Over the holiday period I have been overwhelmed trying to keep up with solving the blowout of special, extra, and jumbo crosswords, and here today we have a new Bobcat puzzle with some very inventive twists and turns . . .
. . . plus a nina of BIG CATS descending in the unchecked letters of the ninth column. Please let me know of any refinements to the parsing.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SIT-UPS |
Pay attention at commencement of stretching exercises (3-3)
|
| SIT UP! (Pay attention!) + first letter of (commencement of) S[TRETCHING] | ||
| 4 | BILGES |
Section of Hull library, having withdrawn first part of Great Expectations, is gutted (6)
|
| LIB. (library) reversed (having withdrawn) + first letter of (first part of) G[REAT] + outside letters of (is gutted) E[XPECTATION]S | ||
| 9 | SHIN |
Princess Grace’s tip is to leave party showing a bit of leg (4)
|
| SHINDIG (party) minus (is to leave) {DI (princess) + first letter of (tip [of]) G[RACE] | ||
| 10 | ADMISSIBLE |
Outrageously bad lie about teacher is not unacceptable (10)
|
| Anagram of (outrageously) BAD LIE around (about) MISS (teacher) | ||
| 11 | ARROYO |
Hear Roy Orbison’s contribution to US rock channel (6)
|
| Hidden in (contribution to) [HE]AR ROY O[RBISON’S], defined in Chambers as a US term meaning “a rocky ravine” | ||
| 12 | AGNOSTIC |
A number recalled uncontrollable movement of scepticism (8)
|
| A + SONG (number) reversed (recalled) + TIC (uncontrollable movement) | ||
| 13 | JOAN OF ARC |
Little woman, a Francomaniac? (4,2,3)
|
| &lit and JO (little woman, i.e., Jo March of Little Women) + A + anagram of (maniac) FRANCO | ||
| 15 | GNAT |
Fly in fast vehicle around North America (4)
|
| GT (fast vehicle, short for gran turismo) around NA (North America) | ||
| 16 | PAWN |
Man and wife enthralled by God (4)
|
| W (wife) inside (enthralled by) PAN (god), referring to chess | ||
| 17 | PSALMISTS |
Songwriters: people making a fortune from lines about sentiment (chiefly) (9)
|
| PALMISTS (people making a fortune from lines, i.e., telling a fortune from reading the lines on a palm) around (about) first letter of (chiefly) S[ENTIMENT] | ||
| 21 | PARADIGM |
Model diagram/pattern in first place (8)
|
| &lit/triple[?] definition and anagram of (model) {DIAGRAM + first letter of (in first place) P[ATTERN]} | ||
| 22 | ALLEGE |
Claim member’s consumed alcohol? On the contrary! (6)
|
| ALE (alcohol) around ([has] consumed) LEG (member), with “on the contrary” indicating that the order of the elements in the original clue should be reversed | ||
| 24 | UNDERPANTS |
Wordplay for ‘nuder’ referring to basic clothing (10)
|
| Double definition and anagram of (pants) UNDER = NUDER. I am not entirely sure how to classify this when “the solution is its own clue,” but I hope you get the idea. | ||
| 25 | SITE |
Position of society, bereft of prime members, heading for extinction (4)
|
| S[OC]I[E]T[Y] minus (bereft of) the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 7th letters (“prime” members) + first letter of (heading for) E[XTINCTION] | ||
| 26 | ROTATE |
Turn soldiers back before French state is overthrown (6)
|
| OR (soldiers) reversed (back) + ÉTAT (state [in] French) reversed (overthrown) | ||
| 27 | SNOOTY |
Superior sort of toy given to wayward son (6)
|
| Anagram of (wayward) SON + anagram of (sort of) TOY | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCHERZO |
Music of Australia boosted by No 1 from Sonny & Cher (7)
|
| First letter of (No 1 from) S[ONNY] + CHER + OZ (Australia) inverted (boosted) | ||
| 2 | TANGO |
Take steps to leave after short function (5)
|
| TAN (short function, i.e., abbreviation of tangent) + GO (to leave), cryptically meaning “to dance” | ||
| 3 | PLAY-OFF |
Amateur’s out of form, under pressure in decisive match (4-3)
|
| P (pressure) + LAY (amateur) + OFF (out of form) | ||
| 5 | INSANE |
Independent car maker is lacking employees, principally in Barking (6)
|
| I (independent) + N[IS]SAN (car maker) minus (lacking) IS + first letter of (principally) E[MPLOYEES], with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 6 | GLISSANDI |
Effects of sliding I’d reversed after signals changed (9)
|
| Anagram of (changed) SIGNALS + I’D reversed | ||
| 7 | SOLOIST |
One so lost in performance? (7)
|
| &lit and anagram of (in performance) {I (one) + SO LOST}; I really wanted this to parse as: I (one) inside (in) SO LOST, but I cannot figure out how to make that work. | ||
| 8 | EMBARRASSMENT |
Shame to ban old clothing I exchanged for two shillings (13)
|
| EMBAR (to ban) + RA[I]MENT (old [word for] clothing) with the I replaced by (exchanged for) S + S (two shillings) | ||
| 14 | NEWSAGENT |
Shop spy following information received (9)
|
| NEWS (information received) + AGENT (spy) | ||
| 16 | PLANNER |
I’m looking forward to critic taking on Liberal (7)
|
| PANNER (critic) around (taking on) L (Liberal) | ||
| 18 | LIAISON |
Union trouble over single issue (7)
|
| AIL (trouble) inverted (over) + I (single) + SON (issue) | ||
| 19 | TIGHTLY |
Firmly and correctly making fresh start (7)
|
| [R]IGHTLY (correctly) with a different first letter (making a fresh start). I do not see any indication of the change from R specifically to T. | ||
| 20 | LIMPET |
Naughty child’s allowed outside, but he won’t go (6)
|
| LET (allowed) around (outside) IMP (naughty child), defined in Chambers as “a person not easily got rid of” | ||
| 23 | LASSO |
Climbing across a ledge requires this rope (5)
|
| Hidden in (requires[?]) [ACR]OSS A L[EDGE] inverted (climbing). Perhaps a bit of an &lit here, with something like Indiana Jones in mind. |
You’ve more than kept your head above water, Cineraria. Thanks for all your efforts as, it’s true, the puzzles have been coming thick and fast and I’ve had to pick choose for lack of time.
You have SOLOIST as I did though I thought 24a”s definition was just ‘basic clothing’. In any case, it was an enjoyable clue along with LIMPET and JOAN OF ARC.
I did need help seeing the full parsing for 8d.
There was a lot of satisfyingly chewy wordplay in this.
Thanks both to Bobcat and Cineraria for getting the New Year off to a fine start.
Thanks Bobcat for an excellent crossword. I missed BIG CATS because I never looked for them and I failed with SCHERZO and INSANE but everything else made sense with ARROYO, AGNOSTIC, JOAN OF ARC, UNDERPANTS, SITE, ROTATE, SNOOTY, PLAY-OFF, and SOLOIST being top picks. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, a very inventive puzzle with numerous clever clues. JOAN OF ARC and PARADIGM are very neatly done . UNDERPANTS I agree with Diane@1 , defintion plus wordplay, I call the wordplay a reverse anagram . ARROYO is a new word to learn , the clue was very fair. Only SOLOIST earned a severe Paddington stare.
Did not see or look for BIG CATS , I wonder if more is going on . There is no definite agreement on which are the big cats and how to decide. My favourite is that big cats can roar and all the rest can purr.
Ah, the FT’s ailurophile is up to his old tricks! Bobcat got me good and proper this time; I admit I’d stopped looking for a feline nine so I missed it!
A feline nina is what i meant.
Roz @3. You may be interested to know (but most probably not) that you made the same comment about ARROYO being a new word for you back in a Guardian crucible crossword (Jan 12, 2022). Nearly 2 years ago, so plenty of time to forget. I parsed SOLOIST as in blog but didn’t even notice it was just I in SO LIST. Wonder if Bobcat didn’t notice either.
SO LOST not SO LIST.
Re UNDERPANTS, I’d concur with Diane on the single def and with Roz in calling it a reverse anagram, as a specific type of reverse cryptic. I have seen American solvers refer to these as ‘revenge’ clues. And, in my book, it’s a lift and separate too. I parsed SOLOIST as per the blog – and suspect the &lit is what Bobcat was aiming for so I’m sure they noticed the construction. Worked for me.
Other big ticks went to SHIN, ARROYO, JOAN OF ARC, PSALMISTS, SITE, TANGO, SOLOIST and NEWSAGENT.
Thanks Bobcat and Cineraria
Liked SCHERZO – where Sonny & Cher had to be lifted and separated not only from each other but also from their only US & UK No 1 I Got You Babe(1965).
Thanks B&C
I gave up with 5 to go.
Not too hard; I should’ve got them.
Bah.