Gozo is today's compiler.
This was a very enjoyable puzzle to solve, especially if you like anagrams (I counted eight full and at least a couple of partial anagrams). The clue for STOP ME AND BUY ONE was incredible, the best clue I have seen in weeks and makes up for the occasional dodgy surface (cacti in the Celtic Sea?) and I will even forgive the setter for reminding me of the odious Dominic Cummings.
Thanks Gozo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DOWNHEARTEDNESS |
Redhead’s son went out, being very glum (15)
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*(redheads son went) [anag:out] |
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| 9 | MOONLIT |
Doctor on-line with appeal bathed in glow (7)
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MO (Meical Officer, so "doctor") + ON + L (line) with IT (sex "appeal") |
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| 10 | TORNADO |
Rent trouble, quite a blow (7)
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TORN ("rent") + ADO ("trouble") |
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| 11 | NO ONE |
Not a soul at end of performance after midday (2,3)
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[end of] (performanc)E after NOON ("midday") |
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| 12 | CARPE DIEM |
Medicare provision originally organised — it’s now or never (5,4)
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*(medicare p) [anag:organised] where P is P(rovision) [originially] |
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| 13 | CELTIC SEA |
Cacti with eels swimming in waters off Southern Ireland (6,3)
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*(cacti eels) [anag:swimming] |
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| 15 | PANDA |
Chinese bear on patrol? (5)
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"PANDA car" is an informal name for a police car, which may be "on patrol" |
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| 16 | ULTRA |
Some soulful tragic radical (5)
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Hidden in [some] "soUL TRAgic" |
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| 18 | HESITATED |
He made assertion about independence held back (9)
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HE + STATED ("made assertion") about I (Independence) |
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| 20 | MARCO POLO |
The Merchant of Venice, maybe (5,4)
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MARCO POLO was a Venetian trader who travelled to the Far East, so could be described as a "Merchant of Venice" |
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| 23 | HINDU |
Believer in some faith in Dubai (5)
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Hidden in [some] "faitH IN DUbai" |
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| 24 | NOISIER |
I repeatedly snore — sadly making more din (7)
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*(II snore) [anag:sadly] where II is I repeatedly |
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| 25 | TORPEDO |
Weapon from dump or depot (7)
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*(or depot) [anag:dump] |
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| 26 | SWIMMING COSTUME |
Attire for the Lido with roughly two GCSEs, minimum (8,7)
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*(two gcses minimum) [anag:roughly] |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DOMINIC CUMMINGS |
Party dress maiden and smug C-in-C re-designed for advisor (7,8)
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DO ("party") + MINI ("dress") + *(m smug cinc) [anag:re-designed] Dominic Cummings was an advisor to the Tory government who famously drove to his parents' home in Durham while suffering from COVID during a national lockdown in 2020. |
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| 2 | WOOD OIL |
Protective finish for court and rebuilt lido (4,3)
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WOO ("court") + *(lido) [anag:rebuilt] |
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| 3 | HELVETICA |
Face of awfully evil cheat (9)
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*(evil cheat) [anag:awfully] Helvetica is a font or typeFACE |
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| 4 | ANTIC |
Lark averse to cold (5)
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ANTI ("averse to") + C (cold) |
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| 5 | TUTORIALS |
Instructive sessions spilled out into tests (9)
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*(out) [anag:spilled] during TRIALS ("tests") |
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| 6 | DIRGE |
Last to sing during calamitous lament (5)
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[last to] (sin)G during DIRE ("calamitous") |
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| 7 | ELATION |
Euphoria when family member runs away (7)
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R (runs, in cricket) away from (r)ELATION ("family member") |
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| 8 | STOP ME AND BUY ONE |
Appeal by Wall’s when cycling: ‘O spend money! A tub!’ (4,2,3,3,3)
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*(o spend money a tub) [anag:when cycling] Wall's are an ice cream company in the UK, whose ice cream was once sold by vendors who rode tricycles with a box on the front – at one point in the1930s, there were more than 8,500 of them on British roads and their solgan was "stop me and buy one". This also reminds me of graffiti I once saw on a condom vending machine that said "buy me and stop one"! |
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| 14 | SCHOOL RUN |
Parents’ daily trip around lunch or so. Not usually! (6,3)
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*(lunch or so) [anag:around] A school run would normally occur in the morning or evening rather than at lunchtime, hence the "not usually" |
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| 15 | POTSHERDS |
Lots and lots of sheep and broken pieces of pottery (9)
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POTS ("lots") + HERDS ("lots of sheep") |
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| 17 | TERMINI |
Weeks at school in one or more stations (7)
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TERM ("weeks in school") + IN + I (one) |
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| 19 | TONNEAU |
Large quantity of gold in rear of coupe (7)
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TONNE ("large quantity") + Au (chemical symbol for "gold") A tonneau is the back seat of a car, usually uncovered. |
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| 21 | ODIUM |
Bad feeling when leader’s removed from platform (5)
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[leader's removed from] (p)ODIUM ("platform") |
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| 22 | OPTIC |
Hiding power of the ear and eye (5)
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OTIC ("of the ear") hiding P (power) |
Gozo at his playful best! This was a very friendly grid with the perimeter clues making the solve a write-in but with plenty of smiles en route. (Though 1d connected to 26a caused more of a wince!)
Loved 8d (an accesible anagram for those not familiar with Wall’s and its slogan). Indeed, the puzzle didn’t want for anagrams!
TORNADO and TORPEDO had pleasing surfaces and rhythm.
Thanks for the good cheer, Gozo, and Loonapick for the blog.
A fun puzzle and a neat blog!
Thanks Gozo and loonapick!
OPTIC
an informal word for eye (Collins)
An eye (now mainly facetious) -Chambers
A typical Gozo puzzle, lots of anagrams, but some were brilliant. Definitely agree with how good STOP ME AND BUY ONE is – I think I’ve seen that slogan on vans
Thank you loonapick and Gozo.
Very enjoyable, thanks Gozo. I can almost forgive you for the two big UK-only clues down either side. And thanks Loonapick.
😀
Especially liked 12a CARPE DIEM – a neat anagram, a Latin solution, and an Elvis earworm as the definition: It’s Now Or Never(1960)
The tune is from the Neapolitan (more ice cream) song O Sole Mio – later used by Wall’s to sell even more ice cream with Just One Cornetto.
Good spot, Frankie.
Really enjoyed this – agree with previous comments.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
FrankieG@6
Impressive as usual!
Very enjoyable and I agree with the praise for the Wall’s slogan. (I suspect it is apocryphal but I have alwasy enjoyed the story about Willie Rushton who was a regular on Celebrity Squares, back in the day. Apparently, he was the only participant whose ‘witty’ responses were not scripted for him by the show. In response to the question, ‘Who was responsible for the origination of ice cream in the Middle East?’ he replied, ‘Well, it’s either Walls of Jericho or Lyons of Judea’.)
Other faves include TUTORIAL, DIRGE, HELVETICA, HESITATED and CARPE DIEM. I agree with the blogger’s eyebrow raise regarding the surface for CELTIC SEA and I put part of my trouble with the NHO TONNEAU being the cheeky insertion of ‘of’ before ‘gold’. I guess ‘tonne au’ could just about be interpreted as ‘a tonne of gold’ but I found it a tad stretchy. Improves the surface but it’s awkward, cryptically.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
Good fun and got through this quickly…
Apart from 15d where I only saw “lots and lots” and had just enough crossers to first mistakenly put “Plethoras”, no problems…
Thank you to Gozo and Loonapick
Wall’s’s logo is the HEARTbrand appearing in 1a. and The TORNADOs, who’d had a UK and US No. 1 in 1962 with Telstar,
went to No. 18 (in the UK only) with The Ice Cream Man in 1963.
Thanks G&L
1d DOMINIC was not well known in the U.S, but I got it just from the letters. Same with TONNEAU. Finally I remembered the Wall’s quote from my childhood in the U.K. Altogether a fun puzzle!
The Ancient Greeks used 15d POTSHERDS on which to scratch the name of their candidate for ostracism.
Cleisthenes may have introduced the system to Athens, where it was first used in 487 BC, and may have himself been ostracised later on.
This enabled George Forrest to make the pun that he’d been ‘hoist with his own potsherd’ – hilarious, eh?
[I’d like to see ostracism introduced in the UK, especially for the odious smug berk at 1d]
Thank you setter and loonapick. STOP ME AND BUY ONE reminded me of the graffiti on student union condom machines in the seventies; BUY ME AND STOP ONE.
Thanks for the blog, very enjoyable , especially the long answers.
To defend CELTIC SEA , cactus sea squirts and eels certainly swim in the Irish Sea , I have seen them . Probably in the Celtic Sea as well.
Solving 1a and 1d up front made proceedings much easier. I know DOMINIC CUMMINGS from reading the FT and did not think the clue was “UK obscure”.
A few nice anagrams, a few too many perhaps, with 8d the stand out. Thanks Rox@16 for rescuing 13a. TONNEAU was a NHO for me too. With plenty of nice surfaces, I had a host of ticks. TORNADO and DIRGE were perhaps my overall favourites
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
My much-loved MG Midget way back in the 70’s had a “tonneau cover” which stretched across at the level of the bottom of the windows to cover one or both of the seats when the roof was down, so the word was familiar enough to me (though not to my spell-checker, so not surprising that many would not have heard of it).
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
A minor point, but I thought sheep came in flocks, and cattle in herds.
Though I guess ‘shepherd’ might provide justification.
Most enjoyable. Our only complaint is that it was over too quickly.
Thanks, Gozo and loonapick.
very very enjoyable.
Thanks to all
I too believe sheep come in flocks and cows in herds. That threw me for a short while.
As a non-Brit I was familiar with neither the ice-cream vendor nor their slogan. The obvious anagram fodder got me there with the help of the crossers, but not before I searched in vain through all of Snout’s lines in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Even in Canada it was impossible to avoid the ANTICS of 1d DOMINIC CUMMINGS, so that clue didn’t TORPEDO me.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick for the fun.
A fun puzzle, though 13 anagram clues out of 28 is surely too many. It certainly makes for easy setting, though the excellent STOP ME AND BUY ONE clue looks like one that took a lot of thought. Not entirely surprisingly, it has precedent:
21s’ old cyclic appeal: “O, spend money! A tub, perhaps?
appeared in some crossword somewhere at one time, presumably where the solution to 21 was WALL. The database that has the clue doesn’t say where it came from unfortunately. At any rate, it is a pleasure to be made acquainted with it.
I once saw a very amusing addition to the “buy me and stop one” on a condom machine, which read “buy two and be one jump ahead”!
James@23 It’s 14d in Guardian Prize crossword No 22,381 by Bunthorne – Saturday 1 December 2001.
Thanks. That’s a bit cheeky, isn’t it? I expected it would have been in one of his own puzzles.
Never done a Bunthorne before, I thought he was much longer ago. There’s quite a mixture in there. 1a is cute.