We have another challenging puzzle from Filbert today with the usual good mix of clue types.
The phrase CATCH AT STRAWS is not one I have heard before. I normally use CLUTCH or GRASP rather than CATCH, but I note that Chambers lists the phrase and its variants under the headword CATCH.
There were a few prisons and Nicks in the clues, but not enough to constitute a theme.
My last one in was 14 across, a bit of an old chestnut using ENTRANCE for ‘charming’, but it kept me thinking for a while before the penny dropped.
I liked the clue for TWINS at 26 across.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| Across | 1 Duck stayed local around muddy green (5,4)
OLIVE DRAB (the olive green of American military uniforms; a muddy green colour) O (character representing zero [love score at tennis]) + LIVED (resided; stayed) + BAR (pub; local) reversed (around) O LIVE D RAB< |
| 6 | Request charity houses popular person (5)
BEING (person) BEG (request charity) containing (houses) IN (popular) BE (IN) G |
| 9 | Putting the fear into flying (5)
AWING (putting the fear into) AWING (on the wing; in the sky; flying) double definition AWING |
| 10 | Recognised California by prison on island (9)
CANONICAL (orthodox or accepted; recognised) CAN (slang for prison) + ON + I (island) + CAL (California) CAN ON I CAL |
| 11 | Case of lady in Rome confused with Roman goddess (7,6)
MARILYN MONROE (An American actress and film star [1926 – 1962], MONROE was often referred to as a sex goddess. There is a biography of her entitled "Goddess") Anagram of (confused … with) LY (outer letters of [case of] LADY) and IN ROME and ROMAN MARILYN MONROE* – I thought initially that ‘IN‘ was a containment indicator for LY, but it is needed for the anagram |
| 14 | Soprano on debut is charming (9)
ENTRANCES (is charming) ENTRANCE (first appearance; debut) + S (soprano) ENTRANCE S |
| 16 | System of rules and suchlike hosts welcome (5)
ETHIC (system of morals or rules of behaviour) ETC (et cetera [and suchlike]) containing (hosts) HI (expression or greeting of welcome) ET (HI) C |
| 18 | Specialised hospital, friendly nurses (5)
NICHE (a small, specialized group identified as a market for a particular range of products or services) NICE (friendly) containing (nurses) H (hospital;) NIC (H) E |
| 19 | Shout thanks, getting more gold (9)
YELLOWING (getting more gold in colour) YELL (shout) + OWING (to owe can be defined as ‘have to thank’, so OWING could mean ‘thanks’) YELL OWING |
| 20 | Try the unpromising fish from old Home Secretary’s lake? (5,2,6)
CATCH AT STRAWS (resort to an inadequate remedy in desperation; try the unpromising) CATCH (to net; to fish) + AT (from) + STRAW’S (reference Jack STRAW [born 1946], Home Secretary in a Labour Government from 1997 to 2001) – I think ‘lake’ is in the clue simply to illustrate where one could fish at Jack STRAW’s property, if he has a lake. CATCH AT STRAWS |
| 24 | Green is so fresh coming out (9)
EGRESSION (going out; coming out) Anagram of (fresh) GREEN IS SO EGRESSION* |
| 26 | The Terminator for most is the best Arnie film (5)
TWINS (a 1988 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger [born 1947], who also starred in The Terminator, a film released in 1984) T (last letter of [terminator] MOST) + WINS (is the best) T WINS |
| 27 | Those kids without ID suggesting ages (5)
YONKS (informal term for a long term [ages]) YON (those) + KS (letters remaining in KIDS when ID is removed [without ID]) YON KS |
| 28 | Pub in Brussels charges for Iraqi’s water (9)
EUPHRATES (one of the major rivers [water] of Iraq, which shares a river basin with the Tigris) EU (European Union, often referred to as Brussels where its headquarters are located) + PH (public house; pub) + RATES (fees; charges) EU PH RATES |
| Down | |
| 1 | Approve of Irish descendant of Mrs Corleone? (4)
OKAY (to approve) O’KAY (possible Irish name for a descendant of KAY Corleone [wife of Michael Corleone in The Godfather film series) O’KAY |
| 2 | Very silly taking degree in illogical language (9)
IDIOMATIC (relating to expressions peculiar to a language) IDIOTIC (very silly) containing (taking) MA (Master of Arts [degree]) IDIO (MA) TIC |
| 3 | What’s good in garden, making end of lawn right? (5)
EDGER (a tool for tidying the ends [edges] of lawns) G (good) contained in (in) EDEN (reference the Garden of EDEN, mentioned in the Book of Genesis) with R (right) replacing (for) the N (last letter of [end] LAWN) to form EDER ED (G) ER |
| 4 | Playing field seconds from new free school redeveloped (3)
REC (RECreation ground; playing field) Anagram of (redeveloped) REC (second letters of [seconds from] each of NEW, FREE and SCHOOL) REC* |
| 5 | Dessert granny’s put in bread roll and set fire to (6,5)
BANANA SPLIT (a dessert) (NANA’S [granny] contained in [put in] BAP [bread roll]) + LIT (set fire to) BA (NANA S) P LIT |
| 6 | Bishop with Spaniard’s encouragement runs over highwayman (9)
BANDOLERO (highwayman) B (bishop) + AND (with) + OLÉ (Spanish exclamation of encouragement) + R (runs) + O (over) B AND OLE R O |
| 7 | Dose of vitamin C arrives for the driver (2-3)
IN-CAR (descriptive of the location of something supposedly useful for the driver of a car) IN-CAR (hidden word in [dose of] VITAMIN C ARRIVES) IN-CAR |
| 8 | Nick in clover? Failing did Clegg a service, ultimately (6,4)
GILDED CAGE (A place where someone appears to live in luxury but where he or she has very little freedom – could be interpreted as a very comfortable [in clover] prison [nick]) Anagram of (failing) DID CLEGG A + E [last letter of [ultimately]) SERVICE) GILDED CAG* E |
| 12 | Unlikely success getting back from Innsbruck in girl’s three-wheeler (5,6)
LUCKY STRIKE (stroke of luck; unlikely success) K (last letter of [back from] INNSBRUCK) contained in (LUCY’S [girl’s name] + TRIKE [tricycle; three-wheeler]) LUC (K) Y S TRIKE |
| 13 | Each prison chaotic yet obsessed by rules (10)
PERNICKETY (excessively precise and attentive to detail; obsessed by rules) PER (for each) + NICK (prison) + an anagram of (chaotic) YET PER NICK ETY* |
| 15 | Came across husband in stays sporting jewels (9)
AMETHYSTS (bluish violet quartz used as a gemstones; jewels) (MET [came across] + H [husband]) contained in (in) an anagram of (sporting) STAYS A (MET H) YSTS* |
| 17 | Spooner’s cut was painful, self-inflicted discomfort (4-5)
HAIR-SHIRT (a penitent’s garment of haircloth worn for self-inflicted discomfort) SHARE [cut] HURT [was painful] would be Reverend Spooner’s pronunciation of HAIR-SHIRT HAIR-SHIRT |
| 21 | City where highwayman is powerless (5)
TURIN (Italian city) TURPIN (reference the English highwayman Dick Turpin [1705 – 1739]) excluding (…less) P (power) TURIN |
| 22 | Daisy‘s teacher taking marks off (5)
ASTER (plant of the ASTER genus of Compositae, with showy radiated heads, white to lilac-blue or purple, flowering in late summer and autumn, hence often called Michaelmas daisies) MASTER (teacher) excluding (taking off) M (marks; deutschmarks) ASTER |
| 23 | Goddess with multiple lives (4)
ISIS (Egyptian Goddess) IS (exists; lives) + IS (exists; lives) – multiple lives IS IS |
| 25 | Smart new patents etc (3)
NIP (pinch or smart) N (new) + IP (intellectual property; a patent is a form of intellectual property) N IP |
NICHE is number one for me. Liked ‘nurses’. Also liked NIP. Many excellent clues though. Didn’t know AT/from and I also thought clutch or grasp way ahead of catch for the straws clue. With IDIOMATIC – superb – I think ‘illogical’ is part of the def. Thanks Duncan for a great blog and Filbert for the entertainment.
Thanks Filbert and DS
Excellent puzzle.
In 1A I would say that Duck > O is from cricket, which avoids the need to go via tennis.
O’KAY
Someone on Quora:
O’ means grandson of (not son of, as it commonly believed). So the name O’Connor would mean “Grandson of Connor.” The prefix O’ is almost always Irish. Mac or Mc means son of.
Is this accurate?
YONKS (a minor thing)
The ‘suggesting’ may have to be removed from the def. It seems to be a link word.
IDIOMATIC
Should the def be ‘in illogical language‘?
C(s)OTD: GUILDED CAGE (The surface alludes to Nick Clegg?) and EDGER.
Also liked REC, NICHE and TWINS.
Another great puzzle from Flibert. Thanks.
Another master-class blog from duncanshiell. Thanks.
According to Chambers, O’ refers to ‘a descendant of’.
As to OWING & THANKS, I had to think a while. Came up with “I didn’t do the gardening thanks to (owing to) the rain”. Works for me.
KVa@3 – My !rish surname is “O’G” (originally “Ó G”, till the British changed it). My sisters’ maiden names were “Ni G” (with a space, not an apostrophe).
The feminine form “Ni” becomes “Nic” before the equivalent of a vowel. And that’s almost another Nick, to add to PERNICKETY and Clegg.
And parsed YELLOWING, as Hovis@4 with the prepositions “thanks to” and “owing to“…
…Still remember a PERNICKETY teacher insisting “due to” was different from “owing to”. They all mean “because of” in my idiolect.
Thanks F&DS
OKAY
Hovis@4 and FrankieG@5
Thanks.
An EDGE(R) is a nick in cricket?
IDIOMATIC
Looks like both ‘in illogical language’ and ‘illogical language’ don’t work as they are adverbial and nounal resp. whereas the solution is an adjective. Any thoughts?
CATCH AT STRAWS
The lake (the blog talks about it) is hanging loose and doesn’t seem to contribute to the def or the WP.
Something cryptic or just a redundant word to achieve a better surface (the latter is not a great idea)?
I think ‘catch’ is a noun in 20a – the catch (the fish) we got at Straw’s lake.
Thanks to setter & blogger.
A few things threw me today. Mostly me trying to make an anagram of “each” and “prison” for quite a long time.
Also not knowing CATCH AT STRAWS I was wondering how TURIN could be anything else. Having seen now how the clue works I think the whole of the second part needs to be taken as another cryptic definition. Without lake that cryptic definition doesn’t really work. You’d be fishing in Jack’s house otherwise. I don’t mind it myself.
OLIVE DRAB was a nho or at least a not remembered as I see it was clued by Tees back in September 2019 which I would have attempted. I did get there this time, but only through word play followed by a check on Google.
I was never going to get AMETHYST without some help from a word search as I just wasn’t seeing sporting as an anagram indicator. Bit of a stretch? Just me?
Really liked the puzzle overall, and felt it moved back toward the trickier end for Filbert although certainly not his most fiendish work.
Thanks to him and to Duncan for the helpful blog.
Thanks both. Really didn’t think I was getting anywhere close to finishing for a long time, in the end needing a letter-reveal only in CATCH AT STRAWS – unexpectedly I did know the politician, but not the expression. YELLOWING certainly took me YONKS as I was fixated on the usual ‘ta’ for thanks – I see now how it works, but only as others have remarked i.e. ‘thanks to’ and ‘owing to’ are synonyms but ‘thanks’ and ‘owing’ are arguably not
Thanks Filbert for an excellent crossword. This took a bit of thought and in several spots I went down the wrong rabbit hole. I did somehow complete this, albeit with gaps in my parsing. My top picks were MARILYN MONROE, NICHE, TWINS, and PERNICKETY. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.