Crosophile is an Independent setter who has appeared a few times every year since 2011. He also sets barred crosswords for the Inquisitor and Enigmatic Variations where fifteensquared first mentions him in 2007.
There were clues with many parts today – CONCLAVES at 18 down taking the award for the most. I learnt recently that Guardian solvers refer to similar clues as Lego clues presumably because you stick many parts together to make the whole. I quite like them, especially if they are concise as the clue for APPRENTICESHIP was in a recent Guardian Prize puzzle (29278). I expect a few solvers went looking at clues 5, 8 and 6 when first encountering the clue for CONCLAVES.
I understand what the clue for WARP (6 across) is getting at, but why do we ignore the word ‘and’ in the title of WAR and PEACE when counting the letters?
I took a while to understand the wordplay for INCREASED, but it was a bit of a doh! moment when te penny dropped.
This being a Tuesday puzzle there is a theme. There are a number of dance styles in the grid. I have highlighted the ones for which Wikipedia has a specific entry, although one style is made up of two words, TIME and WARP.
The styles I spotted were LOCOMOTION, TIME WARP, TWIST, STROLL, STILETTO, VOGUE, ROBOT, POGO, DISCO and TIGER. The TIGER style is a bit different from the others, but it does have its own Wikipedia entry.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Behold millions leaving fracas and moving (10)
LOCOMOTION (movement; moving) LO (behold!) + COMMOTION (disturbance; fracas) excluding (leaving) one of the Ms (millions) LO COMOTION – either M could be the one removed |
| 6 | Is half of Tolstoy’s work distortion? (4)
WARP (permanent distortion of timber) WARP forms 4 of 8 [half of the letters in the key words] of the title of Tolstoy’s novel WAR and PEACE. Surely though, the title is the full WAR AND PEACE of which WARP forms 4/11 of the letters WARP |
| 10 | Mug holding seconds – it risks getting bust (5)
TWIST (ask for another card in a game of pontoon, which could take you close to 21, or alternatively could risk taking take you beyond 21 [bust]) TWIT (idiot; mug) containing (holding) S (seconds) TWI (S) T |
| 11 | Up is where bats may be found in the end (9)
INCREASED (higher; up) IN CREASE (in a game of cricket, bats may be seen IN the CREASE) + D (last letter of [at the end] FOUND) IN CREASE D |
| 12 | Sits on the fence – tar leaves a mark (8)
ABSTAINS (does not favour one choice or the other; sits on the fence) AB (able seaman; sailor; tar) + STAINS (leaves a mark) AB STAINS |
| 13 | Ramble stokes internet pest (6)
STROLL (walk at a leisurely pace; ramble) S (stokes [the CGS unit of kinematic viscosity]) + TROLL (person who posts deliberately inflammatory messages on line; internet pest) S TROLL |
| 15 | How Joe functions in a doodah (5)
GISMO (gadget; doodah) GI’S (reference GI Joe [American soldier]) + MO (modus operandi; way of working) – so all together we have ‘How Joe functions’ [works] GIS MO |
| 17 | Poirot’s one act that keeps detectives in two minds (9)
UNDECIDED (in two minds)_ UN (French [Hercule Poirot was a fictional French detective] for ‘one’) + (DEED [act] containing [that keeps] CID [Criminal Investigation Department; detectives]) UN DE (CID) ED |
| 20 | County go astray heading west, delayed for match (9)
CORRELATE (are related to one another; correspond; match) CO (County) + ERR (go astray) reversed (heading west) + LATE (delayed) CO RRE< LATE |
| 21 | Soldiers beginning to march amid poles and standards (5)
NORMS (standards) (OR [other ranks; soldiers] + M [first letter of {beginning to} MARCH) contained in (amid) (N [North {pole} + S [South {pole}] giving poles) N (OR M) S |
| 22 | Advances turned an old city around (6)
RUN-UPS (approaches; advances) (SPUN [turned] + UR [ancient city in Mesopotamia]) all reversed (around) (RU N UPS)< |
| 24 | Unsuitable shoe for rambling climb on walk, too much on way back (8)
STILETTO (high heeled woman’s shoe that would be wholly unsuitable for rambling in open country) STILE (an object to be climbed over on walk [or ramble]) + OTT (over the top; too much) reversed (on the way back) STILE TTO< |
| 27 | Maybe Melvyn with e.g. music and drama loudmouths (9)
BRAGGARTS (boasters; loudmouths) BRAGG (reference Melvyn BRAGG [born 1939], English broadcaster and parliamentarian) + ARTS (music and drama) BRAGG ARTS |
| 28 | The latest government u-turns on university education primarily (5)
VOGUE (the mode or fashion at any particular time; the latest) GOV (government) reversed (U-turns) + UE (first letters [primarily] of each of UNIVERSITY and EDUCATION) VOG< U E |
| 29 | Item cast into spell (4)
TIME (period of time; spell) Anagram of (cast) ITEM TIME* |
| 30 | Rubbings out including black mark over in window recesses (10)
EMBRASURES (recesses of doors or windows) ERASURES (rubbings out) containing (including) (B [black when referring to pencil lead] + M (Mark [Deutschmark]) reversed (over) E (M B)< RASURES |
| Down | |
| 1 | Teach girl to dance like a zombie (9)
LETHARGIC (like a zombie [slow-moving lethargic person]) Anagram of (to dance) TEACH GIRL LETHARGIC* |
| 2 | Pinches cold food that might be spare? (5)
CRIBS (copies; plagiarises; pinches) C (cold) + RIBS (reference ‘spare RIBS‘ [pieces of pork consisting of ribs with a little meat adhering to them]) C RIBS |
| 3 | Crosophile initially took (consumed) an ace drug (9)
METHADONE (synthetic addictive drug similar to morphine, longer acting than heroin) ME (the setter; Crosophile) + T (first letter of [initially] TOOK) + HAD (consumed) + ONE (ace) ME T HAD ONE |
| 4 | Court case about loaded gun and a rule involving three parties (10)
TRIANGULAR (involving three persons or parties) (TRIAL [court case] containing [about] an anagram of [loaded, in the sense of drunken] GUN) + A + R (rule) TRIA (NGU*) L A R |
| 5 | Former head not the front-runner (4)
ONCE (former) BONCE (slang term for the head) excluding (not) the first letter (front-runner) B ONCE |
| 7 | A fly-by-night scam deviously based around rand (9)
ABSCONDER (one who leaves quickly and secretly; a fly-by-night can be defined as an absconding debtor) (Anagram of [deviously] BASED containing [around] CON [scam]) + R (rand) ABS (CON) DE* R |
| 8 | Boy kept inside, brought up a soft one perhaps? (5)
PEDAL (PEDALs can be described as SOFT [e.g. SOFT PEDAL for reducing the tone in a piano, or SOFT-PEDAL [tone down; avoid emphasising or alluding to]) (LAD [boy] + EP [central letters of {inside} KEPT]) all reversed (brought up; down entry) (PE DAL)< |
| 9 | Immediately after Exodus in bible books (4)
NEXT (immediately after) EX (abbreviation for the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament of the bible) contained in (NT [New testament; bible books) N (EX) T |
| 14 | He might make circular plug, trailer or fancy driver seat (10)
ADVERTISER (someone who draws attention to events or sales, for instance, possibly by putting a printed announcement in a circular, or by plugging the event / item on some form of media or by using a film trailer) Anagram of (fancy) DRIVER SEAT ADVERTISER* |
| 16 | Forceful ballad about traveller on vacation and a vacant room (9)
STRONGARM (using physical force; forceful) (SONG [balled] containing [about] TR [letters remaining in TRAVELLER when the central letters RAVELLE are removed [on vacation]) + A + RM (letters remaining in ROOM when the central letters OO are removed [vacant]) S (TR) ONG A RM |
| 18 | Groups of cardinals: 100, close to 150, a 5, 8 and 6 for starters (9)
CONCLAVES (groups of cardinals who elect a Pope) C (Roman numeral for 100) + ON (close to) + CL (Roman numeral for 150) + A + V (Roman numeral for 5) + ES (first letters [for starters] of each of EIGHT and SIX) C ON CL A V ES |
| 19 | Finds record sleeves Charlie missed once (9)
DISCOVERS (finds) DISC COVERS (record covers) excluding one of [missed once] the Cs (cocaine; Charlie) DIS C OVERS – either C could be the one excluded |
| 22 | Marvin for instance, born in foundation (5)
ROBOT (reference Marvin the paranoid android, the fictional robot on the spaceship in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) B (born) contained in (in) ROOT (foundation) RO (B) OT |
| 23 | The Republicans are up only at first, to move up and down but go nowhere (4)
POGO (to jump up and down on the spot [i.e. go nowhere horizontally]) GOP (Grand Old Party; the Republican political party in America) reversed (are up; down entry) + O (initial letter of [at first] ONLY) POG< O |
| 25 | It’s tense on mountain below summit – this animal is dangerous (5)
TIGER (a dangerous animal) T (tense) + EIGER (reference the EIGER mountain in the Bernese Alps) excluding the first letter, E, leaving the letters IGER [below summit]) T IGER |
| 26 | Caught by farm animal in crush (4)
CRAM (crush) C (caught) + RAM (a farm animal) C RAM |
Thanks Crosophile and duncanshiell!
Enjoyed solving the puzzle and reading the blog.
Top faves: INCREASED, GISMO and PEDAL.
Completely forgot to look for a theme but it’s obvious now it’s pointed out. Doh! Fun puzzle though. Pretty much the same favourites as KVa for me. Thanks, Crosophile and Duncan.
I found this quite hard to get into today. And hard to finish with the NW proving tricky until the METHADONE kicked in! STILETTO, LETHARGIC, ABSCONDER, ADVERTISER, STRONGARM and TIGER were my favourites.
Interesting point about WAR (AND) PEACE. We do often see elements of fodder combined, say to create a hidden, sometimes using ‘and’ as the conjunction and sometimes with a more emphatic joining indicator. I think the problem with this one is the ‘and’ already existing which does rather scupper the clue. Query – what if there is an ampersand linking the two elements? Do we ignore it as a non-letter character, do we insert the word ‘and’, do we insert the word ‘ampersand’ ???
Thanks Crosophile and duncan
I wasn’t too bothered with WARP. I felt the question mark indicated a certain stretching of the normal conventions meaning we have to take ‘War and Peace’ to mean War (together with) Peace. I’m sure we all understand this but I can see the objections.
There’s also DISCO in 19d which may have been missed due to a typo in the grid shown, I suspect there’s more but can’t see ’em. Thanks Duncan and Crosophile
Although he undoubtedly spoke French mes amis, M. Poirot was in fact Belgian.
Very much enjoyed this with 1D, 10 and 15 my favourites so thanks to Crosophile and Duncan
Flashling @ 6
Thanks for seeing the typo in the grid. I have updated the blog with the correct grid and I have also highlighted DISCO as an additional dance style.
Thanks both. A rarity for me, in that I spotted the theme and almost all of its components, so grateful for not owning a bungalow, I will head for the foot of our stairs. INCREASED was also a d’oh moment, though hopefully bats (plural) are not in the same crease as it would lead to a run out, talking of which RUN-UPS was enumerated as (6) and not (3-3) which I might have expected.
Thanks for the blog and comments. Glad people seemed to enjoy the puzzle. I understand the critique of the WARP clue and agree with Hovis at #4. I’m happy with the occasional slight bending of strict orthodoxy if it is signposted by a ‘?’.
Incidentally, my other main handle is Charybdis for thematics, and in addition to the Inquisitors and EV’s I’ve had Listener, Magpie and ‘Crossword’ magazine puzzles [and one in CAM]. I’m slowly creeping close to 200 such puzzles published though my production rate and brainpower is slowing down, alas.
I really enjoyed this but could not spot the theme. Even when it’s been pointed out I realize that I hardly know any of these dance styles, in fact only three. Congrats to Crosophile for getting close to 200 published puzzles and please let us know when you do. Thanks also to duncanshiell.
Thanks, Alliocol.
I’m over 100 Crosophiles now, and the ‘close to 200’ is with my Charybdis hat on – though actually that includes several collaborations, mostly with Ploy as half of Harpy.