There was a lot of fun to be had in this puzzle by Bluebird, set on a grid that accommodates a lot of shorter entries.
Once again a late post, for which my apologies, once again.
I very much enjoyed this puzzle, which was medium difficulty for me on the Indy scale. There were a lot of clues to solve, with some intricate wordplay, which extended the time needed to blog it, alas.
It wasn’t easy to select my favourites today, as I liked so many, but, if pressed, I would go for: 1 and 3, both for surface reading; 5, for overall construction, as for me at least, this was an original way to clue this word; 12, for the distraction around insects; 14, for concision; and 6 and 18A, both for sauciness. Incidentally, 9 was new to me and seems a tad obscure for a daily cryptic.
Today is theme day and I have to admit that I have drawn a blank here. I look forward to being enlightened and will amend the blog once this happens.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
|
||
| 9 | EXTRORSAL |
Old turtler, following excavation, discovered fins turned outward (9)
|
| EX- (=old, former) + T<urtle>R (“following excavation” means all but first and last letters are dropped) + <d>ORSAL<s> (=fins; “dis-cover-ed”, i.e. “cover” – first and last letters – is dropped); extrorsal means “turned outward”, e.g. of an anther towards a flower | ||
| 10 | BILLY |
List stuck on one side of my cooking pot (5)
|
| BILL (=list, of performers) + <m>Y (“one side of” means first or last only) | ||
| 11 | SOCKS |
Help us to carry Calvin Klein footwear (5)
|
| CK (=Calvin Klein) in SOS (=Help!, i.e. call for help) | ||
| 12 | EAVESDROP |
Earwig goes lower, closer to small flies (9)
|
| <l>EAVES (=goes; “closer (=last letter) to small flies” means letter “l” is dropped) + DROP (=lower, e.g. standards) | ||
| 13 | NOSTRUM |
Recoiling child with temperature given strange medicine (7)
|
| NOS (SON=child; “recoiling” indicates reversal) + T (=temperature) + RUM (=strange) | ||
| 16 | NITRATE |
Salt judge put on egg (7)
|
| NIT (=egg, of louse) + RATE (=judge, assess) | ||
| 18 | WALK |
Tramp with a large rear end from Falkirk (4)
|
| W (=with) + A + L (=large, in sizes) + <falkir>K (“rear end in” means last letter only); to tramp is to walk, tread heavily | ||
| 19 | SILLY |
Cantankerous ill youngster straddles potty (5)
|
| Hidden (“straddles”) in “cantakerouS ILL Youngster”) | ||
| 20 | GAME |
Happy chappies wiping backsides for fun (4)
|
| GA<y> (=happy) + ME<n> (=chappies); “wiping backsides” means last letter of each is dropped | ||
| 23 | RAT RACE |
Continuous striving for money and power beginning to rankle a bit (3,4)
|
| R<ankle> (“beginning to” means first letter only) + A + TRACE (=a bit, small amount of, as in trace element) | ||
| 24 | SISTERS |
Nuns, accepting Jesus at last, resist going awry (7)
|
| <jesu>S (“at last” means last letter only) in *(RESIST); “going awry” is anagram indicator | ||
| 26 | MAKE SENSE |
Drunk seamen screening Ken Loach film are coherent (4,5)
|
| KES (=Ken Loach film, from 1969) in *(SEAMEN); “drunk” is anagram indicator | ||
| 29 | ICIER |
Here in Quebec, undressed, we’re colder (5)
|
| ICI (here in Quebec, i.e. the French word for here) + <w>E’R<e> (“undressed” means first and last letters are dropped) | ||
| 31 | THING |
Base removed from article in golf bag (5)
|
| TH<e> (=article; “base removed from” means letter “e (=base of natural system of logarithms)” is dropped) + IN + G (=golf, i.e. letter “g” in NATO alphabet); one’s bag or one’s thing is one’s particular interest or speciality) | ||
| 32 | MARK TWAIN |
Remember – two Finns were involved in this guy’s plots (4,5)
|
| MARK (=remember, as in Mark my words!) + TWAIN (=two); characters called Finn (Huckleberry, Pap) featured in Mark Twain’s novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), etc | ||
| DOWN
|
||
| 1 | SEASON |
Spice up endless shanty (6)
|
| SEASON<g>; “endless” means last letter is dropped | ||
| 2 | OTIC |
Start to observe twitching of the ear (4)
|
| O<bserve> (“start to” means first letter only) + TIC (=twitching) | ||
| 3 | CONSORT |
Prisoner accompanied by kind companion (7)
|
| CON (=prisoner, i.e. convict) + SORT (=kind, type) | ||
| 4 | ISLE |
Man, perhaps Dennis, cycles after setter (4)
|
| I (=setter, i.e. Bluebird) + SLE (LES=Dennis, i.e. English actor and comedian; “cycles” means last letter moves to front of word) | ||
| 5 | ELEVEN-PLUS |
Test score’s made when it goes ahead of 9 (6-4)
|
| When “ELEVEN PLUS goes ahead of 9 score (=TWENTY)’s made” is a representation of the sum 11 + 9 = 20! | ||
| 6 | OBESITY |
Chubbiness of lady’s bottom with love bites spread over (7)
|
| O (=love, zero score) + *(BITES) + <lad>Y (“bottom” means last letter only) | ||
| 7 | BLUR |
Indie band and boy band taking ecstasy with Queen (4)
|
| BLU<e> (boy band, from UK, “taking ecstasy (=E)” means letter “e” is dropped) + R (=queen, i.e. regina); the reference is to the UK Indie rock band, formed in 1988 | ||
| 8 | EYEPIECE |
“The Astronomer Royal will look into this” reported newspaper article (8)
|
| Homophone (“reported”) of “i (=newspaper) + piece (=article)” | ||
| 14 | SPLIT |
City break (5)
|
| Double definition: Split is a city in Croatia AND to split is to break (up, into parts), divide | ||
| 15 | MAIDEN NAME |
Miss preceded this well-bowled over by upcoming English player (6,4)
|
| MAIDEN (=well-bowled over, in cricket) + NAME (E=(English) + MAN (=player); “upcoming” indicates vertical reversal); the title Miss came before a woman’s maiden name) | ||
| 17 | AMAZE |
Stagger through a complex network of paths (5)
|
| A + MAZE (=complex network of paths); to stagger is to greatly surprise, hence “amaze” | ||
| 18 | WORKMATE |
“The beginning or the end for weak male?” scoffed colleague (8)
|
| W or K (“the beginning (=first letter) or the end (=last letter) of weak) + M (=male) + ATE (=scoffed) | ||
| 21 | SAUSAGE |
Special gold and green piece of 25 (7)
|
| S (=special) + AU (=gold, i.e. chemical symbol) + SAGE (=(shade of) green); sausages are often sold in a string (entry at 25) | ||
| 22 | ASSISTS |
Low-key performers removing the first of Band-aids (7)
|
| <b>ASSISTS (=”low-key” performers, in music); “removing the first (letter) of Band” means letter “b” is dropped | ||
| 25 | STRING |
Series produced by pop star about the origin of reggaeton (6)
|
| R<eggaeton> (“origin of” means first letter only) in STING (=pop star, from UK, born 1951); e.g. The man committed a string/series of murders | ||
| 27 | KNIT |
Use needles to inject young animal with nitrogen (4)
|
| N (=nitrogen, i.e. chemical symbol) in KIT (=young animal, e.g. polecat, ferret) | ||
| 28 | EARN |
Make the sound of a bird (4)
|
| Homophone (“the sound of”) of “erne (=a bird, i.e. sea-eagle)” | ||
| 30 | IMAX |
I’m on a social media platform that provides the bigger picture (4)
|
| I’M + A + X (=social media platform, formally Twitter); IMAX is a system of widescreen cinema presentation, hence “provides the bigger picture” |
Thanks Bluebird and RR
I think the theme is words that can be linked with SILLY: SEASON, WALK, THING, BILLY, GAME, SISTERS (a 1970s English folk group formed by Maddy Prior and June Tabor), SAUSAGE, ISLE (as a pun), STRING.
There may be more.
MARK TWAIN was a very clever definition and I liked MAIDEN NAME too. Are silly socks a thing?
Thanks both. Felt untroubled in the main, until I failed on EXTRORSAL, which had I decoded it and checked doesn’t appear in my go-to dictionaries. SILLY as the link-word is a good spot, however I wonder if the SISTERS piece is deliberate. ISLE took too long, as I had determined Dennis referred to the dustcart manufacturer; that it refers to Les Dennis means I was in the correct category: rubbish!
[TFO @3 I once saw Les Dennis in Spring and Port Wine. He was brilliant.]
Can we just take a moment to appreciate 18ac.
Thanks as ever to RatkojaRiku for the blog, and to commenters, especially Simon S for spotting the theme and all its constituent parts.
SISTERS was deliberate. In fact I think SILLY SISTERS may have been the original inspiration for this grid design. The (first) ‘Silly Sisters’ album by Maddy Prior and June Tabor is a favourite of mine.
Thanks Bluebird. The theme sailed over my head (again) but clues like WALK, SILLY, RAT RACE, GAME, and EYEPIECE made this crossword worth my time. Thanks RR for the blog.
I did well with this until grinding to a halt in the northeastern quadrant. But it was fun. I didn’t even remember to look for a theme, since this doesn’t really feel like a Tuesday to me–I took yesterday off work.
Interesting to see GAME clued as taking the ends off of “gay men” without it being a reference to people in my demographic. Probably the other version would be a harder clue to write without risking offense. (I wouldn’t have been offended, for the record.)
It’s kind of fortunate that Huck Finn’s father puts in a brief appearance in the titular novel, or the plural wouldn’t be warranted. (He’s an alcoholic and abusive father, if I remember the novel correctly, so maybe not that fortunate…)
I agree with mrpenney@8 that GAME was crying out to be clued just slightly differently – or maybe not!
I had to cheat on ISLE (I don’t know how many times I’ve been fooled by Man!) but that did at least allow me to construct EXTRORSAL. My other constructed unknown was NOSTRUM, whose rum made it really feel like a jorum as I pieced it together.
Faves were SOCKS, EAVESDROP, EYEPIECE, SPLIT and the wonderful ELEVEN-PLUS (which alas I failed to parse and indeed left pencilled in until the end; congrats to those who twigged it).
It’s a pity that the “well-bowled over” in the clue for MAIDEN NAME didn’t in fact indicate an anagram of “well” for some corresponding solution. Perhaps tricks like that are a bit too Guardian-esque. But I did enjoy the past tense in “Miss preceded this” because presumably if we’re talking about one’s maiden name it’s because they are now married and use Mrs – though these days Ms is a very common replacement for both.
Good fun, thanks both
I missed GAME so DNF. After reading the blog I get it and I can see it helps with the theme which I missed. The surface seems to suggest what MP@8 implied so maybe it was a joke. Also, don’t see how fun equates to game but it probably in Chambers. Elsewhere not to difficult and quirky as usual. SISTERS and ASSISTS were very simple solves but others took more time. I liked 11+. Thanks RR and Bluebird.
I was out last night so unable to contribute a comment to the late blog. Shame as this was a super puzzle with lots of imagination and fun. I was beaten in the end by the nho EXTRORSAL, not spotting that ‘fin’ = DORSAL. My bad. Faves inc BILLY, EAVESDROP, WALK, SILLY, ICIER, ELEVEN PLUS and MAIDEN NAME.
Thanks both