A devious challenge from GUY
DD: 9 FF: 10
I am not sure if I got everything right.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DUFFEL BAG |
Useless player who didn’t give a damn about grip (6,3)
|
| DUFF ( useless ) ELBAG ( reverse of gable, referring to clark gable, who in “gone with the wind” replies to scarlet o’hara ‘s question of “where shall i go?”, with a “frankly dear, i dont give a damn” ) | ||
| 6 | TAPAS |
Put back mug next to small plates (5)
|
| reverse of SAP ( mug ) AT ( next to ) | ||
| 9 | AURORAL |
Dawn’s heard swallows love the end of winter (7)
|
| AURAL ( heard ) containing [ O ( love ) R ( winteR, last letter ) ] | ||
| 10 | TOBACCO |
What’s bad to inhale, American explorer brought back initially (7)
|
| CO ( what’s bad to inhale, carbon monoxide ) after reverse of CABOT ( american explorer, reversed, referring to john cabot who sailed from europe to american in 1497 ) ; what i am not sure is whether there is double duty work going on here or if i got this completely wrong | ||
| 11 | KNISH |
Husband’s tattoo turns a little pasty (5)
|
| H’S ( husband’s ) INK ( tattoo ), all reversed | ||
| 12 | UPPERMOST |
Top bananas pose with Trump (9)
|
| [ POSE TRUMP ]* | ||
| 14 | DOH |
How silly not to have seen that note (3)
|
| &lit or cryptic def depending on how you read it? | ||
| 15 | AIR FORCE ONE |
Jumbo from Asia regularly runs between 1 and 3 mph (3,5,3)
|
| AI ( AsIa, regularly ) R ( runs ) FORCE ONE ( between 1 and 3mph, referring to wind speed classification on the beaufort scale ) | ||
| 17 | COUP DE GRACE |
Fellow shifting pudge, possibly marathon finisher (4,2,5)
|
| CO ( fellow ) [ PUDGE ]* RACE ( marathon, possibly ) | ||
| 19 | BUM |
Sponge cake with name changed to Mike (3)
|
| BUn ( cake, with N – name changing to M – mike ) | ||
| 20 | SATURATED |
Very wet day judged suitable for kids (9)
|
| SAT ( day ) U RATED ( judged suitable for kids ) | ||
| 22 | PLUMB |
Understand book prize given in reverse order (5)
|
| B ( book ) after PLUM ( prize ) | ||
| 24 | UNRAVEL |
Five faulty neural nets lose complexity (7)
|
| V ( five ) in [ NEURAL ]* | ||
| 26 | OUTPOST |
Remote settlement not allowed deliveries (7)
|
| OUT ( not allowed ) POST ( deliveries ) | ||
| 27 | DOYEN |
Senior member longing to have party leading (5)
|
| DO ( party ) YEN ( longing ) | ||
| 28 | TESTATRIX |
Will writer misrepresent artist in Texas? (9)
|
| [ ARTIST ]* in TEX ( texas? ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DRANK |
Was an alcoholic dead stinky? (5)
|
| D ( dead ) RANK ( stinky ) | ||
| 2 | FURNISH |
Supply household goods for John’s husband (7)
|
| double def; referring to david furnish, husband of elton john | ||
| 3 | EARTHWARD |
What are plastic bits of rubbish doing to this planet? (9)
|
| [ WHAT ARE ]* RD ( starting letters of “..Rubbish Doing..” ) | ||
| 4 | BOLT UPRIGHT |
Swallow flying fairly vertically, straight as an arrow (4,7)
|
| BOLT ( swallow ) UP ( flying ) RIGHT ( fairly ) ; initially i marked only ” straight as an arrow” as the definition but i think this works just as well | ||
| 5 | GUT |
Take everything out of boat that pulls over (3)
|
| reverse of TUG ( boat that pulls ) | ||
| 6 | TIBER |
River miles away from wood (5)
|
| TImBER ( wood, without M – miles ) | ||
| 7 | PICCOLO |
Pluck a bass to listen to instrument (7)
|
| sounds like PICK ( pluck ) LOW ( bass ) | ||
| 8 | SHORT-TERM |
Not drinking during seaside jollies, for the present (5-4)
|
| TT ( not drinking ) in [ SHORE ( seaside ) RM ( jollies, Royal Marines ) ] | ||
| 13 | PROS AND CONS |
Arguments smooth criminal put in clipped plain language (4,3,4)
|
| [ SAND ( smooth ) CON ( criminal ) ] in PROSe ( plain language, clipped i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 14 | DACHSHUND |
Pet children and avoid boring father (9)
|
| [ CH ( children ) SHUN ( avoid ) ] in DAD ( father ) | ||
| 16 | CLEOPATRA |
Queen moved to palace which houses king (9)
|
| [ TO PALACE ]* containing R ( king ) | ||
| 18 | UTTERLY |
Voice lasts for Hail Mary, just (7)
|
| UTTER ( voice ) LY ( “..haiL marY..”, last letters of ) | ||
| 19 | BOUDOIR |
Urban Brazilian couple headed up to British woman’s bedroom (7)
|
| [ RIO DUO ( urban brazilian couple ), all reversed ) ] after B ( british ) | ||
| 21 | RIVEN |
Taken by car that doesn’t start, broken (5)
|
| dRIVEN ( taken by car, without first letter ) | ||
| 23 | BOTOX |
Smoother skin of bambino to kiss (5)
|
| BO ( BambinO, skin of ) TO X ( kiss ) | ||
| 25 | LIT |
Burning books (3)
|
| double def |
Why is utterly just?
I parsed TOBACCO the same way, despite not knowing Cabot.
Didn’t know David Furnish. I thought it may have been Furni’s husband, which led nowhere. And RM/jollies was a tough ask for an Antipodean.
An enjoyable experience, thank you Guy & Turbolegs.
I’ve answered my first question. I consulted a dictionary, and the result was just wonderful .
Enjoyed this. My last 2 were DUFFEL BAG & EARTHWARD and, I think these were the the pick of an excellent crop. TOBACCO didn’t work for me and seems to have something missing. Perhaps not?
I parsed 14a as a double definition. D’OH and DOH, the first being everything but the last word.
T: you’re slightly misquoting Rhett Butler – it’s “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”
[Remember being puzzled that Gable stressed the give; in the UK we’d stress the damn].
TOBACCO – alluding to Sir Walter Raleigh…
TOBACCO
If John CABOT brought TOBACCO back with him to Italy, then the clue is an excellent one.
Could not locate any such reference. Someone will soon educate us on this aspect.
It could be an excellent one even otherwise but I don’t understand how!
DOH
Parsed as Hovis@3 did.
10A TOBACCO This is a very good & Lit. The whole clue provides both wordplay and a definition – as FrankieG says, the reference to the explorer is to Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought tobacco (and potatoes) back from the New World to England.
D’OH! – I’ve used it myself when I’ve failed to parse something, (eg “Overrun” = KOI = 10k<), but never looked it up before.
oed.com has it as DOH, and only one of the 8 citations (1945-1998) has an apostrophe:
‘1996 ‘Look out, you dern fool! You’re gonna cut off your…’ ‘D’oh!!!’ A. Fein et al., Simpsons Comics strike Back! 14/2′
Walter Raleigh and CABOT: What is the link?
KV@7 There doesn’t need to be a link. For the purposes of the definition the reference to “American explorer” is to Raleigh, and for the purposes of the wordplay it is to Cabot.
Doesn’t PICCOLO need the “a” for the aural wordplay – “pick a low”?
Thanks G&T
Rudolf@10
TOBACCO
Yes. It works. Thanks.
FrankieG@11
PICCOLO
Agree.
Steady solve of this marvellous puzzle with many favourites, the pick being Duffel Bag. Thanks for explaining Tobacco.
Loi was Earthward, bringing a Doh from Bhutan.
Rudolf@10
TOBACCO
I found this online after asking you the question:
Walter Raleigh is given credit for introducing both tobacco and potatoes to Britain, although both of these were already known from Spanish explorers. Raleigh certainly helped to make smoking popular at court and was convinced tobacco was a good cure for coughs.
Had you not said it was an &lit with certainty (I failed to check the link FrankieG furnished), I wouldn’t have looked it up.
A top-class clue.
Thanks for the blog , great set of clues , lots of clever wordplay .
TOBACCO – I agree with Rudolf@7 , one minor quibble, do we inhale tobacco ? I suppose snuff would do.
Thanks for everyone who explained TOBACCO. Yes, it does work beautifully as an &lit – I just didn’t see it at the time. Just adds to an already brilliant crossword.
Moly,
Coincidentally I was in Bhutan last week!
Regards,
TL
Late to this and short of time so just adding my praise for this excellent puzzle to the comments above. TOBACCO is a beaut of a clue.
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs
FrankieG@11 the O in PICCOLO, at least in my part of UK, is pronounced as a schwa, so for me the clue works fine.
Thanks G and T
Force 1 on the Beaufort scale is not mph it is knots, or nautical miles per hour. Sorry for the pedantry.
Thanks Guy, that was great. My top picks were DOYEN, TIBER, SHORT-TERM, UTTERLY, BOUDOIR, BOTOX, and LIT. I could not begin to parse DUFFLE BAG. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
There were indeed some nice clues, and Tony@21 has summed up my favorites very nicely. Thank you.
I am going to swim against the tide here. I was left guessing far too often due to obscure words or cluing. I doubt I would have finished had I been using the paper, but using the app I was able to bung in my guess and check it. Perhaps it was just the wrong puzzle for a week-day when solvers such as me do not have much spare time.
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs