A fun challenge from GUY!
FF: 10 DD: 8
Happy New Year folks!!
| 1 | ATTACH |
Sally shortened husband’s tie (6)
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ATTACk ( sally, short i.e. without last letter ) H ( husband ) |
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| 5 | GATEPOST |
Supporter on way in had job following signs in the centre (8)
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G ( siGns, central letter ) ATE ( had ) POST ( job ) |
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| 9 | CAST-IRON |
Very strong inmate broken by highest category prison (4-4)
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CON ( inmate ) containing [ A ( highest category ) STIR ( prison ) ] |
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| 10 | LOOKER |
Queen on throne fed king’s dish (6)
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[ LOO ( throne ) ER ( queen ) ] containing K ( king ) |
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| 11 | LETHAL WEAPON |
LAPD film Pumpkinheads’ leader at Hallowe’en riots (6,6)
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[ P ( Pumpkinhead, first letter ) AT HALLOWEEN ]* |
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| 13 | PAPA |
He has kids twice yearly (4)
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PA ( yearly, per annum ) repeated |
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| 15 | NEEDLESSLY |
Arch east of rock stacks? Not necessarily (10)
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NEEDLES ( rock stacks ) SLY ( arch ) |
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| 17 | CONTESTANT |
Competitor is able to time laps running trial (10)
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[ CAN ( able ) T ( time ) ] around { ON ( running ) TEST ( trial ) } |
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| 19 | SAPS |
Commando regiment keeping quiet digs a trench (4)
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SAS ( commando regiment ) keeping P ( quiet ) |
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| 20 | CASH-STRAPPED |
Such hollow parts actors knocked almost broke (4-8)
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[ SH ( SucH, hollow i.e. without inner characters ) in CAST ( actors ) ] RAPPED ( knocked ) |
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| 24 | LAGOON |
Thug in 11 perhaps in pool by the sea (6)
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cryptic def; read as LA GOON ( referring to the movie in 11a, which is set in LA ) |
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| 25 | ABLUTION |
Washing line covered with pants in U-boat (8)
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L ( line ) in [ IN U BOAT ]* |
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| 26 | BAKELITE |
Debit card supplier releasing new, exclusive plastic (8)
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BAnK ( debit card supplier, without N – new ) ELITE ( exclusive ) |
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| 27 | YEASTY |
Truly filthy place smelling fungal? (6)
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YEA ( truly ) STY ( filthy place ) |
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| 2 | TRAVELATOR |
Walk that takes you trembling to Rev and altar (10)
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[ TO REV ALTAR ]* |
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| 3 | AITCH |
Answer long letter that starts in hope (5)
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A ( answer ) ITCH ( long ) ; 'H' ( first letter of Hope ) |
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| 4 | HARD LINES |
Bad luck which might trouble actor? (4,5)
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cryptic def |
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| 5 | GENOESE |
Piece of cheese one grates over Italian (7)
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hidden, reversed in "..cheESE ONE Grates.." |
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| 6 | TULIP |
Bulb potentially lit up slides (5)
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[ LIT UP ]* |
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| 7 | PROGNOSIS |
Forecast — short bit of TV with no intelligence? (9)
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PROG ( short bit of tv, PROGram ) NO SIS ( intelligence, mi6 ) |
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| 8 | SPEW |
Chuck out small bench (4)
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S ( small ) PEW ( bench ) |
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| 12 | CLAPPED-OUT |
Given a hand, blooming knackered (7-3)
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CLAPPED ( given a hand ) OUT ( blooming ) |
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| 14 | ARTICHOKE |
Vegetable Martin peeled, to bottle it (9)
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ARTI ( mARTIn, peeled i.e. without end characters ) CHOKE ( bottle ) |
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| 16 | LITERALLY |
Recover after diet exactly as stated (9)
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LITE ( diet ) RALLY ( recover ) |
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| 18 | ASSUAGE |
German physicist in the middle of false alarm promoted calm (7)
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GAUSS ( german physicist ) in EA ( falsE Alarm, middle of ), all reversed |
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| 21 | SUNNI |
Muslim given entry returned with blazer on (5)
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reverse of [ IN ( given entry ) ] after SUN ( blazer ) |
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| 22 | PITTA |
Upsetting advice — you shouldn’t have bread (5)
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PIT ( reverse of TIP – advice ) TA ( you shouldn't have ) |
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| 23 | GALA |
Knight that’s missing had big party (4)
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GALAhad ( knight, without HAD ) |
I had a completely different take to our blogger’s FF10 and DD8. I found this difficult and a little monotonous. I ticked CLAPPED OUT, NEEDLESSLY and LITERALLY
All solved and parsed in the end. NHO of several words/ meanings including SAPS and HARD LINES (who uses the latter?). Also, what makes “pants” an anagram indicator (in ABLUTION)?
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs
Made hard work of this but some excellent clues held me up. Gala stood out, also assuage, lethal weapon.
Martyn @1 I believe young people use “pants” to mean “terrible”.
Good puzzle and enlightening blog, thanks both.
Thanks Guy. I found this challenging at times but ultimately solvable with my top picks being CAST-IRON, LOOKER, CONTESTANT, BAKELITE, SPEW, and GALA. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Martyn @1: ‘Pants’ can mean ‘rubbish’ or ‘nonsense’ making it fair game for an anagram indicator.
Made hard work of this but some excellent clues held me up. Gala stood out, also assuage, lethal weapon.
Martyn @1 I believe young people use “pants” to mean “terrible”.
What does FF10 and DD8 mean?
Good puzzle and enlightening blog, thanks both.
Thanks James and Tony for explaining pants: another new meaning for a familiar word!
James P@4, FF means fun factor and DD degree of difficultly. The scores have so far ranged from 7-10.
Martyn, one thing I’ve learnt from doing British crosswords is that pants is a common anagrind deriving from UK slang. I’ve never heard of it in Australia — as slang or anagrind. I’ve also learnt that whereas we use “pants” for trousers, they use it to mean underpants.
The two speed humps for me in this was SIS/intelligence and a newly discovered meaning for sap.
All else straightforward and enjoyable.
Don’t know where you’re from, Martyn @1 but “hard lines” is a common expression to me (living in England).
Sap (to dig a ditch) is the word from which “sapper” is derived. A
sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties,such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses, and road and airfield construction and repair.
I quite often use ‘pants’ to describe how I do at some of these crosswords. I struggled with the SW corner, but eventually a penny dropped. Otherwise I surprised myself, and things went along fairly smoothly. CASH-STRAPPED and CLAPPED OUT came to mind quite easily. I can’t imagine why . . . Thanks, Guy & Turbolegs.
As for “pants” I first heard this from my godson in about 1999 when he told me that compulsory participation in a school carol service was “total pants”. I also occasionally hear “Pants!” used as an expletive when something doesn’t go right, to which I suppose the reply is “Hard lines!” though the latter expression is now pretty dated.
Only got about half of the answers today.
I’m old enough, and unsuccessful enough, to have heard “hard lines” on any number of occasions, also seemed to feature in B&W movies..
I’ve become fairly accustomed to accepting almost any word as an anagrind, but feel pants is at the fairer end. LOI was CAST-IRON, for which I definitely required the blog. Also failed to spot the inclusion for GENOESE, which increased the DD score considerably, apart from that I’d agree with the FF score…
Thanks GUY and Turbolegs
Timothy @ 8, I had a sneaking suspicion that that was where sapper came from.
Found this one difficult and missed Assuage.