Rodriguez has provided our Thursday cruciverbal challenge, with plenty of 2 for us to get our teeth into.
I found this to be an enjoyable puzzle, medium to hard in terms of difficulty, and I think that I have managed to solve and parse everything correctly. Interestingly, it took an awful long time for the penny to drop as regards the wordplay at 18.
My favourite clues today were 4 and 7A, both for smoothness of surface; and 22, for its original construction, with the substituted solution spanning the break between definition and wordplay.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | MACHO | Butch Cassidy’s opening hotel, with despot coming round
[C<assidy> (“opening” means first letter only) + H (=hotel, in radio telecommunications)] in MAO (=despot, from China) |
| 08 | UNDERFOOT | Downtrodden, like Labour in the early 80s?
In the early 80s, Labour was “under (Michael) Foot”, i.e. its party leader |
| 10 | COUP D’ÉTAT | It involves seizing control of car touring Germany? Rubbish!
[D (=Germany, in IVR) in COUPÉ (=car)] + TAT (=rubbish) |
| 11 | BRAVO | Five nil? Supporter begins to give a cheer
BRA (= “supporter”, i.e. of woman’s chest) + V (=five, in Roman numerals) + O (=nil) |
| 12 | IDYLLS OF THE KING | Elvis’s problems, penning extremely dreary verses
D<rear>Y (“extremely” means first and last letters only) in ILLS OF THE KING (=Elvis’s problems, cryptically); Idylls of the King is a set of narrative poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published between 1859 and 1885 |
| 15 | RHYME | Recital of Frost’s poetry
Homophone (“recital”) of “rime (=frost)” |
| 16 | KRONA | Cash from working aboard boat heading west
ON (=working) in KRA (ARK=boat; “heading west” indicates reversal) |
| 20 | PAST PARTICIPLES | Clap artist with pipes performing ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’?
*(CLAP ARTIST + PIPES); “performing” is anagram indicator; signed, sealed and delivered are examples of past participles of verbs |
| 22 | NAIVE | Easy to 14 unusual name ultimately
With the answer at 14 added, the full clue reads “Easy to take in vain unusual name ultimately”; *(VAIN) + <nam>E (“ultimately” means last letter only); “unusual” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | MOVIE STAR | Cruise, say, I’ve arranged through part of Herzegovina
*(I’VE) in MOSTAR (=part of Herzegovina, i.e. city in south); “arranged” is anagram indicator; the reference is to US actor and producer Tom Cruise (1962-) |
| 25 | PAKISTANI | Asian pianist jazzily incorporating covers of alt-rock
A<lt-roc>K (“covers of” means first and last letters) in *(PIANIST); “jazzily” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | INAPT | Unsuitable confession from person who nods off before time
I NAP (=confession from person who nods off) + T (=time) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | ECRU | Greyish old French bread? Recipe’s included
R (=recipe, from Latin) in ÉCU (=old French bread, i.e. old French coin) |
| 02 | WORDPLAY | Zorro’s skill not primarily what cruciverbalists enjoy?
<s>WORDPLAY (=Zorro’s skill, in the books by Johnston McCulley); “not primarily” means first letter is dropped |
| 03 | AUCTIONEER | Gold Conservative figure deposited in bank – he has lots to dispose of
AU (=gold, i.e. chemical symbol) + C (=Conservative) + [ONE (=figure) in TIER (=bank, row)]; the “lots” of the definition are lots offered for sale at auction |
| 04 | EDIT | Polish area of Shoreditch
Hidden (“area of”) in “shorEDITch”; to polish is to refine, tidy up, hence “edit” |
| 05 | ARABLE | A mob, wanting book, showing cultivation
A + RA<b>BLE (=mob; “wanting book (=B)” means one letter “b” is dropped) |
| 06 | TO CAP IT ALL | Group about to invest funds as the finishing touch
CAPITAL (=funds) in TOL (LOT=group, set; “about” indicates reversal) |
| 07 | MUCK IN | Host inviting in posh clan to participate
[U (=posh, i.e. upper-class) in MC (=host, i.e. master of ceremonies)] + KIN (=clan) |
| 09 | THOUGH | Still in hot pants? How distasteful!
*(HOT) + UGH (=how distasteful!); “pants (=nonsense)” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | YARDSTICKS | Policemen with special signs of approval for standards
YARD (=policemen, i.e. New Scotland Yard) + S (=special) + TICKS (=sign of approval, e.g. when marking schoolwork) |
| 14 | TAKE IN VAIN | Show disrespect to area covered by e.g. Bordeaux after visit
TAKE IN (=visit, as in to take in Niagara Falls on a trip) + [A (=area) in VIN (=e.g. Bordeaux, i.e. French wine)] |
| 17 | OLIVE OIL | We hear it’s a spinach-guzzler’s beloved foodstuff
Homophone (“we hear”) of “Olive Oyl (=a spinach-guzzler (=Popeye)’s beloved” |
| 18 | OPEN UP | Old lovers’ agreement ignores right to speak honestly
O (=old, as in OT) + P<r>ENUP (=lover’s agreement, i.e. prenuptial agreement; “ignores right (=R)” means letter “r” is dropped) |
| 19 | ESPRIT | Wit needing fizzy drink to raise energy
SPRITE (=fizzy drink); “to raise energy (=E)” means letter “e” moves to a higher position in the word |
| 21 | PLEASE | Introduction of people’s charter getting polite acceptance
P<eople> (“introduction of” means first letter only) + LEASE (=charter); e.g. “yes, please” indicates polite acceptance of an offer |
| 23 | MWAH | Actor bowled over, receiving women’s theatrical kiss
W (=women) in MAH (HAM=actor; “bowled over” indicates reversal) |
| 24 | TRAP | Source of water around river mouth
R (=river) in TAP (=source of water); colloquially, trap means mouth, as in Shut your trap! |
Very nice.
I liked MWAH!
This was challenging but very enjoyable apart from my usual gripe. The enumeration for D’ETAT should be (1’4) and definitely not (5).
With lots of great clues on show, the outstanding PAST PARTICIPLES was my favourite.
Many thanks to Rodriguez and to RR.
All very smooth except 9D, where I struggled to equate ‘though’ with ‘still’. Thanks Rodriguez and an early-rising RatkojaRiku.
Very, very enjoyable and bang in the sweet spot. I needed all the crossers for TO CAP IT ALL and a moment of inspiration to figure out Elvis’s contribution to the nho poem. (Blame my poor literary education!)
Favourites today include: UNDERFOOT, KRONA, PAST PARTICIPLES, ARABLE, THOUGH, OPEN UP, PLEASE and MWAH. Loads of wit and imagination as ever.
Thanks Rodriguez and RR – who has, indeed, either set the alarm for very early or has stayed up very late.
Enjoyable puzzle. I needed a good night’s sleep to be able to work out my last in TO CAP IT ALL. Bits and pieces that I didn’t know about such as the ‘verses’ at 12a and the ‘part of Herzegovina’ at 23a but wordplay and crossers helped. I take RD @2’s point about the enumeration of COUP D’ETAT though maybe it’s thought that showing the apostrophe would make the answer too obvious; with the enumeration as given, the answer wasn’t obvious to me.
The surface for UNDERFOOT was my favourite bit.
Thanks to Rodriguez and RR
Great. Liked Past Participles a lot. Entered thongs for 9D having all the crossers but without thinking it through. Thanks.
Another very enjoyable crossword from Picaroon
Many thanks to him and RR
What crypticsue said.
Thanks both. NAIVE was sufficiently ingenious to defeat my complete parsing, and I was slightly questioning of ECRU having assumed the old French ‘bread’ was the European Currency Unit (ECU) before coming here – I am still not sure which is the most obscure, but I am not trying to start a discussion about revolutions
What Eileen said!
Plenty to enjoy, and not too challenging. We liked PAST PARTICIPLES and MOVIE STAR.
The convention of not indicating apostrophes in enumeration does seem a little odd, given that hyphens are indicated. But, as WordPlodder says, including an apostrophe makes an answer more obvious – more so than does a hyphen. Just one of those things, we suppose.
Thanks, Rodriguez and RR.
Couple of things I needed to investigoogle, namely the dreary verses and the part of Herzegovina, and I’m not convinced about ecru being greyish although our setter obviously is!
Top clues for me were those for UNDERFOOT, WORDPLAY & OPEN UP.
Thanks to Rodriguez and to RR for the review.
Thanks, Rodriguez & RR. Can only echo everyone else – delightful puzzle, as usual. The inventive treatment for NAIVE is just wonderful.
Bravo to the setter. In whatever guise he appears Rodriguez never fails to come up trumps.
In a strong field my winners are AUCTIONEER, OLIVE OIL (lol) and TO CAP IT ALL.
Many thanks to the aforementioned Rodriguez and RR for a top blog.
Great work as always by this setter.
Particularly enjoyed 22 (wordplay device perhaps new to me!) and 23d.
Very nice crossword. Enjoyed MWAH, OPEN UP amongst others.