[New comment layout] - details here
Mudd is your FT setter this morning.
This was a fine puzzle. I took a while to finish it because the left hand side of the grid was sparsely populated after my first pass through the clues. The right hand side was pretty straightforward. Eventually I was left with FROTHING and OLD HAT, which just jumped into my head from nowhere and suddenly it was all over. With the possible exception of DOOBRY, there was nothing obscure in the puzzle and all of the clues were fair and the surfaces clean.
Thanks Mudd.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FROTHING |
Animal quaffing fine bubbly (8)
|
|
FROG ("animal") quaffing THIN ("fine") |
||
| 5 | BROOCH |
One’s clasped children briefly in front of church (6)
|
|
BROO(d) ("children", briefly) in front of Ch. (church) |
||
| 9 | MODERATE |
Fair friend crosses Polish river (8)
|
|
MATE ("friend") crosses ODER ("Polish river") |
||
| 10 | STATUS |
Standing in street, a long tooth filed down (6)
|
|
St. (street) + A + TUS(k) ("long tooth", filed down) |
||
| 12 | SNAKEBITE |
Alcoholic mixture is taken: be prepared! (9)
|
|
*(is taken be) [anag:prepared] For non-Brits, snakebite is a mix of cider and lager, which used to be very popular, but one never sees anyone drinking it these days. |
||
| 13 | VOICE |
Love concealed by evil speaker (5)
|
|
O (love, in tennis) concealed by VICE ("evil") |
||
| 14 | BACK |
Champion here again (4)
|
|
Double definition |
||
| 16 | KITCHEN |
Tackle starter of coronation chicken — here? (7)
|
|
KIT ("tackle") + [starter of] C(oronation) + HEN ("chicken") |
||
| 19 | HECTARE |
Metric measure in the race put right (7)
|
|
*(the race) [anag:put right] |
||
| 21 | SORT |
Kind, a little generous or thoughtful (4)
|
|
Hidden in [a little] "generouS OR Thoughtful" |
||
| 24 | WONGA |
Money earned, a third gained (5)
|
|
WON ("earned") + [a third (of)] GA(ined) |
||
| 25 | SODA WATER |
Splash in sea, toward waves (4,5)
|
|
*(sea toward) [anag:waves] |
||
| 27 | RARITY |
Rodin’s initial, one etched into decorative curio (6)
|
|
R(odin) ['s initial] + I (one) etched into ARTY ("decorative") |
||
| 28 | SCRAG END |
Lean meat cat originally buried in other gardens (5,3)
|
|
C(at) [originally] buried in *(gardens) [anag:other] |
||
| 29 | DOOBRY |
Thingummyjig that’s old and black swallowed by fish (6)
|
|
O(ld) + B(lack) swalled by DORY ("fish") "Doobry" is a word used to refer to something that's difficult to put a name to. It doesn't appear to be in Chambers, but is in the OED. |
||
| 30 | ARDENTLY |
With fire, tyre and wheel ultimately exploding (8)
|
|
*(tyre and l) [anag:exploding] where L is (whee)L [ultimately] |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FAMISH |
Food cut by three-quarters, Christian pacificts starve (6)
|
|
F(ood) [cut by three quarters] + AMISH ("Christian pacifists") |
||
| 2 | OLD HAT |
Worn-out skin on largish toad, mottled (3,3)
|
|
*(lh toad) [anag:mottled] where LH is the skin on L(argis)H |
||
| 3 | HORSE |
Hack perhaps impressed by author, seemingly (5)
|
|
Hidden in [impressed by] "autHOR SEemingly" |
||
| 4 | NITPICK |
Egg and cream for carp (7)
|
|
NIT (louse's "egg") + PICK ("cream") |
||
| 6 | ROTAVATOR |
Earth-breaking machine that may go up and down? (9)
|
|
ROTAVATOR ("earth-breaking machine") is palindromic, so is the same up and down |
||
| 7 | OUTRIGHT |
Total dismissed, one side (8)
|
|
OUT ("dismissed") + RIGHT ("one side") |
||
| 8 | HAS-BEENS |
Group of losers is on vegetarian diet, by the sound of it? (3-5)
|
|
Homophone [by the sound of it] of HAS BEANS ("is on a vegetarian diet") |
||
| 11 | NECK |
Drink part of bottle (4)
|
|
Double definition |
||
| 15 | ALABASTER |
Shade of white, as one browning chicken? (9)
|
|
A LA ("as") + BASTER ("one browning chicken?") |
||
| 17 | SHOWERED |
Peppered steak’s surface we found covered in house wine (8)
|
|
S(teak) ['s surfaced] + WE covered in Ho. (house) + RED ("wine") |
||
| 18 | SCENARIO |
Setting sun’s first air, once hazy (8)
|
|
S(un) ['s first] + *(air once) [anag:hazy] |
||
| 20 | EAST |
Ultimately where China is, point — this way (4)
|
|
[ultimately] (wher)E (chin)A (i)S (poin)T |
||
| 21 | SIDECAR |
Cider, as fermented for cocktail (7)
|
|
*(cider as) [ang:fermented] |
||
| 22 | ATTEST |
Confirm where bowler might be seen? (6)
|
|
A bowler may well be seen AT a cricket match (TEST) |
||
| 23 | CRUDDY |
Dirty colour primarily, red (6)
|
|
C(olour) [primarily] + RUDDY ("red") |
||
| 26 | WHALE |
Blubber by the sound of it — that’s what this has! (5)
|
|
Homophone [by the sound of it] of WAIL ("blubber") |
Thanks Mudd and loonapick!
Quite an enjoyable puzzle and a beautiful blog!
Liked KITCHEN, EAST and WHALE.
KITCHEN and EAST: Both are extended defs, I think.
A lot of items from the KITCHEN: food and beverages.
DOOBRY
My mobile Chambers App has this entry:
doobrey or doobrie
noun
A thing whose name is unknown or temporarily forgotten, a thingamy
DOOBRY is not there though (already mentioned so in the blog)
I had a similar experience to Loonapick finishing in the tricky NW corner with an unparsed FROTHING and MODERATE.
I liked BROOCH and ROTAVATOR ( such a long palindrome!). DOOBRY made me laugh; it’s what Miranda Hart’s mother used to call her daughter’s phone in her eponymous comedy show.
Thanks to Mudd and Loonapick for explaining all.
Thanks Mudd and Loonapick
29ac: Collins 2023 has doobry or doobrey (but not doobrie); ODE 2010 has all three spellings, and the usage example you know, the little plastic doobry that covers the connector.
Anyone remember the Doobry Brothers 🙂 Just joking (only just, mind you).
After the first pass, I had only three clues solved. Hmmm. I got into cryptics working through Pauls in the Guardian, so his style as Mudd is familiar. As with others, for me things started to click quadrant by quadrant, with my also finishing in the NW. DOOBRY must be one of those UK words because I have never seen it here. (“Doohickey” is surely an analog, though.) Solid puzzle and clean blog.
Nice puzzle – found it mostly straightforward but with a few chewier ones to make me think a bit.
Doobry is one of those words I’ve often heard/used in speech but don’t think I’ve ever had cause to write it down so have never given much thought to the spelling.
Always thought of the Oder as a German river (as in Frankfurt an der Oder, as opposed to Frankfurt am Main) but it spends most of its length within Poland so Mudd wins points for precision there.
Thanks, Mudd and Loonapick.
My Chambers (’93) doesn’t have doobie or dookie either – all it has is doodad and doodah – how remiss.
“Mens sana in thingummy doodah” – Victoria Wood(’89).
Nice to encounter Polish meaning … Polish for once so I more than willing for Mudd to so describe the Oder. A really enjoyable smooth puzzle. It is interesting when setters are able to adopt different personas for different publications and I do very much enjoy the Mudd incarnation. Clean, succinct, standalone clues with a few very imaginative and/or well-hidden defs scattered around. I’m not surprised there are several variants of DOOBRY; it’s often the case with such made up words. Probably fairly important in some circles to distinguish between doobry and doobie.
Thanks Mudd and loonapick
I think the Chambers lexicographers meant to include DOOBRY but just couldn’t remember what the word was. Paradoxically, I find Mudd a bit clearer than his alter ego. A very enjoyable puzzle and an excellent blog. Thanks
I went quadrant by quadrant too, starting in the NE and working my way anti-clockwise. I made steady progress and found much to enjoy along the way, with lots of smooth surfaces and great clues.
It was nice to see a river outside England in a clue. It was just a pity it was one that I did not know flowed through Poland. loonapick commented that were not many obscure words. Maybe not. But there was a good number of UK words new to me.
I commented that yesterday’s puzzle was not typical for that setter, and I felt today’s was not a typical Mudd. The humour was there, but more subtle than usual, and there were few of the trademark Mudd double definitions. Probably just me and, like yesterday, the more important point is that I enjoyed it.
Speaking of double definitions, would someone be kind enough to explain why BACK means champion? I now know that BACK is a tub for pickling, and Champion is a brand of backpack, but I cannot find the answer I want. As always, I am sure I am missing the obvious.
Thanks for a nice puzzle, Mudd, and thanks for a top blog loonapick
Martyn@11
to champion=to back/support
Gave up with 6 to go, all on the left-hand side.
Didn’t much enjoy. The ones I failed on weren’t that difficult (other than Doobry) but I had lost heart.
Thank you for explaining the mysteries, not least the semi non- word Doobry, where I had placed the inexplicable Doodah, not finding any other words which would possibly fit. Even resorting to the tactic of the lost; Word search.
At least Doodah has the correct number of letters and means Thingummyjig. My Chambers (on my phone) spells the D word as Doobrey.
Presumably this was the setter searching for some word to fit his gaps using WORDsearch and came up with this useless, unknown abomination
Hmmm
Martyn @ 11 “Back” and “champion” are both verbs meaning to support or get behind a person, a cause, an idea etc
Thanks loonapick and KVa for putting me out of my misery with champion.
28A Wouldn’t exactly describe scrag end of lamb as lean meat
28ac: Collins gives us scrag the lean end of a neck of veal or mutton.
Mark A @16: it’s the lean end of a lamb neck, as opposed to the shoulder end which is fattier
PB and PM appear to be leaning in the same direction 😉
Thanks for the blog, neat set of clues .
SCRAG END may be the leaner end of the neck but in no way is it lean meat . Full of flavour but needs long, slow cooking.
Petert@10 – 🙂 PM@19 – 😉
4d – NITPICK – “Egg and cream for carp (7)”
There is such a thing as an “egg cream” – https://premium.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/egg-cream?q=egg+cream has:
‘NOUN – US English – A drink consisting of milk and SODA WATER, flavoured with syrup.’
Omitting the “and”, it would make a good lift-and-separate, and could be linked to 25a. It contains neither eggs nor cream – ideal for cryptic manipulation.
It would need a US indicator. of course.
FrankieG – I know a song about that – it even gives the recipe:
“When I was a young man, no bigger than this
A chocolate egg cream was not to be missed
Some U Bet’s Chocolate Syrup, seltzer water mixed with milk
You stir it up into a heady fro, tasted just like silk”