A fun solve with a nice mix of clues and some trickier parsings. My favourites were 28ac, 29ac, 6dn, and 9dn. Thanks to Fed for the puzzle
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CONSUME |
Prisoner finally does bird over murder (7)
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definition: 'murder' can mean consume [greedily/enthusiastically] as in 'I could murder a curry' CON (convict, "Prisoner"); final letter of [doe]-S; plus EMU="bird" reversed/"over" |
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| 5 | BAD DEBT |
Spooner’s old man wagered unrecoverable liability (3,4)
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Spoonerism of 'Dad bet'=Dad made a bet="old man wagered" |
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| 10 | U-TURNS |
Wind in America goes the other way (1-5)
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TURN="Wind" as a verb; inside US="America" |
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| 11 | APPLIERS |
A power tool they hope to get in (8)
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A (from surface) + P (power) + PLIERS="tool" |
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| 12 | HIC |
Thick walls collapsing here in ancient Rome (3)
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definition: the Latin word [used in ancient Rome] for "here" the outer letters or "walls" falling away from [T]-HIC-[k] |
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| 13 | SCAMPI |
Seafood swindle pursued by detective (6)
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SCAM="swindle"; plus PI (private investigator, "detective") |
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| 14 | KNOCK OUT |
Available after pound fell (5,3)
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definition: to 'fell' someone is to knock them down, to cause them to fall OUT (e.g. 'the new book is out')="Available"; after KNOCK=to "pound" |
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| 15 | PLAID |
Quietly ring back to get checked (5)
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definition: some plaid patterns are check designs P (Piano, musical instruction to play "Quietly"); plus DIAL="ring [a phone]" reversed/"back" |
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| 16 | LOGARITHM |
Record a beat on the radio, calculating power (9)
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definition: in mathematics, a logarithm calculates the power/exponent needed to produce a number from a base value LOG="Record"; plus 'A RITHM' which sounds like (on the radio) 'a rhythm'="a beat" |
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| 19 | STAGE NAME |
Produce – and handle – Elton John for instance (5,4)
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definition: Elton John as an example of a stage name STAGE=put on a stage production="Produce" + NAME="handle" |
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| 21 | SCOWL |
Threatening look from member of parliament on select committee for starters (5)
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OWL="member of parliament" (parliament as the collective noun for owls); after starting letters of S-[elect] C-[ommittee] |
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| 24 | OPPONENT |
Rival Pope made strange claims about religious books (8)
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anagram/"made strange" of (Pope)*, which goes around/"claims" ON="about"; plus NT (New Testament; "religious books") |
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| 26 | ANGLER |
Hulk director’s detailed tip to actor – one with a line? (6)
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definition: an ANGLER uses a fishing line ANG LE-[e] ("de-tailed", removing the 'tail' letter); plus the end/"tip" of [acto]-R Ang Lee [wiki] is a film director, and directed the superhero movie Hulk |
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| 27 | INK |
When half-cut, draw back tattoo (3)
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[shr]-INK="draw back"; with half of the letters removed/cut |
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| 28 | HITHERTO |
Heriot Watt, Edinburgh ultimately struggling until now (8)
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anagram/"struggling" of (Herriot t h)* with the t and h from the last/ultimate letters of Wat-[t] and Edinburg-[h] for the surface, Heriot-Watt is a university in Edinburgh |
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| 29 | ICICLE |
Frosty Spike Milligan scene with actor, Oliver Reed taking only seconds (6)
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taking only the second letters from [M]-I-[lligan] [s]-C-[ene] [w]-I-[th] [a]-C-[tor] [O]-L-[iver] [R]-E-[ed] |
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| 30 | MERRILY |
Drunkenly mess up one line, using skirts to monkey around (7)
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ERR="mess up" + I="one" + L ("line"; with the outer letters/"skirts" of M-[onke]-Y going "around" |
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| 31 | SHOOTER |
Maybe Magnum’s close to his nose (7)
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definition: Magnum as in a type of gun, something that shoots end/close of [hi]-S; plus HOOTER="nose" |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | OPTICAL |
Visual is current with work coming up (7)
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TOPICAL="current", with the letters OP (opus, "work") moving upwards in the word/grid to go before the T |
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| 3 | SCRUMPING |
Perhaps Gala lifting sound after struggle? (9)
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definition: perhaps "lifting"/stealing Gala apples PING="sound" after SCRUM="struggle" |
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| 4 | MISHIT |
I’m upset with this swimming stroke that went wrong (6)
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definition: a bad stroke in e.g. cricket, mis-hitting the ball anagram/"upset" of (I'm)*; plus anagram/"swimming" of (this)* |
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| 6 | APPROVAL |
Deletion of program on phone, wanting space, ok (8)
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APP REMOVAL="Deletion of program on phone", without/"wanting" EM=a "space" in typography |
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| 7 | DRINK |
Tea for one of Doctor Kildare’s first home visits (5)
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definition: "for one" as in 'for example' DR (Doctor) plus "first" of K-[ildare]; with IN="home" visiting inside |
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| 8 | BOROUGH |
Part of town that’s revolting – King taken by surprise at the outset (7)
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UGH=expression of disgust="that's revolting"; with R (Rex, "King") taken in by BOO (a shout used to startle or "surprise") going at the beginning/outset |
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| 9 | BACK-FORMATION |
E.g enthuse defender with say, 4-4-2 (4-9)
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definition: 'enthuse' as a verb was 'back-formed' [wiki] from the noun 'enthusiasm' BACK="defender" in sports (e.g. a centre-back in football); plus FORMATION="say, 4-4-2" (an example of a football formation) |
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| 17 | INCOGNITO |
Disguised gin with tonic swirling round (9)
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anagram/"swirling" of (gin tonic)*; plus O="round" |
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| 18 | INTEGRAL |
One fifth of thirteen going into 26 freely without fractions (8)
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definition: INTEGRAL means whole, e.g. relating to integers that are whole numbers rather than fractions I="one"; plus anagram/"freely" of (T ANGLER)* where T is the fifth letter of [thir]-T-[een] and ANGLER is the solution to 26ac |
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| 20 | TOPSIDE |
Best team to make cut (7)
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definition: a cut of meat TOP="Best" + SIDE="team" |
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| 22 | WHEELIE |
Little fib about husband’s bike stunt (7)
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WEE LIE="Little fib"; around H (husband) |
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| 23 | RAKISH |
Jaunty part of anorak is hood (6)
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hidden in [ano]-RAK IS H-[ood] |
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| 25 | OTHER |
Different gold-plated article (5)
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OR="gold" in heraldry, going around (to gold-plate): THE=definite "article" |
Another pleasant mix of cultural references, this was on the gentler side for the setter. Favourites were CONSUME, APPLIERS, KNOCK OUT, LOGARITHM, SHOOTER, SCRUMPING (just about remember the doctor) and INCOGNITO. I don’t know if it was deliberate or not, but if you lift and separate HIT HERTO, using the former as an anagrind, you get the intersecting OTHER. Always an enjoyable challenge.
Ta Fed & manehi.
Oops, I thought I had DRINK in my favourites, before my reference to Dr Kildare! I’m still confused by BACK-FORMATION.
Not as fiendish as Fed has been recently but just as enjoyable. BACK-FORMATION was new to me but a very friendly clue.
Enjoyed CONSUME, U-TURN and WHEELIE plus others.
Thanks Fed and Manehi
AlanC #2. BACK-FORMATION is a linguistic term. Manehi provided a link from Wiki. Basically, enthuse is an example (e.g) of back-formation. enthuse didn’t exist in its own right, but was created from enthusiasm etc,
Thanks pm@2: I missed the wiki link but read it subsequently and it then made sense. An interesting concept.
Nice puzzle, perfect level of difficulty for when you don’t want too much of a struggle. Faves were DRINK, INCOGNITO, MISHIT, HIC.
For once I spotted the member of parliament gag!
Less pleased with myself for being thick over BACK-FORMATION which I still don’t understand.
Tough puzzle.
New for me: SCRUMPING, BACK-FORMATION.
I could not parse 26ac, 27ac, 2d apart assuming that OP=work.
Fun seems to be the operative word, both in the comments section and in manehi’s view. As is so often the case, I agree with manehi’s assessment. I guessed at the parsing of BACK FORMATION but did not know the etymology of enthuse. Good to learn! My LOI was APPLIERS, which I am still not sure is a “real” word! That slight quibble did not in any way impair my enjoyment of the puzzle. I came here to find out the parsing of ANGLER – very clever! Many thanks Fed and manehi.
paul @9
Maybe APPLIERS is an example of BACK-FORMATION?
(Never heard of back-formation before, so keen to put it to use.)
HIC, Haec, Hoc…nice to be reminded of Latin at School all those years ago. Managed to complete this, but several I struggled to parse. BACK FORMATION and INTEGRAL for two. Like the SCRUMPING and the SHOOTER, both made me smile…
I’m in the minority here: perfectly familiar with the linguistic term BACK FORMATION, but no idea of football positions.
Thanks to Fed and manehi.
Thanks Fed and manehi
I had too many questions marks (ten, to be precise) to enjoy this much. In particular, why is BOROUGH defined as “part of town”? In normal usage it’s just “town”.
I thought that KNOCK and KNOCK OUT weren’t very different.
Favourite OPTICAL.
I forgot to add that it’s a good job that Paul hadn’t clued MISHIT!
Lovely. Didn’t understand the 442 but assumed that was just my lack of football knowledge – another school day 🙂
Top ticks for ANGLER, CONSUME & SCRUMPING
SHOOTER made me chuckle as I worked backwards through Magnum PI, the sickly ice-cream, bottles etc. before finally arriving at Clint’s weapon of choice
Cheers F&M
Muffin @13. Different Boroughs of New York, London?
Crispy @16
Yes, but those are cities, not towns. Borough usually just means town.
Lots to like in this puzzle. Had to come here for the parsing of OPPONENT, which I now see successfully misled me, as it should.
Thanks Manehi and Fed
15a – Made me smile, a very Dave clue…
Fed is usually a struggle for me, so that was definitely on the gentler side. Still challenging enough to provide plenty of fun, though.
Lots of smiles and ticks from me. Plenty of Fed’s trademark “do what it says on the tin” clues, such as PLAID, which also had a great surface with the play on “checked”.
On Fed’s last appearance I commented that he is the master of misleading use of names for the wordplay. There were not so many of those today, but Spike Milligan in 29a and Doctor Kildare in 7d were great examples.
Many thanks Fed and manehi.
Defeated by SCRUMPING, but otherwise good fun.
Interestingly ‘edit’ is thought to be a back-formation from ‘editor’ (other opinions are available). And of course we have the Wodehousian ‘butle’ from ‘butler’.
Nice to see my old stamping grounds of Heriot-Watt get a mention.
Thanks, Fed. Delightful. I don’t think I’ve ever had so many LOL moments, with the loudest being for the frosty spike. I don’t know if there’s a comic-strip equivalent to an earworm but my FOI (WHEELIE) had me desperate to dig out my old Perishers annual where they think Maisie wants to be a psychiatrist…
PS I really appreciated that thirteen does indeed go into 26 without fractions.
.. hunc haec hoc … continuing from Ronald @11
A solid set of clues with good surfaces. A pleasure to solve, and enjoy Fed’s subtlety.
Thanks to him and manehi.
Something that occurred to me when BACK FORMATION finally clicked – is mentee a backformation from mentor, or is it a corollary of a (probably) never uttered backformation itself, namely ‘ment’? And if so, is there a worrd for a) implcit but unused backformations b) words derived from the same?
Yes, what with the weather, its been a quiet day so far.
Good fun with lots of appealing clues. I should have parsed OPTICAL but somehow I didn’t. I liked the BAD DEBT Spoonerism, the rival pope OPPONENT, the frosty Spike Milligan’s ICICLE, SCRUMPING Gala apples (which might be difficult for overseas solvers), the INTEGRAL fractions. I didn’t know that enthuse was a BACK FORMATION from enthusiasm.
Thanks Fed and manehi.
My tuppenceworth on the BOROUGH/ town comments. I took ‘town’ to mean London, an increasingly archaic colloquialism perhaps but still used by some – “going up to town” etc.
After all the hic/haec/hoc comments my linguist spouse points out that hic with a long “i” (pronounced heek) is different and means “here” as required by the clue.
muffin @17 part of SCARBOROUGH 🙂
Enjoyed most of this, though I was imagining that BACK-FORMATION was some football term I had yet to meet: I got the right answer for the wrong reason. The b-f I remember is “burgle” from burglar: the Americans don’t use it, preferring the ugly “burglarise”.
I didn’t know who directed the Hulk, but I knew Ang Lee existed. I suppose APPLIERS must be a word, though why it’s needed when there are applicants, I don’t know.
After yesterday, it would be surprising if anyone failed to identify the member of Parliament!
I filled in BACK FORMATION without knowing what it meant.
Favourite was definitely 29a
Some very good clueing here, which was enjoyable. Quite a few were rather easy to guess from the definition but harder to parse. Regrettably, I failed on SCRUMPING (a great clue) due to laziness – put in “scrumming”… Didn’t know EM or Ang Lee, or the owl parliament, and missed the parsing of ICICLE. Thanks Fed and manehi!
I managed to solve it except for SCRUMPING, which goes into the notebook; but quite a few unparsed. I still can’t quite see how the grammar works for “calculating power” as LOGARITHM; everything else completely fair in hindsight.
Really fun in any case! Top marks for the very evocative WHEELIE, with ANGLER and PLAID close behind.
Thanks Fed & manehi.
I parsed 27 across as KNIVED (half cut to leave KNI which drawn back is INK. But I see now I was wrong.
Great puzzle which I managed to finish without help though I had to check BACK-FORMATION is indeed a thing.
Thanks both,
Very enjoyable. Am I the only one who thought about 4 4 2 locomotives (Atlantic class?)?
WHEELIE and SCRUMPING were my two favourites in a very enjoyable puzzle. BOROUGH took almost as long as the rest of the puzzle. I suppose New York and London have a number of boroughs.
Karen Byrom@34. I parsed it as KNI[ved] back too. After my obsession with trick cyclists in WHEELIE I should definitely have considered Fed using shrINK as well…
Me@23. Correction. It was Marlon not Maisie. I’ll get my coat…
On QI Mr Fry mentioned that TAXI was a back formation from TAXIMETER – the device used to calculate/measure the fare.
Great fun from Mr G, as usual. Thanks to manehi, too.
Thanks Fed for a great set of clues with my favourites being BAD DEBT (a spoonerism I actually liked for once), HIC, SCOWL, ICICLE, DRINK, and WHEELIE. Overall I enjoyed the descriptive surfaces in many of the clues. I nho SCRUMPING but had enough letters to guess it and the parsing of OPTICAL was beyond me. Thanks manehi for the blog.
Tyngewick @35
– Yes
I had never heard of SCRUMPING; I didn’t know our language even needed a word for stealing fruit. Well, we didn’t need the word APPLIERS, either.
I put in INTEGRAL from its definition, not having gotten the cross-referenced ANGLERS yet; then I forgot to circle back round to parse it after I did. Oops. Separately re ANGLERS: with all the wonderful Ang Lee movies out there, he plumps for that one?
BOROUGH is fine as “part of town”; those who are being pedantic about city vs town forget about the general usage of town to casually describe a settlement of any size from three thousand residents to three million. I’ll let Frank Sinatra demonstrate. It’s a more common usage here than over there, but it’s not unheard of in British English either. Anyway, yes, New York City, quite the town, is divided into five boroughs.
(Yet another meaning of borough: in Alaska, “borough” means the same thing that “county” does in most of the other states, meaning that most Alaskan boroughs are giant tracts of nearly-empty tundra.)
mrpenny#42 I’m interested in your view that ‘town’ is more common usage in the US than in the UK (I assume you mean the UK by ‘over there’?). In my experience, in the UK we use ‘city’ quite specifically for cathedral cities and other, usually sizeable, conglomerations with designated city status, whereas in the US it seems to me that ‘city’ is far more commonly used than ‘town’ for almost any sizeable settlement …
Many thanks to Fed for the crossword and to manehi for the blog.
If Frank sang about New York being a wonderful town, Paul McCartney sang about London Town. I’ll spare you the link.
I couldn’t work out what original word INK had been cut from either.
Thanks for the blog , really neat set of clues , only 3 on three lines and none on four , much less usage of initial/final etc .
LOGARITHM had a great definition , PLAID very concise , APPROVAL very clever deletion , many more ….
For INK I had knifed and thought the setter could have used the fed .
All cities are towns , not all towns are cities .
The pedant in me observes that Reg Dwight actually changed his name by deed poll to Elton Hercules John, so not now a stage name (though will have been originally).
Lovely puzzle from one of my favourite setters.
Thanks both.
Great puzzle, with lots of witty clues. I agree with everything Roz said @46. I was another who got knifed @ 27a, and I think it is an equally good parsing.
Leonard Bernstein composed “New York, New York, It’s a Wonderful Town”.
The best argument for not using a pen: I entered a correct solution (STAGE NAME) in the wrong place (where LOGARITHM belonged). Boy, does that ever mess up the grid.
Thanks Fed and manehi for the fun puzzle and meticulous blog.
I unwisely started this one at about half past midnight, and enjoyed it too much for other than quite a late night, though I did leave a handful of clues till breakfast.
Not being in any way a football follower, 4-4-2 suggested to me a STEAM LOCOMOTIVE . It describes the configuration of the wheels. Rail locomotive didn’t quite fit, but I spent a fir too much time trying to shoehorn something like that in. Eventually the crossers gave the game away.
Lots of nice clues, but I’ll give a special tick to SCOWL.
Thanks both.
Rather liked this one.
judygs @43: here in the US, in casual usage, the word “town” has no implications about either the size or status of the settlement. Since “city” has a legal definition (detail varies a bit by state, but it’s based on the form of government the community has), we have a few tiny cities (and conversely, a few enormous villages–my father-in-law lives in the Village of Schaumburg, pop. 78,000). I’ve observed, and my observations may be wrong, that in the UK, people are more careful to call places city, town, or village based on their size and status. But here, “town,” unlike the other two, is simply generic. Generic use of “town” for literally any settlement is less common in the UK–but not unheard of.
PeterT @44: I prefer Mick and Keith: “in sleepy London Town there ain’t no place for a street fighting man…”
Frank Sinatra also sang about New York saying he wanted to wake up in a CITY that doesn’t sleep.
Ralph McTell, in “Streets Of London” has the line “In our winter CITY, the rain cries a little pity”
Thanks both. OPTICAL is one of those clues that grate for me: “I’m thinking of a word and you have to manipulate that to get your answer” – in this case ‘topical’ clued by ‘current’ is imho a bit of a leap, although with crossers in place (and it is a crossword puzzle after all) the answer offered itself up for parsing (but not by me).
I wonder if songwriters prefer ‘town’ because it offers safer ground for rhyming than does ‘city’?
muffin@14: I had the same thought.
Good puzzle. As a Londoner, BOROUGH was a write-in. Conversely, took a long time for the penny to drop on CONSUME. Favourites OPPONENT and SCOWL.
Thanks for the blog, manehi. Especially grateful for the link for back-formation, always happy to be educated.
Thanks too to Fed for a good Tuesday
workout. A nice variation of clue types. Faves were OPTICAL and MISHIT.
Thanks manehi, thanks all.
For what it’s worth I think muffin’s BOROUGH quibble @13 is entirely valid. Mind you, I’ve enjoyed people’s various attempts at justifying it too.
Cheers!
The five boroughs of New York City are Manhattan (what people usually think of when they say “New York,” Even in Brooklyn I’ve heard “I’m going to New York”), Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronxand Staten Island. Interestingly, all but one of them either are islands (Manhattan and Staten Island) or are on an island (Brooklyn and Queens form the western tip of Long Island). The Bronx is the only one the rest of the world can get to without crossing water.
I thought that “hic’ meant “this” rather than “here,” but maybe that’s the difference between “hick” and “heek”. How is the one pronounced that isn’t “heek”? Come to think of it, there’s “hic jacet,” where it obviously means “here.” I’ll get my jacet.
There were a few unparsed by lights out last night, but this was a good solid workout.
There seem to have been a few apple varieties in clues of late, Jazz being another. The hint seems to be the capitalisation. Makes a change from Conference pears.
I guessed about enthuse, and was right it turns out.
Thanks all.
Valentine@58: LOL
Great puzzle, as always from Fed. I agree with manehi’s preamble that some of the parsing was tricky. It all made sense, though. Two errors, 16a FORESIGHT (“calculating power”, instead of LOGARITHM), and 6d APPROVED (“ok”, instead of APPROVAL), so dnf
Lots of favourites including 10a U-TURNS (great surface), 12a HIC (“Thick walls collapsing”), 29a ICICLE (“Frosty Spike”, with Milligan misdirection), 2d OPTICAL (rare for me to catch this trick), 7d DRINK (Great Dr Kildare surface — used to watch the show as a kid), 22d WHEELIE (another trip — I used to practice these when I was a kid)
I too solved 9d BACK-FORMATION without understanding it
I enjoyed this more than Baz (who thinks “consume” for “murder” a stretch—but we don’t murder curries, though I have been assaulted by a few). We didn’t parse 2d OPTICAL (should have) or 27a INK (but shrINK half-cut and KNIfed drawn back both work). Pleased to have remembered 3d SCRUMPING from some old book or other, as it’s certainly not a term I have met here in Oz. Loved the Frosty Spike. A much more gettable puzzle than the last one of Fed’s we attempted. Thanks Fed and manehi.
I had to give up with two answers missing, LOGARITHM which I should have got but was distracted by ‘power’ and the crossers looking like MIGHT; and ANGLER where the director’s name wouldn’t come to me.
Otherwise easier than the average Fed, I guess. BOROUGH as part of a town was a little stumble rather than a distraction.
Belated thanks to setter and blogger.
Enjoyed it overall though found it quite tough. 1a, 16a (despite having taught logarithms for 20 years!) and 15a all stumped me.