We don’t see puzzles from Tack very often but they present an interesting challenge when they do appear.
Tack has given us puzzles with themes in the past, but I haven’t seen one today. No doubt someone will tell me there is one.
There were a couple of entries that were new to me – SLUMBER PARTY at 12 across and ATRIP at 6 down
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Ethicist loosely associated with people of faith (8)
THEISTIC (relating to belief in the existence of God; associated with people of faith) Anagram of (loosely) ETHICIST THEISTIC* |
| 5 | Pressure games beset by wrong’un selected for England? (6)
CAPPED (selected for one’s team or country, such as England) (P [pressure] + PE [physical education; games]) contained in (beset by) CAD (a man who lacks the instincts of a gentleman or who behaves dishonourably; a wrong’un) CA (P PE) D |
| 9 | Sustains complaints one left on the counter (8)
ALIMENTS (sustains) AILMENTS (diseases; complaints) with (I [Roman numeral for one] and L [left]) reversed (on the counter) to form LI A LI< MENTS |
| 10 | Dejected British monkey peeled bananas (6)
BROKEN (dispirited; dejected) BR (British) + an anagram of (bananas) mONKEy excluding the outer letters M and Y (peeled) BR OKEN* |
| 12 | Italian man wanting to separate welcomed by foxy girls sleeping around (7,5)
SLUMBER PARTY (American term for a PARTY attended by girls who dress in night clothes and pass the night eating and sleeping) (UMBERto [Italian male forename] excluding [wanting] TO + PART [separate]) contained in (welcomed by) SLY (foxy) SL (UMBER PART) Y |
| 15 | Barman withdrawing milder bevvy periodically (5)
VERDI (reference Guiseppe VERDI [1813 – 1901], Italian composer [one who writes bars of music; barman]) VERDI (reversed [withdrawing] characters 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 [periodically] of mIlDeR bEvVy) VERDI< |
| 16 | Outlaw recalled venture controlled by short tyrant (9)
DESPERADO (outlaw) DARE (venture) reversed (recalled) and contained in (controlled by) DESPOt (tyrant) excluding the final letter T (short) DESP (ERAD<) O |
| 18 | Wealthy male taking ecstasy in German house (9)
REICHSTAG (the lower house of the parliament of Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic; the building in which it met) (RICH [wealthy] containing [taking] E [ecstasy tablet]) + STAG (male) R (E) ICH STAG |
| 19 | Caught fish with this? Or in this? (5)
CREEL (basket, especially a fish basket; a lobster trap – something in which fish can be caught) C (caught) + REEL (in angling terms, a device for winding, casting, etc, consisting of a revolving spool with a handle, attached to a fishing rod; one can go fishing with a REEL) C REEL |
| 20 | Large animal in river sinks carrying naked person over (12)
HIPPOPOTAMUS (a large animal) HIP (trendy; in) + PO (river in Italy) + (POTS [sinks, as in a snooker player POTS a ball in a pocket to score points] containing [carrying] hUMAn [person] excluding the outer letters H and N [naked] and then reversed [over]) HIP PO POT (AMU<) S |
| 24 | Bolt in trouble taking performance enhancing drugs? (6)
DOPING (taking performance enhancing drugs) PIN (bolt) contained in (in) DOG (trouble or plague, as in DOGged by ill-health) DO (PIN) G |
| 25 | Trivial piece repulsed a politician (8)
NUGATORY (trivial) GUN (piece) reversed (repulsed) + A + TORY (Conservative politician) NUG< A TORY |
| 26 | High priest on television was out of order (6)
WASTED (drunk; high) WAS + TED (reference Father TED, the priest in a television sitcom of the same name, first broadcast between 1995 and 1998) – the phrase ‘out of order’ refers to the fact that WAS comes before TED in the answer, rather than the other way as written in the clue. WAS TED |
| 27 | Teenager goes off to evolve (8)
GENERATE (evolve) Anagram of (goes off) TEENAGER GENERATE* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sting ultimately got to perform like Eminem? (4)
TRAP (sting [a TRAP for criminals set up by the police]) T (last letter of [ultimately] goT) + RAP (Eminem is a RAPper) T RAP |
| 2 | Impressive photograph online? (4)
EPIC (of heroic or impressive proportions) E (electronic; online) + PIC (picture; photograph) E PIC |
| 3 | Possibly how that woman will get hold of Ray’s winkle? (9)
SHELLFISH (a winkle is an example of a gastropod or SHELLFISH) SHE’LL (that woman will) + FISH (catch or get hold of a ray [a flattish FISH]) SHELL FISH |
| 4 | Warning assumes this setter would menace (12)
INTIMIDATION (violent threat; menace) INTIMATION (announcement, such as a warning) containing (assumes) I’D (this setter [I] would [‘D]) INTIM (ID) ATION |
| 6 | Following a brief threesome, Penny just got out of bed (5)
ATRIP (of an anchor, no longer caught on the bottom [seabed]; got out of bed) A + TRIo (threesome) excluding the final letter O (brief) + P (penny) A TRI P |
| 7 | Inscrutable Roger Federer initially served a winner against Potter earlier (5-5)
POKER-FACED (expressionless; inscrutable) POKE (potter – Bradfords Crossword Solver’s Dictionary has POKE as a synonym for potter. Collins has ‘POKE along’ as a definition for potter) + RF (initials of [initially] Roger and Federer) + ACED (served a winner [ACE] in a tennis match) POKE R F ACED |
| 8 | Yesterday was one of his number essentially held back? (5,5)
DANNY BOYLE (the director of the 2019 film Yesterday; Yesterday was ‘one of his’) DANNY BOY (song [number]) + EL (central letters of [essentially] hELd) reversed (held back) DANNY BOY LE< |
| 11 | A flat for one in Turkey taking ages being renovated (3,9)
KEY SIGNATURE (in music, the indication of key by marking sharps, flats or naturals where the key changes or at the beginning of a line. ‘A Flat’ is an example of a term describing a KEY SIGNATURE) Anagram of (being renovated) IN TURKEY and AGES KEY SIGNATURE* |
| 13 | Eclipse lovers had own blankets (10)
OVERSHADOW (to throw a SHADOW love; to eclipse) OVERSHADOW (hidden word in [blankets] lOVERS HAD OWn) OVERSHADOW |
| 14 | Fine leg strides to the crowd in Melbourne Cricket Ground (10)
DRAINPIPES (strides is an Australian[Melbourne Cricket Ground] word for trousers. so ‘fine strides’ refers to narrow [fine leg] trousers such as DRAINPIPES) Fine Leg is also a fielding position in cricket, so the clue is very appropriate. DRAINPIPES – the clue seems to be just a cryptic definition DRAINPIPES |
| 17 | Egg on your face having gone into prison (9)
ENCOURAGE (urge on; egg on) yOUR excluding the first letter Y [face {first letter} having gone) contained in (into) ENCAGE (prison, as a verb. Chambers give a poetic version of prison as a verb meaning to enclose or restrain) ENC (OUR) AGE |
| 21 | This beast needs power to make sudden attack (5)
OUNCE (formerly a lynx; now generally the snow leopard, a big cat of Asia with markings similar to a leopard’s; the jaguar; the cheetah; sometimes vaguely any moderate-sized wild beast of the cat tribe; this beast) If you add a P (power) at the beginning of OUNCE you get POUNCE (make sudden attack) OUNCE |
| 22 | Unspecified number dropping from extreme pain held up exercise practice (4)
YOGA (any of a number of systems of physical and mental disciplines based on a Hindu philosophy) AGOnY (extreme pain) excluding (dropping from) N (unspecified number in some mathematical equations) then reversed (held up; down entry) YOGA< |
| 23 | Picked up light meal and a number of bits (4)
BYTE (in computer technology a BYTE is made up of a number of bits) BYTE (sounds like [picked up] BITE [informal term for a light meal]) BYTE |
I had no idea about DRAINPIPES. I didn’t realise the entire MCG was an indicator for an Australian word. I live in NZ and we call them strides here too. I didn’t realise you don’t call them strides in the UK. So I have a thumbs down for that one but I’ll have to be aware of this sort of thing in the future. We did have Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream for an American indicator last week, (I see one of them just got sacked by Unilever for being outspoken on social issues). How un-American. However I thought this was an excellent puzzle with very clever clues otherwise. The top was quite gentle compared to the bottom, imho, and my A-list would include NUGATORY for the ‘piece’ and of course KEY SIGNATURE. Thanks for the blog Duncan (couldn’t parse poke, the party or the hippo, not my day) and thanks Tack.
Found it somewhat tough. Enjoyed it though.
Liked CREEL, DOPING, TRAP, DANNY BOYLE, ENCOURAGE and YOGA.
Thanks Tack and duncan.
Atrip was a jorum, and had to reveal a square before Danny Boyle swam to mind — heard of, but only just. And encourage was a biff — “your” minus its face is very slyly done, clever. Enjoyed it, ta Tack and duncan.
I thought “on the counter” meant “stacked up”, so it would only work for a down clue? Very enjoyable otherwise, I liked KEY SIGNATURE.
I think “on the counter” means “in the opposite direction”. Like in counter-clockwise meaning the opposite direction to clockwise.
Also in the no idea about DRAINPIPES club but thankfully it was the only word I could think of that fitted and I had to put something in.
Also couldn’t see how DANNY BOYLE worked but he is one of my favourite directors so I got it from the definition.
Liked SLUMBER PARTY, REICHSTAG and WASTED
Thanks Tack & Duncan
Oh, Danny Boyle, the pipes, the pipes are calling…
Now there’s an ear worm.
Nice quick puzzle, excellent blog.
Thanks both. Sadly, short of time today, so resorted to more of a concise solve; on reflection, perhaps a good thing….DANNY BOYLE surely impenetrable unless you knew the director: DRAINPIPES not specifically Aus to my knowledge: SLUMBER PARTY with the partial Italian….Friday tomorrow I hope.