A pleasant start to the week from Lette
A couple of fiddly bits of parsing, and I’m not entirely certain that I’ve correctly cracked 2d, but I greatly enjoyed 10a, 15d and the neatly self-referential anagram at 13a, among others. Thanks to Lette.
PS As of today I’m instituting the MOH’s scale of cruciverbial hardness (my thanks to Admin for the suggestion), ranging from 1 (Talc, easy-peasy) to 10 (Diamond, all but impossible). Please note that ratings make no claim about actual reality, so please feel free to disagree. Rather, they are entirely subjective and will depend, inter alia, on how well I’ve slept, how much coffee I’ve had and whether Mrs MOH has been nagging me to get the bins in/walk the dog/let the chickens out.
Today’s MOH’s rating: Fluorite
| ACROSS | ||
| 5 | SPRAWL |
Rough characters cutting cocaine for piano lounge (6)
|
| ScRAWL (rough characters) with the c replaced by P | ||
| 6 | WHITER |
Partners right to bang inside – it’s cleaner (6)
|
| Insertion of HIT (bang) into WE (partners in bridge) + R | ||
| 9 | TRICKS |
Takes in requirements of contract? (6)
|
| Double def, the second one referring to contract bridge | ||
| 10 | INNUENDO |
Between pub and party regularly muse on suggestive remark (8)
|
| INN + DO with alternate letters of mUsE oN in between | ||
| 11 | YARN |
Barmy Army wanting maiden to go with new spinner’s work (4)
|
| Anag (barmy) of ARMY with the M (maiden) replaced by N (new) | ||
| 12 | SIDE HUSTLE |
Team push for something more enriching? (4,6)
|
| SIDE (team) + HUSTLE (push) | ||
| 13 | STEALTHIEST |
Most secretive as this Lette cryptic (11)
|
| Anag (cryptic) of AS THIS LETTE | ||
| 18 | INTERLACED |
Largely dark and loveless election tragically crossed lines (10)
|
| Anag (tragically) of DAR (largely dark) + ELECTIoN (loveless) | ||
| 21 | USED |
Second-hand parts in warehouse displays (4)
|
| Hidden answer in warehoUSE Displays | ||
| 22 | FALSETTO |
Raised voice in argument following shortfall? (8)
|
| FAL (short fall) + SET TO | ||
| 23 | FIBULA |
Funny fabulist pulling good man’s leg to a certain extent (6)
|
| Anag of FABULIst without st (pulling good man) | ||
| 24 | RANGES |
Scottish team taking last run out for spots of shooting practice (6)
|
| Glasgow RANGERS without the second R (taking last run out) | ||
| 25 | SMARMY |
S&M with men bound under orders for boot-licking (6)
|
| SM + ARMY | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PRECINCT |
Police place blundering Prince before court (8)
|
| Anag (blundering) of PRINCE + CT | ||
| 2 | TWISTS |
Oliver’s requests for more? (6)
|
| Not 100% sure about this – aside from the protagonist of the Dickens novel, I’m guessing this refers to requests to the dealer in poker for more cards. Or, as Hovis and Simon S point out below, pontoon/vingt-et-un, which we used to play a lot as kids but which had slipped my mind till now | ||
| 3 | SHANGHAI |
Take away display on wall in quiet road (8)
|
| Insertion of HANG (display on wall) in SH (quiet) AI (A1, road) | ||
| 4 | STRESS |
Former captain dismissing Australia’s openers for English to create pressure (6)
|
| STRAUSS (former England cricket captain Andrew) with AU (Australia’s openers) replaced by E | ||
| 5 | SPREAD |
Binge dropping ecstasy periodically and space out (6)
|
| SPREe (binge dropping one E) + AnD (and, periodically) | ||
| 7 | RIDDLE |
Upset about limits to dud puzzle (6)
|
| RILE (upset) around limits to DuD | ||
| 8 | LIE DETECTOR |
One graphically capturing bull? (3,8)
|
| Cryptic def | ||
| 14 | ALL AT SEA |
Ungrounded and deeply confused? (3,2,3)
|
| Cryptic def | ||
| 15 | STUBBORN |
Unyielding Abbot discovered rule embraced by upright devotees (8)
|
| Insertion of aBBOt (abbot discovered) + R (rule) in reversal (upright) of NUTS | ||
| 16 | UNFAIR |
Removing top, streak beside female and show off? (6)
|
| rUN (streak with its top removed) + F + AIR (show) | ||
| 17 | DEPLOY |
Set out both sides of defence strategy (6)
|
| DE (both sides of DefencE) + PLOY | ||
| 19 | EASING |
Relaxation, for instance cuddling when home (6)
|
| Insertion (cuddling) of AS (when) + IN (home) in EG (for instance) | ||
| 20 | DEFAME |
Vilify European fellow assuming pantomime role (6)
|
| Insertion of E F (European fellow) in DAME |
Drat. I couldn’t see the answer to 9a for the life of me. Always seems to be obvious once revealed.
TWIST I believe is from Pontoon rather than poker.
Thanks Lette and MOH.
A pleasant puzzle indeed. Nice blog again.
TWISTS
I don’t know anything about poker, but my guess (based on my online search) is the same as the blogger’s.
Liked STEALTHIEST (LETTE us have more!), LIE DETECTOR (a nice curve bull…sorry…ball) and ALL AT SEA (well-grounded! Deep surface).
Thanks Lette and MOH
I took the reference in 2D to be to pontoon / vingt-et-un, where you either STICK to keep just the cards you have or TWIST to ask for one more card (and possibly one more after that).
Yes, thanks Hovis @1, and Simon S @3, pontoon is a definite possibility – had forgotten about the game until now. Though I see twisting also a thing in some variants of stud poker. Blog amended accordingly
Enjoyed that. My podium would be: FALSETTO, the self-reference in STEALTHIEST, and PRECINCT. Slight eyebrow wiggle at using ‘beside’ as a positioning indicator in a Down clue in UNFAIR, but I guess that sort of thing might be personal preference.
Like others above I parsed TWISTS as the pontoon reference.
Thanks Lette and MOH.
I also took TWISTs to be from games such as blackjack, pontoon or others. ‘Stick or Twist’ is also used more generally these days for any decision where the option is the status quo or something different/more.
Liked: FIBULA, SMARMY, INNUENDO plus others. Some great and occasionally not PG surfaces in this one.
Thanks Lette and MOH
Thanks both. Didn’t know SIDE HUSTLE but it seemed plausible, and thought PRECINCT was exclusively US but my dictionary suggests otherwise. I see a lot of bridge references in crosswords, which feels far from contemporary yet it may still be popular, and we have two here, including TRICKS which held out until the end, as well as other card game references in TWISTS and SHANGHAI.
Very enjoyable second (?) outing for Lette. It took me a while to get onto the wavelength and, like Hovis @1, I never saw the tricks in TRICKS! I find myself mirroring Rob T @5 in favourites – FALSETTO, STEALTHIEST and PRECINCT. But would add WHITER and INNUENDO, both of them for the … innuendo. And LIE DETECTOR because it made me laugh.
Thanks Lette and MOH (I LOVE the MOH scale. Brilliant! But I had to go and look up fluorite on it)
A quick note of thanks for the kind comments, for the excellent blog, and to Eimi for publishing the puzzle.
To confirm, that as mentioned above, I had vignt-et-un /Blackjack etc in mind for TWISTS; I wondered if the clue was a little loose but hoped the surface allusion to scene in the Dickens and / or the film of Oliver! might draw a smile. The only thing to add is that some synonyms for lie (or examples of lies or just generally dishonest practices) can be ‘detected’ in the grid. Thanks again
Thanks Lette, it was a lovely puzzle! I must admit I’m generally hopeless at spotting themes. Too focused on the trees to see the actual wood…
Thanks both! Loved the puzzle, the blog, and also MOH’s rating. I’d make this more of an apatite because of 16D that I bunged in as the only word that would fit and had to stare at for a while. 23A my favourite.