Today is Tuesday, 5th November. I wonder what theme Madcap might have brought along with today’s crossword.
Today’s ghost theme is Bonfire Night, with the clues (15, 20, 26, 27 …) and the completed grid (6, 8 (as in Roman candles), 18 (as in Catherine Wheel), 23, 30, being littered with references to the Gunpowder Plot, fireworks and the like. As with all successful ghost theme, a successful solver of the puzzle could be completely oblivious to it. I spotted it, however, as I was looking out for it, and it certainly heightened my overall enjoyment of the puzzle.
I think that I am now happy with my parsing, although I only made sense of the definition at 6 when I was finishing this blog; I would, however, appreciate confirmation of my parsing at 10. I also needed Chambers to verify “squib” at 13 and “disarray” at 15. My favourite clues today were 1, 2 and 7, for smoothness of surface; 2 and 6, for their deceptive definitions; and 28, for the misdirection around “joint”.
I hope fellow solvers have a more enjoyable 5th of November than the one described at 27!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | ALCOHOL | Perhaps Bacardi and cola mixed before short break
*(COLA) + HOL (=break, i.e. holiday; “short” implies abbreviation); “mixed” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | CANDLES | Wax sticks and runs until hot becomes cold
HANDLES (=runs, manages); “until hot (=H) becomes cold (=C)” means letter “h” becomes “c” |
| 09 | IN KEEPING | What the landlord does reportedly is acceptable
Homophone (“reportedly”) of “innkeeping (=what the landlord does)” |
| 11 | MINE | Setter’s well?
MINE (=setter’s, i.e. belonging to Madcap); a well is a source, a mine |
| 12 | ESOTERIC | Mysterious secret inscrutable and occult primarily
*(SECRET + I<nscrutable> + O<ccult>); “primarily” means first letters only are used in anagram, indicated by “mysterious” which does double duty; & lit. |
| 14 | ROTOR | What goes around comes around
Whimsical definition: a rotor is a rotating part and the word is also a palindrome |
| 16 | FUND | Kitty’s play date
FUN (=play, enjoyment) + D (=date) |
| 18 | WHEEL | Heard wound is result of saint’s torture instrument
Homophone (“heard”) of “weal (=streak left on skin by blow, wound)” |
| 20 | RIFE | Fireworks spread widely
*(FIRE); “works” is anagram indicator; a rife disease has spread widely |
| 21 | BURST | Back massage on street leads to rupture
BUR (RUB=massage; “back” indicates reversal) + ST (=street); a burst spleen is ruptured |
| 23 | SPARKLER | According to Spooner, delphinium is little gem
Spoonerism of “larkspur (=delphinium, i.e. genus)” |
| 25 | EARN | Receive wage and discover it’s a pound missing
<l>EARN (=discover, find out; “a pound (=L, as in LSD) missing” means letter “l” is dropped)” |
| 27 | MISSHAPEN | Fifth of November is pigsty, full of messy ash – grotesque
*(ASH) in [<nove>M<ber> (“fifth of” means first letter only) + IS + PEN (=pigsty)] |
| 29 | WHISTLE | Erstwhile queen lost crumpled suit in the East End
*(<er>STWHILE); “queen (=ER, for Elizabeth Regina) lost” means letters “er” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “crumpled”; a whistle and flute is Cockney rhyming slang for a suit! |
| 30 | CRACKER | There’s a joke in here – it’s a good one!
Double definition: a Christmas cracker contains a joke AND a cracker is an exceptionally good example of something, as in She’s a cracker! |
| Down | ||
| 01 | ALDI | Shop lifting, a feature of rabid lawlessness
Reversed (“lifting”) and hidden (“a feature of”) in “rabID LAwlessness” |
| 02 | ROCKET | Leaves Egypt after shock
ROCK (=shock, upset) + ET (=Egypt, in IVR); rocket is a salad plant |
| 03 | HOMEBREW | Duff beer drunk by Simpson, 40% cut with domestic concoction
HOM<er> (=Simpson, from TV show; “40% cut” means 2 of 5 letters are lost) + *(BEER) + W (=with); “duff” is anagram indicator |
| 04 | BANGER | Type of road rage evident in decrepit car
B (=type of road) + ANGER (=rage) |
| 05 | ODOMETER | A measure of how far writer’s in love with lover?
ME (=writer, i.e. Madcap!) in [O (=love, i.e. zero score) + DOTER (=lover, one who adores)] |
| 06 | BEAN | Can this possibly prohibit injecting drug?
E (=drug, i.e. Ecstasy) in BAN (=prohibit); beans can be canned, i.e. a can of beans! |
| 10 | INCREASES | Laughing escalates
Cryptically, if you are creased with laughter, you might be described as being “in creases” |
| 13 | SQUIB | Old drip’s a washout if it’s damp
SQUIB (=drip, paltry fellow; “old” indicates archaic usage) |
| 15 | RIFLE | Initially, Fawkes in anger causes disarray
F<awkes> (“initially” means first letter only) in RILE (=anger, as verb, irk); to rifle is to ransack, pillage, hence “(to) disarray”, throw into disorder |
| 17 | DARKNESS | Night boat involved in nasty end, colliding with ship
[ARK (=boat, built by Noah in OT) + *(END)] + SS (=ship, i.e. steamship); “nasty” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | LEATHERY | Rough meadow by the railway
LEA (=meadow) + THE + RY (=railway); a leathery complexion would be rough, not smooth |
| 22 | TUMBLE | Trip (not the second trip)
<s>TUMBLE (=trip (up); “not the second (=S)” means letter “s” is dropped) |
| 24 | KOPECK | Knockout kiss for a bit of money
KO (=knockout) + PECK (=kiss) |
| 26 | ACHE | Guy, following extremely anarchic desire, …
A<narchi>C (“extremely” means first and last letters only are used) + HE (=guy) |
| 28 | NEED | .. must have made joint attack to depose king
<k>NEED (=made “joint” attack, i.e. struck with knee (=joint); “to depose king (=K, in cards and chess)” means letter “k” is dropped |
Love the clue for 14a ROTOR. [OED’s first citation reverses it: “1962 What everybody forgets is ‘what comes around—goes around’. Bulletin (Chicago)”
Thanks both. I certainly concur with your parsing of all RR, and was grateful to understand how RIFLE becomes grammatically correct. It was many years before I learned that a SQUIB is a type of firework, occasionally if not often mistaken for a sea-creature by people who talk tentacles!
Is Madcap a new setter for the Indy? If so, congratulations on a great debut (and if not, congratulations on a topical and amusing puzzle anyway!). Thanks to RR as always.
I think Madcap is, indeed, making their debut today with a super sparkly puzzle which I very much enjoyed. The theme was gently done. Succinct surfaces, some nice defs, tight constructions and plenty of smiles. Faves inc FUND, EARN, CRACKER, BANGER, ODOMETER, DARKNESS, LEATHERY and KOPECK.
Thanks Madcap and RR
I enjoyed this and found it difficult in places. I needed the blog to fully understand SPARKLER (nho the plant, but I was specifically looking where to fit this word in, given the evident theme), WHISTLE (a new one on me), SQUIB, RIFLE (nho disarray as a verb) and TUMBLE (I didn’t spot the closeness with stumble). I was ignorant until now of why the Catherine wheel is so called, though again the theme helped me flesh out the checkers and start wondering about saints.
I take ESOTERIC to be a classic &lit with no specific double-duty. This was a favourite, along with CANDLES (nice misdirection), ROTOR, MISSHAPEN (for the use of the date and thus presenting the theme), WHISTLE, ALDI (also nice misdirection) and of course BEAN, whose wordplay was easy but which I almost gave up on trying to match to the definition until the penny dropped before coming to the blog!
Thanks both
Well the flash bit of flashling always looks forward to the Nov 5 crossword, thanks Madcap who I believe has been on BigDave’s NTSPP in the past. Thanks RR too.
As a Lewes Bonfire Boy I spotted the theme early, and enjoyed this puzzle much.
Great start, Madcap.
I echo the welcome to Madcap, a great debut and much enjoyed. One slight (s)quibble – sorry, I seem to be making a habit of this. The international vehicle code for Egypt is now EG, ET having been recently discontinued. Thanks Madcap and RatkojaRiku.
ESOTERIC
I saw it as an &lit like AP@5 did. Classic?
Thought it was a bit unconventional. 4 defs Mysterious, secret, inscrutable & occult with the ‘primarily’ adding emphasis.
KVa@9, classic as in no quibbles about what the full surface was getting at. (Often with &lits there are parts of the surface which are a bit whimsical when interpreted as “fodder” for the definition.) But sure, a chain of alternative definitions – or simply cumulative adjectives that together narrow down the sole definition, which is how I saw it – is not especially commonplace!
Welcome to the Indy Madcap. and thanks for the fireworks fun.
Completed this on paper without timing, but this was almost certainly the quickest I’ve ever completed an Indy cryptic, with no clue holding me up for more than a first return. Stumbled over a few and a couple I didn’t parse properly until I’d finished. Had to parse DARKNESS fully before it went in as for some reason I couldn’t see it from the crossers I had, but as with all the clues it was well signposted.
Thanks to RR for the usual high standard of blog.
Thank RR for the blog. I’m afraid I ‘saw’ the missing indicator for ESOTERIC and only spotted the &lit. possibility much later. Similarly I had a huff about the 40% being ‘wrong’ in 3d because I thought it must mean either (2/9 of HOMERBEER)* +W or 50% of BEER! And I forgot that DISARRAY might be a verb.
Like you, RR, I could not see how BEAN was defined until after I had finished the puzzle.
However, I still have a couple of gripes –
ODOMETER is a device measuring, not a measure.
SPARKLER spoonerises to ‘klarsper’ not ‘larkspur.
However – many great clues, and I was hoping for a firework theme and I got one so thank you Madcap!
jvector @ 12: Chambers definition 8 of MEASURE “An instrument for finding the extent of anything, esp a graduated rod or tape for length, or a vessel of known content for capacity” (my emphasis). Seems Madcap is on safe ground.
I wonder if Madcap had a laugh setting this?
As an old so-and-so this felt like a proper old school cryptic. Concise, clever clues, with some lovely misdirection. None of these three line, convoluted clues where you are required to find the most obscure possible definition of a word, then elide some or several characters, then find another obscure word, anagram it, then run it around the first word before finding a third word turn it back to front, then cycle one letter and that wraps around everything else. All to discover the name of a 14th century Dutch pigeon wrangler! As an American friend used to regularly say to me, KISS. I’ll leave you guys to figure that one out. 😁
Simon S@13 Well, I fell right into that one didn’t I? That little word ‘of’ in the clue locked my brain on to the ‘measurement of’ track. And I spend half of most weekends wondering where my tape measure is.
This was a fun puzzle. I couldn’t parse rocket and wasn’t sure if I’d got it right, but leaves, as soon as it was explained made me smile.
Especially liked in keeping and whistle.
Thanks RR and Madcap, hope to see more of you.