A super puzzle that I really enjoyed. Not easy, this took me longer than usual. Thank you Gozo.
The theme for this puzzle is trains.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BERTHS |
New arrivals, we hear, are found in 10 (6)
|
| sounds like (we hear) “births” (new arrivals) | ||
| 4 | TRACK BED |
Sleepers lie here (5,3)
|
| sleepers are wooden supports for the rails | ||
| 9 | GRICER |
Train-spotter making an expression of anger about winter weather (6)
|
| GRR (an expression of anger) containing (about) ICE (winter weather) | ||
| 10 | WAGON LIT |
Long wait, sadly, overnight! (5,3)
|
| anagram (sadly) of LONG WAIT – a sleeper train, or as my young girls used to call it the “sleepy train” | ||
| 11 | EUSTON |
Girl returns to the north – from here? (6)
|
| SUE (a girl) then TO N (the north) reversed (returns) – railway terminus in London servicing lines to the north of the UK | ||
| 12 | CORRIDOR |
Powerful passage? (8)
|
| cryptic definition – alluding to the “corridors of power”, where the real government business is conducted | ||
| 13 | VAN |
For the guard at the rear, yet at the front (3)
|
| the guard’s van on a train was at the rear | ||
| 14 | DIESEL |
Lorry driver, one in Leeds, broken down (6)
|
| I (one) inside anagram (broken down) of LEEDS – an engine that drives (propels) a lorry | ||
| 17 | RAILCAR |
Train pass daughter’s lost (7)
|
| RAILCARd ( a pass allowing cheaper rail travel) missing (lost) D (daughter) | ||
| 21 | BOILER |
Old bird in hot water (6)
|
| either cryptic definition or a double definition, I’m not sure which | ||
| 25 |
See 15
|
|
| 26 | LOOP LINE |
Back game policy on the branch track (4,4)
|
| POOL (a game) reversed (back) then LINE (policy) | ||
| 27 | PISTON |
No tips about engine component (6)
|
| anagram (about, all over the place) | ||
| 28 | MOTORAIL |
Doctor has to scoff at train service? (8)
|
| MO (medical officer, doctor) with TO and RAIL (scoff at) | ||
| 29 | FLANGE |
It gives the rail that extra edge (6)
|
| cryptic definition | ||
| 30 | DOWNLINE |
Long-winded DG leaves, wandering on the track from 11 (8)
|
| anagram (wandering) of LONg WINDEd missing (…leaves) DG | ||
| 31 | TENDER |
Kind offer for coal (6)
|
| triple definition – the small wagon behind a steam engine for storing coal | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BIGHEADS |
Great chiefs who think a lot of themselves (8)
|
| BIG (great) HEADS (chiefs) | ||
| 2 | REISSUES |
New editions about topics for discussion (8)
|
| RE (about, regarding) then ISSUES (topics for discussion) | ||
| 3 | HEEL OVER |
Cheese regularly on aficionado’s list (4,4)
|
| every other letter (regularly) of cHeEsE on LOVER (aficionado) | ||
| 5 | REASON |
Sanity affected senora (6)
|
| anagram (affected) of SENORA | ||
| 6 | CHOIRS |
Lots of servicemen and women? (6)
|
| cryptic definition – people singing in a church service, and the area (lot) of the church where they sit | ||
| 7 | BOLIDE |
Great ball of fire as oil bed exploded (6)
|
| anagram (exploded) of OIL BED | ||
| 8 | DOTARD |
Old fellow at party with Jack Dee (6)
|
| DO (party) TAR (Jack, a sailor) and D (dee, name of letter) | ||
| 12 | CARLYLE |
Historian Catholic really upset (7)
|
| C (catholic) then anagram (upset) of REALLY – Thomas Carlyle | ||
| 15, 25 across | LATELY |
Isolated pillar at Fen Line station in recent times (6)
|
| LAT (an isolated pillar, esp. in India) and ELY (a railway station in The Fens) | ||
| 16 | CAB |
Some bric-a-brac for driver’s compartment (3)
|
| found inside (some of) briC-A-Brac | ||
| 18 | ROSIE LEE |
Charlady? (5,3)
|
| ROSIE LEE is rhyming slang for tea (char) so she is a charlady | ||
| 19 | ILL-TUNED |
Unmusical lines in duet rearranged (3- 5)
|
| anagram (rearranged) of L L (line, twice) IN DUET | ||
| 20 | GRANDEUR |
Fashion undergrad ultimately lacking impressiveness (8)
|
| anagram (fashion, to make) of UNDERGRAd missing (lacking) last letter (ultimately) | ||
| 22 | BLAMED |
Ascribed fault to the first two of each of the blonde amusing editors (6)
|
| the first two letters of BLonde AMusing EDitors | ||
| 23 | KOWTOW |
Fawn and bovine, spoken of – could be two (6)
|
| KOW sounds like (spoken of) “cow” (a bovine) then anagram (could be) of TWO | ||
| 24 | PLURAL |
More than one place on the river (6)
|
| PL (place) then URAL (a river in Russia) | ||
| 25 | ENSIGN |
The standard of children’s ignorance (6)
|
| found inside childrEN’S IGNorance – a standard is a flag |
A great puzzle with a fun theme. MOTORAIL was my LOI and a lovely clue. Two new words : GRICER and BOLIDE increased my GK. Thanks to Gozo for the puzzle and PeeDee for an exemplary blog. Three FT puzzles this week all completed. I am not complaining
Agree with SM on this week’s puzzles so far.
Today’s unheralded theme became plain after the first few definitions and was a lot of fun.
Having an engineer for a father helped with things like PISTON and FLANGE. GRICER, however, was new to me also; my first thought was ANORAK but the wordplay left no doubt.
WAGON LIT and ROSIE LEE were favourites.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
Thanks for the blog , nice theme and neat , concise clues.
ILL-TUNED I had a total anagram of LL IN DUET.
DIESEL I thought of the lorry fuel but the engine is probably better for the driver.
LATELY would have been tough without the letters.
Excellent, challenging puzzle. Took me ages to finally get this out, not helped by having a mental blank for 1a and spending a long time trying to make an anagram out of ‘editions’ at 2d. I didn’t find the FLANGE and CHOIRS cryptic defs exactly obvious either. GRICER and BOLIDE were new to me too as was the CRS ROSIE LEE. The theme wasn’t a million miles away from another elsewhere today.
For me, the best and hardest of the day.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
Thanks for spotting that Roz. The blog is fixed now.
I see that Gozo has an interest in public transport and is the author of a guide to the buses of Malta. A rail themed puzzle was right up his street.
SM – I once arranged a family holiday to Gozo (the island) so we could travel on some of those wonderful old busses that Gozo (the person) wrote about. When we got there we found out that the entire fleet had been replaced en-masse the year before by Arriva, who run brand new and utterly unremarkable vehicles.
PeeDee.
Grr can be the only response to that. But I expect Gozo the island had many other attractions.
I was quite glad your excellent blog was late because I had given up with four clues left. When I saw there was no blog I returned to the puzzle and the answers swiftly fell into place.
I for one found this one very difficult even with the help of a word finder. Too much British slang (much of it related to railroads) that I didn’t know: GRICER, LOOP LINE, MOTORAIL (called AUTO TRAIN in the US) plus ROSIE LEE (which I nonetheless did manage to guess). I also managed to guess EUSTON from time spent in London and WAGON LIT from studying French. BOLIDE was a new word to me, although not British slang. I agree with Roz@3 about LATELY.
3d was my FOI and my favo(u)rite. Thanks to Gozo (the person) for the challenge and PeeDee for the explanations.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Genuine question: does the flange give the extra edge to the rail or the wheel?
(These days sleepers tend to be concrete rather than timber.)
One of us having spent many years in the rail industry most of the acrosses went in fairly easily. We did wonder if TRACK BED was a bit too specialised a technical term for most solvers, and we did have one or two quibbles – FLANGE, for instance, since it’s the wheels which have flanges, not the rails, and we would consider DOWN LINE as two words.
But an enjoyable solve. Thanks, Gozo and PeeDee.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Simon S@10 and allan_c@11: I w6ndered about that, but Chambers 2014 gives flange n a projecting or raised edge or flank, such as of a wheel or rail, used to give strength or to make a connection or attachment secure.
While I am in, there is a minor typo in the blog at 20dn. It should of course say anagram of UNDERGRAd. I think PeeDee jumped from the first R to the second.
Hi Simon I wondered that. Train wheels obviously have flanges, but it I also found that points and tight bends often have a second rail to trap the wheel, and metro systems often have a side rail to guide the train. These are also called flanges. I couldn’t decide what to write in the blog so I just kept quiet and hoped nobody would ask.
In comment 12, I should of course have put “wondered” not “w6ndered”. I do not know if it counts as a case of Muphry’s Law (sic) if the typo is in a different part of the comment from the bit pointing out someone else’s typo.
(Muphry’s Law is the Law that states that if you write in to point out a typo, you will make one yourself.)
Thanks Pelham, fixed now.
Busman’s holiday on the rails.
Superb puzzle Tom. Thought I’d never finish it but was enjoying each one I got so much I just kept going.
My thanks to our blogger too though I am pleased to say, for once, I had everything parsed correctly.
What EdK@USA said. No fun at all.
I thought FLANGE was a guitar effect
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Spilled over a couple of days here after getting to it after work yesterday. Many new words, including some of the train ones but eventually got them all in. Hadn’t heard of the Indian LAT – and had assumed that it was the LAT in ‘IsoLATed that formed the ‘pillar’ of that word.
Spent a lot of the later part of the solve in the NW corner before finishing with ROSIE LEE (eventually) and FLANGE (with just as much hope as confidence) as the last couple in.
Thanks, Gozo and especially PeeDee for the blog.
Coming back to cryptics more regularly after a while, with a late start on this. It was a bit of a shock – only got a little over half of this and then looked at the blog. Somewhat similar reactions to EdK and Tony, with unfamiliar UK and rail terms. But I’m NOT complaining – I just take it as more stuff learned. Good ones were HEEL OVER, BERTHS, VAN and CHOIRS.
I’m reading Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling, and realizing that a lot of what he says about UK/US differences I’ve learned from cryptics!
I gave up with four to go. Pity really, as I had finished every other FT this week. Got to this one at the weekend. Should’ve persevered. Southwest corner was my nemesis.
But a very good puzzle