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.]