The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi all. Sorry this blog is a little later than usual. My brain must have been tuned to the right wavelength, fortunately; this felt harder than the time it took me would suggest. The SE corner proved the most resistant and my last in was the sneakily concealed ENROL.
I haven’t a SCOOBY what to pick for Clue of The Day as there were many nice touches, so I’ve just made some additional comments below. Thanks Methuselah!
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 | Powerful person’s audibly tense (5) |
| TITAN — Sounds like (audibly) TIGHTEN (tense) | |
| 4a | Attendants making their way down the aisle holding up train (8) |
| PAGEBOYS — A cryptic definition. | |
| (My first thought was BRIDESMAIDS but that wouldn’t fit) | |
| 8a | Time for fast Aardman Animation (7) |
| RAMADAN — An anagram (animation) of AARDMAN, the animation studio famous for Wallace & Gromit | |
| 9a | At every launch, NASA’s inventors must break up storm cloud (6) |
| NIMBUS — All the first letters of (at every launch) Nasa’s Inventors Must Break Up Storm. | |
| I like the unusual acrostic indicator which works so well here | |
| 11a | Insects seen in certain times of year, but not November (5) |
| MOTHS — MO[n]THS (certain times of year), but not N (November) | |
| 12a | One propping up the bar calls for usual drink by gallon (9) |
| PARALEGAL — PAR (usual) + ALE (drink) + GAL. (gallon). | |
| A sneaky misleading definition which serves the surface reading of the clue beautifully | |
| 13a | Glasses picked up very small marks (5) |
| SPECS — Sounds like (picked up) SPECKS (very small marks) | |
| 15a | Shaggy dog story initially getting surprised reaction (then disapproving one) around Yard (6-3) |
| SCOOBY-DOO — The first letter of (… initially) Story + COO (surprised reaction) then BOO (disapproving one) around YD (yard). | |
| I don’t think Scooby Doo is particularly shaggy himself, but he is does belong to the character Shaggy | |
| 17a | Hoskins, Rodríguez and many more slate man’s cryptic (4,5) |
| LAST NAMES — No, we don’t need to know anything about other Indy crossword setters, that’s just a bonus for those who do: an anagram (… cryptic) of SLATE MAN’S | |
| 18a | Relaxes, getting time away from kids (5) |
| EASES — We are removing (getting … away) T (time) from [t]EASES (kids) | |
| 19a | Plan to cycle around, meeting one on foot for game (3-3-3) |
| TIC-TAC-TOE — TACTIC (plan) cycles round next to TOE (one on foot) | |
| 22a | Biblical figure is beginning to cower following battery (5) |
| ISAAC — IS + the first letter of (beginning to) Cover following AA (battery) | |
| 23a | Heavy metal band starts to steal Motörhead’s iconography with a couple of umlauts (6) |
| OSMIUM — O (band or ring) + initial letters of (starts to) Steal Motörhead’s Iconography with the first two letters of (a couple of) UMlauts. | |
| Nice surface, given Motörhead’s “heavy metal umlaut” | |
| 24a | Contemptible individual returning a Scrabble piece (7) |
| REPTILE — Reversing (returning) PER (a) + TILE (Scrabble piece) | |
| 25a | Large farm animal nearly joins donkey tripping over through ha-ha (8) |
| COLOSSAL — COw (farm animal) without the last letter (nearly) joins the reversal of (… tripping over) ASS (donkey) going through LOL (ha-ha) | |
| 26a | Famous cellist’s stringed things to play with (2-3) |
| YO-YOS — YO-YO (famous cellist – Yo-Yo Ma)’S | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Old lady sadly turning in: “so long and thanks for the fish dip” (12) |
| TARAMASALATA — MA (old lady) and the reversal of (… turning) ALAS (sadly) in TA–RA (so long) and TA (thanks). | |
| Nothing to do with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! | |
| 2d | Seductive type suggested hair extension (9) |
| TEMPTRESS — Methuselah’s suggested hair extension is a TEMP TRESS | |
| 3d | They show one’s out of undies, perhaps (5) |
| NUDES — I (one) is removed from (out of) an anagram of (… perhaps) UND[i]ES | |
| 4d | Private Eye’s double entendre repulsed hot-shot? (3-2) |
| PIN-UP — PI (private investigator: private eye) + PUN (double entendre) sent backwards (repulsed) | |
| 5d | Size descriptor not completely matching corgi, nor mouse (9) |
| GINORMOUS — Part of (not completely matching) corGI, NOR MOUSe | |
| 6d | Blunder on live programme’s finale leading to buzzer (9) |
| BUMBLEBEE — BUMBLE (blunder) on BE (live) and programmE’s last letter (finale) | |
| 7d | Crossword solvers snog every now and then, unlike Methuselah (5) |
| YOUNG — YOU (crossword solvers) + regular letters of (… every now and then) sNoG. | |
| The old biblical character, of course; we’re not expected to know our (pretty youthful anyway) compiler’s age! | |
| 10d | Terribly cold busker’s covering backside in two ticks? (12) |
| BLOODSUCKERS — An anagram of (terribly) COLD BUSKER’S around (covering) the last letter of (backside in) twO | |
| 14d | Fancy manors in a rich country (3,6) |
| SAN MARINO — An anagram of (fancy) MANORS IN A | |
| 15d | Maths problem mentioned x occasionally (9) |
| SOMETIMES — SOME, which sounds like (mentioned) SUM (maths problem) + TIMES (x) | |
| 16d | Hell with the Tories perhaps bringing in current inequality (9) |
| DISPARITY — DIS (hell) + PARTY (the Tories perhaps) including (bringing in) I (current – electrical symbol) | |
| 20d | Fish and chips regularly dropped around, not a sausage (5) |
| CISCO — ChIpS omitting alternate letters (regularly dropped) + C (around) + O (0, not a sausage). | |
| Any of several salmonid freshwater whitefish | |
| 21d | Forlorn emcee’s spinning record (5) |
| ENROL — Hidden in – indicated by the possessive ‘S – forLORN Emcee reversed (spinning) | |
| 22d | Really mean crossword setter’s one of several contributing to paper (5) |
| IMPLY — I’M (crossword setter’s) + PLY (one of several contributing to paper). | |
| Another well-disguised definition and an amusing bit of self-deprecation to finish | |
LOi 20d ChIpS+C+O [ A classic clue for 1d TARAMASALATA “18a In which every second one is a starter (12)” (Everyman 3452 in 2012)]
Nice crossword. Although after finishing the puzzle I still couldn’t find the wordplay for a few clues, but most of that was quickly resolved by Googling. It left only 20d CISCO unresolved (which also happened to be my last one in too), since I still couldn’t see where O came from. But now, I learn the phrase “not a sausage”.
I like 19a TIC-TAC-TOE, 24A REPTILE, 14d SAN MARINO, and 22d IMPLY.
Thanks Methuselah and Kitty!
Super creativity from Methuselah. Some very original ideas and I enjoyed the humour. I am amused at our blogger’s generous interpretation of the ‘self-deprecation’ in IMPLY. Reading it differently, Methuselah could be referring to any one of the 50 or so setters – and that’s just restricting it to the Indy 🤣 But I’m sure Kitty is right in this, as with everything else in the excellent blog. Particular faves inc the definition in PARALEGAL; the setters given as examples of LAST NAMES; the AA battery; the very neat use of Motörhead in OSMIUM; the &lit NUDES which is so very neat; the surfaces for BUMBLEBEE and for YOUNG … And just when I feel my list is already too long, along come BLOODSUCKERS, SAN MARINO, SOMETIMES and CISCO!
Thanks Methuselah and Kitty
I know The Cisco Kid from ’50s movie matinees but, as I’m sure I’ve said before, almost any pronounceable group of letters will be a fish (or a Scottish island 🙂 ). And AA for battery was nicely oblique, given cower in the surface. Enjoyed, ta both.
I’ve been doing these for enough months now to have a reasonable feel for the styles of the different setters, and I look forward to a Methuselah in the Indy. And what an enjoyable puzzle this one was!
I particularly enjoyed OSMIUM, IMPLY, TARAMASALATA, PARALEGAL, SCOOBY-DOO, LAST NAMES, PAGEBOYS and CISCO.
IMPLY and ENROL held out for too long (love the novel “‘s” device), and I needed all the checkers for PARALEGAL and even then had to think a bit, although I guessed from the start that I was looking for something legal-related (if not goalposts). I don’t suppose the AA battery gets out much, but I enjoyed its appearance.
Thanks both for the fun, and to FrankieG@1 for reminding us of that lovely clue (unusual in that it doesn’t provide a complete parsing, but one which is, one assumes, unique).
A new fish and oh, I really must learn the periodic table one day, but all went in because the cluing was so good. Fave was PARALEGAL. Thanks to Methuselah and Kitty
LOL. Nice. Thanks for dropping by Methuselah. Very entertaining puzzle. Liked everything but YOUNG, COLOSSAL, and NIMBUS can take the podium. Needed the blog for a couple of parsings namely ‘ha-ha’ and the yard for which I just had ‘y’ forgetting the ‘d’. Thanks both.
Ta for the link at 23a Kitty. Fascinating cultural corridor. Makes an old ’60s head feel, well, old …
Glad you like the link, grantinfreo. I wish I could help with the feeling old thing, but I can’t … I find it just gets worse with every passing year too! (As a child/teen of the 90s, the thing that gets me is that it is now as far from the 90s as the 60s were then.)
Thanks Methuselah. I did a bit of the guess-then-parse game but everything came into view eventually except for the nho 1d. Top picks were TITAN, MOTHS, EASES, REPTILE, and IMPLY. Thanks Kitty for the blog and explaining how the ‘s in ENROL was the hidden indicator.
Thanks Methuselah. That was really good fun, accessible and funny. I liked very many of your definitions. Particularly loved the surfaces for TARAMA… and YOUNG. My other faves were SOMETIMES, NUDES, PARALEGAL and EASES (a great surfaceWP combo)! Thanks Methuselah and Kitty