will point it out soon enough if there’s something I’ve missed. Thanks Bluth as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DEAD BEAT |
All in, cold buffet (4,4)
|
| DEAD (cold) + BEAT (as a verb = buffet = hit).
All in = dead beat = exhausted. |
||
| 5 | FRESCO |
French cultural organisation withdraw Monet’s one artwork (6)
|
A wall painting on freshly-applied plaster. |
||
| 9 | BOOZE-UPS |
Olympian takes a little paracetamol after surprise parties (5-3)
|
| ZEUS (Olympian = one of the gods on Mount Olympus, not one of the athletes currently busy in Tokyo), containing (taking) a little (first letter) of P[aracetamol], all after BOO (a shout intended to cause surprise). | ||
| 10 | SVELTE |
Restyle Elvis occasionally, coming back lithe … (6)
|
| Alternate letters (occasionally) from [r]E[s]T[y]L[e] E[l]V[i]S, reversed (coming back).
Svelte = lithe = slim and graceful. |
||
| 12 | INCIDENTAL MUSIC |
… and slim in cute pants, in charge for film soundtrack, maybe (10,5)
|
| Anagram (pants = terrible) of AND SLIM IN CUTE, then IC (abbreviation for “in charge”). | ||
| 13 | SHRIMPS |
Weaklings save seconds – swapping cold for hot (7)
|
| S[c]RIMP (make economies to save money) + S (seconds), swapping the C (cold) for H (hot). | ||
| 14 | PARA |
Average American soldier (4)
|
| PAR (average, as in golf scores) + A (abbreviation for American).
Short for paratrooper = soldier who uses a parachute. |
||
| 18 | UNIX |
Universal veto for operating system (4)
|
| U (universal) + NIX (veto = a decision to disallow something).
Computer operating system. |
||
| 19 | DIORAMA |
Display some ingredients of garibaldi – or a macaroon (7)
|
| Hidden answer (some ingredients of . . .) in [garibal]DI OR A MA[caroon].
Three-dimensional model of a scene = display. |
||
| 23 | PEREGRINE FALCON |
Evita’s touring cast feel caring, delivering flyer (9,6)
|
| PERON (Evita = nickname for Eva Peron, former First Lady of Argentina), around (touring) an anagram (cast = thrown) of FEEL CARING. | ||
| 24 | ESTEEM |
Judge in drug haze reportedly (6)
|
| E (slang for the drug MDMA = ecstasy) + homophone (reportedly) of STEAM (haze).
Judge (as a verb) = esteem = consider the value of. |
||
| 25 | ABATTOIR |
A battalion rebel over scene of bloodshed (8)
|
| A + BAT (abbreviation for battalion), then RIOT (as a verb = rebel) reversed (over). | ||
| 26 | ACCOST |
Confront accountant about expenditure (6)
|
| CA (abbreviation for Chartered Accountant) reversed (about), then COST (expenditure). | ||
| 27 | REVEILLE |
Well I never! Disheartened after wife leaves, returning to cause some kind of alarm (8)
|
| [w]ELL I [n]EVER, with the W (wife) leaving, then the N (the middle letter = heart) removed, then all reversed (returning).
Reveille = the military bugle call used as an early-morning wake-up signal (some kind of alarm). |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DUBBIN |
Replacin’ the soundtrack for Grease (6)
|
| DUBBIN[g] (replacing a film soundtrack, especially to use different voices and/or languages), with the final G dropped as in replacin’.
Dubbin = a greasy substance used to soften and waterproof leather. |
||
| 2 | AVOUCH |
Guarantee cry of pain after case of Viagra’s used up (6)
|
| OUCH (a cry of pain), after the outer letters (case) of V[iagr]A reversed (used up = upwards in a down clue). | ||
| 3 | BREADTHS |
Spreads content leaving bloggers’ cycling thread on board (8)
|
| B[logger]S, with the middle letters (content) leaving, then THREAD (with the first two letters “cycling” round to the back to give READTH) inserted (on board).
Spread = breadth = width or extent. |
||
| 4 | APPENDICITIS |
Doctor depicts pain involving bit of intestine with this complaint (12)
|
| Anagram (doctor, as a verb = alter) of DEPICTS PAIN + first letter (a bit) of I[ntestine].
Extended definition, where the whole surface has something to contribute to the answer: complaint = illness. |
||
| 6 | REVAMP |
Vicar meets a politician and pimp (6)
|
| REV (short for Reverend = title for a vicar) meeting A MP (member of parliament = politician).
Pimp = revamp = make modifications to improve. |
||
| 7 | SALESMAN |
French race track’s finale elevated by South African representative, perhaps (8)
|
| LE MANS (French race track), with the last letter moved towards the front (elevated = upwards in a down clue), after SA (South African).
Representative = person representing a company = “sales rep”. |
||
| 8 | OVERCOAT |
Hide under excessive clothing (8)
|
| COAT (hide = skin), after (under, in a down clue) OVER (excessive, as in overestimate). Strictly I think an animal’s coat is the hair, and its hide is the skin under the hair, but the two words can both be used more generally to mean “outer layer”. | ||
| 11 | GAS-PERMEABLE |
Cigarette butt from corpse keeps me over a barrel, identifying a variety of contacts (3-9)
|
| GASPER (old slang for a cigarette) + last letter (butt = end) of [corps]E, containing (. . . keeps) ME + A BL (bl = abbreviation for barrel, as a unit of measurement). “Over” in a down clue means that ME comes before A BL (reading downwards).
Contacts = short for contact lenses, of which gas-permeable lenses are a specific type. |
||
| 15 | SUBPOENA |
Write about love – a newspaper man’s first – expressed in legal document (8)
|
| PEN (as a verb = write), around O (zero = love in tennis scoring), then A, with SUB (sub-editor = newspaper man) first.
A legal document forcing someone to provide evidence to a court. |
||
| 16 | DIURETIC |
Quote bareheaded, ancient, Celtic priest, looking towards the stars – it’ll get you going (8)
|
| CITE (quote), then [d]RUID (ancient Celtic priest) with the first letter removed (bareheaded), all reversed (looking towards the stars = going upwards, in a down clue).
Something to make you go (slang for urinate). |
||
| 17 | EMBATTLE |
Call one out following poor BAME representation – prepare defence (8)
|
| T[i]TLE (as a verb = call = name), with I (one in Roman numerals) taken out, after an anagram (poor . . . representation) of BAME.
To prepare a military position, building, town etc for defence against an impending attack. |
||
| 20 | EGRESS |
Earl and headless monster going out (6)
|
| E (abbreviation for Earl), then [o]GRESS (monster) with the first letter removed (headless). | ||
| 21 | SCROLL |
Tolkien’s goblins recalled essence of yellow parchment, say (6)
|
| ORCS (nasty creatures in Tolken’s books, similar to goblins) reversed (recalled), then the middle letters (essence) of [ye]LL[ow]. | ||
| 22 | UNTRUE |
Desperate U-turn over Europe, ultimately deceptive (6)
|
| Anagram (desperate) of U-TURN, before (over, in a down clue) the last letter (ultimately) of [europ]E. |
More fun from Bluth – my particular favourites were 1d and 11a
Thanks to him and Quirister
Enjoyable fare from Bluth, as usual. Couldn’t see 7d until I cheated with a word fit. Drat! Could only think of Silesian, which didn’t make any sense. Also needed a cheat on 11d, which I had not heard of before.
5a reminded me of when, back in my youth, I was a member of the Fresco-Le-Raye fan club. Wonder if anybody else read that cartoon strip.
Isnt French FR in this case?
Bluth is always welcome
I did like DUBBIN which takes me back.
Thanks all,
copmus @3: yes, you’re correct about 5a, thanks. I’ve fixed the blog.
Two coincidences for me in this one: there’s some nice webcam footage from a family of 23s in Ely Cathedral; also an overlap with today’s FT (though a totally different clue).
Quite hard and after a struggle with plenty of others, with only 11d left, I bunged in GAS-PERMEABLE in desperation, never having heard of this as term to describe ‘a variety of contacts’
and not even thinking of contact lenses.
Favourites for today were the wordplay for the APPENDICITIS anagram and the sports related (in wordplay anyway) BOOZE-UPS and SALESMAN.
Thanks to Bluth and Quirister
Loved Gas-PERMEABLE when the penny dropped. DUBBIN was a guess, but everything else crystal clear without being obvious. Many delights. Just what the doctor ordered! Thanks, Bluth, and Quirister for the blog.
I found this trickier than previous Bluth crosswords – but great fun as usual. Favourites 9a, 1d and especially 16d – loved the bareheaded, ancient, Celtic priest all being just one part of the charade. My only quibble is music should never be incidental. Thanks to Bluth and Quirister
Just the right level of difficulty for me, with several clues causing a smile when the parsing became clear. APPENDICITIS had a superb clue. Thanks also to Bluth for making the clues slightly easier for the pair of 7-letter lights with only 3 crossers apiece.
I can’t see a nina, unless it’s the letters in columns 2 and 14 forming an anagram of Electronic ions…. or Electric onions? No, probably not.
Slow to turgid start, then sudden acceleration down R side to return to standstill at 1dn,1ac, 3dn n 9ac which was first to fall… I just knew it was a god not an athlete, but so many to choose from! .. fave was SVELTE… a word I’ve never been able to aspire to, and understandably underused.. so overjoyed to see it leap out of the clue.. similar to REVEILLE.. has to be said some really brilliant words in this puzzle!! Needed 11dn explaining..
Thanks Bluth n Quirister
Thanks Quirister for a couple of much needed explanations (9a&11d)
Don’t usually do the Indy but enjoyed this one very much & had a completed grid except for the first word of 11d. Think I’ll light a gasper as a consolation.
Thanks to Bluth.
I found this on the hard side for Bluth and had to resort to a lot of reveals towards the end, but plenty to enjoy as usual. Having seen the parsing of 27A, which I hadn’t quite got I’m impressed by the clue.
REVEILLE and FRESCO were both great. I too found this on the hard side but it was all fairly clued.
Quite a few I couldn’t get today. I thought of GAS PERMEABLE but didn’t have the confidence to enter it as I couldn’t work out what the definition was.
Thanks for the blog, Quirister.
And thanks all for the kind words.
I only drop into the Indie for Bluth and he never disappoints. This was tough by Bluth standards but the surfaces are top notch. There were several clues here where I pieced the solution together from the word play and only after a few minutes of head scratching did the definition arrive in the grey. GAS PERMEABLE in particular took me ages despite the fact I’ve worn the buggers. A gem of a puzzle – thanks to Bluth and Quirister