I have rather a stupefying cold today, so I cannot tell whether this puzzle was hard or I was enfeebled or some combination of the two.
In any event, I enjoyed this offering from Peto, which required a few bits of GK to complete.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | POPLAR |
Kind of wood panelling originally inside directly opposite (6)
|
| First letter of (originally) P[ANELLING] inside POLAR (directly opposite) | ||
| 4 | BRA STRAP |
A bit of support with money mostly to get gin (3,5)
|
| BRAS[S] (money) minus last letter (mostly) + TRAP (gin) | ||
| 9 | SWEARS |
Vows to accept damage over time on board (6)
|
| SS (“on board”) around (to accept) WEAR (damage over time) | ||
| 10 | CRIMINAL |
A short time after, the king meets international gangster? Deplorable (8)
|
| CR (the king) + I (international) + MIN (a short time) + AL [Capone] (gangster), with “after” indicating the order of the elements of the wordplay | ||
| 12 | PILASTER |
An architectural feature most unlikely to be found in bridge support (8)
|
| LAST (most unlikely) inside (to be found in) PIER (bridge support) | ||
| 13 | INSIDE |
Is Enid somehow positioned to obtain exclusive information? (6)
|
| Anagram of (somehow) IS ENID | ||
| 15 | NADA |
Tennis star ultimately departing with nothing (4)
|
| [Rafael] NADA[L] (tennis star) minus last letter (ultimately departing) | ||
| 16 | IGNOBLE |
Mean to get money once soldier returns to the front (7)
|
| GI (soldier) reversed (returns) + NOBLE (money once, i.e., “an obsolete gold coin worth approx one-third of a pound sterling”), with “to the front” indicating the order of the elements of the wordplay | ||
| 20 | AMNESTY |
General pardon from Trump at the outset welcomed by worried yes-man (7)
|
| First letter of (at the outset) T[RUMP] inside (welcomed by) anagram of (worried) YES-MAN | ||
| 21 | SOAP |
Nothing in fool’s flattery (4)
|
| O (nothing) inside (in) SAP (fool) | ||
| 25 | ATTACK |
Criticise volunteers upset by change of course (6)
|
| TA (volunteers) reversed (upset) + TACK (change of course) | ||
| 26 | PROSPECT |
Scene showing plaintiff at first overwhelmed by dull discourse at court (8)
|
| First letter of (at first) P[LAINTIFF] inside (overwhelmed by) PROSE (dull discourse) + CT (court) | ||
| 28 | DEAD BEAT |
Fear missing runs with batter exhausted (4,4)
|
| D[R]EAD (fear) minus (missing) R (runs) + BEAT (batter) | ||
| 29 | MEDICI |
Doctor on island of a once powerful Italian family (6)
|
| MEDIC (doctor) + I (island) | ||
| 30 | NONSENSE |
Bull’s balls (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 31 | CYBELE |
Somewhat racy beleaguered Phrygian goddess (6)
|
| Hidden in (somewhat) [RA]CY BELE[AGUERED] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | POSTPONE |
Delay appointment only after pressure (8)
|
| POST (appointment) + P (pressure) + ONE (only) | ||
| 2 | PRECLUDE |
Make impossible claims primarily during introduction (8)
|
| First letter of (primarily) C[LAIMS] inside (during) PRELUDE (introduction) | ||
| 3 | AT REST |
Still finding theatre staff accommodating (2,4)
|
| Hidden in (accommodating) [THE]ATRE ST[AFF] | ||
| 5 | RARE |
Unusual attention on the rise stifling resistance (4)
|
| EAR (attention) inverted (on the rise) around (stifling) R (resistance) | ||
| 6 | SEMINOLE |
The only one to assume provocative artist is Native American (8)
|
| SOLE (the only one) around (to assume) [Tracey] EMIN (provocative artist) | ||
| 7 | RANCID |
Highly unpleasant when leaked by police (6)
|
| RAN (leaked) + CID (police) | ||
| 8 | PALLET |
Dog perhaps taking in completely straw-filled bed (6)
|
| PET (dog perhaps) around (taking in) ALL (completely) | ||
| 11 | FEIGNED |
Insincere FBI agent obtaining predominating influence after Hoover finally leaves (7)
|
| FED (FBI agent) around (obtaining) [R]EIGN (predominating influence) minus (after . . . leaves) last letter of (finally) [HOOVE]R | ||
| 14 | CONTORT |
Turn violently when caught about to join revolutionary uprising (7)
|
| C (caught) + ON (about) + TROT (revolutionary) inverted (uprising) | ||
| 17 | AMICABLE |
Stadium announcer’s aid Bale smashed following a friendly! (8)
|
| A + MIC (stadium announcer’s aid) + anagram of (smashed) BALE, with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 18 | HOME SIDE |
Some die tragically after hospital trotters in Bolton (4,4)
|
| H (hospital) + anagram of (tragically) {SOME DIE}, referring to the nickname of the Bolton Wanderers Football Club | ||
| 19 | SPITFIRE |
Lasting ill-will enveloping fellow Irish chap with fierce temper (8)
|
| SPITE (lasting ill-will) around (enveloping) {F (fellow) + IR. (Irish)} | ||
| 22 | HAND ON |
Indication of agreement raised in support of Chinese delegate (4,2)
|
| HAN (Chinese) + NOD (indication of agreement) inverted (raised) | ||
| 23 | STRAIN |
Stock car eventually owned by Mark (6)
|
| Last letter of (eventually) [CA]R inside (owned by) STAIN (mark), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 24 | OSIERY |
That’s extremely risky near large patch of willows (6)
|
| OS (large) + I.E. (that’s) + outside letters of (extremely) R[ISK]Y | ||
| 27 | PASS |
Permit to go through (4)
|
| Double definition |
I found these clues much more difficult to parse than solve. In the end I got them all solved and parsed.
I did not know noble as money, the trotters at Bolton, OSIERY or SPITFIRE to mean chap with ill-temper. And I have a question: in 28 why does batter = BEAT?
I hope you get over your cold, Cineraria. Thanks for the nice blog in the face of the sickness. Thanks also to Peto
Forget the question @1 – I just realised how batter = beat. It is the verb! Nice job Peto making me think only of the noun.
Similar experience. Did half quickly then got completely stuck. Revisited it later and filled the other half in quickly. Why not all in one go?
Some nice clues: bra strap made me laugh.
Obscurities fairly clued in all cases.
A number of hidden words today: out, cod, Anne, doom, rapt, oils, stink. Are these deliberate ninas and what is Peto trying to say?
Thanks both.
Needed to cheat by putting in and testing the ct for court before finishing prospect, spitfire and soap in the SE. And totally forgot about the Trot species of revolutionary, so contort was a bung and pray. Nice puzzle Peto; hot lemon, whiskey and honey for Cineraria.
Thanks and good wishes to Cineraria
I was not happy with 30ac with two slang definitions for exactly the same meaning of the answer, nor with 27dn where there were two separate meanings for the answer, but the whole clue works as a definition for a subset of the first meaning. It was also unfortunate that 22dn could give HAND UP defined as indication of agreement with wordplay UP (raised) following (in support of, in a down clue) HAN (Chinese) D (delegate). I do not think a solver should be required to know that D for “delegate” is not in any of the standard dictionaries. Thanks Peto for the rest of the puzzle.
Pelham Barton @5: I also thought 30ac a weak form of double definition, my gripe being that, although “nonsense” was the first solution to come to mind I did not enter it until I had crossers because it seemed so straightforward. A well constructed cryptic clue, to my mind, should let the solver be sure they have the right answer.
Could “Pass” be read as a triple defintion? “Permit”, “to pass through” and the clue as a whole? Not sure the setter intended that but it would be a rather clever variant on the &lit.
Nice to see some variants such as “medic” for doctor and the Irish chap not being Pat. Many elegantly constructed clues I thought – thanks Peto and get well soon Cineraria.
Jack@6: I have seen the idea suggested before, but I really do not think it is a good idea to allow any clue word to count more than once in the number of definitions. Would we allow “Permit” on its own to count as a double definition because it could be noun or verb?
Pelham Barton@7: I looked at “permit” and thought it only really worked as a noun whereas “permit to go through” works as the verb “to pass” (As in “The doorman passed them into the nightclub”) so the three ways of looking at it are (to me) somewhat distinct, but I am not going to defend the clue beyond that observation!
I suppose the issue is that the meanings of words like “let”, “pass” and “permit” are all rather close in their primary meaning and they can appear in combinations such as “let pass”. More satisfying double definitions rely on less clearly related words for me.
Jack@8: I was thinking of something like “the editor passed/permitted that particular text”. But let us give more of our attention to the last sentence of your comment, a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree.
PB I don’t see a d for delegate in HAND ON. Delegate (as a verb) is the definition. Nod reversed follows Han for Chinese. I am not sure I see the problem with PASS. It’s a double definition, once as a noun and once as a verb.
Petert@10: I did not say that there was a d for delegate in HAND ON. I said that the clue at 22dn has a plausible parsing for the answer HAND UP, which requires D for delegate. Not having solved 30ac at the time, I felt that HAND UP was a sufficiently plausible answer to enter it on my copy of the grid, and it was only after staring at P.N.E.S. for some time trying to make the clue at 30ac fit those letters that I realised that the P was not the setter’s intention and found the better solution to 22dn. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why I refer to clues by their numbers, not by their answers. It makes sense to say that HAND UP is a plausible answer to 22dn (whether you agree or not), but is absurd to say that HAND UP is a solution to HAND ON.
As to 27dn, I accept that the clue splits into two parts each of which defines a meaning of PASS. I would say that the first could be noun or verb (see comment 9) while the second only works as a verb. However, I would say that the whole clue also works as a definition (noun or verb) that is almost identical to the definition given by the word “permit” on its own. I regard that as an undesirable feature of a double definition clue, but I have no quarrel with anyone who feels differently about that.
PB Sorry I misread your comment.
Petert@12: Thank you for that. No worries – I could have spaced my original comment out better.
We weren’t sure about [r]REIGN as a ‘predominating influence’ in 11dn, but in 22dn we never even thought of ‘indication of agreement’ as an alternative definition. We weren’t too happy with 18dn either as it should have had ‘Trotters’ with an initial capital, although that would have given the game away as to what was going on. The convention, though, is that although one can use an initial capital where it’s not necessary one can’t use lower case where a capital is required – it seems illogical but that’s the way it is.
Our reservations apart, this was a satisfying and enjoyable solve.
Thanks, Peto; thanks too and get well soon to Cineraria.
Big Al@14: I was satisfied with “reign” in that sense when I thought of the common metaphoric sense e.g. “Manchester United were never so successful as under the reign of Alex Ferguson”. Although I am not usually a stickler for dictionaries, Chambers online does back this up with “Noun 2 the period during which someone or something rules, is in control or dominates” and “Verb 2 to prevail, exist or dominate”.
But good point about The Trotters which is a proper noun. I had a similar concern a couple of days ago and also noted that the rules are allowed to be broken in an asymmetric way. There are also clues where two parts of a word have to be separated (so a space inserted) but there are rarely clues where a space needs to be deleted (though I think I have seen them, possibly in the Grauniad which is a little laxer on the rules). Rules, like language, evolve I guess.
11dn: I think the clearest usage example in the main dictionaries for the relevant meaning of reign is in Collins 2023 p 1680 reign n 2 a period during which a person or thing is dominant, influential, or powerful: the reign of violence is over. Chambers 2016 does not have usage examples, but has the definition “predominating influence” explicitly on page 1314.
Just to explain the differences between the results from Chambers in comments 15 and 16, it should be noted that the free online Chambers is based on the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, which is not an update of the Chambers 20th Century Dictionary but a separate dictionary launched towards the end of last century. The updates from the Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary were issued as Chambers English Dictionary in 1988 and then The Chambers Dictionary from 1993, but the edition numbers run across all three of those titles. For daily crosswords, either dictionary should be adequate most of the time. For puzzles that explicitly recommend Chambers 2016, it can be purchased as an app.
I don’t see how “of” can work satisfactorily as a link word in the clue for MEDICI at 29A. It can be used, in the sense of “from”, in clues where the structure is “DEFINITION of WORDPLAY”, but 29A requires us to derive the wordplay from the definition.
I took “of” as part of the definition.
29ac: Would it require too much generosity of spirit to take the word “of” in this clue as part of the definition of the family name used attributively? I do not think that would be too much of a stretch, whether intended by the setter or not. Added in edit: comment 19 from Hovis appeared after I started typing this. I do of course agree with that comment!
I’m not convinced that 9 across is a satisfactory clue. I assume the SS which is clued by “on board” is the abbreviation for steamship. But would one refer to a steamship (a noun) as “on board” (an adverbial phrase)? Perhaps I’m looking in the wrong places, but I can’t find any authority that classifies them both as being the same part of speech. And if the SS is to “accept” the word WEAR, should not the “to accept” be somewhere in the sentence where the “on board” bit might reasonably be supposed to be its object? I guessed this answer must be SWEARS, but didn’t fill it in as it seemed so improbable.
Babbler@21: I take “on board” as one of those crossword conventions, which is interpreted as “X goes inside SS,” the image being that X is on board the ship [SS]. I have seen this often enough not even to wonder about it. For 9A, I do not think “to accept” is even necessary for the clue to work, but I stuck it in the parsing as a sort of “extra” inclusion indicator. In the alternative, the definition might be “vows to accept,” but I am not as persuaded by that reading.
9ac: My memory accords with Cineraria here. We have to take “on board” (or sometimes “aboard”) as meaning “in a ship”, and then take the “in” as a containment indicator so that “on board” becomes “within SS”. I am sure that this has been around for decades. Strictly it is a clue to a clue, but it is a time honoured one. Another that I am sure was around decades ago and resurfaces from time to time is “empty” meaning “containing nothing” as an indication to insert a letter O.
9ac continued: I thought of this too late for a further edit to comment 23, but Collins 2023 p 2249 gives us “wear¹ vb 5 to deteriorate or cause to deteriorate by constant use or action”. I think the intransitive option here allows “to accept damage over time” to define WEAR, leaving “on board” to mean “in SS” as mentioned in my previous comment.