The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi all. There is a lot of quality on show in this puzzle and I’m struggling to decide what to highlight here. I suppose I could just mention the very first clue: the superb owl is an old friend, but a welcome one, and the construction is very neatly done with its well-disguised definition and smooth surface. (And although I’ve inhabited crosswordland for too long, I seem to remember that in the real world member of parliament means something other than owl.)
Difficulty-wise, it seemed challenging enough, yet fell into place steadily, taking much less time that I expect on a Saturday. This all made for a high enjoyment/time ratio. Thanks Quince!
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 | |
| 9a | Grand member of parliament sporting tie (5,4) |
| SUPER BOWL — SUPERB (grand) + OWL (member of parliament) | |
| 10a | Bunnies discovered jumping out of boredom (5) |
| ENNUI — An anagram of (… jumping) bUNNIEs without the outer letters (discovered) | |
| 11a | He told a tale about the night before (5) |
| REEVE — RE (about) + EVE (the night before). From Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales | |
| 12a | ‘Doctor Strange’ — I’m watching online (9) |
| STREAMING — Make an anagram of (doctor) STRANGE I’M | |
| 13a | Dip bug in port (7) |
| DUNKIRK — DUNK (dip) + IRK (bug) | |
| 15a | Thinker turning to socialist papers (7) |
| DIDEROT — Reversing (turning), TO, RED (socialist) and ID (papers) | |
| 16a | Top hot potato? (7,6) |
| SMOKING JACKET — SMOKING (hot) + JACKET (potato?) – or you could just interpret the wordplay (as I did when solving) as a whimsical alternative definition | |
| 21a | Director playing ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade’ (7) |
| BAYONET — BAY (director) + ON (playing) + ET (Alien) | |
| 24a | ‘Time Out’ has gossip articles by Spooner (3,4) |
| GAP YEAR — A spoonerism of YAP (gossip) GEAR (articles) | |
| 25a | Show note each time (4,5) |
| SOAP OPERA — SO (note) + A POP (each) + ERA (time) | |
| 26a | Fifty, duck, century, and a fifty — one can’t get you out! (5) |
| LOCAL — L (fifty), O (duck), C (century), and A L (fifty). | |
| I had pubs on the brain and couldn’t immediately understand the definition, but of course it’s a local anaesthetic | |
| 28a | One revolting bachelor breaks wind (5) |
| REBEL — B (bachelor) goes inside (breaks) REEL (wind). | |
| I entertained GABLE for a while, and feared I was going to have trouble with the definitions in this puzzle! | |
| 29a | Nice guy perhaps cleared out for uninitiated sidekick (9) |
| FRENCHMAN — With the central letter removed (cleared out) FoR + hENCHMAN missing its first letter (uninitiated …) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Free trade is covering both sides (7) |
| ASTRIDE — An anagram of (free) TRADE IS | |
| 2d | Go online, presumably to get weapon (4) |
| EPEE — PEE (go) with the E prefix to suggest (presumably) that this is done online | |
| 3d | What may follow foul and gratuitous level of spice? (4,4) |
| FREE KICK — FREE (gratuitous) KICK (level of spice?) | |
| 4d | Left in pursuit of wine and gin, finally (8) |
| FORSAKEN — FOR (in pursuit of) + SAKE (wine) + giN, finally | |
| 5d | Red state ultimately seceding (6) |
| FLORID — FLORIDa (state) without the last letter (ultimately seceding) | |
| 6d | Benefit from conflict within touching distance (6) |
| REWARD — WAR (conflict) within RE (touching) and D (distance) | |
| 7d | Dictator’s against relief work driving solution (10) |
| ANTIFREEZE — Sounds like (dictator’s) ANTI (against) FRIEZE (relief work) | |
| 8d | Impressed by fairy’s wings, Quince had become nervous (7) |
| FIDGETY — Inside (impressed by, in the sense of seized by) FairY’s external letters (wings), I’D (Quince had) + GET (become) | |
| 14d | Spineless guy stood up woman stopping by twice (5-5) |
| NAMBY-PAMBY — MAN (guy) reversed (stood up, in a down entry) + PAM (woman) inside (stopping) BY BY (by twice) | |
| 17d | Rejudge a criminal presumed to be good at hearing (3-5) |
| JUG-EARED — REJUDGE A anagrammed (criminal) | |
| 18d | Key things going over one’s head? (4,4) |
| CAPS LOCK — CAPS and a LOCK (of hair) are examples of things found on top of some people’s heads | |
| 19d | They insult a group of street performers heartlessly (7) |
| ABUSERS — A + BUSkERS (group of street performers) without the middle letter (heartlessly) | |
| 20d | Republican in denial about country (7) |
| IRELAND — R (Republican) in an anagram of (… about) DENIAL | |
| 22d | Kiss and cuddle, forgetting about fool (6) |
| NOODLE — [ca]NOODLE (kiss and cuddle), omitting (forgetting) CA (about) | |
| 23d | Short of time in a cryptic crossword, begin (3,3) |
| TEE OFF — TEE OFF could mean short of TEE, and in a cryptic crossword the letter T (tee) is often clued by time, hence “in a cryptic crossword” | |
| 27d | Party caught a politician (4) |
| CAMP — C (caught) + A + MP (politician) | |
SMOKING JACKET
It works both ways. Right?
Liked GAP YEAR, SOAP OPERA, EPEE, CAPS LOCK and TEE OFF.
Thanks Quince and Kitty.
Hi KVa – yes, that was what I was trying to say about smoking jacket.
I couldn’t see past “haven’t you lot got homes to go to?” either for LOCAL, Kitty.
I’m still not sure who or what bay is as a director, but nothing else was going to fit.
Thank you both.
Michael Bay is an American film director responsible for trash like the Transformer franchise and Armageddon. I don’t recommend you seeking any of them out.
I found the puzzle reasonably tough, and failed on 7D somehow. I needed the excellent blog for a few of the passings also.
Many Thanks to setter and blogger
Not sure exactly why, but this took way longer than it should have. In the end, I only needed the blog to explain 5d, as I had state=FL and ORID=??? Doh!
Also had to write all the anagrams out in crayon, guess it just wasn’t my day…
Thanks Quince n Kitty
Yep this setter is quite fun. The grand MP and the bored bunnies are standard, but ‘a pop’ for ‘each’ is cute and Dunk irk got a chuckle. As for local, ‘one can’t put you out’ would’ve been better. All enjoyable though, thanks both.
I struggled with this one, but I think I mostly just wasn’t on the same wavelength – most of them seemed obvious as soon as I revealed them. I am a little confused what ‘tie’ is doing in ‘sporting tie’. Is there a UK usage I’m unaware of?
ca @ 7 a ‘tie’ is another word for a match or a game.
A bit of a struggle but got there eventually without seeing all the parsing. Thanks, Quince and Kitty.
g in f@6: ‘get’ is necessary in the clue to preserve the surface’s apparent reference to cricket.