Sunday rolls round and it’s time for a bit of WIRE to puzzle over
Some nice touches but nothing causing too many troubles solving or writing up. I think this is a plain crossword but there may well be a ghost theme I’ve missed.
ACROSS
1. Satellite state in contest finally awarded bronze (8)
GANYMEDE
A moon of Jupiter – NY state in GAME for contest & final letters of awardeD bronzE
5. Duck circling extremely strange plant (6)
TEASEL
Extremes of S(trang)E inside TEAL for a duck
10. Part of frame CGI bear ruined (7)
RIBCAGE
11. Present scoundrel with what’s required by letter (7)
CURRENT
CUR – scoundrel & RENT whats due to the letter or landlord
12/13. Magazine in east Rouen upset prize winners (5,9)
NOBEL LAUREATES
BELLA – a magazine inside an upset [EAST ROUEN]*
14. Some overtime in retirement to get fancy church hat (5)
MITRE
Hidden reversed in ovERTIMe
16. Liquid that can be dark but put on pale (8)
CREOSOTE
A pale is a style of fence
19. Put limits on refuse emptied near stern (8)
RESTRICT
An emptied R(efus)E & STRICT – stern
20. Measure last of Scotch after some maths backfired (5)
GIRTH
TRIG(onometry) reversed & end of (scotc)H
22. US singers making modest sums (5,4)
PETTY CASH
tom PETTY & johnny CASH – both US singers
25. Finch’s tail clipped twice somewhere upstairs (5)
ATTIC
27. Animal came by ‘orse, we’re told (3,4)
ROE DEER
28. Clothing those declaring 1 Down (7)
JUMPERS
Sky divers are often shown shouting Geronimo
29. Disordered hammering of DIY nut (6)
UNTIDY
30. Rich poet almost on a roll (8)
ABUNDANT
A & BUN – roll & most of DANT(e)
DOWN
1. Chief raised part of ransom in Oregon (8)
GERONIMO
Hidden reversed in ransOM IN OREGon
2. Wealthy individual with no Scottish coin? (5)
NABOB
NA – no & BOB pre-decimal coin – a shilling or 5p today
3. Most miserable and possibly least vaccinated (9)
MEASLIEST
Well if you aren’t vaccinated you could end up measle-y
4. Live and prosper having nothing set aside (5)
DWELL
DO WELL with the O – nothing removed
6. Weird energy harnessed by republic in revolution (5)
EERIE
E(nergy) inside EIRE all reversed
7. Witness corrupt cop at rest (9)
SPECTATOR
8. Player knocking the block off an American one (6)
LUTIST
A decapitated (f)LUTIST – in the UK we say flautist for some reason
9. Composer‘s time supporting school over in Bonn (8)
SCHUBERT
SCH(ool) & UBER – German for over & T(ime)
15. Therapy derived from flower involving new team (9)
TREATMENT
A new TEAM* in the river (flower) TRENT
16. Code in competition originally replaced by child (8)
CHIVALRY
RIVALRY with the initial letter replaced by CH(ild)
17. Track workers moving around main glens (9)
SIGNALMEN
18. Sturdy lot with not much up top (8)
THICKSET
THICK – not much up top & SET – lot
21. Mimic initially riles copper giving summary (6)
APERCU
APE – mimic & R(iles) & CU – copper
23. Produce from Year One regularly peeled (5)
YIELD
24. Covering hospital admission of boxer? (5)
HIJAB
H(ospital) & a boxer might say “I JAB”
26. Letter from those who were kept in reserve (5)
THETA
THE TA – the now renamed volunteer army force
Thanks flashling and Wire.
Very enjoyable – held up in SE trying to fit Jammies in 28a. All sorted. Nho 16a.
Likes:
GIRTH, ATTIC, ROE DEER, ABUNDANT
There was enough here to keep me thinking, with not too many write-ins. I hadn’t heard of sky JUMPERS shouting GERONIMO but guessed this was what 28a was getting at. I parsed CREOSOTE as a cryptic def, but I guess it’s six of one…
Among many good clues I especially liked the ‘US singers’ at 22a and the “To Kill a Mockingbird” reference at 25a.
Thanks to Wire and flashling.
I thought this was a super puzzle with smiles aplenty.
Top three for me 22&27a plus 18d, with the reverse lurker at 1d running them pretty close.
Many thanks to Wire and flashling.
In the US they say flautist too, but with the same ‘au’ as in umlaut. In thirty -five years living there, I don’t think I ever heard ‘flutist,’ and certainly not from any of the American flautists I knew.
Like Wordplodder I had 16A as a cryptic def.
Top stuff! Lols at 18, 22 and 27. Other faves 19, 19, 3, 12, 1, 1.
Thanks flashling and Wire.
Oops, those 19s should be 16s. *squint*
Thanks both. Glad for a few explanations here…Atticus Finch seems an extremely obscure source, but perhaps one I’ll now remember. For those unfamiliar with the shouting of GERONIMO it is a practice I have found helpful when coerced into riding roller-coasters
Well TFO To kill a mockingbird is hardly obscure but to each his own I guess.
Thanks Wire for the Sunday entertainment. I found this gentler than the crosswords set by Leonidas in the FT but no less clever. Top choices were GANYMEDE, PETTY CASH, and ATTIC. I didn’t know a pale was a style of fence but I certainly knew Atticus Finch. Thanks flashling for the blog.
Ian SW3@4: I know FLUTIST from the dance piece The Incredible Flutist by the American composer Walter Piston. (Quite a fun work, it includes a dog barking.) And I remember a discussion on an internet group many years ago where an American thought “flautist” was pretentious.
MEASLIEST made me laugh. Thanks both.
Chambers has ‘flautist or (esp US) flutist’. I recently had the pleasure of seeing TKAMB at the Gielgud with Rafe Spall as Atticus Finch, highly recommended. And was doubly delighted to spot that the judge was played by Jim Norton aka Bishop Brennan from Father Ted. Thanks to flashling and everyone who has contributed.