Bluebird is filling the Wednesday slot this week, a compiler whose Indy work I have little experience of solving and blogging.
There was a lot to enjoy in this puzzle, as I peeled away the layers of subterfuge to reveal the answers. I suspect that I have arrived at an accurately filled grid, but Bluebird has had the last laugh on me, since I can parse neither 1A nor 1D. I look forward to being enlightened later today and will update the blog accordingly – many thanks, blog now updated. I took me a long time to parse the anagram clue at 25/09, but I think that I managed it in the end. Also on parsing, I would appreciate confirmation of my reading of the totally unexpected entry at 11.
My favourite clues today were 10 and 12, for smoothness of surface; 16, for making me laugh out loud when the penny dropped; and 3, for the sheer amount of material crammed into a relatively short clue.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | CHEAP | ‘Junky”: guy popping pills
E (=pills, i.e. ecstasy tablets) in CHAP (=guy); “junky” here means trashy, of poor quality |
| 04 | PEAR CIDER | Repriced a broken bottle in the booze aisle
*(REPRICED A); “broken” is anagram indicator |
| 10 | NAVVY | Worker is against wearing blue
V (=against, i.e. versus) in NAVY (=(shade of) blue) |
| 11 | OVER | ‘O, Romeo, perchance turmoil at last has been vanquished’
<l>OVER (=Romeo, perchance); “<turmoi>L at last (=last letter)” means letter “l” is dropped; “o” stands for “over(s)” on a cricket scorecard |
| 12 | CODSWALLOP | Special batter added to fish balls
COD (=fish) + S (=special) + WALLOP (=batter, hit) |
| 15 | SHEEPSKIN | Skip about in Polish coat
*(SKIP) in SHEEN (=polish, shine) |
| 17 | OBESE | Extract from probe’s eye-wateringly gross
Hidden (“extract from”) in “prOBE’S Eye-wateringly” |
| 18 | NASAL | A particular tone expressed by high-flying Americans beginning to lecture
NASA (=high-flying Americans, i.e. space travel) + L<ecture> (“beginning to” means first letter only) |
| 20 | MEAT PASTE | Me, by a table-top: ‘where the F is the spread?’
ME + A T<able> (“top” means first letter only) + PAST “E” (=where the F is, i.e. in the alphabet) |
| 22 | EXERCISING | Removing trousers the Queen is making use of
ER (=the Queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) in EXCISING (=removing, e.g. a tumour); “trousers” is used as a verb, meaning “pockets, appropriates” |
| 24 | BUMF | Bits of paper from behind the back of shelf
BUM (=behind, bottom) + <shel>F (“back of” means last letter only) |
| 26 | RULER | The sovereign King Charles’s head is cut off during cruel revolution
R (=king, i.e. rex) + *(<c>RUEL); “Charles’s head (=first letter) is cut off” means letter “c” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “revolution” |
| 27 | TOP BANANA | Beat outlaw with an awl-tip to show who’s boss
TOP (=beat, outperform) + BAN (=outlaw, prohibit) + AN + A<wl-> (“tip” means first letter only) |
| 28 | NECESSARY | Yes, cranes fly – it’s inevitable
*(YES CRANES); “fly” is anagram indicator |
| 29 | LIEGE | Lord of // a Belgian province
Double definition: a liege is a feudal lord AND Liège is a (city and) province of Belgium |
| Down | ||
| 01 | COMMON SENSE | Prudence, leading on without a vision?
COMM<a> (=, as featured in the clue; “without a” means letter “a” is dropped) + ON + SENSE (=vision, i.e. eyesight) |
| 02 | EXCRETE | Former prisoner leaves firm to make stools
EX- (=former) + <con>CRETE (=firm; “prisoner (=con) leaves” means letters “con” are dropped); “to make stools” is to defecate, hence “excrete” |
| 03 | PORT | Paddleboat’s left side or its terminus
P<addleboat> (“left side” means first letter only) OR <paddelboa>T (“its” terminus”) means last letter only; & lit., since port is the left side of a boat, and a port is a boat’s destination |
| 04 | PANTO | Krapp’s Last Tape’s opening in an old family theatre
<krap>P (“last” means last letter only) + {T<ape> (“opening” means first letter only) in [AN + O (=old)]} |
| 05 | ABYSSINIA | Black Hole in India associated with a historic place name
ABYSS (=black hole) + IN + I (=India, in radio telecommunications) + A |
| 06 | CANTALOUPE | Fruit delivered on horseback – it’s a gentle run round
Homophone (“delivered”) of “canter (=on horseback – it’s a gentle run) + loop (=round, coil)”; a cantaloupe is a small musk melon |
| 07 | DIVULGE | Glue parts damaged by idiot’s spill
DIV (=idiot, dummy) + *(GLUE); “damaged” is anagram indicator; to spill is to divulge, reveal |
| 08 | RAY | Sun god the origin of yellow beam
RA (=sun god, in Ancient Egypt) + Y<ellow> (“the origin of” means first letter only) |
| 13 | PIECE OF CAKE | Child’s play that’s presented at birthday party
Pieces of cake are presented to those attending a birthday party |
| 14 | APPLE-CARTS | Company car takes on vacation those that may be upset
APPLE (=(tech) company) + CAR + T<ake>S (“on vacation” means all middle letters are dropped); cf. to upset the apple-cart |
| 16 | KAMA SUTRA | IT manual?
Cryptic definition: the “IT” of the definition refers not to Information Technology, but to sex, as in to do it! |
| 19 | SHELLAC | Call back to support the woman that used to make gramophone records
SHE (=the woman) + LLAC (CALL; “back” indicates reversal) |
| 21 | SAUSAGE | Wise man with small gold crown making something for breakfast
[AU (=gold, i.e. chemical symbol) + S (=small, of sizes)] in SAGE (=wise man) |
| 23 | NAPPY | Penny gently fills, nay, saturates, this garment
[P (=penny, i.e. in money) + P (=gently, i.e. piano, in music)] in NAY |
| 25/09 | PAUL McCARTNEY | “Yesterday” he wrote, accurately, “with slip-up forgotten, Mum finally relaxed”
*(ACCURATELY + <slip-u>P + <forgotte>N + <mu>M); “finally” means last letters only are used in anagram, indicated by “relaxed”; Paul McCartney wrote the 1966 Beatles song Yesterday |
| 26 | RUN | Be on // ladder
Double definition: e.g. a machine is running if it is on AND a ladder is a run in a stocking |
1 across is CHAP around E for pills. 1 down is Comma + on + sense. I tried to make come on work but it didn’t.
I forgot to say COMMA without a for the first four letters of COMMON SENSE. I agree that this was a nice challenge.
Petert @1: to clarify, 1d is COMM[a] “without A” + on + sense.
RR: I agree with you on 11a. Lots of this was tricky, but fun; I particularly liked 12a (delightfully misleading surface) and 3d (very neat).
Bluebird seems to be a fairly new setter, but this puzzle makes me look forward to more.
My parsings match Petert’s. I thought this was a stonkingly good crossword with a nice mix of devious and humorous clues. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.
I think this might be about number three (maybe even number two) for Bluebird in the Indy. A splendid romp with some imaginative clueing with the comma trick being a great example. The &lit is glorious and the IT Manual was a lol. As Hovis say, lots of humour too – NAPPY, EXERCISING, EXCRETE, PEAR CIDER, CODSWALLOP. Generally, a really enjoyable canta from start to finish.
Thanks Bluebird and RR
Many thanks to Petert for explaining 1A and 1D: I clearly had been blinded by the “he” for guy and couldn’t see beyond that; what’s more, I did have “e=ecstasy” in mind, but I was expecting a plural, I suppose, for “pills”.
1D with its “comma” device completely outfoxed me, I’m afraid!
A good and devious crossword thank you to Bluebird and RR. I thought 11a was particularly clever
PORT: Tho’ an easy solve, a lovely clue.
MEAT PASTE and CANTALOUPE: Very interesting.
COMMON SENSE: Isn’t this a new device? Very clever.
Thanks, Bluebird and RR!
We can only find one previous blog of a Bluebird puzzle on fifteensquared, back in February when there was a theme for the Chinese new year. We found that a bit of a challenge and likewise with this one, but we got there in the end resorting only once to a wordfinder CODSWALLOP, and a facepalm moment when we saw it!). There were a few we couldn’t parse, notably 1dn where we failed to realise that the comma was part of the wordplay – normally, of course, one ignores punctuation in cryptic clues. Others that we guessed and were subsequently confirmed were 25/9 and 6.
Plenty to like, including NASAL, DIVULGE and SHELLAC – in fact it was all enjoyable.
Thanks, Bluebird and RatkojaRiku
Very good with many excellent clues as mentioned by others. I was completely beaten by the “punctuation as wordplay” COMM[A] at 1d which I put in from the def.
Last in and favourite for me was the not obvious’ O’ def for OVER at 11a.
Thanks to Bluebird for number two (geddit?) and to RR
KVa@8: Re COMMON SENSE, it’s not a new device, though not all that common. I recall a clue by Punk in which an exclamation mark was the definition. The answer to the clue was ‘factorial’ and an exclamation mark is used in mathematics as the symbol for the factorial of a number.
Fine puzzle, though a definite challenge. Thanks to Bluebird, new solver to me. Looking forward to more.
The first use of punctuation being part of the wordplay for me was quite a few years ago with a clue by Paul for “colonic irrigation”.
Thanks to all of those who completed the puzzle and took the time to comment. Special thanks to RatkojaRiku for the excellent blog. It’s all greatly appreciated.
I rather enjoyed encountering ellipsis being used to indicate the letters/word ‘dots’ in a solution.
Thanks Bluebird. This was not a PIECE OF CAKE but it was fun nonetheless. I thought MEAT PASTE was a superb clue. There was much I couldn’t fully parse — thanks RR for the help.
I abandoned this when I saw the Yesterday clue