Seasonal tricks and treats for All Hallows’ Eve today . . .
. . . as in: half of the clues include “trick” and/or “treat”, though not always with the obvious meanings. Among the non-thematic clues I particularly liked the cat-dog fight and the international Scrabble game. Thanks Phi for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SCHMO |
American dullard needing month after school (5)
|
| MO (abbreviation for month) after SCH (abbreviation for school).
US slang for a stupid person (dullard). |
||
| 4 | SEALPOINT |
Siamese cat is nasty to spaniel (9)
|
| Anagram (nasty) of TO SPANIEL.
Term for the classic colouring pattern of Siamese cats: light-coloured body with dark face, ears, feet and tail. |
||
| 9 | STRATAGEM |
Trick or treats possibly involving silver diadem ultimately (9)
|
| Anagram (possibly) of TREATS, containing AG (Ag = chemical symbol for silver, from Latin argentum), then the last letter (ultimately) of [diade]M. | ||
| 10 | EATEN |
Some treat ended having you taken in? (5)
|
| Hidden answer (some . . . ) in [tr]EAT EN[ded]. | ||
| 11 | ESTONIA |
Recalled excellent comment about Southern European country (7)
|
| AI (A1 = excellent) + NOTE (comment), around S (abbreviation for southern), all reversed (recalled). | ||
| 12 | DESERT |
Merit shown by detective in series? On the contrary (6)
|
| SER (abbreviation for series) inserted into DET (abbreviation for detective). “On the contrary” means we need SER in DET, rather than DET in SER.
Merit, as a noun = desert (somewhat archaic) = the condition of being deserving; as in “awarded on merit” = awarded to those who deserve it. |
||
| 14 | HOAX |
Trick husband with old guitar from America (4)
|
| H (abbreviation for husband) + O (abbreviation for old) + AX (American spelling of axe = slang for a guitar). | ||
| 15 | NURSERYMAN |
Big gardener’s treat, being taken to stationery supplier (10)
|
| NURSE (treat, as a verb = give medical care to) + RYMAN (UK chain of stationery shops).
Nurseryman = someone who grows plants for sale, and therefore does “gardening” on a large scale. |
||
| 18 | OVER-THE-TOP |
Excessive on the other side? (4-3-3)
|
| Double definition. Slang for “too much”; or beyond a physical boundary, especially in trench warfare where troops go over the parapet of their trench to attack the enemy. | ||
| 20 | LIEU |
Uncovered guilt after returning around European place (4)
|
| [g]UIL[t] (uncovered = outer letters removed), reversed (after returning), around E (abbreviation for European).
French-derived word for place, used in phrases such as “in lieu of” = in place of. |
||
| 23 | TALENT |
Trick a lecturer into temporary housing (6)
|
| A + L (abbreviation for lecturer), inserted into TENT (temporary accommodation).
Trick = talent = a particular skill in doing something? I can’t quite think of a sentence where they could be interchangeable. |
||
| 25 | TOURING |
Nothing interrupting computer legend giving series of lectures? (7)
|
| O (zero = nothing) inserted into (interrupting) TURING (Alan Turing, pioneering computer scientist).
Definition by example, I think; giving a series of lectures is one of many things you could do as part of a tour. |
||
| 27 | HALLE |
Auditorium associated with English orchestra in Manchester (5)
|
| HALL (auditorium) + E (abbreviation for English).
The Hallé: Manchester-based orchestra founded in the 1850s by Charles Hallé. |
||
| 28 | DECEPTION |
Depict one sneaky trick (9)
|
| Anagram (sneaky) of DEPICT ONE. | ||
| 29 | BIT PLAYER |
One’s little more than extra restraint: pound retained by one making expenditure (3,6)
|
| BIT (a restraint for a horse), then L (£ = abbreviation for pound sterling) contained in PAYER (one making expenditure).
Bit player = an actor who plays a very small part, but still more than an “extra” (or “background actor”) who doesn’t usually get anything to say. |
||
| 30 | TILDE |
Scrabble piece capturing two-point score – feature of Spanish set? (5)
|
| TILE (a playing piece in the board game Scrabble), containing D (a letter that scores two points in the game).
The “squiggle” in the Spanish letter Ñ, which is indeed a feature of a Spanish Scrabble set: there is one Ñ tile as well as five N tiles. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SISTERHOOD |
Group of nuns hide torsos in dressing (10)
|
| Anagram (dressing, in the sense of tidying up and rearranging) of HIDE TORSOS. | ||
| 2 | HERB TEA |
Baronet coming in here with a healthy drink? (4,3)
|
| BT (abbreviation for baronet) inserted into HERE + A (from clue text). | ||
| 3 | OUTING |
Not initially promoting treat? (6)
|
| [t]OUTING (promoting = advertising), without the first letter (not initially).
Outing = treat = a day-trip provided by a company for its employees, by a school for its pupils, or similar. |
||
| 4 | SIGNATURE |
Badly using most of treat in a distinctive style (9)
|
| Anagram (badly) of USING + TREA[t] (most of = all but the last letter).
As in a chef’s “signature dish” = something that is characteristic of a person’s style. |
||
| 5 | ARMED |
Ready to defend maiden tucking into a wine (5)
|
| M (abbreviation for maiden, in cricket scoring) inserted into A RED (short for a red wine). | ||
| 6 | PLEASURE |
Request to get certain treat? (8)
|
| PLEA (an earnest request, as in “a plea for mercy”) + SURE (certain). | ||
| 7 | INTERIM |
Rigged 60% of trick – mine – for the time being (7)
|
| Anagram (rigged = unfairly altered) of TRI[ck] (60% = 3 of 5 letters) + MINE. | ||
| 8 | TEND |
Stop after start of trick or treat? (4)
|
| END (stop) after the starting letter of T[rick].
Treat = tend = provide medical care to. |
||
| 13 | INDULGENCE |
After rewrite, clue ending in ‘treat’? (10)
|
| Anagram (after rewrite) of CLUE ENDING.
Treat = indulgence = something done for pleasure rather than necessity, or something received as a favour rather than earned. |
||
| 16 | SPORTS CAR |
Exhibits regular bits of trick, turning up in possession of a flash vehicle (6,3)
|
| SPORTS (wears, especially when referring to colourful or flamboyant clothes = exhibits), then alternate letters (regular bits) of [t]R[i]C[k] reversed (turning up = upwards in a down clue), containing (in possession of) A (from clue text). | ||
| 17 | ETHEREAL |
Some believe the realignment is immaterial (8)
|
| Hidden answer (some . . .) in [believ]E THE REAL[ignment].
Immaterial in the sense of “not material” = not composed of physical matter. |
||
| 19 | EPAULET |
Inverted ribbon binding rubber feature of American uniform (7)
|
| TAPE (ribbon) reversed (inverted), containing ULE (rubber from a tropical American tree; a guess-and-check, but it’s in both Chambers and Collins).
American spelling for what in British uniforms would be called an epaulette (shoulder decoration). |
||
| 21 | INITIAL |
Core of trick I presented in twisted ancient language at the outset (7)
|
| Middle letter (core) of [tr]I[ck], then I (from clue text) inserted into LATIN (ancient language) reversed (twisted). | ||
| 22 | PUPPET |
Treat kindly given to youngster: a doll (6)
|
| PET (as a verb = treat kindly = to act in an affectionate way towards), added on to PUP (a young dog). | ||
| 24 | TEDDY |
Source of treat: whirling motion in lingerie item (5)
|
| First letter (source) of T[reat], then EDDY (whirling motion).
A woman’s one-piece undergarment. |
||
| 26 | CHUB |
Apprentice devouring hot fish (4)
|
| CUB (apprentice, as in “cub reporter” = a trainee journalist), containing (devouring) H (abbreviation for hot). |
I liked the definition for BIT PLAYER and the clever TILDE. Ule for rubber, was new to me (and to my spell checker, which keeps turning it into a French island). A nice puzzle and great blog as usual. Thanks.
Thanks Phi and Quirister
I don’t think DESERT = merit is “somewhat archaic”. It occurs commonly in the (regularly misspelled) phrase “Get one’s just deserts”.
Simon S @2: yes, but that’s a stock phrase that exists in its own right. I’m not sure anyone would say “get one’s just merits”, or understand it if you did? And the frequent misspelling suggests that many people now don’t understand the word and its connection with “deserve” rather than “dessert”.
In my day 1D would have read ‘hides torso’ (which still works), there being only 1 group of nuns but I daresay the rules of grammar have changed since then.
Found this straightforward but no less enjoyable for that.
The cat being nasty to the spaniel was my favourite.
Thanks to Phi & Quirister
That was a treat!
Thanks to Quirister and Phi.
Just a thought. ‘Get ones just deserts’ nowadays often means getting a punishment for wrongdoing, not a merit. Enjoyed the puzzle, like others especially the nasty cat.
Fun stuff, lots of tricks and treats indeed. A few NHOs for me too: SEALPOINT, ULE in ESPAULET, TEDDY as underwear, AX(e) for guitar.
Fave was probably BIT PLAYER.
reddevil@4 yes these collective nouns have more flexible grammar these days I think. The team is/are ready, etc.
Get one’s just deserts is a fossil phrase; it’s fair to describe that sense of desert as archaic. As for the equivalence with merit, dictionary.com has:
Merit
4. Often merits. the state or fact of deserving; desert. to treat people according to their merits.
Thanks both
[reddevil @4, AP @7: I think a collective noun can be treated as singular or plural according to the meaning – does it represent an entity or a group of individuals? I’d write “the team is first in the league” but “the team are all under 25 years old”. But this annoys people who like grammar to have set rules!]
Thanks Phi for the clever holiday fun. Favourites included SISTERHOOD, ETHEREAL, and my COTD, SEALPOINT. Thanks Quirister for the blog.
I did this one a day late. But has no one here seen Lady and the Tramp? Siamese cats making life horrible for a spaniel, who gets blamed for the whole mess. Sung in duplicate by the great Peggy Lee.
mrpenney @10
“We are Siamese, if you please;
We are Siamese if you don’t please.”
Made a big impression on me in childhood over 50 years ago!