Exclamations from a compiler new to myself. Straight clues and a perimeter to fill in and a fifth example to highlight in the grid.
A reasonably gentle puzzle, meaning my blog is not quite as late as I thought.
The UNIT, THEM DUMB LOT, DELIGHT US that complete the perimeter cryptically indicator the theme Dad’s Army. The catchphrases / exclamations around the perimeter being:
DON’T TELL HIM PIKE (arguably the funniest ever TV sitcom sketch)
PUT THAT LIGHT OUT
STUPID BOY
WE’RE DOOMED
around the outside and Clive Dunn’s DON’T PANIC down the NW to SE diagonal.
Thanks Maranga – brought up happy childhood memories as well and a poignant subject following the recent departure from the planet of my father who remembered the real thing.
Key * anagram, DD Double definition; Rev. reversed; Underline definition
ACROSS
7 Recalled fit place for little corporal punishment (4)
Rev. able(fit) = ELBA
8 Reserved and haughty article written by flipping idiot (5)
a (article) + Rev. fool (idiot) = ALOOF
10 Dropping resistance, split bill (4)
break (split) – r (resistance) = BEAK
11 Melancholy request by Oliver Twist? (8)
Cryptic definition dole some (as in Can I have some more please) = DOLESOME
12 Mock mushy pea (3)
(pea)* = APE
13 Where one might find confused old lag (4)
(o + lag)* = GAOL
15 Root of Berliner’s agreement – drink to it (5)
ja (Berliner’s agreement) + lap (drink) = JALAP
16 Haul with tackle on vessel leaving outside of boathouse? Promise? (4)
bouse (haul with tackle) removed from boathouse = OATH
17 One bites once more, striking first person back (4)
REv. again (once more) – i (one) = NAGA
20 Period of intensive search announced? It’s an old command (4)
Homonym of heat (intensive search) = HETE
22 Swagger stick (5)
DD STRUT
23 Crystal sections from Puerto Rico received by dodgy commissar (11)
(commissar + PR)* = MACROPRISMS
24 Stranded explorer finally frozen (5)
r (explorer finally) + iced (frozen)
25 Either way leads to distinguished lady’s address (4)
Cryptic definition MA’AM
27 Clue is significant when setter is unable to be ignored (4)
significant – if (when) – I (setter) – cant (unable) = SIGN
28 Female name Faith, not male (4)
islam (faith) – m (male) = ISLA
29 At what place is ‘change course at sea’ heard? (5)
Homonym of wear (change course at sea) = WHERE
31 Little food? Live without it (4)
be (live) around it = BITE
32 Letter to the Hebrews: do you initially read right to left? (3)
Rev. hidden of DO You = YOD
33 ‘Before food’ on prescription absent, turning medic sceptical (8)
ac (before food) + a (absent) + (medic)* = ACADEMIC
35 Exempt opener in batting from extra responsibility (4)
bonus (extra) – b (opener in batting) = ONUS
36 This cheer is disapproving area of New York (5)
DD Bronx cheer (disapproving) = BRONX
37 Crushed ice to which barmaid finally added 10% (4)
(ice + d (barmaid finally))* = DECI-
DOWN
1 Reduction of claret and oil prepared with a game starter in Italian (9)
(oil)* + (a + game + i)* OLIGAEMIA
2 Source of all existence starts from the absolute origin (3)
starts from The Absolute Origin = TAO
3 Jack perhaps to reveal rum (8)
(to reveal)* = ELEVATOR
4 It can scrub 8 bananas (5)
(aloof)* = LOOFA
5 Support India with smile (5)
i (india) + beam (smile) = I-BEAM
6 Upset a mediocre entertainment is one that follows Oscar (4)
Rev. a + pap (mediocre entertainment) = PAPA
8 One starting fifty-fifty, then getting everything (3)
a (one) + LL fifty – fifty = ALL
9 Yield when beset by Old English tribe (5)
sag (yield) in oe (old english) = OSAGE
12 One fearing getting limb in an unstable position (8)
a + list (unstable position) around arm (limb) = ALARMIST
14 Attorney longed to be connected (8)
att (attorney) + ached (longed) = ATTACHED
17 Socially inept, not totally showing inner dynamism (5)
Hidden inNER DYnamism = NERDY
18 When home, eating a Chinese perhaps (5)
as (wehn) + in (home) around a = ASIAN
19 Exploited guile with cash arrangement (9)
(gulie + cash)* = AUSGLEICH
21 Fellow US investigators in desert go to pieces (8)
f (fellow) + gmen(US investigators) in rat(desert) = FRAGMENT
25 Initially make it suitably dramatic, or act badly (5)
Make It Suitably Dramatic Or = MISDO
26 Timothy maybe doesn’t want second parking clamp (5)
grass (timothy perhaps) – s (second) + p (parking) = GRASP
27 Runners on track turned back in pain (5)
Rev. trams (runners on track) = SMART
30 Old hand not needing over half of honours degree (4)
hon (not needing over half of honours) + d (degree) + HOND
31 Doctor going north by cycle (3)
Rev. MB (Doctor) + x (by) + BMX
34 Language of woman bereft after case is lost (3)
widow (woman bereft) – case = IDO
I thought being given the unchecked letters in the perimeter was a good feature of this puzzle – likewise the asterisks to indicate the start of each hidden item.
The only exclamation I recognised was DON’T PAMIC (as all its letters were there). I looked up Dad’s Army (which, incidentally, I never saw, except for clips every now and then over the years) and found the first exclamation in the border easily enough but none of the others. I later guessed the second one and worked out what the fourth one must be (the list of unchecked letters being of great help), and the four remaining letters forced my last one in: STUPID BOY!
It was a good set of clues. There were three tough ones in the bottom left, which the filling in of the border helped me to solve, but HETE (in the middle) was the last to yield.
Thanks to Maranga and twencelas.
A fairly speedy solve for me, which I thought would then be followed by some lengthy staring to find the phrases, but “stupid boy” popped out and gave me the theme. A rare occasion when the endgame was completed without any reference works. Thanks to Maranga for the entertainment and twencelas for the blog.
Thanks twencelas for the blog and sorry to hear about your dad – by coincidence the “real thing” began 83 years ago this weekend.
I am one of those who don’t buy the paper every Sunday, and even then am sometimes defeated by the fiddly complexity of the instructions and of the hoops we have to jump through before completion. But this one was a pleasure – the clues themselves all normal, just the one thematic challenge to work out, and that was not hard for one who watched much of Dad’s Army, at the time and in reruns, and thus did not need to google for help with the exclamations.
So, simpler than usual. Was it Groucho Marx who said he would not want to belong to any club that would have someone like him as a member? I feel a bit like that with the EV series: if I can solve it, it means it is easier than usual, and thus hardly worth sending in the solution, since so many others must have succeeded. But I continue, and did have a lucky win years ago, though not this time.
I guess this is a variant of Impostor Syndrome. Do any of our recent and imminent Prime Ministers partake of any such humility? If only. See this very paper this very day.
But meanwhile: is the future of EV secured, at least for now? Let’s keep posting in support.