The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28749.
Something fishy this way comes. A delightful set of variations from Boatman, with 8D particularly catching my fancy. The top half took some work for me to get a foothold. We have not been seeing much from Boatman recently, but the wait has been well worth it.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | EXONERATE |
Encourages recount — you might say ‘pardon‘ (9)
|
| Sounds like (‘you might say’) EGGS ON A RATE.
… That should read EGGS ON NARRATE. Thanks to grantinfreo @1 for being the first to correct this – and to Boatman (et al) for the confirmation. |
||
| 10 | IMAGO |
Boatman’s one to advance as a paradigm (5)
|
| A charade of I’M (‘Boatman’s’ i.e. Boatman is) plus A (‘one’) plus GO (‘advance’). The definition is a stretch; perhaps image is the nearest link. | ||
| 11 | ORGAN |
Perhaps fin or tail of whiting are broken at the end (5)
|
| A charade of ‘or’ plus G (‘tail of whitinG‘) plus A (‘are’, 100 square metres) plus N (‘brokeN at the end). | ||
| 12 | LORGNETTE |
Forsaken, nevertheless reportedly a looker (9)
|
| Sounds like (‘reportedly’) LORN YET (‘forsaken nevertheless’). | ||
| 13 | SOYBEAN |
It’s been used to make sauce for aeons by fermentation (7)
|
| An anagram (‘fermentation’) of ‘aeons by’. With an extended definition, as Gervase @35 points out. | ||
| 14 | ASCENTS |
Inclines to take radical stances (7)
|
| An anagram (‘radical’) of ‘stances’. | ||
| 17 | OPTIC |
Time to take a different position in the issue of sight (5)
|
| TOPIC (‘issue’) with T (‘time’) moved ( ‘to take a different position’). | ||
| 19 | CUT |
Sliced mullet? (3)
|
| Double definition. For those who have not come across it, the Chambers definition of mullet, when it is not a fish or a pentagram, is “A hairstyle that is short at the front, long at the back, and ridiculous all round”. | ||
| 20 | ENTER |
Go into chippy, if fish goes first (5)
|
| [CARP]ENTER (‘chippy’) if CARP (‘fish’) goes first. | ||
| 21 | LARKING |
Having fun in a boat going in to fish (7)
|
| An envelope (‘going in to’) of ARK (‘boat’) in LING (‘fish’). | ||
| 22 | FAR-LEFT |
Bit of bread offered to newt, which Ken Livingstone liked (3,4)
|
| A charade of FARL (‘bit of bread’: Chambers “a quarter of a round cake of flour or oatmeal”) plus EFT (‘newt’). Two less than common words in one clue. EFT is the same word as newt, with the n coming from an eft. | ||
| 24 | PISCATORY |
On fishing for orca, I spy tuna’s snout — that’s fishy (9)
|
| An anagram (‘that’s fishy’ – I think that is the better anagrind, with the definition at the other end) of ‘orca I spy’ plus T (‘Tuna’s snout’). | ||
| 26 | SHRED |
Julienne or fillet of fish re-dressed (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘fillet of”) in ‘fiSH RE–Dressed’. | ||
| 28 | STEEL |
Tips of shark’s teeth: evil, edged like a sword (5)
|
| First letters (‘tips’) of ‘Shark’s Teeth Evil Edged Like’. | ||
| 29 | EXPLAINER |
Iran expel ill-treated guide (9)
|
| An anagram (‘ill-treated’) of ‘Iran expel’. Of course,the surface would be happier with ‘expels’, but an imperative is acceptable. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NEMO |
Warning about a little lost fish (4)
|
| A reversal (‘about’) of OMEN (‘warning’). The definition refers to the Pixar/Disney film Finding Nemo. | ||
| 2 | ROUGHY |
About little lost fish (6)
|
| ROUGH[l]Y (‘about’) minus the L (‘little lost’, a questionable abbreviation, but the pairing with the previous clue grants some leeway). | ||
| 3 | DERNIER CRI |
Sheerness embracing King and Crown with one last word (7,3)
|
| A charade of DERNIER, an envelope (’embracing’) of R (Rex, ‘king’) in DENIER (‘sheerness’ of eg. silk); plus CR (‘Crown’) plus I (‘one’). | ||
| 4 | MARLIN |
Fish both ways in the sea (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of RL (right and left, ‘both ways’) in MAIN (‘the sea’). | ||
| 5 | NEAR EAST |
Place trap for fish around regions close to the Nile Delta? (4,4)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of AREAS (‘regions’) in NET (‘trap for fish’). | ||
| 6 | SIGN |
Even a smidgen of evidence (4)
|
| ‘Even’ letters of ‘a SmIdGeN‘. For once, the ‘a’ is important! | ||
| 7 | CASTANET |
Instrument with which to try to catch fish? (8)
|
| CAST A NET (‘try to catch fish’). The sound of one hand clapping. | ||
| 8 | DONE |
Cooked Dover sole (4)
|
| A charade of ‘D’- plus (-‘over’ in a down light) ONE (‘sole’). I like. | ||
| 13 | SHOAL |
Many fish thus swallowing hard on a line (5)
|
| A charade of SHO, an envelope (‘swallowing’) of H (‘hard’) in SO (‘thus’); plus ‘a’ plus L (‘line’). | ||
| 15 | CLEAR AS DAY |
Beloved as earth to Spooner, that’s obvious (5,2,3)
|
| DEAR AS CLAY. | ||
| 16 | SPRAT |
Traps set for little fish (5)
|
| An anagram (‘set’) of ‘traps’. | ||
| 18 | THRASHED |
Made a mess of catching hammerhead, getting beaten (8)
|
| An envelope (‘catching’) of H (‘Hammerhead’) in TRASHED (‘made a mess of’). | ||
| 19 | COGNOMEN |
Familiar name for humble member of a large organisation (women only) (8)
|
| A charade of COG (‘humble member of a large organisation’) plus NO MEN (‘women only’). COG brings to mind that many (MANY) years ago there was in London a Business Efficiency Exhibition, for which some bright spark came up with a logo of three cogs intermeshing. Three cogs interrmeshing are completely immovable. | ||
| 22 | FRY-UPS |
Little fish thoroughly sautéed — it’s first for gut-busting cuisine (3-3)
|
| A charade of FRY (‘little fish’) plus UP (‘thoroughly’; yes, it’s in Chambers) plus S (‘Sauteed – its first’ – the apostrophe is extraneous). | ||
| 23 | ERRING |
Fish missing an hour, going astray (6)
|
| [h]ERRING (‘fish’) minus the H (‘missing an hour’). | ||
| 24 | PISA |
Old man eats fish guts in Italy (4)
|
| An envelope (‘eats’) of IS (‘fISh guts’) in PA (‘old man’). | ||
| 25 | ABLY |
Boatman put one out skilfully (4)
|
| A charade of AB (Able Bodied ‘boatman’) plus L]a]Y (‘put’) minus the A (‘one out’ cf. 10A). | ||
| 27 | DORY |
Angler’s instrument brought up unknown quantity of fish (4)
|
| A charade of DOR, a reversal (‘brought up’ in a down light) of ROD (‘angler’s instrument’) plus Y (‘unknown quantity’). |
… I read it as eggs on narrate, which has got to win the GoD (groan of the day)…
A tour-de-fish today (sorry!). I thought some of the short answers were the most fun, esp. DONE and CUT.
I’ll second ginf@1 re EXONERATE.
Not sure I understand Peter’s comment about IMAGO – can’t both it and paradigm mean a kind of idealized model?
Agree re imago PeterO … like, che? Lorgnette too was a groan, if a bit cuter than exonetate, and fermenting aeons by was neatly apt. Who knew what a farl was? Not this old boy, so what Red Ken liked was a nudged bung. Always thought juliennes were little diagonal-cut sticks, eg of carrot, rather than shreds, but hey ho wwik. For 3d, premier cru wouldn’t parse, so eventually stockings and denier swam up from the depths. Liked the spooner, in fact lots to like throughout, ta Boatman and Peter.
Re imago, Dr. Wh, hmm. My ken of it is as what insects that don’t pupate produce, viz tiny but fully formed infants. So, yes, I guess so, but I look forward to their substitution in a sentence 😉
There is a second meaning of IMAGO. According to you-know-what: a mental, often idealized, view of another person, formed in childhood (eg a child’s image of its mother), that persists in a person’s subconscious and influences their adult life.
Thanks Boatman, that was most satisfying despite the fact that I had to check my guesses on occasion. There were so many clues that I ticked as favourites— NEMO, ROUGHY, MARLIN, SIGN, CASTANET (groan), CLEAR AS DAY, THRASHED, PISA (great surface), and DORY —I thought this was a nice mix of cryptic devices with so many keeping with the PISCATORY theme. Thanks PeterO for the super informative (and early) blog.
A nice fishy idea, and I enjoyed getting about two thirds out. The other third I wouldn’t have got in a pink fit. I’ve always assumed that the use of “even” in 6d would indicate letters 2,4,6 etc, not the odd-numbered. I’d never have guessed that UP means SAUTEED, or that FARL is bread (it wasn’t in OED). DERNIER CRI, according to what I unearthed, hasn’t been seen in English for over a century. In 9a, a rate is hardly a recount. I initially thought 15d was PLAIN AS DAY, with which I’m more familiar. And needless to say, I’d not heard of Ken Livingstone.
Just had another look at 6a and yes, they’re the even letters in A SMIDGEN. I was looking at just SMIDGEN.
Plenty of good ones.
Particularly liked EXONERATE (I am with ‘Eggs on narrate’), LORGNETTE, CLEAR AS DAY, COGNOMEN and ABLY.
Thanks, Boatman and PeterO!
Geoff Down Under@7
UP: thoroughly and S: the first letter of sauteed.
I find IMAGO all right. Would have been fine with IMAGE too. 🙂
KVa @10, yes I meant UP & THOROUGHLY.
And yes EGGS ON NARRATE makes more sense than PeterO’s parsing.
Delightful and so clever I can excuse anything that is even remotely quibbleable. Yes, some dnk’s (FARL, I’m looking at you) and a few stretches identified by our blogger but, when the overall experience, the wittiness and originality and that classic Boatman themeplay – some in the surfaces, some in the solutions – when it’s as good as this, I have no complaints. I always feel it’s a bit of a cop-out to say too many good ones to pick a favourite – but then it would be churlish to say ‘these are the one or two that didn’t quite come up to the mark’.
Geoff Down Under @8&9: you’ve resolved the even-numbers bit for yourself and grantinfreo @1 has pointed to the parsing that should satisfy you on 9a. It’s not ‘a rate’ but ‘narrate’. On the plus side, you’ve never heard of Ken Livingstone. (It may say something about Ken, or something about newts, but he is the only famous newt lover I could name. Also, he was a politician.)
Many thanks Boatman and PeterO
Not quite sure what PeterO means by “EFT is the same word as newt, with the n coming from an eft.” And I have some grumbles that Ken Livingstone equates to far left which is a very tabloid view not borne out in his actual political programme. A farl is surely not that uncommon?
Overall a nice workout even if a bit too themed for me if you get my drift.
And definitely ‘eggs on narrate’.
Grantinfreo@3 and others: FARLS are common in parts of Ireland and Scotland, and now also easier to get in England, for instance as an excellent regular item in Marks and Spencer Food Halls: Soda Farls and also Potato Farls, as here:
https://supersupergirl-food.blogspot.com/2019/10/marks-spencers-irish-farls.html
Imago also a stretch for me and I failed with Farl. I’m also not keen on definitions like “in Italy”.
I thought ENTER was a classic and I also enjoyed CASTANET.
That was an interesting workout and ultimately satisfying, albeit the toughest this week so far.
I knew FARL: the same Irish boyfriend of years ago introduced me to farls, both tatie and soda, scallions and that “on a tear” from the Anto crossword a few weeks back, so FAR LEFT went in quite early, with that bottom right corner the first completed section, then the rest of the bottom half.
My last in was DONE which I didn’t parse because I nearly always forget that D-over trick.
I wrote in “secants” for 14 before I sussed 5 and realised it must be “ascents”.
but i dislike “ascents” for inclines almost as much as “imago” for paradigm.
grimonyms, both!
7D A pretty clue, but a castanet is not an instrument, any more than one hand clapping is applause.
I must delurk very briefly to just say LOL, a charming set of clues. I know themed clues aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Thanks Boatman and PeterO
Deegee @14,
One of the G’s regular eccentrics, explains in the comments the misdivision of some ME nouns (“a naddre” -> “anaddre” -> “an adder” etc.), implying that we could somehow derive “eft” from the misdivision of “(a/n)(ewt)”, which comes from “a neute” given a bit of phonetic tweaking.
It’s all mewt if you ask me, given that an eft is also simply defined as a young newt, which stuck in my own fluff after being read the The Water Babies as nipper.
There’s a little sub-theme. Dory and Marlin are the other main character in Finding Nemo
This was tricky – but fun.
I got a fair few from the description and crosses and then parsed them – or in some cases did not.
Of those I did get, my favourites included CASTANETS, NEMO, LARKING, SHRED, THRASHED, PESCATORY, IMAGO, DORY
Thanks to Boatman and PeterO
For 7d I put in BASSINET and felt quite smug. Oh well!
Shirl @24 if it’s any consolation i biffed in TRIANGLE thinking TRI was a homophone of TRY and FISH was ANGLE. Despite being the only INSTRUMENT I was allowed to play at school it was, unfortunately, incorrect 🙂
Loved DONE, COGNOMEN & LORGNETTE
Must dash – too nice to be inside!
ps: even Tesco sell soda farls
This time last year I wouldn’t have had a clue what a farl was, but in the meantime I’ve read a recipe for Irish soda farls and the word stuck. [By the way, my autocorrect doesn’t know farl either, attempting to change it first to dark and then to farm…] The ROUGHY fish was new too, as was that definition of IMAGO, which I only knew as an adult insect. And yes, grantinfreo@5, I tried STRIP for the julienne before spotting the lurking SHRED.
Some really twisty parsing here, ORGAN being a particularly evil example. I’d forgotten that nasty little setters’ trick with the “are”. And a couple of loud groans for lorn-yet and eggs-on-narrate (my last in), and for the carpENTER when I finally realised what fish was required to make the chippy. My favourite, I think.
Shirl @24: you are not alone. Well, maybe in the smugness … 😀 Bassinet did seem a potential for quite a while but LORGNETTE sent it packing. And I couldn’t parse it though spent some time playing with bass in net, basin net, etc, as I suspect did you.
Tough puzzle, especially the NW corner. Failed to solve 11ac, 1d (I never watch cartoons), 2d.
I had trouble with the parsing of some of my answers:
10ac IM + AGO?
12ac
20ac
3d
22d apart from FRY = little fish
25d
Needed help from google for 22ac but could not parse my answer
Liked DONE, CASTANET, cognomen.
Thanks, both.
This was a dnf for me, the hardest for ages. Too many words I’d never heard of, and I don’t have the Oz excuse despite growing up in NZ! But being a lefty myself I did get Ken Livingstone twice Mayor of London who actually introduced the so-claimed Boris bikes and was loathed by all his staff at County Hall, especially the women.
But thanks anyway to Boatman for a learning experience and to PeterO for parsing – although I did manage to parse a couple I had to reveal.
PS Shirl@24: another BASSINET here – but it’s definitely only an instrument for containing babies.
Thanks PeterO and Boatman. I’m with PostMark – this was far too much fun to spoil it by quibbling over trifling details. Such a great sense of fun throughout – this is what I do crosswords for. Lovely stuff, many smiles and groans. I thought DONE was rather cheeky but in a good way. Not seen the Chambers def of mullet before, so thanks for sharing that.
I couldn’t see the parsing for EXONERATE but I agree “eggs on narrate” sounds the most likely intention.
I knew FARL but not EFT. That was my LOI but the penny dropped eventually.
Sue S @22 – I enjoyed the symmetry of the placement of NEMO and DORY. A very nice touch.
After doing this I heard a Wagner overture with castanets. Honest!
Then I had some barramundi.
Nice puzzle and good to see Boatie again
Dover sole is a distant memory
Widdersbel @31, “mullet” is not the only humorous definition in Chambers. There’s a number of them. Azed had “eclair” in the recent 2601 defined in Chambers as “a cake, long in shape but short in duration”. Just google ‘chambers humorous definitions’. There’s a book called Gigglossary about it.
Boatman casts his nets wide to give us an ichthyological extravaganza.
Entertaining puzzle with some fun constructions, including two groan inducing homophones and the delicious DONE. Farls are familiar (bread vocabulary is very extensive in the British Isles), and isn’t ‘eft’ one of those odd little words like ‘ide’ (surprised this didn’t turn up here) much beloved of setters?
Nobody has remarked that the clue for SOYBEAN is a very neat &lit.
Thanks to S&B
I think I can count on about one hand the number of fish I know: cod, salmon, mackerel, LING (a crossword staple) and, via film, NEMO and DORY. So this looked too fishy for my liking and I was going to skip it. To further discourage me, I looked up “fish” in the Chambers Thesaurus app. There were about 100 entries; Bradford’s had more. But then I saw SOYBEAN (nice) and ASCENTS straight away and then it was in for a fish, in for a shoal.
In the end, it wasn’t the piscine clues that I struggled with but DERNIER CRI and FARL but there was lots to like not least EGGS ON NARRATE and LORN YET.
ARE=A was new (now filed for future use).
Thanks Boatman for a good workout and laugh, and PeterO for illumination.
You did Gervase @35. Agree. SOYBEAN is COD !
paddymelon @37: that definitely deserves a 😀
Thanks, Peter and all – glad you had fun today.
Everyone (it seems) apart from Peter – You’re right – it’s meant to be EGGS ON NARRATE. Groans are an acceptable response, both to this and to the LORN-YET.
Sue @22 – Indeed! “Little Lost Fish” will be the title of this puzzle when it makes it into my next book (I need to set another four puzzles to reach 100, so it shouldn’t be too long to wait). I was sorry that I couldn’t find a place in the grid for any turtles, though.
Widders @32 – The NEMO/DORY symmetry was mostly good fortune, but I’m happy to take credit for it!
Shirl @24 and BodyC @25 – Admirable enterprise in creating not one, but two red herrings for yourselves!
Some fishy tails, so to speak.
Lots to like, although tough (or rough) with the NW the last to fall. I was another to start with IMAG(e), but the splendid DONE did for that. I tried BASSINET also but I couldn’t see it as an instrument. I particularly enjoyed the surfaces for SOYBEAN and LARKING.
Thanks Boatman and PeterO.
Boatman @35
Thanks for dropping in. Even I – eventually – agree on 9A. I was so happy to have got the EGGS ON bit that I let the rest fall as it may. Awarded an extra groan for not getting it right when writing the blog.
Indeed, keep the puzzles coming!
Well THRASHED by this but no complaints. Once more astonished by the skill of the blogger, not to mention the setter.
I’m afraid this didn’t float my boat. Mostly straightforward with a handful of tricky clues. Maybe I’m having a bad day…
My heart sank when I saw the fishy theme. Didn’t we have a fish theme a few years ago for a bank holiday/Xmas bumper puzzle? After that I concluded that virtually any combination of 3 or 4 letters containing a vowel could be a fish somewhere.
However I did like CASTANET, FAR LEFT and COGNOMEN.
Thanks Boatman and PeterO
grantifreo@4
I think you have it the wrong way round. A young insect (in one which doesn’t go through the larval/pupal stage) is a nymph or an instar. An imago is any adult insect.
Great puzzle and blog. It takes great skill to make some of the themed clues among the best, ENTER and DONE for example. I tried hard to make CLARINET work (carry net round the lesser-known ell fish??)
May I also say how nice it is to have a grid full of short entries, without finding the dreaded “See 14d” alongside most of them (unlike A Setter Who Shall Not Be Named). A proper clue for a three, four or five letter answer can be a thing of beauty.
Missed an opportunity for another little lost fish with DORY. Finding Dory is the sequel.
Thanks PeterO.
Your comment on 19d reminded me that the uk £2 coin (1997 – 2015) depicted mankind’s industrial and technological progress by illustrating a circular gear train of 19 wheels. It would have been immovable.
Late to the party today, so all’s been said that I wanted to say, except that in such a fine crossword, I felt the dubious L = little in ROUGHY rather let it down. The juxtaposition of the NEMO clue above it was probably irresistible to the setter.
Many thanks both.
Gladys @46: Brava! My feelings exactly.
Soon as you said that I could hear the damn things, copmus @33, Tanhauser (had to look it up to make sure).
[He did write a few good choons, despite what Rumpole said]
jvh @48
Perhaps this is the Venn diagram for design artists and engineers. Or am I being generous?
grantinfreo @52
Like “Where did you get that hat?” in Lohengrin.
Oh yes of course nymphs, thanks Lyssian @44. A while since ’63 and O-level biol 🙂
… yes, and ditto Here comes the bride, all fat and wide …
I thought this was brilliant entertainment. Loved DONE, CASTANET, the homophones EXONERATE and LORGNETTE, and loads more besides. And I learned a new meaning for IMAGO.
Did you know that a ROUGHY is also known as a “slimehead”? They don’t usually call it that on restaurant menus.
Many thanks Boatman and PeterO.
I had IMAGE for 10a and therefore MERE for 8d, “mere” = “only” = “sole.” Phooey. IMAGO is a stretch.
I forgot a chippy was a carpenter. I just thought it was a chip shop, which got me nowhere.
ginf@52 If you’re quoting Rumpole as having said, “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds,” he was quoting Mark Twain. (Who lived for some of his most productive years in my current home town, Hartford, Connecticut.)
Loads of fun. Went to bed with eight left blank, but this morning I got NEAR EAST and after that each one led to another solution, though a couple were wrong, as it turns out.
And thanks to Boatman and PeterO.
not much fun for me I’m afraid. First time in months I’ve given up on a crossie as not being worth the effort. Glad that others enjoyed it, so perhaps just bad day on my part. Thanks Boatman and PeterO.
Ta for that, Valentine @57; not surprised it was the wittily sardonic Mr Clemens. And to be fair to Rumpole, I think what he actually said, while bowling along Thames Embankment twirling his brolly, was “Who was it who said Wagner’s not nearly as bad as he sounds?”
Gladys @46 – I quite agree! There’s a lot that can be done with clues for shorter words, often rather entertainingly, and grids like this one (Guardian Grid 54A) are also more fun to fill with theme words.
AndyC @47 – Indeed! When you were finding the solution to 27 Dn, you were creating your own sequel.
Thanks to Boatman for this tough but enjoyable challenge with some excellent wordplay. Took a while but eventually the scales dropped!
Too many favourites to mention and some new words to boot.
Thx to PeterO for parsing the ones we couldn’t.
Let me also endorse comments by gladys@46 on the merits of shorter words in the grid.
Thanks PeterO and Boatman. How is UP = “thoroughly”? It may be in Chambers, but I can’t think of any situation where the one can stand in for the other.
This must simply be me having a bad week, but hadn’t much of a clue with the very top of this puzzle. Thought it had to be EXONERATE, but no idea why. Had Image instead of IMAGO, and when I revealed NEMO, ROUGHY, DONE, ORGAN and LORGNETTE I realised that I would probably never have solved any of them even with hours more to chew them over…
Another red herring for 7dn: “bagpipes” (although “pipe” as an abbreviation of “pipefish” didn’t seem that likely).
Thanks PeterO and Boatman
Verbose @64
Perhaps “Fill it up” is what Mr. Chambers had in mind.
Failed on 2dn at the last by dredging up a MORGAY from the depths of memory. Thanks PeterO and Boatman.
For those who like tough puzzles, you could do worse than subscribe to One Across magazine. They’re not all as tough, but Boatman’s in the March issue was a corker.
PostMark @13 Gussie Fink-Nottle is surely more famous than Ken Livingstone (see various books by PG Wodehouse). DNF for me as never heard of NEMO or ROUGHY. I thought of ORGAN but couldn’t parse it.
PeterO@67, Verbose@64
Maybe in cleaning, up and thoroughly can be inter-changed. At least with my parents.
When you clean every square inch of a room, this is an example of a time when you clean your room (thoroughly) up
Thanks boatman and PeterO
All very clever, although as is often the case with Boatman I find myself admiring a little more than enjoying.
Thanks PeterO and Boatman.
A grid of two halves for me, with the bottom half going in well but too many new words (2,3,5, 10, 12) in the top half for my weak vocabulary to fill in based on crossers. I fear 12A might be a great clue if you’ve heard of the word but a complete over the head if you haven’t (like me). Thanks AB and Peter
Thanks
In fact for 12 I’ve never heard of lorn, or lorngnette. I’m often going to finish a couple short …
I’m very late so maybe no one will see this question. My loi was dernier cri. PeterO parsed this as dernier including R for king and CR for crown. But I could only see R fir king and C fir crown. C as an abbreviation for crown does not seem to be in Chambers and I can’t think of it in another place. What am I missing?
CanberraGirl @74, CR as an abbreviation for crown (presumably the money) is in Chambers.
My point was there was an R and a C but not an R and a CR inserted in dernier. I agree CR is fine for crown.
Oops. Now I see that Denier is sheerness not dernier. Caught out by a mistaken idea from my youth. Thanks Tim C @75 for helping.
Ah yes, I understand now. It was a spelling trap I nearly fell in to.
Robert @19 thank you for pointing out that a castanet isn’t an instrument. I hadn’t thought of that and just assumed that ‘castanets’ meant one in each hand but of course you are right.
Thanks PeterO for many explanations (and grantinfreo etc for the extra on the homophone), i found this very tough and was comprehensively beaten by 12A and 2D but at least I am far from alone, and I really enjoyed many of the others and was pleased to get some new words/terms from good if tricky clueing, so thanks Boatman and great to see your work again.
[Gonzo@68 thanks for the 1A recommendation, I have their vg trial issue thanks to Tony Collman also recommending it so I think a subscription could be in order.]
A very enjoyable puzzle. I’m impressed at Boatman’s ability to weave the theme so thoroughly throughout without making the clues seem strained.
I like the homophone for EXONERATE but not the definition. If you exonerate someone, you find that they were innocent all along, and hence there’s no need to pardon them.
A for “are” fooled me yet again.
I can’t quite see SET as an anagrind, but the word has hundreds of meanings, and no doubt one that I’m not thinking of makes it work.