A puzzle from Crosophile today.
Tuesday is theme day in the Independent cryptic crossword series, so I was on the lookout when solving. I think the theme was fairly well flagged in the clues with three occurrences of the words ‘carry on’.
I found seven examples of ‘Carry On’ films – TEACHER, SPYING, MATRON, CAMPING, CABBY, DOCTOR and NURSE. There were also two other entries related to different meanings of ‘carry on’ – FUSS AND BOTHER and PROGRESS. It may be that BAGS at 11 across is also a theme word given you can have ‘carry on’ BAGS on an aircraft.
I found some of the wordplay parsing a bit difficult, so feel free to comment if you think I have got anything wrong. The parsing of INANITIES defeated me totally so I will be interested to see how it should be parsed. I have indicated an idea for the INAN part. Update; see comment at 1 which clearly explains the parsing.
There seemed to be a number of clues where words were used in both the definition and the wordplay and I have indicated this in the detailed table below.
I liked the hidden definition at 24 across where the final letter M served as the definition for THOUSAND.
Thanks to Crosophile for a challenging puzzle and for widening the theme beyond just the titles of ‘Carry On’ films.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
A load of binned rubbish sent back (6) BURDEN (load) BURDEN (reversed [sent back] hidden word in [load of] BINNED RUBBISH) BURDEN< |
| 5 |
Maybe miss the race after injury (7) TEACHER (a female teacher is usually addressed as ‘Miss’) Anagram of (after injury) THE RACE TEACHER* |
| 10 |
Pale pressure cooked accompaniment to cheek, maybe (5,5) APPLE SAUCE (a SAUCE usually served as an accompaniment to pork dishes, such as pork cheek) Anagram of (cooked) PALE and P (pressure) + SAUCE (insolence; cheek) APPLE* SAUCE |
| 11 |
Luggage as graduate goes on vacation (4) BAGS (luggage) BA (Bachelor of Arts; example of a degree held by a graduate) + GS (letters remaining in GOES when the central letters OE are removed [on vacation]) BA GS |
| 12 |
Carry On publicity with a scary woman (8) PROGRESS (continue; carry on) PR (public relations or press release; publicity) + OGRESS (scary woman) PR OGRESS |
| 13 |
Season’s run out for variable mole activity (6) SPYING (in this context a mole is a spy who successfully infiltrates a rival organisation) SPRING (season) excluding (out) R (run) and inserting (for) Y (letter often used to denote a variable in mathematical equations) in its place SPYING |
| 14 |
Hungry type naughtily eating last of ham (5) EMPTY (informal term for hungry) Anagram of (naughtily) TYPE containing (eating) M (final letter of [last of] HAM) E (M) PTY* |
| 16 |
Daft sayings and crazy doings lacking a point (9) INANITIES (frivolous utterings; daft sayings) I’m not sure how this works. We have INANE (crazy) excluding (lacking) E (a point of the compass) and we have ITIES that I can’t parse. I can see ACTIVITIES are doings but I can’t related ACTIV or ACT IV to ‘lacking a point’ INAN ITIES |
| 19 |
Outlaw robs prince after releasing knight errant (9) PROSCRIBE (outlaw) Anagram of (errant) ROBS PRINCE excluding (releasing) N (knight in chess notation) PROSCRIBE* |
| 20 |
Flower you originally put on platform (5) DAISY (a flower) DAIS (platform) + Y (first letter of [originally] YOU) DAIS Y |
| 22 |
Senior 25 relieving two triplets from malnutrition (6) MATRON (senior NURSE [entry at 26 down]) MALNUTRITION excluding (relieving) two triplets of letters LNU and ITI MATRON |
| 24 |
Second person in Bible tied with S&M? (8) THOUSAND (M is the Roman numeral for a THOUSAND) THOU (form of address for the second person [you] in the Bible) + (tied with) S + AND (&) THOU S AND |
| 26 |
Such a little record is compact (4) DISC (reference a compact DISC or substitute for a long playing record) DISC (hidden word in [a little] RECORD IS COMPACT) DISC |
| 27 |
Special miniature article, e.g. work by Fabergé, is dear (10) SWEETHEART (darling; dear) S (special) + WEE (miniature) + THE (definite article) + ART (desciptive of work by the jewellery company House of Fabergé and its founder Peter Carl Fabergé [1846-1920]) S WEE THE ART |
| 28 |
Parking in middle of night beside river as an outdoor activity (7) CAMPING (an outdoor activity) CAM (river that flows through Cambridge) + P (parking) + IN + G (central letter of [middle of] NIGHT) CAM P IN G |
| 29 |
Rescue wild deer with bigger space (6) REDEEM (rescue) Anagram of (wild) DEER + EM (the bigger of the two spaces EM-space and EN-space used in printing terminology) REDE* EM |
| Down | |
| 2 |
Towards the top speed? (5) UPPER (higher; towards the top) UPPER (a drug producing a stimulant or euphoric effect; speed) double definition UPPER |
| 3 |
Georgia when inside obliterates representatives (9) DELEGATES (representatives) GA (US State of Georgia) contained in (when inside) DELETES (obliterates) DELE (GA) TES |
| 4 |
Want to hold stone? That’s settled (6) NESTED (settled) NEED (want) containing (to hold) ST (stone) NE (ST) ED |
| 6 |
5-5? Special grand final – carry on for service (8) EVENSONG (evening prayers, the Anglican form of service appointed to be said or sung at evening) EVEN (a score a 5-5 indicates that the match is EVEN) + ([S {special} + G {grand}] containing [carry] ON) I am not sure what ‘final’ is doing in the clue. Possibly to indicate that the G is the last letter of the entry and to make the surface better EVEN S (ON) G |
| 7 |
One driving around convent leaving base (5) CABBY (one who drives a taxi-cab) C (circa; around) + ABBEY (a convent under an abbot or abbess) excluding (leaving) E (base of natural logarithms) C ABBY |
| 8 |
Deceptive serene exterior drinking spirits in RE (9) ENGINEERS (descriptive of people who serve in the Royal ENGINEERS [RE]) Anagram of (deceptive) SERENE containing (drinking) GIN (spirits) Again, I have a bit of difficulty with one of the words in the clue. This time it is ‘exterior’. Is it just an additional word indicating that the anagram is outside GIN? Surely ‘drinking’ does that already. EN (GIN) EERS* |
| 9 |
21 shafts bounder in Carry On (4,3,6) FUSS AND BOTHER (a carry-on) Anagram of (DOCTOR [entry at 21 down]) SHAFTS BOUNDER FUSS AND BOTHER* |
| 15 |
Tia Maria, that’s right good for one mixing cocktail (9) MARGARITA (cocktail) Anagram of (mixing) TIA MARIA and R (right) with G (good) replacing (for) one of the Is (Roman numeral for one) MARGARITA* |
| 17 |
Move beyond fashion to accept answer by Conservative (9) TRANSCEND (pass beyond the range or limit of human understanding, etc) TREND (fashion) containing (to accept) (ANS [answer] + C [Conservative]) TR (ANS C) END |
| 18 |
A relative lack of energy in synthesised androgens (8) GRANDSON (a relative) Anagram of (synthesised) ANDROGENS excluding (lack of) E (energy) GRANDSON* |
| 21 |
Registered occupational therapist hoax upset academic (6) DOCTOR (academic, one with a PhD [Doctor of Philosophy]) (ROT [Registered Occupational Therapist] + COD [hoax]) all reversed (upset) (DOC TOR)< |
| 23 |
One striding over – go over again (5) RECAP (go over the chief points again) PACER (one striding out) reversed (over) RECAP< |
| 25 |
Look after old trains union (London Region) (5) NURSE (look after) NUR (National Union of Railwaymen, one of the main Unions for railway personnel until its merger with the National Union of Seamen to form the National Union of Rail, Marine and Transport Workers [RMT]) + SE (South East, region of Britain where London is situated) NUR SE |
duncan, I’m pretty sure you are overthinking 16a. INANITIES is simply INSANITIES (crazy doings) lacking S (a point on the compass).
Spooner’s catflap @ 1
Thanks -that makes sense – it’s usually a simple parsing that I don’t get once I am fixated on an incorrect approach.
I parsed 16A like Spooner’s catflap. Apparently there were 12 other Carry Ons that never got made, what have we missed? They were getting weaker towards the end though. Thanks Crosophile and Duncan.
I found this very tricky today, with the same puzzlements highlighted by duncan in ENGINEERS and EVENSONG and a couple of my own. I got nowhere near the parsing of MATRON and, whilst I can understand the parsing in retrospect, I was lost trying to follow the instructions in the clue. If it had been three consecutive letters in the alphabet, say, or three iterations of the same letter to be extracted, maybe. But Crosophile defeated me there. I also managed to parse RECAP as PACER which held me up when trying to do the across clues that intersected. Along with the cunning deletions prior to anagramming, substitutions etc, I feel like I’ve been through quite a workout.
Thanks Crosophile and duncan
They rejected my scenario for “Carry on Cannabis”
There’s no rhyme or reason to it but sometimes simple anagrams can be very difficult to see, as was the case with TEACHER for me today. Once that was in, ENGINEERS revealed itself. I see what you mean about ‘exterior’ and ‘drinking’ doing the same thing.
I thought the ‘Carry On’ series of films was the theme though didn’t cotton on to the related answers at 12a and 9d. I may be wrong but I seem to remember Hattie Jacques as the MATRON.
Thanks to Crosophile and Duncan
How about the Sweetheart Carryon, a brand of cabin luggage?
copmus @5: don’t tell me – it went up in a puff of smoke
…and they could screen it at the local high-max.
… given that we all stream video these days, that institution has almost certainly gone to pot … I’ll get my coat …
PostMark@8-didnt help mistakenly sending it to Cheech and Chong
I wondered whether that reference would come up …
I just wanted to add my appreciation for a very clever puzzle.
A theme that we spotted early on for once, and which made for a fairly quick solve. ENGINEERS caused us the most trouble, till we realised that RE was the definition.
Thanks, Crosophile and Duncan – carry on cruciverbalising.
Thanks Crosophile. The theme was unfamiliar to me and I needed to “check my guessing” to get the last few but THOUSAND made it all worthwhile. Thanks duncanshiell for the excellent write-up.