It’s a puzzle from Bluth today so be prepared for some quirky cluing.
I think the use of C3PO and R2D2 are definitely contenders for the quirky cluing award this week with 3 generating LA (Los Angeles) and 2 generating APE twice, both from elsewhere in the grid. I’m not a great Star Wars fan, but I did see LIGHT in the entries and SABRE in the word play. There may be other Star Wars or Droid references that I am not clever enough to see.
Additionally I liked ‘onboard’ as the indication of the anagram fodder for FLY OFF THE HANDLE.
I was surprised to find that the Disney film MULAN used in the clue for MULTIMEDIA was released nearly 25 years ago.
The clue for SPOILT FOR CHOICE used a fairly common device, but it still held me up for a while in the parsing.
As ever, for me, a fun puzzle from Bluth.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Chat show’s opening minute promising much – but will never deliver (5,4) SMALL TALK (light or trifling conversation; chat) S (first letter of [opening]) + M (minute) + ALL TALK (reference the phrase ALL TALK AND NO TROUSERS which describes someone who says a lot about what he / she is going to do, but never does) S M ALL TALK |
| 6 |
Teachers‘ cane (5) STAFF (the body of teachers or lecturers in a school, college, university etc) STAFF (rod; cane) double definition STAFF |
| 9 |
No hiding space over introduction to star signs (5) OMENS (signs) (NO containing [hiding] EM (a printing term describing a space that is as wide as a letter M]) all reversed (over) + S (first letter of [introduction to] STARS) (O (ME) N)< S |
| 10 |
Cut working wage to cover father’s gift (9) PATRIMONY ( inheritance from a father; father’s gift) PAY (working wage) containing (to cover) (TRIM [cut] + ON [working]) PA (TRIM ON) Y |
| 11 |
Sad sheriffs suggest releasing Western (10) LAMENTABLE (sad) LAW MEN (sheriffs, for example) + TABLE (propose; suggest) excluding (releasing) W (western) LA MEN TABLE |
| 13 |
Turning heads in fifth form, including teacher’s pet (4) TIFF (display of irritation; pet) TIFF (first letters of each of [heads in] FIFTH, FORM, INCLUDING and TEACHER’S) all reversed (turning) (T I F F)< |
| 15 |
See 16 [LIGHT] FINGERED |
| 16 / 15 |
Inclined to appropriate action – hung around with Spooner’s relation (5-8) LIGHT [FINGERED] (inclined to steal; inclined to appropriate) Reverend Spooner would pronounce LIGHT FINGERED as FIGHT (action) + LINGERED (hung around) LIGHT FINGERED |
| 18 |
Increase level for audience (5) RAISE (increase) RAISE (sounds like [for audience] RAZE [demolish; level with the ground]) RAISE |
| 20 |
Copper succeeded stopping break out – turning back one who’s 16/15 (8) CUTPURSE (a person who stole by slitting purses worn at the belt; a pickpocket) CU (chemical symbol for copper) + (S [succeeded] contained in [stopping] ERUPT [break out]) all reversed (turning back) CU (TPUR (S) E)< |
| 23 |
Occasionally they upset build up (4) HYPE (promote or to advertise extravagantly; build up) HYPE (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [occasionally] of THEY UPSET) HYPE |
| 24 |
Short Disney film about period princess using sound and vision? (10) MULTIMEDIA (the use of a combination of different forms of communication, such as sound and vision in entertainment or education) MULAN (1998 Disney film) excluding the final letter (short) N containing (about) (TIME [period] + DI [reference Princess DIana {1961 – 1997}, first wife of King Charles III]) MUL (TIME DI) A |
| 26 |
Informed where to go quietly (2,3,4) IN THE LOOP (informed) IN THE LOO (where to go) + P (piano; quietly) IN THE LOO P |
| 27 |
Tramp making a name for fashion (5) TREND (fashion) TREAD (tramp) with N (name) replacing A (making A [into] N [NAME]) TRE N D |
| 29 |
South Africa’s starters told to get try (5) ESSAY (attempt; try) ESSAY (sounds like [told to] the pronunciation of the letters S A) ESSAY |
| 30 |
Something used to fence around base – estate’s boundaries handling variable wind offshore (3,6) SEA BREEZE (BREEZE from the SEA; offshore wind) SABRE (sword used in fencing) containing (around) E (base of natural logarithms) + EE (outer letters of [boundaries] ESTATE containing [handling] Z [a letter frequently used to indicate a variable value in mathematical equations]) S (E) A BRE E (Z) E |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Clue suggesting Rich CEO of The Range is too large? (6,3,6) SPOILT FOR CHOICE (presented with so many attractive options that picking one is difficult; the range is too large to pick from easily) SPOILT FOR CHOICE could be a cryptic clue for (suggesting) RICH CEO OF where SPOILT is the anagram indicator and FOR CHOICE is the anagram fodder – FOR CHOICE –> RICH CEO OF* SPOILT FOR CHOICE |
| 2 / 12 |
Call secretary about old primate (6) APE [MAN] (any of several extinct [old] primates) (NAME [call] + PA [Personal Assistant; secretary]) all reversed (about) (AP E MAN)< |
| 3 |
City‘s unusually long leases (3,7) LOS ANGELES (city in America) Anagram of (unusually) LONG LEASES LOS ANGELES* |
| 4 |
Somehow R2D2 showed up (8) APPEARED (showed up) Anagram of (somehow) R and APE (entry at 2 down) and D and APE (entry at 2 down) APPEARED* |
| 5 |
Quiet son becoming king – one should let off steam (6) KETTLE (a kitchen appliance that emits steam) SETTLE (make quiet or just ‘quiet’ [quieten] as a verb) with S (son) being replaced by (becoming) K (king) K ETTLE |
| 6 |
Hide second family (4) SKIN (hide [of an animal]) S (second) + KIN (family) S KIN |
| 7 |
Hugely enjoying a party circuit (7) ADORING (relishing; hugely enjoying) A + DO (party) + RING (circuit) A DO RING |
| 8 |
Go mad using only characters onboard ship – shall then do Fyffes bananas (3,3,3,6) FLY OFF THE HANDLE (lose one’s temper; go mad) Anagram of (bananas) HALL THEN DO FYFFE, the letters between the outer letters [onboard] SS [steamship] in the phrase SHALL THEN DO FYFFES FLY OFF THE HANDLE* |
| 12 |
See 2 [APE] MAN |
| 14 |
C3PO satisfied TV show’s gauge of audience approval (10) CLAPOMETER (device for gauging the level of audience appreciation in talent contests, etc by measuring the volume of noise generated by their applause) C + LA (Los Angeles, entry at 3 down; 3) + PO + MET (satisfied) + ER (American TV medical drama, also shown on UK television many years ago) C LA PO MET ER |
| 17 |
Partially backing bonsai pot business – it gives urban sorts a taste of country life (8) SUBTOPIA (area of sprawling housing estates spreading into the countryside, in which suburban dwellers enjoy some aspects of rural living while clinging to urban amenities; it gives urban sorts a taste of country life) SUBTOPIA (reversed [backing] hidden word [partially] in BONSAI POT BUSINESS) SUBTOPIA |
| 19 |
Found swapping Sierra and parking – I’m on drive (7) IMPETUS (drive) I’M + SET UP (create; found) with the S (Sierra is the international radio communication code for the letter S) and P (parking) exchanged (swapping) to form PET US IM PET US |
| 21 / 28 |
Wine spot creates problem for photo (3,3) RED [EYE] (common fault in amateur flash photography which causes the pupils of the subject’s EYEs to appear RED) RED (type of wine) + EYE (see; spot) RED EYE |
| 22 |
Endless trouble accommodating 100 beds (6) FUTONS (beds) FUSS (trouble) excluding the final letter (endless) S containing (accommodating) TON (informal term for one hundred, often used when referring to scores in some games) FU (TON) S |
| 25 |
Terribly discontented, vandalise railway (4) VERY (extremely; terribly) VE (letters remaining when the central letters ANDALIS are removed from [dis-content-ed] VANDALISE) + RY (railway) VE RY |
| 28 |
See 21 [RED] EYE |
Absolutely superb. The clues with R2D2 & C3PO were outstanding. I’ll leave it to others to find any other Star Wars references beyond those mentioned by Duncan.
Totally agree with Hovis on R2D2 and C3PO, outstanding clueing, so thanks Bluth and Duncan.
Another tour de force from Bluth. Thanks to him and Duncan.
Great fun – thanks both. Duncan, there’s an obvious typo in Diana’s dates in your note for 24a.
Quirister @ 4
Thanks – typo corrected
Another splendid puzzle from Bluth. I always find that when I have finished one of his puzzles that all the empty spaces on my page are filled with scribbles to help me work out the parsing, and today’s was no exception.
APPEARED was my last to parse and favourite.
Many thanks to Bluth and to Duncan.
I agree with previous commenters
Thanks to Bluth for the super crossword and to Duncan for the blog
As others have said. The R2D2 and C3PO clues were great and I also liked the SPOILT FOR CHOICE reverse anagram and the all too true surface for SMALL TALK. Missed the tricky parsing for FLY OFF THE HANDLE. Didn’t know such a thing as SUBTOPIA existed, but what do you know, “it’s in…”
Thanks to Bluth and Duncan
Accessible definitions, never obscure – e.g. appeared, clapometer, sea breeze, essay, multimedia – yet dazzling clueing. Bluth is a generous genius. Thanks and for the blog.
Yet another nod of approval from me. Sheer joy to solve. Like everyone else, I loved the R2D2 and C3PO clues, and IN THE LOOP made me laugh out loud, but my favourite was FLY OFF THE HANDLE for the use of Fyffe’s bananas and “onboard ship”. Genius.
Thanks, Bluth & Duncan.
Another thumbs-up from me. Thanks, both.
Another quirky but enjoyable puzzle from Bluth today. A fair amount of head scratching and great use of the Star Wars characters.
1D was out LOI which took a while as we were puzzled by ‘Spooner’s relation’ rather than just Spooner.
Thanks Bluth and Duncan.
Not quite unaided – we needed a bit of help from a wordfinder but once it suggested ‘choice’ for the third word of 1dn SPOILT FOR CHOICE was the obvious answer even though we couldn’t fully parse it. We couldn’t fully parse APPEARED either, but we did manage to parse CLAPOMETER. Plenty to savour, though, with LAMENTABLE and CUTPURSE our favourites.
Thanks, Bluth and Duncan
Thanks Duncan and agree with general consensus of brilliance expressed above. Couldn’t spot other Star Wars refs but some of the parsing was Chewie (sorry) enough eg 30A where I spent a while trying to make it work using an anagram of BASE for the first 4 letters, and the cryptic ref to Spooner held me up too. Thanks Bluth.
One of Bluth’s very best, a creative masterpiece. Always love how this setter brings contemporary real life into his puzzles (The Range, Fyffes).
Lots of clues producing big smiles and “spoilt for choice” for podium contenders but I’ll mention SPOILT FOR CHOICE, IN THE LOOP, LIGHT FINGERED and SMALL TALK.
Many thanks Bluth and DS for the explanations.
Thanks Duncan and thanks all.
I can confirm there were no other deliberate Star Wars references outside of R2D2 and C3PO. If anything else appeared to connect it’s a coincidence. I’ve only ever seen one of the films and that was more than 40 years ago.
Lovely puzzle. Hugely entertaining and enjoyable without being too difficult. Many thanks to Bluth and Duncan.