A fun challenge from Crosophile this morning.
There are a few questionable definitions (noted below), and one rather obscure word in the wordplay for 1a, but otherwise this all seemed reasonably sraightforward. Good surfaces too – particularly the disrupted mating season in 11a, the outdoor performance in 5d, and the Midsomer non-murder in 19d.
It wasn’t until I was part-way through writing the blog that I detected a theme. There are references to all of the Sherlock Holmes novels and story collections: The SIGN of the Four, The CASEBOOK of Sherlock Holmes, A STUDY in Scarlet, The RETURN of Sherlock Holmes, His LAST Bow, The ADVENTURES of Sherlock Holmes, The MEMOIRS of Sherlock Holmes, The VALLEY of Fear, and The HOUND of the Baskervilles. (There may be other thematic entries, but this isn’t my specialist subject.) Thanks Crosophile for the challenge.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THICKSET |
Stocky rednecks entertained by festival (8)
|
| HICKS (rednecks = US derogatory term for rural working-class people) contained in (entertained by) TET (the Vietnamese New Year festival – no, I hadn’t heard of it either). | ||
| 6 | RECUR |
Note 27’s come round again (5)
|
| RE (as in do-re-mi = note in the musical sol-fa scale) + CUR (27a HOUND = dog). | ||
| 10 | IDLES |
Does no work – did less after blowing cover (5)
|
| [d]ID LES[s] with the outer letters (cover) blown away. | ||
| 11 | UNNATURAL |
Unfortunately annual rut is affected (9)
|
| Anagram (unfortunately) of ANNUAL RUT. | ||
| 12 | NEWSBOY |
He might deliver latest in the Dow Jones branch office in the City (7)
|
| Last letters (latest) in [th]E [do]W [jone]S, then BO (abbreviation for branch office, according to the dictionaries), all in NY (New York = city).
Newsboy = someone who delivers newspapers, traditionally a young boy. |
||
| 13 | ACRYLIC |
A medium seeing adventurous girl almost restraining sob (7)
|
| ALIC[e] (adventurous girl, as in the book whose full title is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), without the last letter (almost), containing (restraining) CRY (sob).
Acrylic paint = an artistic painting medium. |
||
| 14 | PATHOGENIC |
Concerned with virus? A way to turn back NICE elaborated (10)
|
| PATH (a way), then GO (try, as in “have a go”) reversed (back), then an anagram (elaborated) of NICE.
Pathogenic = concerned with organisms that produce disease, for example viruses. For the surface, NICE is the rather loose acronym for the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which (among other things) regulates the use of new treatments for diseases. |
||
| 16 | LAST |
Final thing to make shoe (4)
|
| Double definition: the second is a foot-shaped form on which shoes are put together. | ||
| 18 | RAMP |
Resistance/current gradient? (4)
|
| R (scientific symbol for electrical resistance) + AMP (short for ampere = measuring unit for electrical current, though the word by itself doesn’t really mean “current”). | ||
| 20 | ADVENTURES |
Time before Xmas that’s sure to broadcast exciting stories (10)
|
| ADVENT (the period leading up to Christmas) + anagram (broadcast = scatter) of SURE. | ||
| 23 | SIMIANS |
Primates etc intend to reflect when caught in moral lapses (7)
|
| AIM (intend), reversed (to reflect), caught in SINS (moral lapses).
Simians = classification of animals including monkeys and humans, which is part of the larger order known as primates. As far as I can see, the “etc” is just wrong: simians etc are primates, but primates are a lot more than just simians, and “primates etc” suggests we need an even larger category when in fact the answer is a smaller one. |
||
| 24 | SPARSER |
Relatively rare argon put in high pressures certainly having leaked (7)
|
| Anagram (high = intoxicated) of PRES[sure]S without (having leaked) SURE (certainly), with AR (Ar = chemical symbol for argon) put in. | ||
| 26 | TRILLIONS |
Pipe charged particles in huge numbers (9)
|
| TRILL (pipe = to make a high-pitched musical sound) + IONS (charged particles).
Trillion = a specific huge number, or “trillions” used colloquially just to mean “a lot”. |
||
| 27 | HOUND |
Part of pack to turn alternately into hearts and diamonds (5)
|
| Alternate letters of [t]O [t]U[r]N, inserted into H + D (hearts and diamonds in card-playing notation).
A dog, specifically part of a pack of hounds = hunting dogs. |
||
| 28 | CUSHY |
Copper’s timid and not dangerous (5)
|
| CU (Cu = chemical symbol for copper, from Latin cuprum) + SHY (timid).
Cushy, as in “a cushy job” = easy, without much effort or risk. |
||
| 29 | EMISSARY |
Spy master is years in disguise (8)
|
| Anagram (in disguise) of M (master) + IS YEARS.
Emissary = ambassador or diplomat; they’re sometimes accused of spying, especially when countries get annoyed with each other, but “spy” seems a loose definition. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HALFWIT |
An idiot cycling with Alf (7)
|
| WITH ALF, “cycling” = letters moving round in a loop so that WIT is at the end. | ||
| 3 | CASEBOOK |
Records collection chef keeps while first in England and Belgium (8)
|
| AS (while) + first letters of E[ngland] and B[elgium], all kept in COOK (chef). | ||
| 4 | STUDY |
Boss with yen for learning (5)
|
| STUD (boss = raised feature on a surface) + Y (currency symbol for Japanese yen). | ||
| 5 | TENTATIVE |
Experimental musical mounted under marquee for example (9)
|
| EVITA (a musical about the life of Eva Peron), reversed (mounted = upwards in a down clue), after (under, in a down clue) TENT (marquee for example). | ||
| 6 | RETURN |
True when at sea with navy a volley possibly needed (6)
|
| Anagram (at sea) of TRUE, then RN (Royal Navy).
Return, in tennis = hitting the ball back to the opponent. The opponent may then respond with a volley = playing the ball before it hits the ground. |
||
| 7 | COROLLA |
Wheel around in short coat in a circle of flowers (7)
|
| ROLL (wheel around) in COA[t] (short = last letter dropped).
Corolla = the petals of a flower, arranged in a circular shape. |
||
| 8 | RELOCATES |
Moves queen up – vulnerable castle takes nothing (9)
|
| ER (Elizabeth Regina = the Queen), reversed (up, in a down clue), then an anagram (vulnerable?) of CASTLE containing O (zero – nothing). | ||
| 9 | SIGN |
Special gin in cocktail? This might be a plus (4)
|
| S (abbreviation for special) + anagram (in cocktail = mixed up) of GIN.
Sign = plus or minus applied to a number. |
||
| 14 | PARASITIC |
Hammer raised while I finish off bloodsucker like a vampire (9)
|
| RAP (as a verb = hammer = beat), reversed (raised = upwards in a down clue), then AS I (while I), then TIC[k] (a bloodsucking insect) with its last letter (finish) dropped off. | ||
| 15 | ENDOSCOPE |
Terminus very large to manage – this allows an internal review (9)
|
| END (terminus = final stop) + OS (short for outsize = very large) + COPE (to manage, in the sense of “be able to continue”).
Device used for internal examinations of the human body. |
||
| 17 | ATTACHES |
For couples a tango’s a pain in Torremolinos on vacation (8)
|
| A + T[orremolino]S (on vacation = after emptying), containing T (Tango in the radio alphabet) + ACHE (a pain).
Couple, as a verb = attach; originally applied to train carriages, but now sometimes to people (as in “conscious uncoupling” and similar 21st-century expressions). |
||
| 19 | MEMOIRS |
Chronicles of Midsomer unusual with no dead (7)
|
| Anagram (unusual) of MI[d]SOMER without the D (abbreviation for dead). | ||
| 21 | RESCUER |
One delivering frightful curse runs after earl (7)
|
| Anagram (frightful) of CURSE, then R (runs, in cricket scoring) after E (abbreviation for earl). | ||
| 22 | VALLEY |
Dale and Virginia shout up (6)
|
| VA (abbreviation for the US state of Virginia), then YELL (shout) reversed (up = upwards in a down clue).
Dale = a broad valley. |
||
| 24 | SUSHI |
South American greeting snack food (5)
|
| S (south) + US (American) + HI (an informal greeting).
Japanese rice-based food in bite-size pieces. |
||
| 25 | RIDE |
Free European travel (4)
|
| RID (free, as in to free someone from their worries) + E (European). |
Thanks Crosophile and Quirister
I thought it was a neat touch to clue TET as ‘festival’ rather than the more usual ‘offensive’ that coincided with it.
The theme went straight past me so well done for picking it up.
I just bunged in THICKSET from the def and didn’t return to parse it. As Simon S @1 says, good to see TET not being clued by “offensive” as it usually is. I liked the reminder of Peter Cushing (who also played Holmes in a 1960’s TV series) and Christopher Lee at 14d. I presume CUSHY at 28a is coincidental. The ‘Midsomer unusual with no dead’ wordplay for MEMOIRS also raised a smile.
Thanks to Crosophile and Quirister
Ditto on TET, I think we had the offensive a few days ago from Hoskins.
Nicely clued, simian didn’t bother me (through ignorance rather than lack of pedantry).
Even though I’ve read all the Sherlock Holmes stories I completely missed the theme. I must start to look out for them.
Thanks Crosophile and Quirister.
A double attempt to avoid the offensive, with Tet and then BO, both new to me, though it’s obvious in retrospect that Tet had to be a time of year. Thanks, both.
Thanks very much, Quinster and for the other comments too. 🙂
Thanks Crosophile for the relief after my slog through the FT today. I’m afraid I missed the theme but there was a lot to like with clues like ACRYLIC, SIMIANS, and PARASITIC. Tet is a staple in American crosswords and no American who remembers Vietnam can forget it. Thanks Quirister for parsing.
Thanks to both – thoroughly enjoyable.
I do agree with the comments about the looseness of some clues and, like others, appreciated TET used in its original meaning. But it was all eminently doable and that is important.