I usually find Mudd rather breezy and accessible, but I never really hit my stride on today’s puzzle. Except for one minor note, I think the clues are all right, so I am not sure what all my plodding was about.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BUFFALO BILL |
Check in New York diner, perhaps, for showman (7,4)
|
| Cryptically (perhaps), a BILL (check in [a] diner) in BUFFALO ([in the state of] New York), referring to William Frederick Cody | ||
| 7 | RUM |
Bizarre tipple (3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | BARGE |
Push boat (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | DISEMBARK |
Flying bird makes for land (9)
|
| Anagram of (flying) BIRD MAKES | ||
| 11 | CHINAWARE |
Conscious going on strike, fragile stuff (9)
|
| CHIN (strike) + AWARE (conscious) | ||
| 12 | REIGN |
Rule controller called out? (5)
|
| Homophone of (called out) REIN (controller) | ||
| 13 | NATURAL |
A routine article reviewed by learner, genuine (7)
|
| {A + RUT (routine) + AN (article)} all reversed (reviewed) + L (learner) | ||
| 15 | TUSK |
Trumpeter’s part that usually switches key, first of all (4)
|
| First letters of (first of all) T[HAT] U[SUALLY] S[WITCHES] K[EY], referring to an elephant | ||
| 18 | DISC |
Record is in music player, spinning (4)
|
| IS inside (in) CD (music player) reversed (spinning) | ||
| 20 | SHORTEN |
Cut toe drained, cut bandages (7)
|
| SHORN (cut) around (bandages) T[O]E minus middle letter (drained) | ||
| 23 | ARROW |
Sign school hasn’t opened (5)
|
| [H]ARROW (school) minus first letter (hasn’t opened) | ||
| 24 | DEBUTANTE |
Though soldier entering river, rookie stepping out (9)
|
| {BUT (though) + ANT (soldier)} inside (entering) DEE (river) | ||
| 26 | SOLITAIRE |
A rose I designed featuring shining diamond, say? (9)
|
| Anagram of (designed) A ROSE I around (featuring) LIT (shining) | ||
| 27 | RAISE |
Lift level announced? (5)
|
| Homophone of (announced) RAZE or RASE (level) | ||
| 28 | WAX |
Increase boxes, did you say? (3)
|
| Homophone of (did you say?) WHACKS (boxes) | ||
| 29 | RIGHT-WINGER |
Proper misery, hard getting dropped for footballer (5-6)
|
| RIGHT (proper) W[H]INGER (misery, i.e., “a doleful person”) minus (getting dropped) H | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BABYCINO |
Very cold beer for starters sailor served up: no drink for infants? (8)
|
| {ICY (very cold) + first letter of (for starters) B[EER] + AB (sailor)} all inverted (served up) + NO | ||
| 2 | FORTIETH |
Ruby fastener’s cut out (8)
|
| TIE (fastener) inside ([has] cut) FORTH (out), referring to an anniversary | ||
| 3 | AKELA |
Jungle Book character turning up in tale, Kaa (5)
|
| Hidden in [T]ALE KA[A] inverted (turning up), referring to the wolf | ||
| 4 | ODDBALL |
Peculiar, occasional delivery (7)
|
| ODD (occasional) + BALL (delivery) | ||
| 5 | INSPECT |
Vet with small animal nuzzled by Pekinese, originally (7)
|
| INSECT (small animal) around (nuzzled by) first letter of (originally) P[EKINESE] | ||
| 6 | LAMBRUSCO |
Red meat and sour cream initially mixed (9)
|
| LAMB (meat) + anagram of (mixed) {SOUR + first letter of (initially) C[REAM]} | ||
| 7 | ROADIE |
Bar that is welcoming a worker on tour (6)
|
| {ROD (bar) + I.E. (that is)} around (welcoming) A | ||
| 8 | MEKONG |
King filmed following setter, long-distance runner (6)
|
| ME (setter) + KONG (king filmed), in the sense of “river” | ||
| 14 | RAINWATER |
Rocky terrain around Washington drops (9)
|
| Anagram of (rocky) TERRAIN around WA (Washington) | ||
| 16 | STINKING |
Coloured fluid in wound, fetid (8)
|
| INK (coloured fluid) inside (in) STING (wound) | ||
| 17 | INNER EAR |
Where hammer found, pub violence finally back (5,3)
|
| INN (pub) + last letter of (finally) [VIOLENC]E + REAR (back), referring to the malleus | ||
| 19 | CODLING |
Fry fake fish (7)
|
| COD (fake) + LING (fish). Either I misunderstand this clue, or I think there is a small error here, in that (according to Chambers) “codling” is singular (plural = “codlings”) and “fry” is a collective plural. | ||
| 20 | SUBJECT |
National matter (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | WARSAW |
Capital is no longer bloody after revolution (6)
|
| {WAS (is no longer) + RAW (bloody)} all inverted (after revolution) | ||
| 22 | PROLIX |
Wordy images consuming brief part (6)
|
| PIX (images) around (consuming) ROL[E] (part) minus last letter (brief) | ||
| 25 | TARSI |
Groups of bones caught by scimitars, initially (5)
|
| Hidden in (caught by) [SCIMI]TARS I[NITIALLY] |
V. enjoyable and a bit harder than Mudd usually is. Favourite was MEKONG, both the ‘King filmed’ wordplay and the def, which I’ve seen before, though not referring to this river. The RUBY def is almost a chestnut, but it was still my last in by a few minutes.
Apart from CODLING, there’s another boo-boo here. Hint: it’s anatomical.
Thanks to Mudd and Cineraria
WP@1: Ah, yes, the malleus is found in the middle ear. Missed that.
I am glad it was not just me that plodded through this.
Liked RAISE and DISEMBARK
There were several I could not parse. I am particularly glad for your blog today Cineraria.
thanks Mudd and Cineraria
Liked BUFFALO BILL, RIGHT-WINGER and MEKONG (seen the trick before as WordPlodder@1 notes).
Thanks Mudd and Cineraria.
Agree re ruby, WP @1, but yes despite anniversaries appearing from time to time I needed help with the O before twigging — slow! Bit slow, too, for chinaware (thinking more specific) and rainwater (with terrain, looked a bit obvs). Otherwise pretty smooth, thx Mudd and Cineraria.
Yes, flickered slightly at fry/codling, but totally missed the malleus misplacement despite knowing the anatomy.
I normally do well with Mudd’s but I found it hard going today, with half a dozen unsolved. My “Huh?” list was rather long too, and I’d not heard of AKELA. Cod/fake is a Britishism that I’d forgotten.
[Strangely, I found Brummie’s in the Guardian easier than usual today.]
DISEMBARK, CHINAWARE, RIGHT WINGER, MEKONG and PROLIX were my picks today. It was a little tricky in parts but fun as usual.
Thanks to Mudd and Cineraria.
Took a while but a good puzzle. Needed the blog for fortieth. Thx all
One of those days where trying to answer one clue leads you to another, with Ruby in 2d giving me WAX. I was another who found this harder than usual.
At breakfast I stared at this for ages and had just one solve. It was going nowhere. Over elevenses things began to fall into place. Forgot about it at lunch. Afternoon tea-break finished it. I should probably go and get a life, but anyway . . . I enjoyed the tussle.
We struggled with this, particularly in the NW corner, where we’d never heard of BABYCINO (Chambers to the rescue there) and needed a wordfinder for FORTIETH (d’oh!). We didn’t notice the anatomical inexactitude in 17dn, nor the mismatch in 19dn; in the latter case, though, we think ‘fry’ can be, colloquially at least, taken as singular as in expressions such as “he’s small fry …”.
A good challenge. Thanks, Mudd and Cineraria.
Agree this was very difficult for a Mudd .. he’s usually fairly straightforward. Spent far longer than usual working out the NE and SW corners, then decided life’s too short and started revealing squares. CHIN (strike), RUBY and MISERY (as a noun) would never have occurred to me so no regrets.
I didn’t struggle through, as most did. I just struggled; I only got about half of it today and had to give up. Mostly too clever for me (RAISE and WARSAW for example) but I would never in a million years have got BABYCINO. My Chambers is too old for it so I’m not entirely sure what it is, but I assume one of those things pretentious coffee-drinkers order that take ten minutes to make while I’m waiting in the queue for a cup of tea. How do such awful-sounding coinages ever catch on?
unfortunately I had CASTOREUM for 6D
an anagram of MEAT SOUR and C.
so that threw me off completely
Kicking myself for not getting Babychino. Granddaughter frequently has one when I take her out. It’s a very small milky hot chocolate with marshmallows. Lambrusco brings back memories of the 1970s. Ghastly cheap spritzy sweet red wine. Only for parties!