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This was another excellent puzzle from Bluth with lots of inventive clues.
18 and 25 were probably my favourites for the excellent surface readings and the superb use of Kubrick source material.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | THE PLOT THICKENS |
Supply hot kettle chips around noon – now things are getting interesting (3,4,8)
|
| (Hot kettle chips)* around n{oon}. Supply seems slightly unconvincing as an anagram indicator in that it lacks any sense of the letters being disordered. It’s possible it’s intended as adverb of supple i.e. letters arranged in a supple way, although there is no verb to which the word would be applied. | ||
| 9 | IDLED |
Papers and student journalist did nothing (5)
|
| ID(=papers) + l{earner}(=student) + ed{itor}(=journalist) | ||
| 10 | GAUNTLET |
Pinched Grant’s glove (8)
|
| Gaunt(=pinched as a description) + let(=grant) | ||
| 12 | STEP |
First episode has pace (4)
|
| Hidden in first episode | ||
| 14 | NIGHT SHIFT |
Part of workforce in evening dress (5,5)
|
| Night(=evening) + dress(=shift) | ||
| 18 | HERBERT HOOVER |
US President‘s in that woman’s bed over and over again (7,6)
|
| Her(=that woman’s) + berth(=bed) + o{ver}(=cricket abbrev) + over | ||
| 19 | OPTIMISTIC |
Curry for one after work, putting no-frills rice on first and expecting good stuff (10)
|
| (Tim(=Curry for one i.e. Tim Curry the actor best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show would be one example of a Curry) after op(=work)) + ([r]ic[e] on ist(=first)). No frills for rice indicates removal of the “frills” i.e. the first and last letter. | ||
| 21 | NOSE |
Realises in audition for feature (4)
|
| Hom of knows | ||
| 22 | CAPACITY |
Extent of calcium deficiency not universal (8)
|
| Ca(=calcium in periodic table) + pa[u]city | ||
| 26 | MOCHA |
Second tea or coffee? (5)
|
| Mo{ment}(=second) + cha(=tea) | ||
| 28 | FORTNUM AND MASON |
Department store keep Gary Oldman’s line out when broadcast (7,3,5)
|
| Fort(=keep) + Numan(=Gary) + O[l]dman’s*. Gary seems a little weak as a def for Gary Numan, although Gary Numan and Gary Oldman are regularly paired together in a joke about Oldman being younger than Numan. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | THRIFT SHOP |
Profit-sheet he adjusted after discounting electronics – bargains can be found here (6,4)
|
| (Profit sh[ee]t h[e])* – all the Es for electronics removed from the anagram | ||
| 2 | OPAL |
Post office rejected a large gemstone … (4)
|
| PO<(=post office) + a l{arge} | ||
| 3 | GOLDEN DELICIOUS |
… or tasty apple (6,9)
|
| Golden(=or, an old term for gold) + delicious(=tasty) | ||
| 4 | STAG |
Almost mount deer (4)
|
| Stag[e](=mount in the sense of mounting an exhibition) | ||
| 5 | SITUATION COMEDY |
Friends maybe setting my code incorrectly (9,6)
|
| Situation(=setting) + (my code)* | ||
| 6 | SKIT |
Funny scene in small outfit (4)
|
| S{mall} + kit(=outfit) | ||
| 7 | ONCE |
After being connected – oddly disappearing (4)
|
| Odd letters removed in connected | ||
| 11 | LEI |
Wreath that is left on the counter (3)
|
| (i.e. l{eft})< | ||
| 13 | PARSI |
Old Iranian standard is raised (5)
|
| Par(=standard, as in a par golf score) + is< | ||
| 15 | GOT AT |
Finally melt butter on the outside as suggested (3,2)
|
| Goat(=butter in the sense that goats are believed to butt things) around [mel]t, The def is in the sense of “what are you getting at?”. | ||
| 16 | HAVEN |
Egg supplier fencing in a very safe place (5)
|
| Hen(=egg supplier) around (a v{ery}) | ||
| 17 | FORESHADOW |
Give warning as climbing up red ash carelessly splits bark (10)
|
| ((Red ash)* in woof(=dog bark))<. My reading would be that the red ash has to be reversed as well as anagrammed, although it doesn’t affect the outcome much. | ||
| 20 | TIP |
Advice: put mine back (3)
|
| Pit<(=mine) | ||
| 23 | AMOK |
Fine following morning on the rampage (4)
|
| OK(=fine) after AM(=in the morning e.g. 10AM) | ||
| 24 | ALTO |
High-pitch results when key fob is out of bounds (4)
|
| Alt(=the Alt key on a keyboard) + [f]o[b](the bounds of fob removed) | ||
| 25 | YEAR |
Perhaps 2001: A Space Odyssey ultimately used up Kubrick’s focus (4)
|
| (A + [Spac]e [Odysse]y)< + [Kub]r[ick]. The R is the middle letter, hence the focus of the word. | ||
| 27 | CRAM |
Quickly learn stuff (4)
|
| DD |
Excellent crossword with just the right level of difficulty for a Monday morning solve – my favourite clue was 18a
Thanks very much to Bluth and NealH
My faves: HERBERT HOOVER, SITUATION COMEDY and YEAR.
Thanks Bluth and NealH.
What crypticsue said. Great fun!
FORESHADOW
Agree with NealH’s comment on the wordplay. Not elegant if the setter intended it this way.
It’s a while since I said this: ‘What crypticsue (and Widdersbel) said’.
Agree, NeilH, supply works properly when the anagrist starts with a suitable verb. Agree too that 18a is a cracker; the resonance of ‘president’ with ‘that woman’, and then ‘over and over’, is delicious. Fun Monday puzzle, ta Bluth Neil.
I thought the clue for FORESHADOW was fine. It is WOOF around an anagram of RED ASH all reversed – what’s inelegant about that? Admittedly, I can see how others may disagree.
“Supply” is a reasonably common anagram indicator, and it is indeed ‘in a supple manner’. I don’t see why the cryptic reading requires anything in particular in the anagrist. If that was the sense of ‘supply’ being used in the surface it would for coherence, but the cryptic reading simply needs to provide accurate instructions/description of the wordplay.
Also don’t see a problem with FORESHADOW; you’re reversing the whole wordplay section. The fact that part of that wordplay is an anagram (so as an element, needs no reversal) makes no odds.
Anyway, lots of fun from Bluth as usual, with HERBERT HOOVER the stand-out.
Thanks both.
S’truth, Bluth…another classic composition, all the right notes, in the right order.
So many of my favourite cryptic plays, it’s like ” Desert Island Discs”, in the best possible way.
When an “egg supplier” is a HEN, then I’m a happy bunny.
19(ac) “Tim Curry and no frills rice”? Original and tasty.
It is a puzzle worth revisiting, just to re-read and enjoy the surfaces.
Pick of the crop? The combination by ellipsis ( which I hate, but not here ) of OPAL and GOLDEN DELICIOUS, in 2(d) and 3(d). TOP A-Z.
My forelock is well and truly tugged, Bluth + NealH
I’m in hospital after a fall and this was the first crossword I’ve attempted in over two weeks. A nice gentle start, so thanks all.
I revealed FORTNUM AND MASON, being in too big a hurry to google “UK department stores” for a list (the only one I can name unaided is Harrod’s). I really should have known that one, I readily admit; it appears that it dates from the 1700s. Otherwise, this was smooth sailing, proof that a puzzle needn’t be difficult to be fun.
A fun solve over a meal this evening. Good surfaces throughout as we would expect from Bluth.
Hope that you are recovering OK from your fall Dormouse.
Thanks to S&B.
Lovely puzzle and accessible for me, five stars. Don’t know if it was deliberate misdirection but once I convinced myself that ‘give warning’ meant the solution started ‘FORE’ then ‘give warning couldn’t be the definition. Could it? Brilliant.
Thanks Both
Was quietly hoping for something that Bluth’s favourite nemesis could climb into, but sadly not this time. 😁 Fun and gentle for a Monday.
Thanks NealH and thanks all.
I was travelling on Monday and completely forgot this was in.
I think ‘supply’ is a pretty commonly used anagram indicator and feels akin to ‘plastic’ and ‘elastic’ and plenty of others.
I’m surprised to see a couple of people seeing the reversal in 17d being applied to all of the wordplay as any kind of wrinkle… it seems pretty standard practice to me and I can’t recall it causing any consternation elsewhere.
Cheers!