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
Took a while to get into this, but things sped up once I could see SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (from the enumeration and crossers from SHORTBREAD and CROSS, not the anagram, clever though it is). Like AP@3 I found the left hand side much easier than the right. I particularly liked the wordplay for POSSESS. I didn’t have a problem with the anagrinds (someone said not that long ago something close to “it’s the Guardian, if it indicates an anagram it’s an anagrind”, and I’ve found myself remembering that – although not who said it, unfortunately). I wasn’t very sure – I wasn’t pure sure – about the way BRAVERY worked, though. Thanks to both Tramp and Cineraria.
AP@3: “Pure” can be used as an intensifier, meaning “utterly” or “completely,” which is roughly equivalent to “very,” in such contexts, IMHO. “Before” and “at” are at least spatially consistent; for example, a knight kneeling before the king would be at the king’s feet, but I cannot think of an instance where a direct substitution would work.
Liked SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, SEASON, ABSEIL, CYCLIST, TURNSTILE and AUTOPILOT.
Thanks Tramp and Cineraria.
Fun puzzle with enjoyable and witty surfaces, as we usually see from Tramp. A few standouts…11a SHORTBREAD was clever (“Wanting lolly” for a great surface). 24a ABSEIL (a cricket reference I actually enjoyed!). 3d CROSS (an extremely concise meaningful surface). 4a ARSENAL (political surface?). 7d TURNSTILE, great misdirecting definition (“Spinner to enter game”). 15d AUTOPILOT, another misdirecting definition (“could help bank”). Many others
LOI 5a took a while because nho TICE. I’ve also been held up by “Grill” = LATTICE before. Mustn’t get fooled again!
29a CYCLIST, I’ve seen A-LIST and B-LIST before, but first time for C-LIST. How low can these celebrities sink?
Cineraria@14 She stood at/before the door?
Thanks Tramp. I thought this was an ideal prize puzzle; solutions came in bits and pieces over several days with the emergence of a completed grid eventually. I had many favourites including SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, AISLE, SPOTS, RIFLE RANGE, POSSESS, CROSS, and PROFILE. I had no issue with ‘knocked off’ as an anagrind, the re-ordering in ‘bar’, or ‘at’ = ‘before’. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , I can just agree with Tony@18 . Good to see PDM@1 stealing the top spot from AlanC . The use of noses in SEASON reminded me of the funniest joke in the world .
[ I forgot to say – Happy Valentine’s Day to all , watch out for magnetic monopoles .]
Tony@18 sums it up nicely for me, although I add ABSEIL and DENTIST as favourites. I see I am in good company with Roz@19 writing something similar. Thanks Tony
Thanks also to Tramp and Cineraria
Good fun throughout.
CYCLIST and TURNSTILE made me smile.
Thanks Tramp and Cineraria
I thought DENTIST was a great clue.
(Good to see you Roz# 19. Whenever AlanC snd I appear here depends on what time our insomnia hits, it seems. )
Pure for very is a Scottish thing, I think.
Excellent puzzle from the reliable Tramp, spoiled only by the presence of the unpleasant Reform MP in LATTICE, and even more by A***NAL, at 4D: South London interlopers who have caused me endless grief over the years. I couldn’t see DO for “get on”, but I think other posters have resolved that one.
Lots of ticks, but my favourites were ABSEIL for the cricketing misdirection (I love cricket but it too has also caused me endless grief over the years), and ACTIVE for having Evita “show up” yet again!
Thanks to Tramp for a fun challenge, and to Cineraria for illumination.
I enjoyed this. Not quite as much as his Michelle Mone prize (possibly my favourite puzzle ever) but some very fun clues. Did get stuck with HUBRIS – solved but not parsed, which is why I came here this morning. “Over” type containment indicators in down clues always throw me a bit (looking more like “above” juxtaposition indicators), which is possibly why I couldn’t see how HB worked.
Many thanks to Tramp and Cineraria
It was a good Tramp around the grid. I liked Prince Andrew being let off (not really!) by SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, the saucy DOUBLE-DIP recession, the DENTIST fixing a wobbly bridge, the group sex in POSSESS, the bad spinner in TURNSTILE, and the AUTOPILOT that helps to bank.
Thanks Tramp and Cineraria.
Roz 19,
I take it that’s the joke that depends on the ergative mood of the verb “to smell”?
Etu @29 , yes from the German response to the British joke that won the war .
First line – Mein Hund hat keine Nase .
Much enjoyed. Many thanks, Tramp. An excellent challenge. I managed to resist aids and got there in the end after four or so visits
Lots of great clues. Recently got to know Tice (5A) through his well presented contribution to the Westminster Hall debate on Thames Water a few weeks ago. Any chance of a themed crossword on the worst outcomes of privatisation, Tramp?
I just don’t get double-dip = recession…
Can anybody offer a real world example?
I was about to moan about PURE and VERY not being synonyms and then, out of nowhere, I remembered a quote from Wordsworth: ‘Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!’
MJ @32
It’s “double dip recession” as a “thing”, rather than “double dip” meaning “recession”.
MJ @ 32 An economic recession that appears to be heading for recovery but then drops again is a double-dip recession.
Big Maz@33, pure good! I was hunting for an uncommon use of pure as an adverb. Should have been looking for an uncommon use of very as an adjective. And now you’ve opened up that avenue, there are of course loads of examples though yours is perfect. He was the very model of a modern Major General…
1961Blanchflower@26[ I’m sorry you’re still feeling the pain of Mr Norris’s WW1 misdemeanours. Perhaps a victory on 22nd will provide some comfort, even if it will only briefly delay St Totteringham’s Day. From a South London interloper.] 😉
Thanks for the blog and the kind words. I can’t remember what I was thinking with “knocked off”; I think I thought that when a cricketer knocks off the bails, they dislodge the bails from the wickets. I didn’t check the dictionary, but, I just presumed knocked off could mean dislodged or something. I didn’t think twice to check it.
Neil
@ 34 and 35
thank you both
Like AP@5, once I realize that I’m looking for an anagram I then look for the anagrind, and there are thousands of words in the dictionary that can be justified with a little creative thinking. It makes for a fun party game.
I liked the 24 ABSEIL clue, even though I didn’t know the word for those bits of wood at the top of the wicket. I just saw bails as the source of the letters for the anagram and gave the word no more thought.
Lots of fun clues here; my favourite was 11a SHORTBREAD, for the sweet surface, clever and concise.
Thanks T&C for the tempting treat and comprehensive commentary.
[ And happy Valentine’s Day, Roz@19&20. Just yesterday I watched that Monty Python episode 😊. ]
MJ 32,
Yes, it happened when the Greeks banned both taramasalata and tzatziki, which drastically affected their economy.
Chambers has ‘copy illegally’ as one definition of ‘knock off’. Knocked off then can mean ‘forged’, a valid anagrind I believe.
Etu@41 , fortunately exports were still allowed or the middle-classes in the UK would have been wiped out .
Late to the party, but I had “do it” / “get on with it” for 19ac. Still felt like a slight stretch, but did not detract from an excellent puzzle.
Is it just me that thinks a grille could be a lattice, but a grill is not?
Colin 45,
I haven’t researched, but are they from the same root?
That is, a grill being a metal lattice put over a fire, on which to cook?