A worthy challenge from Tramp . . .
. . . whose thought-provoking surfaces sometimes remind me of fragments of a poem by e e cummings. I do not see any ninas or themes this time, although a few topical references pop up.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 9 | SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |
One who sends stories to papers in scoops: Prince Andrew mostly let off (7,13)
|
| Anagram of (off) {SCOOPS + PRINCE + ANDRE[W] minus last letter (mostly) + LET} | ||
| 5 | LATTICE |
Grill liberal before Reform UK MP (7)
|
| L (liberal) + AT (before) + [Richard] TICE (Reform UK MP) | ||
| 10 | ASBO |
Pandora’s box keeps order for something bad (4)
|
| Hidden in (keeps) [PANDOR]A’S BO[X], abbreviation for Anti-Social Behaviour Order | ||
| 11 | SHORTBREAD |
Wanting lolly or biscuit (10)
|
| SHORT (wanting) + LOLLY (bread) | ||
| 12 | SEASON |
Age they smell, looking back, around start of adolescence (6)
|
| NOSES (they smell) reversed (looking back) around first letter of (start of) A[DOLESCENCE] | ||
| 13 | REVISING |
Correcting The King that’s out of line during call (8)
|
| E[L]VIS [Presley] (The King) minus (that’s out of) L (line) inside (during) RING (call) | ||
| 14 | ESTABLISH |
Prove herbalists wrong having dismissed recipe (9)
|
| Anagram of (wrong) HE[R]BALISTS minus (having dismissed) R (recipe) | ||
| 16 | AISLE |
A key passage (5)
|
| A + ISLE (key) | ||
| 17 | SPOTS |
Boozers drinking in quiet places (5)
|
| SOTS (boozers) around (drinking in) P (quiet) | ||
| 19 | DOUBLE-DIP |
Get on blue broadcast with saucy thing in recession (6-3)
|
| DO (get on) + anagram of (broadcast) BLUE + DIP (saucy thing). I am not sure whether “do” is supposed to be a synonym for “get on” or just “get”; neither seems particularly apt, but “get on” in the sense of “proceed” seems closer. | ||
| 23 | COMPOUND |
Unite member joining company to strike (8)
|
| CO. (company) + M (member) + POUND (strike) | ||
| 24 | ABSEIL |
Let oneself down as bails knocked off with back of knee (6)
|
| Anagram of (knocked off) {BAILS + last letter of (back of) [KNE]E} | ||
| 26 | RIFLE RANGE |
Fire in this? Rang fire bell essentially distressed (5,5)
|
| Anagram of (distressed) {RANG FIRE + inside letters of (essentially) [B]EL[L]} | ||
| 27 | AWED |
Fearful American to get married (4)
|
| A (American) + WED (get married) | ||
| 28 | DENTIST |
One might fix bridge as it tends to wobble (7)
|
| Anagram of (to wobble) IT TENDS | ||
| 29 | CYCLIST |
Rider from celebrity on vacation (minor celebrity) (7)
|
| Outside letters of (on vacation) C[ELEBRIT]Y + C-LIST (minor celebrity) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | POSSESS |
Have group sex missing former partner, repeatedly (7)
|
| POSSE (group) + {S[EX] + S[EX]} minus (missing) EX (former partner) “repeatedly” | ||
| 3 | CROSS |
Ford hybrid (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | ARSENAL |
Idiot secure having taken away Iran’s primary weapons (7)
|
| ARSE (idiot) + NA[I]L (secure) minus first letter of (primary [of]) I[RAN] | ||
| 6 | ACTIVE |
Show up around college that’s busy (6)
|
| EVITA (show) inverted (up) around C (college) | ||
| 7 | TURNSTILE |
Spinner to enter game goes off length during match (9)
|
| TURNS (goes off, as milk) + {L (length) inside (during) TIE (match)} | ||
| 8 | CHANNEL |
Designer trousers new for sewer? (7)
|
| [Coco] CHANEL (designer) around (trousers) N (new) | ||
| 9 |
See 1 Across
|
|
| 15 | AUTOPILOT |
Gold sovereign: one great deal that could help bank (9)
|
| AU (gold) + TOP (sovereign) + I (one) + LOT (great deal), referring to the aeronautical maneuver | ||
| 18 | PROFILE |
Portrait for hanging up in mansion (7)
|
| FOR inverted (hanging up) and inside (in) PILE (mansion) | ||
| 20 | BRAVERY |
Last couple in bar re-ordered pure spirit (7)
|
| BAR with the last two letters (last couple) reversed (re-ordered) + VERY (pure) | ||
| 21 | ICINESS |
Cold Brigitte Bardot’s here getting cape (7)
|
| ICI (Brigitte Bardot’s here, i.e., in French) + NESS (caper) | ||
| 22 | HUBRIS |
Arrogance of lead form teacher upset over uniform (6)
|
| {HB (lead form, i.e., in pencils) + SIR (teacher) inverted (upset)} around (over) U (uniform) | ||
| 25 | STALL |
Hold up sign at front high (5)
|
| First letter of (at front) S[IGN] + TALL (high) |
Thanks Cineraria. I read DO in DOUBLE-DIP as ”get on”. How are you doing? How are you getting on?
Or, I don’t do well with this (setter). I don’t get on well with …..
Thouroughly enjoyable, I thought. ABSEIL and DENTIST were highlights from among a crowded field.
I found the LHS went in more readily than the RHS which I had to revisit a few times; I needed a couple of lightbulb moments for LATTICE, DOUBLE-DIP and the E[L]VIS bit of REVISING. “Get on” = “do” in office-speak: “get on / jump on {some task or other}”.
The only one which I didn’t think quite worked was BRAVERY. A wordplay-type clue has to either describe the outcome or instruct how to build it (for each component), but it can’t do both! The clue describes a reordering of the sequence “AR”, but it can’t and doesn’t instruct us in parallel to begin with BAR in the outcome to start with. As a result I discarded the possibility of the solution beginning with B right from the word go… and accordingly this one was my last one in. Additionally I can’t think of a substitution of VERY for “pure”; but I’ve no doubt that someone will enlighten me there!
Nice to see EVITA again. Amazing how often she finds a way to turn up… but I guess she couldn’t spend all her life down at heel.
Thanks both!
I don’t get the anagrind ”knocked off” in ABSEIL. Knocked off has a lot of meanings but I’m not sure what’s happening here.
paddymelon@4 it’s a fair point; I can’t actually come up with anything either! I think I’ve become liberalized to the point where I don’t even stop to analyse things which look even vaguely like anagrinds – especially when they produce a surface as good as this one.
paddymelon@4: I was thinking “knocked off” was equivalent to “perturbed,” as in “a satellite knocked off its usual course.”
Yes, Cineraria #6, that could work. I just had a thought about knock off meaning to kill or murder. I think I’ve seen ”murder” as an anagrind before, in the sense of to botch or mangle.
Agree AP #3,5 ABSEIL has a great definition, and delightfully misleading surface about cricket.
paddymelon@#4 et al., I had no problem with ‘knocked off ‘ used as an anagrind -knock a glass off the bench and it shatters into pieces so knock off the bails and it would send them scattering (that is how I saw it, anyway) – but I did giggle at the picture of someone knocking off bails with the ‘back of knee’. One would really need to be a contortionist to do that, I suspect.
Thanks to Tramp, for a lot of fun and to Cineraria for a great blog.
The cricket setting is totally apt because the bails scatter when they’re knocked off.
Thanks Cineraria. Not easy but it unfolded steadily enough for me. I was fixated on lead=pb in 22d and never did come to terms with that. Had to Google Reform MPs to find Tice in 5a and am still not sure about at= before. At first glance I was trying to justify ‘pumpkin’.
Took a while but I really enjoyed this.
Favourites were: REVISING, POSSESS, TURNSTYLE, DOUBLE-DIP, ICINESS, HUBRIS
Thanks Tramp and Cineraria