An enjoyable challenge from Italicus today.
There are some convincing surfaces here, including the slightly alarming 11a and 6d and the logical 19d. I’m sure I’ve seen 18a (or something very similar) before, but it’s still good. 27a was one of my last ones solved, and I laughed when I understood the parsing.
It’s Tuesday so we should be looking for a theme of some sort. There seem to be several European references in the clues, and a few suggestions of various criminal organisations; those who know the 20d films and enjoy bad puns may also have spotted the connection with 17d. However, none of these turn out to be what we’re looking for. Instead it’s the CARTOON series BATMAN (split between opposite corners) and his friend ROBIN, along with several of the enemies he’s done battle with over the years: MAD HATTER, RIDDLER, JOKER, PENGUIN and POISON IVY. Thanks Italicus for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FIDDLER CRAB |
Wild bird Alfred claims caught crustacean (7,4)
|
| Anagram (wild) of BIRD ALFRED, containing (claiming) C (abbreviation for caught, in cricket scoring). | ||
| 7 | BAT |
Strike from account upon reflection (3)
|
| TAB (account = a record of amounts owed to be paid later, especially for drinks in a bar) reversed (upon reflection). | ||
| 9 | ROBIN |
French king welcoming black knight’s comic sidekick (5)
|
| ROI (French word for king) containing B (abbreviation for black, as in 2B pencils), then N (abbreviation for knight in chess notation).
Comic as in comic-book: Batman’s colleague. |
||
| 10 | MAD HATTER |
Insane character possessed substance according to Spooner (3,6)
|
| Spoonerism of HAD MATTER (possessed substance).
Character from Alice in Wonderland. |
||
| 11 | ESSENTIAL |
Fundamental right abolished in tribunal by German city (9)
|
| T[r]IAL (tribunal) without the R (abbreviation for right), after ESSEN (city in western Germany). | ||
| 12 | HELLO |
Underworld organisation’s original address (5)
|
| HELL (underworld) + first letter (original) of O[rganisation).
Address = greeting. |
||
| 13 | PENGUIN |
Avian enclosure finally providing emu with home (7)
|
| PEN (enclosure) + final letters of [providin]G [em]U + IN (home = at home, as in “will you be in this evening?”). | ||
| 15 | REEL |
Hands round stimulant before start of exhausting dance (4)
|
| R + L (abbreviations for right and left hands), around E (abbreviation for the drug ecstasy = stimulant) + starting letter of E[xhausting].
A fast country dance, especially in Scotland. |
||
| 18 | IDOL |
Film star adding line to marriage vow (4)
|
| L (abbreviation for line) after I DO (traditional form of the response in a marriage service). | ||
| 20 | CARTOON |
Series of images Oscar found in container (7)
|
| O (Oscar in the radio alphabet) in CARTON (container, typically made of cardboard). | ||
| 23 | OWNER |
Some children worried about person with pet? (5)
|
| Hidden answer (some . . .), reversed (about), in [child]REN WO[rried]. | ||
| 24 | MARIJUANA |
Green Spanish boy taken in by virgin in Mexico (9)
|
| JUAN (Spanish boy’s name) contained in MARIA (Spanish name, so “in Mexico”, for the Virgin Mary).
A drug that has a bewildering number of slang names, including “green”. |
||
| 26 | POISON IVY |
Climber close to insanity following strange vision on river (6,3)
|
| Last letter (close) of [iv]Y, after an anagram (strange) of VISION, after PO (river in Italy, a favourite with crossword setters).
Climbing plant, or at least some varieties of it are. |
||
| 27 | KHAKI |
Colour of boot locker, some say (5)
|
| Homophone in some accents (some say) of CAR KEY (what you’d use to lock the boot of a car).
Light brown or greenish-brown. |
||
| 28 | MAN |
Article written by married geezer (3)
|
| AN (a form of the indefinite article) next to M (abbreviation for married, in genealogical records).
Geezer = old-fashioned slang for a man. |
||
| 29 | SPRING ROLLS |
Picked up seasonal acting work for starters (6,5)
|
| Homophone (picked up = heard) of SPRING ROLES (acting work in a specific season of the year).
Something often eaten as a starter in a Chinese meal. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FOR KEEPS |
French retaining old castles in perpetuity (3,5)
|
| FR (abbreviation for French) containing O (abbreviation for old), then KEEPS (keep = the inner fortified building within a castle).
For keeps = slang for forever. |
||
| 2 | DEBASING |
Shameful young lady, for example, supported by government (8)
|
| DEB (abbreviation for debutante = young lady in upper-class society) + AS IN (phrase used to introduce an illustration of how a word can be used = for example), with G (abbreviation for government) at the end (at the bottom, in a down clue = supporting). | ||
| 3 | LINEN |
Textile from mill in Enniskillen (5)
|
| Hidden answer (from . . .) in [mil]L IN EN[niskillen]. | ||
| 4 | RAMPION |
Artist overlooks minute aphid regularly seen on flower (7)
|
| RA (abbreviation for Royal Academician = artist), before (above, in a down clue = overlooking) M (abbreviation for minute) + alternate letters (regularly seen) of [a]P[h]I[d], then ON.
Generic name for a few species of wild flowers (and also some salad leaf vegetables). |
||
| 5 | RIDDLER |
One asks hard questions of horseman touring Donegal on vacation (7)
|
| RIDER (horseman or horsewoman), around (touring) D[onega]L (on vacation = after emptying). | ||
| 6 | BEACHWEAR |
Every week Earl enters pub in revealing clothing (9)
|
| EACH (every) + W (abbreviation for week) + E (abbreviation for earl), inserted into BAR (pub = drinking establishment). | ||
| 7 | BOTTLE |
Odd elements of Brontë tale laid bare her courage (6)
|
| Odd-numbered letters of B[r]O[n]T[ë] T[a]L[e], then [h]E[r] with the outer letters removed (laid bare).
Bottle = slang for courage. Though if you follow the derivation of “to lose one’s bottle” from Cockney rhyming slang, it actually means something rather less polite. |
||
| 8 | TERROR |
King enthralled by quirky, retro horror (6)
|
| R (abbreviation for Latin Rex = King), contained in an anagram (quirky) of RETRO. | ||
| 14 | UNDERDOGS |
Don urged criminal to crush society’s outsiders (9)
|
| Anagram (criminal) of DON URGED, before (above, in a down clue = to crush) S (abbreviation for society). | ||
| 16 | NOT AT ALL |
Shorter son goes missing? Don’t mention it! (3,2,3)
|
| NOT A[s] TALL (shorter), without the S (abbreviation for son).
Not at all = don’t mention it = a politely self-effacing response to thanks. |
||
| 17 | INFAMIES |
Wicked deeds within heartless Mafia factions (8)
|
| IN (within) + FAM[il]IES (Mafia factions) without the middle letters (heartless). | ||
| 19 | LUMPIER |
Pure milk when endlessly churned becomes more clotted (7)
|
| Anagram (churned) of PURE MIL[k] without the last letter (endlessly). | ||
| 20 | CARRY ON |
Don’t stop dupe ringing Henry in East end (5,2)
|
| CON (dupe = swindle) around (ringing) ‘ARRY (variant of the name Henry, as pronounced in the East End dialect of London with the initial H dropped). | ||
| 21 | POM-POM |
Decoration Englishman in Australia is given twice (3-3)
|
| POM (Australian slang for an English person) twice.
A decorative ball of wool tufts, a bundle of glittery fibres used by cheerleaders, or a similar decoration. |
||
| 22 | ENSIGN |
Germany abandons plan to adopt new flag (6)
|
| [d]ESIGN (plan) without the D (abbreviation for Deutschland = Germany), containing (to adopt) N (abbreviation for new). | ||
| 25 | JOKER |
Judge fair queen to be fool (5)
|
| J (abbreviation for judge) + OK (fair = good but not excellent) + ER (the late Queen Elizabeth). |
I liked KHAKI once I’d worked it out. I learned that green is a term for MARIJUANA (I must have lived a sheltered life). Some other enjoyable clues here. My only puzzle was how an adjective, avian, can equate to a noun, PENGUIN.
I think, but am not 100%, that FIDDLER is another Batman character?
Turns out he made one cameo appearance in Batman: The Brave and the Bold #15 but is more usually a foe of another DC Comics character, the Flash.
Tim C: I must confess, I never gave ‘avian’ a thought as I have always believed it has both nounal and adjectival meanings. I was surprised to discover Chambers only has the adjective. Collins gives it as a noun but only in American English.
Nice puzzle and good to see the main adversaries all finding a place in the grid. HELLO, KHAKI and FOR KEEPS my podium.
Thanks Italicus and Quirister
TimC @1, PostMark @3: I’ve definitely seen “avian” as a noun, a rather pretentious synonym for “bird”. It’s also possible to use “penguin” as an adjective, I suppose?
Nice to see POM getting a mention. Twice. Not too tricky but a couple held me up in the NW.Took a while to twig to DEBASING despite knowing DEB, RAMPION was nho, avian flew right by me until I followed the parsing, and the syntax of ESSENTIAL seemed back to front which was the intention. Thanks Quirister for the blog and thanks Italicus.
Although I don’t read any DC comics at the moment, I am a bit of a comic fan, so an easy theme for me. You can, at a pinch, add MAN BAT to the list of villains. This may have been in Italicus’ mind with the split of the two words. Good fun.
Holy crossword fun. I googled to see if there was a Carry On Batman film, only to be confronted with ads for Batman-themed carry-on luggage.
This made for a most enjoyable diversion, which I found very much at the easier end of this setter’s spectrum. My only hold ups were a visit to Google re “green” in 24a – yet another drug reference that I didn’t know (our setters would be lost without them!), and it took a while for the 17d parsing penny to drop.
Many thanks to Italicus and to Quirister.
Took me a while to find the final ‘e’ for BOTTLE, read the clue properly girl! Don’t know much about the cloak-wearing duo but did manage to pick up on some of their better-known adversaries which satisfied me that our setter was sticking with the ‘theme Tuesday’ idea.
Favourite was definitely KHAKI which made me laugh.
Thanks to Italicus and to Quirister for the review.
Hi everyone, many thanks to Quirister for the comprehensive blog and to everyone else for the comments. This is my last Italicus puzzle for 2024, so would like to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. See you in 2025!
An enjoyable puzzle with a theme that was easy to spot. We did need a wordfinder for 24ac after failing to work anything round [el] niño for the Spanish boy – never thought of the name Juan, D’oh! FIDDLER CRAB, was our favourite as well as our FOI.
Thanks, Italicus and Quirister.