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Hello everyone. This puzzle had a sting in the 15a. There were a few places which could potentially be sticky, but I navigated them all ok until I hit my last answer, 28a. In fact I was just about to give up when the SELFIE came to me in a flash.
I liked many of the images here: the rebellious type without his trousers in 9a, the 14a legend of the missing vowels round on Only Connect, Spooner’s home-made anti-depressant (18a) … and that’s before we even get to the down clues. I liked the way the ANALOGUE and DIGITAL(IS) clues used cross-references that made sense in the surface, and the incorporation of just a touch of football content. I don’t anticipate any wardrobe malfunctions à la 19d, but will not be alone in hoping for no disasters!
Thanks to Hippogryph, and whatever sportsball – or none – you choose to follow, I wish you all a very happy Sunday.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Suffolk town known for trawling, not frequently right at the bottom (6) |
| LOWEST — LOWEST[oft] (Suffolk town known for trawling), not OFT (frequently) | |
| 4a | Party finishing early had perplexed Nirvana fan (6) |
| SIDDHA — SIDe (party, faction) without the last letter (finishing early) + an anagram of (… perplexed) HAD | |
| I probably won’t be the only one who spent a while trying to work out how the first part of the clue could lead to BUD! | |
| 9a | Rebellious type without his trousers (6) |
| HOUTHI — WitHOUT HIs contains (trousers) the answer, the Houthi movement of rebels in Yemen | |
| 10a | Patching damaged item of sleepwear (8) |
| NIGHTCAP — PATCHING anagrammed (damaged) | |
| 11a | Express disapproval when trust is often lacking (3) |
| TUT — TrUsT is missing regular letters (often lacking) | |
| 12a | Irony as mistake by international stops Manchester City? (6) |
| FERRIC — ERR (mistake) by I (international) goes inside (stops) FC (Manchester City?) | |
| 13a | Check riddle again? (8) |
| RESTRAIN — Riddle is another word for sieve or strain, hence RE–STRAIN (riddle again?) | |
| 14a | Maya, the missing vowels legend! (4) |
| MYTH — MaYa, THe missing vowels | |
| 15a | A very quiet final period for the tail? (9) |
| APPENDAGE — A + PP (very quiet) + END (final) + AGE (period) | |
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|
| 18a | Spooner produces anti-depressant from this kitchen appliance (4,5) |
| FOOD MIXER — Spoonerism of MOOD FIXER (anti-depressant) | |
| 20a | Silverback training to open mouth wide (4) |
| GAPE — AG (silver) back + PE (training) | |
| 23a | 19 Brussels bureaucrats held back after obsessive type of display? (8) |
| ANALOGUE — OG (19 – 19d: OWN GOAL) and EU (Brussels bureaucrats) reversed (held back), all after ANAL (obsessive) | |
| 25a | Person training in the arena regularly (6) |
| INTERN — IN + ThE aReNa regularly | |
| 26a | Custom house centrally located next to sea after docking (3) |
| USE — The middle of (… centrally located) hoUse next to SEa after removing its last letter (docking) | |
| 27a | Two suffering with heart trouble (3,5) |
| HOT WATER — An anagram of (suffering) TWO with HEART | |
| 28a | One captured is held at arm’s length? (6) |
| SELFIE — Cryptic definition | |
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|
| 29a | Egg production is spreading (6) |
| LAYING — Two definitions | |
| 30a | North America succeeded, primarily swapping gold for capital in the Caribbean (6) |
| NASSAU — N (north) + A (America) + S (succeeded) + the initial letter of (primarily) Swapping + AU (gold) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | City’s providing support for toilets, just about (7) |
| LOOSELY — ELY (city) is underneath (providing support for) LOOS (toilets) | |
| 2d | Crucial point in arrangement of draw-sheet (9) |
| WATERSHED — An anagram (arrangement) of DRAW-SHEET | |
| 3d | Son’s missing out on love with long nose (6) |
| SNITCH — S[o]N is missing out on O (love) followed by ITCH (long) | |
| 5d | Swallowed in-joke on the podcast edition (8) |
| INGESTED — IN + GEST, homophone of (… on the podcast) JEST (joke) + ED (edition) | |
| 6d | Put off by man not closing washing up liquid? (5) |
| DETER — GENT (man) is not at the end of (not closing) DETER[gent] (washing up liquid?) | |
| 7d | Dropping off a sack full of money (7) |
| ABATING — A + BAG (sack) containing (full of) TIN (money) | |
| 8d | Businessmen represent and run European supply (13) |
| ENTREPRENEURS — An anagram of (… supply) REPRESENT and RUN with E (European) | |
| 16d | Number 23’s opposite is a plant (9) |
| DIGITALIS — DIGITAL (Number 23’s opposite – 23a being ANALOGUE) + IS | |
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|
| 17d | Family goes on vacation to North London borough (8) |
| KINGSTON — KIN (family) + GoeS on removing the inner letters (on vacation) + TO + N (north) | |
| 19d | Topless dress design is self-inflicted disaster (3,4) |
| OWN GOAL — Without the last letter (topless) gOWN (dress) + GOAL (design) | |
| 21d | Address of on-line retailer that is into up-cycling is much-visited site (7) |
| PURLIEU — URL (address of on-line retailer) and IE (that is) inserted into UP–cycling | |
| One of those words I would have never recalled without the help of wordplay | |
| 22d | Oddly, skivers are claiming time for afternoon nap! (6) |
| SIESTA — Odd letters of (oddly), SkIvErT and A (are, a unit of land area, 100 square metres) taking in (claiming) T (time) | |
| 24d | Artist originally rejected slow track (5) |
| LOWRY — Without the first letter (originally rejected) sLOW + RY (track) | |
This was pitched at the right level for me, although I was left to enjoy HOUTHI and SELFIE in hindsight only.
Alas I didn’t pay heed to the question mark in the FERRIC clue, and so spent ages trying to make it work with M-C instead of F-C; which meant that by the time the penny dropped the irony was slightly lost on me… a pity, because it’s probably my COTD.
Thanks both!
‘Irony’ is, indeed, a delightful misdirect of a definition. Charming. And one amongst many such clues. A refreshing and enjoyable puzzle for a Sunday with only SELFIE and the nho SIDDAH escaping me. As one who has never taken a selfie, the very concept is not exactly front-of-mind and I did not recognise it from the cryptic def. Everything else fell into place and parsed nicely with particular pleasures including NIGHTCAP, FERRIC, MYTH, HOT WATER, ABATING, ENTREPRENEURS, KINGSTON, OWN GOAL and LOWRY. My only raised eyebrow was USE where taking just the U from ‘hoUSE’ which has the solution in full view and then adding an SE felt rather odd.
Thanks Hippogryph and Kitty
COTD: SELFIE(I like that pic, Kitty)!
Other faves: HOUTHI, FERRIC, SNITCH ABATING and OWN GOAL!
PURLIEU
URL: It could be any online address. Could be a retailer’s or some other website’s. Doesn’t the clue need a DBE indicator?
Thanks Hippogryph and Kitty!
KVa @3 – I laughed out loud at the contrast between the cat’s expression and its human’s!
For pURLieu, I agree that specifying online retailer isn’t necessary, but I’m not sure that means it should necessarily have a dbe indicator. (I’m not sure it shouldn’t either!)
The address of an online retailer will certainly be a url. It doesn’t feel the same as clueing a category with a more specific example of that category: “online retailer’s address” is kind of an example of a url, but not in the same way as
www.buystuffyoudontneedhere.comis.An excellent puzzle complemented by a delightful review.
I failed with SIDDAH. A very obscure word totally unknown to me, and IMHO not very sympathetically clued.
With lots of ticks on my page, FERRIC is my top choice.
Many thanks to Hippogryph and to Kitty.
21d PURLIEU – Liked the ‘lift and separate’ of “UP-cycling”.
[Also liked the fact that an anagram usually allows more possibilities than a “cycle”. With a two-letter word there can be only one: UP -> PU.]
Liked the Playtex in 20a “Silver back”, too. But COTD and LOi – I had to sleep on it – has to be 28a SELFIE 😀
Thanks H&K
KItty@4
PURLIEU
URL
http://www.iamalsonotsurenow.com
Lovely to get another puzzle from this setter and even better when Miss K is in the chair.
Thought the pairing of 23a/16d was well done but I did have to check on the Nirvana fan in 4a.
Tops for me were the clues for MYTH, FOOD MIXER and SELFIE although that doesn’t reflect how I feel about the sad characters who take the last of those!
Thanks to Hippogryph and to Kitty for the pictorial review.
FERRIC the top clue for me. I wondered if anybody else had the same feeling as me about the clue for USE and, I see, PostMark did.
Following in Kitty’s footsteps I tried to make a case for BUD and LOI SELFIE after mulling over yard and fathom for lengths of arms.
[33°C outdoors, 26°C indoors. Expressions would be reversed in a selfie of me and my cats courtesy of natural body temperature differential. I need a lot more than a 22d and I can only get 27a out of the cold tap.]
Thanks to Hippogryph and Kitty.
Thanks Hippogryph for a very satisfying crossword. I failed with ANALOGUE and SELFIE but Kitty’s photo describing the latter more than erased any disappointment I had. My favourites were NIGHTCAP, MYTH, FOOD MIXER, HOT WATER, LOOSELY, DETER, ABATING, and ENTREPRENEURS. Thanks Kitty for the blog.
The Times in particular has been having a debate about trying to attract new and younger solvers to cryptic crosswords.
Any young solvers, or solvers of any age
who take selfies might be a little put off to see themselves being described as ‘sad characters’ by Jane @8.
Maybe, Jane, if you can’t write something pleasant don’t write anything at all.
Thanks to Kitty for the delightful blog and to all of you who had a go at the puzzle and took the time to leave feedback – it is very valuable and much appreciated. Spain were just too good for England in the end last night and at least there were no 19 downs and no penalty shoot out. Thanks again