A remote entry for the S&B: doubly so, because neither setter nor blogger could make it to York. But I hope you’ve had a good weekend! Here’s a PDF of the puzzle.
I have to admit I found this rather tricky: our setter has been pushing the boundaries a bit with constructions in the wordplay, and with a few definitions that needed research for confirmation. But he’s clearly had some fun with the surfaces, and I liked the cricket-themed 16a and the geographically-accurate 19a, along with the very neat 27d. As for 11a – well, the man himself believes in free speech as protected by the First Amendment, doesn’t he? Thanks to ALP for the challenge.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BOSCH |
Double Dutch oral for Dutch master (5)
|
| Sound-alike (oral = spoken) of BOSH (Double Dutch = slang for nonsense).
Hieronymus Bosch, 15th-century Dutch painter. |
||
| 4 | BIKINI WAX |
Key increase in Bush administration? (6,3)
|
| BIKINI (the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean; key = a variant of cay = a coral island) + WAX (as a verb = increase, as in “wax and wane” = increase and decrease).
Cryptic definition: bikini wax = a method of tidying up one’s bush (pubic hair). |
||
| 9 | TREADMILL |
Sweat pants made in Turkey, badly (9)
|
| Anagram (pants = slang for very bad) of MADE, in TR (ISO 3166 country code for Turkey) + ILL (badly, as in “ill-mannered”).
Sweat = treadmill = slang for tedious hard work. |
||
| 10 | MEDIA |
Top-notch mutton sandwiches daughter sent round for Auntie? (5)
|
| AI (A1 = top-notch = excellent) + EM (a measurement based on type size in printing; I’ve never heard it called a mutton, but the dictionaries assure me it’s so), around D (abbreviation for daughter), all reversed (sent round).
Definition by example: Auntie = a nickname for the BBC. |
||
| 11 | OUTRANK |
Trump is dated and disgusting (7)
|
| OUT (short for “out of fashion” = dated) + RANK (disgusting).
From playing cards: trump, as a verb = to outscore by playing a card from the highest-ranked suit = to outrank. |
||
| 12 | ELEVEN |
Still with the Spanish football team? (6)
|
| EVEN (still, as in “still water” = calm and unmoving) after EL (masculine form of “the” in Spanish).
As in “first eleven”: a team of 11 players in football, cricket etc. |
||
| 15 | HARVESTS |
Removes piercing after stripping off underwear (8)
|
| [s]HAR[p] (piercing = descriptive of a loud high-pitched sound) without the outer letters (after stripping off), then VESTS (underwear).
Harvest, as a verb = to remove a crop from the plants it grows on. |
||
| 16 | THAI |
Tongue cheers one catching Root on hundred (4)
|
| TA (cheers = slang for thank you) + I (one in Roman numerals), containing the first letter (root) of H[undred]. I’m not quite convinced by “root on . . .” to mean “root of . . .”, but I think that’s the intention.
Tongue = a language. For the surface, both Josh Tongue and Joe Root are England cricketers. |
||
| 19 | LENS |
City outside of Lille, east of Liévin, close to Arras (4)
|
| Outside letters of L[ill]E + right-most letter (east) of [lievi]N + closing letter of [arra]S.
City in northern France. In fact an extended definition, because the geography relative to the other three places in the clue is pretty much as described. |
||
| 20 | FACELIFT |
Brave drunk takes bow off Friar Tuck (8)
|
| FACE (brave, as a verb = to deal with a situation courageously) + LIT (slang for drunk), containing the front letter (bow, in nautical terms) of F[riar].
Tuck, as in “nip and tuck” = cosmetic surgery such as a facelift. |
||
| 23 | REMAKE |
Produce another load of cakes after shifting mince pies (6)
|
| Inner letters (load = contents) of [c]AKE[s], after REM (short for rapid eye movement, a type of sleep; mince pies = Cockney rhyming slang for eyes). | ||
| 24 | IRIDIUM |
Heavy metal, Irish style, on the radio (7)
|
| IR (abbreviation for Irish), then a sound-alike (on the radio) of IDIOM (style).
Chemical element, a very dense metal. |
||
| 26 | CRYPT |
Old currency’s left vault (5)
|
| CRYPT[o] (a type of currency) without the O (abbreviation for old). I think the intention is “CRYPTO has abandoned the O”, but that’s not clear from the word order. | ||
| 28 | MIGRATION |
Lieutenant Salt heads to port tracking Russian fighter movement (9)
|
| NO I (No. 1 = slang for a lieutenant) + TAR (salt = slang for a sailor), all reversed (heading to port = going leftward), after MIG (military aircraft made by the Russian company MiG). | ||
| 29 | DISPENSER |
Send Piers to fix a hole in the wall? (9)
|
| Anagram (to fix) of SEND PIERS.
Hole in the wall = slang for a cash dispenser machine. |
||
| 30 | ESSAY |
Opponents, e.g. in Test (5)
|
| E + S (East and South = opponents in card games such as bridge) + SAY (e.g. = for example).
Essay, as a noun = a test or trial; as a verb = to test or try out. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BUTTONHOLE |
British champ who crashed in Monaco before pit stop (10)
|
| BUTTON (British motor racing champion Jenson Button; I don’t follow such things but Wikipedia confirms that he once crashed while racing in Monaco) before PIT (a hole in the ground).
Buttonhole, as a verb = to stop someone and talk to them, especially when it’s inconvenient or unwanted. |
||
| 2 | SWEET ORANGE |
Oddball eats nothing after downing water and fruit (5,6)
|
| STRANGE (oddball), containing (eating) O (zero = nothing), after earlier containing (downing) WEE (water = slang for urine). | ||
| 3 | HYDRATED |
Wet doctor’s other half buries canary with daughter (8)
|
| HYDE (Mr Hyde = the “other half” of Doctor Jekyll in the novel), containing (burying) RAT (canary = slang for an informer), then D (abbreviation for daughter). | ||
| 4 | BRISKETS |
Film Society behind Short Cuts (8)
|
| ET (the Steven Spielberg film) + S (abbreviation for society), after BRISK (short = quick and efficient).
Brisket = a cut of meat. |
||
| 5 | KILLER |
Special offer (6)
|
| Double definition, the second somewhat cryptic. Killer = slang for exceptionally good = special; or “off” as a verb = slang for murder, so an “offer” might be someone who kills. | ||
| 6 | NUMBER |
Less sensitive 007? (6)
|
| Double definition. Numb = not feeling anything = insensitive, so number = more numb = less sensitive; or 007 as an example of a number (and nothing to do with James Bond). | ||
| 7 | WED |
Ally‘s plot making Belgium focus on borders (3)
|
| WE[b] (a complicated collection of something, as in “a web of intrigue”; I think “plot” by itself is a bit of a stretch), with the B changed into a D which is the middle letter (focus) of [bor]D[ers]. As in 16a, I think “focus on” for “focus of” is rather awkward.
Wed = ally = to associate oneself strongly with another. |
||
| 8 | X-RAY |
Black-and-white picture with soldiers sporting axes (1-3)
|
| RA (abbreviation for Royal Artillery = soldiers) contained in (sporting = wearing) X + Y (the axes of a graph). | ||
| 13 | ETHNICITIES |
Races organised in the Big Apple and Little Rock? (11)
|
| Anagram (organised) of IN THE, then CITIES (Big Apple = nickname for New York City, and Little Rock is the state capital of Arkansas). | ||
| 14 | DIRTY MONEY |
Black bread? (5,5)
|
| Cryptic definition: BLACK = slang for dirty, and BREAD = slang for money. The phrase as a whole means money gained by illegal or immoral means. | ||
| 17 | MALINGER |
Swing the lead with Spooner’s hideous Parisienne! (8)
|
| to | Spoonerism for LA (feminine form of “the” in French) + MINGER (an unattractive or unpleasant person) – hence “la minger” could facetiously mean “the ugly French lady”.
Swing the lead = in sailors’ slang, to feign illness to avoid work = to malinger. (From the practice of checking the depth of water using a rope with lead weights attached; a lazy sailor might just swing it in the water and give a made-up answer rather than bothering to measure properly.) |
|
| 18 | DELICATE |
Weak priest caught visiting escort (8)
|
| ELI (Old Testament priest) + C (abbreviation for caught, in cricket scoring), inserted into (visiting) DATE (escort = to take someone out for a romantic meeting).
Weak = delicate = in poor health. |
||
| 21 | BATTLE |
Second-rate PM’s endless struggle (6)
|
| B (second-rate on a scale A, B, C . . .) + ATTLE[e] (former British PM Clemet Attlee) without the last letter (endless). | ||
| 22 | HERMES |
That woman’s bedding me for a handbag? (6)
|
| HERS (that woman’s = belonging to her), containing (bedding) ME.
Hermès = manufacturer of luxury goods, particularly known for expensive leather handbags. |
||
| 25 | ACED |
Brilliantly served fish, head to tail (4)
|
| DACE (name for various species of fish), with the first letter (head) moved to the end (tail).
Ace, as a verb = in tennis, to serve a ball very well so that the opponent is unable to return it. |
||
| 27 | YES |
Prog rock band Wilco (3)
|
| Double definition. Yes = name of an English prog rock band; or from the radio code Wilco, short for “will comply” = yes, I’ll do what you’ve just told me to. (There is of course a US rock band called Wilco, but from the 90s rather than 60s-70s prog rock.) |