Tees starts the puzzling week.
I found this tricky in places but with enough relatively straightforward clues to afford a good toehold. I particularly enjoyed the smattering of literary references, to OSCAR WILDE, Anne HATHAWAY, John OSBORNE, Martin or Kingsley Amis and Dracula, with its delightfully cheeky surface. And, aside from being the south wind, Auster in 2d may also be a nod to the American novelist Paul Auster.
Elsewhere I had ticks for SESAME, MEDICI, BALDERDASH, GOALIE (which I reckon is an &lit, though others may disagree) and SERENGETI for the nifty anagram. Many thanks to Tees for the Monday morning fun.
Moh’s entirely arguable cruciverbial hardness scale rating: Calcite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CAROUSAL |
Constant stimulation in boozy party (8)
|
| C (constant) + AROUSAL | ||
| 6 | SESAME |
Spy housing missile in oil-producing plant (6)
|
| SEE (spy) around (housing) SAM (surface-to-air missile) | ||
| 9 | ASIA |
Huge region over in USA is Appalachia (4)
|
| Hidden reversal (over in) in usA IS Appalachia | ||
| 10 | ALL THE RAGE |
Not mad about silver in great demand? (3,3,4)
|
| ALL THERE (not mad) around AG (silver) | ||
| 11 | MEDICI |
First doctor in old Florentine house? (6)
|
| Medic 1 would be first doctor, hence MEDIC + I for the Florentine banking dynasty | ||
| 12 | COMANCHE |
Coachmen transported Native Americans (8)
|
| Anagram (transported) of COACHMEN | ||
| 13 | NEW ZEALAND |
Containing enthusiasm, almost catch dawn breaking in country (3,7)
|
| NE[t] (almost catch) + anagram (breaking) of DAWN around (containing) ZEAL (enthusiasm) | ||
| 16 | EFTS |
French are binding feet for amphibians (4)
|
| Insertion (binding) of FT (feet) in ES (second-person singular form of the French verb être, to be, so ‘French are’) | ||
| 17 | AGON |
Any number attending earlier Greek festival (4)
|
| AGO (earlier) + N (any number), definition referring to ancient Greek competitive festivals such as the Olympics | ||
| 19 | OSCAR WILDE |
Writer‘s mark fresh and natural in Old English (5,5)
|
| SCAR (mark) + WILD (fresh and natural) inside O E (old English) | ||
| 22 | ISTANBUL |
American in frightful Butlin’s City (8)
|
| Anagram (frightful) of BUTLINS around A | ||
| 24 | TUSCAN |
In France you study Italian dialect? (6)
|
| TU (‘you’ in French) + SCAN (study) | ||
| 26 | BALDERDASH |
British tree died — remains rot (10)
|
| B (British) + ALDER + D (died) + ASH (remains) | ||
| 27 | GOSH |
Run pipe down well (4)
|
| GO (run) + SH (pipe down) | ||
| 28 | GOALIE |
One agile moving to catch ball? (6)
|
| Anagram (moving) of AGILE around (to catch) O (ball), &lit | ||
| 29 | HATHAWAY |
Mrs Swan perhaps doth show style (8)
|
| ‘Has a way’ (does/doth show style) in cod-Shakespearean English, for Anne Hathaway, wife of the ‘Swan of Avon’ as Ben Jonson dubbed Shakespeare | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | AUSTERE |
Bleak wind from south east (7)
|
| AUSTER (poetic name for a southerly wind) + E | ||
| 3 | OMANI |
Arab very shortly heading north (5)
|
| Reversal (heading north, in a down clue) of IN A MO | ||
| 4 | STAMINA |
Sons much appreciated Mrs Harker’s bottom (7)
|
| S (son or sons) + TA (much appreciated) + MINA (Mrs Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula), definition referring to staying power, esp of horses | ||
| 5 | LILAC |
Ring up to import island flower (5)
|
| Reversal (up) of CALL around (to import) I | ||
| 6 | SCHEMED |
Planned to have school on the Levant? (7)
|
| SCH (school) + E MED (eastern Mediterranean, which borders the lands known as the Levant) | ||
| 7 | SERENGETI |
Tiger seen roaming where lion holds sway (9)
|
| Anagram (roaming) of TIGER SEEN | ||
| 8 | MUG SHOT |
Assaults furious — still on police record? (3,4)
|
| MUGS (assaults) + HOT (furious), the definition using ‘still’ in the sense of a photograph | ||
| 14 | ZINFANDEL |
Wine unknown in cooler shown upside-down (9)
|
| Z (unknown) + IN + FAN (cooler) + reversal (upside-down) of LED (shown, as in shown/led to your seat) | ||
| 15 | ARC |
Bow of flood rescue vessel in sound (3)
|
| Homophone (in sound) of ‘Ark’ (flood rescue vessel) | ||
| 18 | GESTAPO |
Ruthless force goes out to limit minor strike (7)
|
| Anagram (out) of GOES around (to limit) TAP (minor strike) | ||
| 19 | OSBORNE |
Large book one Rex opens for dramatist (7)
|
| OS (outsized, large) + B (book) + ONE (from surface) around R (Rex opens). John Osborne, author of Look Back in Anger, among other things | ||
| 20 | RATCHET |
Chatter insanely but make steady progress (7)
|
| Anagram (insanely) of CHATTER | ||
| 21 | DEAD SEA |
Six feet under, tailless marine mammal in lowest lake (4,3)
|
| DEAD (six feet under) + SEA[L] (tailless marine mammal) | ||
| 23 | LOACH |
Fish advanced into Scottish waters (5)
|
| Insertion (into) of A (advanced) inside LOCH | ||
| 25 | SIGMA |
Author returns to pen good letter in Greek (5)
|
| Reversal (returns) of AMIS (Kingsley or Martin, English novelists) around (to pen) G |
GOALIE: Took it as a CAD falling short of an &lit by ‘one’. Liked the clue.
HATHAWAY and ALL THE RAGE were my other faves.
Thanks Tees and moh.
Agree with KVa on GOALIE. It’s sometimes referred to as a semi &lit.
Glad ZINFANDEL had easy wordplay since I don’t know my wines. AGON is a word I feel I should know but had to work it out and check.
I think ‘Who’s’ (or ‘One’s’) instead of ‘One’ would produce a more convincing &lit for GOALIE.
The wordplay (cryptic bit) is only from AGILE onwards, so adding ‘One’s’ or ‘Who’s’ before this stops it becoming an &lit. This is KVa’s point.
Nice puzzle, which I found considerably easier in the RHS than in the LHS where I lacked some vocabulary and so had to cheat on a couple. Faves were SESAME, ALL THE RAGE (I’d have added the link word “being” into the surface to enhance the smoothness, I think), GOSH, MUG SHOT and GOALIE (agree that it’s a semi-&lit).
I’ve never been totally sure what clue-as-definition means and so I’ve always taken it to mean the category consisting of (full) &lit and semi-&lit. I suppose semi-&lits can work the other way too: wordplay which covers the entire surface and definition which only covers part of it. I suspect they’re harder to rustle up, and I also suspect that they’d only be accepted as “valid” if the whole surface at least functions as an extended or hinted definition.
Thanks both
I enjoyed both the puzzle, and the dialogue between posters re GOALIE. Can a clue be both….CAD and semi&lit?
Though I got AUSTER (E) at 2(d) , the wind is a new one on me. Is STAMINA = bottom? 3(d), where I felt “Son” rather than sons might have been kinder.
Nice literary references (theme?), and plenty of ticks for wordplays and surfaces.
Lovely, thanks, Tees & MOH
You’re all correct, of course, about GOALIE because of the ‘one’ – but it’s so close that I wanted to call it &lit, and semi-&lit doesn’t quite seem to do it justice. I guess it’s a textbook example of a CAD, since the def takes up the whole clue.
Thanks Tees for the challenge. I fell short with a few but overall I enjoyed this with SESAME, ALL THE RAGE, GOSH, GOALIE, OMANI, and ARC being my picks today. Thanks MOH for the blog.
Late to this. STAMINA went into my grid with a “that’s literally the only word that fits” flavor of shrug, being unfamiliar with that meaning of “bottom” or with the character from Dracula, but otherwise all tough but fair. I find attempts to distinguish &lit from CAD a little tedious, because why does it even matter? It’s a clever sort of clue either way.
I suppose SHAKIRA also fits, if you include proper nouns [does a little boogie to the tune of “Whenever, Wherever”].
Ah the &lit debate. It is old. The place for &lits is The Azed Slip Archive, which is here:
http://www.andlit.org.uk/azed/slip_search.php
For me no clue is &lit unless all its bits are doing double duty. So GOALIE isn’t &lit written as it is here, even though the whole clue is the definition. Except where goalies are not agile and do not catch the ball.
Thanks Tees for dropping in, and for the clarification – I can think of a few goalies who might prove counterexamples to the agility/ball-catching definition! And thanks again for a fun puzzle.