A fun challenge from BUCCANEER this Friday.
FF: 9 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | HIT |
A little bit of sushi taken, certainly no turkey! (3)
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hidden in "..susHI Taken.." |
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| 10 | PROPOSITION |
Expert getting job offer (11)
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PRO ( expert ) POSITION ( job ) – very smooth surface |
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| 11 | REAVE |
Rob no longer taking ecstasy in wild party (5)
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E ( ecstasy ) in RAVE ( wild party ) – no longer is to indicate that the usage is obsolete |
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| 12 | THE WARDEN |
Trollope’s work — according to Basil Fawlty, something not to mention and study (3,6)
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THE WAR ( something not to mention according to basil fawlty ) DEN ( study ) |
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| 13 | BIG DEAL |
So what British model keeps in bottom of bag (3,4)
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B ( british ) [ IDEAL ( model ) containing G ( baG, last letter ) ] |
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| 14 | PALADIN |
Boy cutting French bread for knight (7)
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LAD ( boy ) in PAIN ( french bread ) |
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| 16 | ELECTRONIC PIANO |
Music maker possibly making EP? (10,5)
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E ( electronic ) P ( piano ) |
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| 20 | DECLINE |
Refuse some cocaine after the end of the year (7)
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DEC ( end of the year ) LINE ( some cocaine ) |
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| 23 | RAVIOLI |
Recipe with sauce smothering very Italian food (7)
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R ( recipe ) [ AIOLI ( sauce ) containing V ( very ) ] |
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| 25 | SKYDIVING |
Broadcaster in sport simulating daredevil activity (9)
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SKY ( broadcaster ) DIVING ( sport ) |
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| 26 | WHALE |
Good swimmer in the drink by Weymouth on vacation (5)
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WH ( WeymoutH, on vacation i.e. without inner letters ) ALE ( drink ) |
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| 27 | SOUTHAMPTON |
Relegated team’s pot shot, playing with Man U (11)
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[ POT SHOT MAN U }* |
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| 28 | LEA |
Grassland in spring, gently getting cut (3)
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LEAp ( spring, without P – gently ~ softly ) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SHORTBREAD |
Lacking money for a sweet treat (10)
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SHORT ( lacking ) BREAD ( money ) |
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| 2 | STRAGGLE |
Wander off course, having drunk lagers and G&T (8)
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[ LAGERS GT ]* |
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| 3 | SPHERE |
Shop’s wrapping present, perhaps a marble (6)
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SP ( ShoP, end characters ) HERE ( present ) |
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| 4 | PORTALOO |
Gate at the front opens outwards for convenience (8)
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PORTAL ( gate at the front ) O ( opens ? ) O ( outwards ? ) |
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| 5 | TONE UP |
Make firm edict on EU policy, essentially (4,2)
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hidden in ".. |
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| 6 | GIGAFLOP |
Measure of speed for computing performance a failure (8)
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GIG ( performance ) A FLOP ( failure ) |
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| 7 | WINDED |
Making large pants, wife certainly lacking energy once (6)
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W ( wife ) INDEeD ( certainly, without E – energy ) |
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| 8 | IN ON |
Aware of current option in a French referendum? (2,2)
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I ( current ) NON ( no in french, option in a referendum ) |
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| 15 | NEOLIBERAL |
Fan of Hayek and Friedman provoked a rebellion (10)
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[ A REBELLION ]* |
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| 17 | TWILIGHT |
Dimness shown by idiot not finishing crossword answer (8)
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TWIt ( idiot, without last letter ) LIGHT ( crossword answer ) |
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| 18 | IRRIGATE |
Water bug needing temperature to be good (8)
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IRRItATE ( bug, with T – temperature changing to G – good ) |
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| 19 | AMORALLY |
Recover, following American doctor with unprincipled approach (8)
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RALLY ( recover ) after [ A ( american ) MO ( doctor ) ] |
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| 21 | COYPUS |
Rodents playing hard to get with Manx cat (6)
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COY ( playing hard to get ) PUSs ( cat , without its tail i.e. last letter ) |
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| 22 | ENIGMA |
Imagine one’s lost, cracking cryptic puzzle (6)
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[ iMAGINE ( without I – one ) ]* |
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| 24 | VOWING |
Promising outstanding victory at first (6)
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V ( victory ) OWING ( outstanding ) |
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| 25 | SASH |
Cover of Shakira by quiet band (4)
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SA ( ShakirA, end characters ) SH ( quiet ) |
PORTALOO
I think
Gate=PORTAL
at the front ‘opens outwards’ =O O
Thanks for yet another entertaining puzzle, Buccaneer, and Turbolegs for the blog.
I think in 25 A that ‘in sport simulating’ is what clues ‘diving’ (earns football players a card, or should do.)
SKYDIVING
I agree with you Diane@2
ENIGMA
The def should be ‘cryptic puzzle’, I think.
And with you, KVa, re ‘PORTAL.O.O.’
Thanks Buccaneer and Turbolegs
I’m with KVa and Diana on the solutions they discuss. I also think there’s a minor tweak needed to the parsing of WINDED: ‘lacking energy once’ is key to the wordplay, as it’s the indicator that only one e is to be removed from ‘indeed’.
I rather liked PORTALOO, SOUTHAMPTON (on the subject of football) and TWILIGHT (harsh, Buccaneer, very harsh!)
Simon S@6
Agree with you on WINDED.
Good puzzle – agree with comments above – particularly liked SKYDIVING because of the “sport simulating” – made me laugh – as did THE WARDEN.
Did not know LIGHT = crossword answer
Thanks Buccaneer and turbolegs
A fun challenge indeed
Thanks to Buccaneer and Turbolegs
SKYDIVING – Nice spot, Diane@2 – Here’s a notorious exponent of the art:
https://www.theguardian.com/observer/osm/story/0,,1072648,00.html
The 10… …best football dives – Sunday 2 November 2003 Observer Sport Monthly
‘2: Jurgen Klinsmann – West Germany v Argentina, World Cup Final, 8 July 1990′ – I’m surprised he’s not Number One.
He came to England to play for that unmentionable North London club and celebrated his first goal by diving across the pitch.
Made for fun reading, Frankie G, though, of course, subjective. I suppose VAR has put paid to the most egregious examples but I can’t say I’m a fan of it.
JB is always good fun-this was on his lighter side and still the quality shone through.
(I must sound like his agent at times!)
PORTALOO – What Private Eye called Michael Portillo – taking the p*ss – another Number One.
SASH – or SASH! – is a “band” or DJ: his/her/their/its biggest HIT in 1997…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encore_une_fois
A Number Two. They had three Number Twos that year – no Number Ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz2bOXLEvuE
It’s far from “quiet” and there’s been no “Cover of Shakira” – except my me on the morning after a long walk: my “Hips Don’t Lie“
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues , I liked THE WARDEN for the Basil reference, REAVE and WINDED were carefully clued, ENIGMA not so precise.
11A was new to me. I know that “sheriff” is derived from “shire reeve” but I had no idea that “reave” means to “rob”. It was pretty easy to guess from the clue but I had to cheat by using an internet search engine.
17D: despite comments above, I, like Fiona, cannot equate “light” to “crossword answer”.
Thanks, Turbolegs.
LIGHT is a bit of an odd term, I have seen several explanations, none of them particularly convincing. The squares are light where we put the answer but this is not the answer itself.
Chambers has LIGHT = A hint, clue or help towards understanding . But this gives the clue not the answers.
Nevertheless, the word LIGHT is often used to mean the answer to a crossword clue .
Chambers also gives In a crossword, the word (or sometimes an individual letter in the word) on the diagram that is the answer to the clue.
Does this light have a plural form?
The answer to a clue is ‘light’. And this light consists of several ‘lights’?
Reave is probably better known these days as reive, as in the Edinburgh Reivers rugby club.
The border reivers are well know on the Scottish/ England border. They were the raiders who crossed the border from both sides to rape, plunder and pillage.
The puzzle was also enjoyable so thanks to Bucaneer and Turbolegs.
Thanks Buccaneer. I loved the surface of TWILIGHT even though it described me in failing to solve THE WARDEN, PORTALOO, and GIGAFLOP. All else made sense with DECLINE, IRRIGATE, COYPUS, and ENIGMA being favourites. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Thanks S & B,
Apparently there’s a Hayek-Friedman hypothesis. I was thinking it was Friedkin and got on the wrong track.
Abbreviations are funny things; E or e is electronic, but piano is only p, not P. I’ve seen a few clues with PM in the clue referring to the afternoon, but that is pm. I can imagine someone writing on a note eg ‘REHEARSAL THIS PM CANCELLED’, but even if you were writing in capitals you would use a small p for piano.
I was thinking it was Salma… 🙂
Dimly remembered this – knew it starred Steve McQueen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reivers_(film)
‘The Reivers (also known as The Yellow Winton Flyer in the UK is a 1969 Technicolor film in Panavision starring Steve McQueen and directed by Mark Rydell based on the 1962 William Faulkner novel The Reivers, a Reminiscence‘
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reivers
‘The Reivers: A Reminiscence, published in 1962, is the last novel by the American author William Faulkner. The bestselling novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963 – a 60-year anniversary.
Thanks all
I found this one on the challenging side for Buccaneer, but enjoyed his quality surfaces as always
You have collectively covered most of my comments and questions. I also did not know REAVE or LIGHT, and I thank Turbolegs for showing me how to parse IN ON and IRRIGATE. My ticks went against THE WARDEN and STRAGGLE.
Thanks to Buccaneer, Turbolegs and the people that commented before me for a nice puzzle, a great blog and an interesting conversation.
I found it interesting that “Expert getting job” could give ‘provocation’ as well, although this doesn’t equate to ‘offer’.
Hovis@28 An expert getting a job is only a provocation to Michael Gove.
Thanks Turbolegs, agree this was most enjoyable, SPHERE somehow took me as long as the rest put together (but parsing PORTALOO also took a while – strange but without the suffix “way” i didn’t see that meaning of gate). And thanks also Simon S, I guessed REAVE from the rugby team’s etymology but luckily had forgotten how to spell it! Roz@16 makes a good point re ENIGMA given the precision elsewhere, I suppose something is sacrificed for the surface. Most of all thanks to Buccaneer of course.
Petert@29 🙂
“R” means recipe? Can’t see that in my Chambers.
Brian L: From Merriam-Webster
The “R” in “Rx” stands for the Latin word recipe, meaning “take,” and the first doctor to use “Rx” used it as a verb with the same meaning, “Rx two aspirin” being equivalent to today’s “Take two aspirin.” (The word recipe had had the same function from the 13th through the 17th centuries.) Those two letters were a 19th-century take on a 16th-century symbol, the letter R with a line through its slanted leg-the line signaling that the “R” is functioning as an abbreviation. It wasn’t till the early 20th century that “Rx” came to be used as the noun we know today. As for the noun “recipe,” it followed the same trajectory, referring to a medical prescription for about 100 years before it developed its connection with cooking in the early 17th century.
Well that’s amazing – thank you Tony. It’s way beyond my sphere of knowledge!