The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29939.
We are cleaing up from a record 29 inch snowstorm, but fortunately did not lose power, so the blog proceeds as normal.
The second Cryptic from Anto this month, and I also blogged the other. Anto is growing on me, and this is a fun puzzle, interresting without using overelaborate constructions.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | OFF-PISTE |
Stone found in bad pastry – not part of standard run (3-5)
|
| An envelope (‘found in’) of ST (‘stone’, abbreviation for the weight) in OFF (‘bad’) plus PIE (‘pastry’). | ||
| 6 | MISHAP |
I request silence during plot slip-up (6)
|
| An envelope (‘during’) of ‘I’ plus SH (‘request silence’) in MAP (‘plot’). | ||
| 9 | ONE TWO |
Combination hits in boxing results in very short count (3,3)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 10 | HEN PARTY |
Women’s group eager to host northern prince (3,5)
|
| An envelope (‘to host’) of N (‘northern’) plus P (‘prince’) in HEARTY (‘eager’). | ||
| 11 | HUBRISTIC |
Arrogant British cut short broadcast (9)
|
| An anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘British’ plus ‘cu[t]’ minus its last letter (‘short’). | ||
| 13 | PITCH |
Put forward idea for sports ground (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 15 | HOBBIT |
Occasionally forgot duo’s name for this little character (6)
|
| Alternate letters (‘occasionally’) of ‘FoRgOt DuO‘. An unusual clue, to put it mildly. | ||
| 17 | BELTER |
In drink, lieutenant is very loud singer (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of LT (‘lieutenant’) in BEER (‘drink’). Sometimes a can belto singer. | ||
| 18 | LOOPER |
Assistant abandoned waste outlet cleaner in Dublin, he’s a fool (6)
|
| A subtraction: LOO [pa]PER (‘waste outlet cleaner’) minus (‘abandoned’) PA (personal ‘assistant’). I do not find the definition in any of the usual sources, but it is in Wictionary. | ||
| 19 | APACHE |
First nation warrior is a bit erratic sounding (6)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plis PACHE, ‘sounding’ like PATCHY (‘bit erratic’) | ||
| 21 | ETUDE |
Musical composition incorporates core elements of Goethe and Auden (5)
|
| Interior letters (‘core elements’) of ‘GoEThe’ plus ‘AUDEn’. | ||
| 22 | FASCINATE |
Doctor sat in cafe entrance (9)
|
| An anagram (‘doctor’) of ‘ … on the mat. |
||
| 25 | BROCHURE |
Male friend in US picked up firm promotional material (8)
|
| A charade of BRO (‘male friend in US’) plus CHURE, sounding like (‘picked up’) SURE (‘firm’). | ||
| 26 | BONEY M |
Pop group, by covering single, gets millions (5,1)
|
| A charade of BONEY, an envelope (‘covering’) of ONE (‘single’) in ‘by’; plus M (‘millions’). | ||
| 28 | ADDS UP |
It makes sense to link supplement to drink … (4,2)
|
| A charade of ADD (‘supplement’) plus SUP (‘drink’). | ||
| 29 | OVERTIME |
… eventually it will provide extra income? (8)
|
| OVER TIME (‘eventually’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | FAN |
Cool down number two distributor in trouble (3)
|
| A cryptic reference to the expression “when the s**t hits the fan”. | ||
| 3 | PATER |
Father starts preaching about Tibet’s esoteric religions (5)
|
| First letter (‘starts’) of ‘Preaching About Tibet’s Esoteric Religions’. | ||
| 4 | SHOP-SOILED |
Makes purchases when inebriated? They’ll be so dirty (4-6)
|
| A charade of SHOPS (‘makes purchases’) plus OILED (yet another word for ‘inebriated’) – perhaps best treated as the phrase SHOPS OILED | ||
| 5 | ETHNIC |
Native elements in Nazareth nicely hidden (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘elements … hidden’) in ‘NazarETH NICely’. | ||
| 6 | MENU |
Section of Bremen University that deals with consumer choice (4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘section of’) in ‘BreMEN University’. | ||
| 7 | STATISTIC |
Figure first possessed by a kind of spark (9)
|
| An envelope (‘possessed by’) of IST (‘first’) in STATIC (electrical ‘kind of spark’). | ||
| 8 | AUTOCORRECT |
It changes text to cure actor rambling (11)
|
| An anagram (‘rambling’) of ‘to cure actor’. | ||
| 12 | UPHOLSTERED |
Leading composer slipped up, losing right to be covered (11)
|
| A charade of UP (‘leading’) plus HOLST (Gustav, ‘composer’) plus ER[r]ED (‘slipped up’) minus an R (‘losing right’). | ||
| 14 | DESPICABLE |
Spied broken wire – that’s disgraceful (10)
|
| A charade of DESPI, an anagram (‘broken’) of ‘spied’; plus CABLE (‘wire’). | ||
| 16 | BOONDOCKS |
Benefit cuts for remote regions in the US (9)
|
| A charade of BOON (‘benefit’) plus DOCKS (‘cuts’). | ||
| 20 | TAKE TO |
Become keen on second opinion although it lacks weight (4,2)
|
| A subtraction: TAKE T[w]O (‘second opinion’) minus the W (‘lacks weight’). | ||
| 23 | NONET |
Musicians include individual piece in sacred text (5)
|
| An envelope (‘include’) of ONE (‘individual piece’) in NT (New Testament, ‘sacred text’). | ||
| 24 | LUMP |
Mass chubby priest cut (4)
|
| A subtraction: [p]LUMP (‘chubby’) minus the P (‘priest cut’). | ||
| 27 | YUM |
Finally try tofu cream – it’s delicious (3)
|
| Last letters (‘finally’) of ‘trY tofU creaM‘. Add ‘It’s’ to the definition if you wish. |
I appear to be the first, perhaps. But only because I’m in the US at present, cancelled flights after the snowstorm means I’m here somewhat longer than planned and was very surprised to see the blog up so early. Didn’t parse 15ac, 18ac or 2d so thank you for clearing that up. Clearly I needed to be a little less prim for two of those three.
Otherwise, LOI was 20d, and favourites perhaps 11ac and 19ac.
Thanks PeterO and Anto!
A few doozies — I’d never have got LOOPER, and the parsing for FAN & HOBBIT were beyond me. Just a week or two ago a couple of us mentioned the vast number of euphemisms for “intoxicated” — and here’s another I couldn’t bring to mind. And hearty/eager was a head scratcher.
Despite all this, I enjoyed.
Surely 15ac would have better been expressed as
“Occasionally forgot duo’s name for one of these little characters”
Thanks PeterO and Anto
Thank you PeterO. I fell a few short. I like Anto, but not quite on his wavelength today.
Started off with OFF-PISTE and thought it might be a Winter Olympics thing.
I knew Anto was Irish, shouldda looked up LOOPER.
I suppose HOBBIT is a reverse clue, but haven’t seen one like it.
I sorttakinda get FAN, but it’s even more ‘out there’.
BRO is familiar in the Antipodes, mostly from Kiwis, only it’s pronounced more like ”brew”.
I liked ”sacred text” instead of the tired cluing of NT as ”books” in NONET, and the multicultural mix with Tibet’s esoteric religions in the clue for PATER. We had a few musical clues today with lovely misdirections,
HEN PARTY’s surface is timely, or unfortunate, depending on your point of view.
My favourite was AUTOCORRECT for the surface ” to cure actor’s rambling”. Made me laugh.
I failed on LOOPER, needing to try and check a number of letters in the P position, before ending up with the NHO word. AUTOCORRUPT – sorry – AUTOCORRECT was neat, as was HOBBIT (great penny drop moment there). A few I couldn’t fully parse, so thanks PeterO for the help, and thanks, Anto.
@5 paddy thanks for the link to the Anto interview. I’m jealous. Anyway, couldn’t parse HOBBIT (very clever in retrospect) and LOOPER threw me for a loop.
Liked ‘to put it mildly’ in the blog for 15a. Like Anto as well, generally. Thanks anyway. Both. PM #5 I’m not sure about ‘brew’ for ‘bro’ in Enzed. I think we ape the American pronunciation here in the Shaky Isles.
I had the definition for 15a as ‘name for this little character’. Definitely an unusual construction, however it’s meant to work. Couldn’t parse 2d and LOI 18a was a Jorum.
Thanks to Anto & PeterO.
LOOPER reminds me of Blackadder sabotaging Dr Johnson’s dictionary with nonsense words – “It’s a common word, down our way”. I have family in Dublin and have never heard it!
Otherwise nice puzzle. Thanks Anto and PeterO.
As usual for Anto, some OFF-PISTE clues: I liked the ingenious HOBBIT. I’m one of those who pronounce “sure” with an “aw” rather than an “oo”, so BROCHURE doesn’t suit my accent – but it clearly works in Anto’s Irish voice and many others, so no complaints. Not so LOOPER: never heard of it, though I did work out the rather sordid parsing: Anto seems to have been taking lessons from Paul for that and FAN.
(Another NONET. How many have we had lately?)
I enjoyed that. I got 15 but it’s a bit convoluted. 18, a great clue once explained but if you’re going to use a very obscure word I think the parsing needs to be more straightforward. But two small quibbles amongst some very entertaining clues.
As Irish residents we have heard the word looper but used to describe someone who’s crazy rather than a fool….
Panthes@15
Yes, I think in Belfast a looper is a madman. Looper not that far removed from loopy, after all.
I agree with Dave F@14 on both points but especially on the second.
Actually, I inserted looney as in looneybin to begin with. Another madman (or woman).
Couldn’t parse FAN, but if the setter had been Paul we’d probably have got it :-)))
Although I found this quite difficult in places, I enjoyed the ingenuity of some of the clues and the variety of clue types. I would never have worked out on my own the parsing of HOBBIT or FAN but both made me smile. I like Anto’s crosswords.
I couldn’t get on Anto’s wavelength. I found the parsing very hard and kept writing answers in on the off chance, but after reading the excellent blog (thanks PeterO) I think it was fair. Had LOONEY for LOOPER. Eventually worked out HOBBIT but had to look up who Frodo was, not being a fan of Lord of the Rings. I could never have parsed BROCHURE.
Chuckled at yet another NONET!
Favourite UPHOLSTERED.
I thought MISHAP was a very good clue. It had to be -SH- in something and had me thinking of sh sounds till the penny finally dropped that the S and the H were in different syllables.
I am ashamed to say that I knew BOONDOCKS.
Been lots of snow here too for the past couple of months. But much warmer today at -6C and the sun starting to get some warmth in it. Slippery season is beginning ….
Never heard of LOOPER in that sense, and I’m Irish. Maybe it’s regional. If so, rather unfair (though we often get very parochial references to London boroughs).
Thanks for explaining FAN. I eventually parsed all the rest but was very held up in the SW by putting ‘goblin’ in at first for HOBBIT and ‘warm to’ for TAKE TO. I also tried ‘looney’ for LOOPER (nho).
Panthes @15, I’m from Dublin and agree, a looper is more crazed than foolish.
Yes, I tried ‘looney’ too, and eventually revealed LOOPER.
i’m really not sure i like 15a. it’s ingenious and i get it, but a clue within a clue seems a little unfair?
Failed on LOOPER and SHOP-SOILED (knew neither but both were gettable from the clue and crossers, in retrospect). Re-reading LoTR now (for the n-th time) wanted 15a to be HOBBIT (having the H), so was glad it worked, although the clue is indeed unusual. Other favourites APACHE, TAKE TO and BROCHURE. Thanks Anto and PeterO!
I cannot see DESPICABLE without hearing Mel Blanc doing Daffy Duck’s voice. Genius.
{Meanwhile,a moment’s thought for APACHE, my favourite cat ever, and there have been a few …]
I thought I had completed, but no… I had LOONEY where LOOPER was correct. I thought it was a dig at the entirely respectable and not at all bonkers head of RyanAir. (hence the Dublin reference), with LOO in there as “waste outlet” and the rest a bit fudged. Came here for the proper parsing and found I’d been too hasty. Well, you never gets nowhere if you’re too ‘asty.
Thanks PeterO for that and some others (HOBBIT went in unparsed, for one).
CotD for me was FASCINATE – very nice surface, and a neat use of the perception shift from the two meanings and pronunciations of “entrance”.
NONET again! Have the setters collectively decided to see how many times they can get that in this year? (also noted by Gladys@13, I see.)
No doubt one or more of my fellow scientists will have a mutter about “static” = “kind of spark”. Not super-happy about it myself; to me, it’s a bit of a stretch even within the latitude allowable for non-specialist use in crosswordland. But hey ho, I got the gist.
Thanks Anto; good fun with a bit of brain cudgeling needed.
It all went in fairly smoothly until I got to the SW corner. I saw FRODO and realised it was a letter short, so put the N name on the end to get a nonsense word, doh! Eventually, I put in HOBBIT. The Wiktionary definition for LOOPER says it’s derogatory, just saying, and I failed to parse it. I liked OFF-PISTE pastry, where I suspect I wasn’t the only one trying to shoehorn in an anagram of pastry, the HUBRISTIC Britishers, and the good anagrams for FASCINATE and AUTOCORRECT.
Thanks Irish Anto and snow-bound PeterO.
I’m not sure what it says about us that nobody has so far complained that Boney M is a bit obscure.
I failed on LOOPER, no surprise. I guessed it must be some Irish slang that I was unfamiliar with. I liked 15A – I spotted FRODO right away but the rest took a while to click.
I enjoyed this though I needed the blog for a couple of parsings. My favourites were FASCINATE for the surface and the clever double meaning of “entrance”, and OVERTIME which was just very neat.
A few months ago I had to have an MRI scan and just before I went in I was asked “Do you want the radio on?”. Without really thinking I said OK, and shortly found myself jammed inside the tube thing being forced to listen to BONEY M murdering Neil Young’s Heart of Gold, which I’m sure must be against the Geneva Convention.
Many thanks Anto and PeterO.
Defeated by LOOPER, but otherwise a good work out. Thanks Peter and Anto.
Me@29: I have just realised that I was conflating Michael O’Leary (head of RyanAir) with Bernard Looney (past CEO of BP) in my mangling of LOOPER, so now it makes even less sense than it did, which was not much!
Wasted a lot of time on HOBBIT. I saw FRODO straight away and then was considering if there was an alternate spelling. I found that whole left side quite challenging but once the checkers were in place it had to be HOBBIT. I think I would have a moan about the clue in any other publication.
LOOPER new to me. I don’t think I have heard anyone call it loo paper. It’s toilet paper or bog roll around my parts.
Liked OFF-PISTE and SHOP-SOILED
Thanks Anto and PeterO
Another with some trouble over LOOPER and FAN.
When I put the letters of “to cure actor” in Anagram Helper, the first arrangement it gave me looked like an autocorrected version of AUTOCORRECT, so that was nice.
I agree with PeterO that this was a fun puzzle. Lots of humour (10a HEN PARTY (women hosting northern prince), 2d FAN (number two distributor)), interesting words (1a OFF PISTE, 11a HUBRISTIC, 18a LOOPER (nho but solved from the wordplay)), and delightful pdm’s (15a HOBBIT with its two-step process, 7d STATISTIC with its static spark, 12d UPHOLSTERED, 14d DESPICABLE, 16d BOONDOCKS (“benefit cuts”), 24d LUMP), and anagrams (22a FASCINATE (“sat in cafe”), 8d AUTOCORRECT (“to curse actor”)
Couldn’t parse 2d FAN, so thank you Peter O. Obvious now, and funny
23d Yes, there’s our NONET yet again!
Thanks Anto and PeterO
Mostly straightforward, but I too failed on LOOPER.
15a was interesting. I read the clue and thought “surely that’s FRODO – but there aren’t enough letters”. It was rather later that HOBBIT dawned on me.
Another LOOPER-blooper here. Finally bunged in loopey unparsed. With the benefit of the blog, I now realise I never stood a chance.
Most enjoyable from Anto this morning… loved the number two distributor!
Some wonderfully inventive clues from Anto today, I thought. Though I was finally defeated by this. I have a cousin in Nova Scotia who refers to out of the way places there as the Boonies, (or maybe that refers to those that live there) but had never come across BOONDOCKS before. Nor LOOPER. Both HEN PARTY and PITCH took an age for me to see. NONET seems to be a popular musical ensemble in crosswordland at the moment, too. Found this a proper and enjoyable challenge this Wednesday.
I was rather surprised to see Hobbit turn out to be the correct answer. It seems rather unfair in at least two regards – firstly that Frodo itself would prefectly answer the clue except for being a letter short, and secondly that it excludes anyone from getting the answer purely from the wordplay, without knowing the character. I always feel this distinguishes a cryptic from.a general knowledge crossword.
Thanks for the crossword and the blog! 2d reminds me of Airplane!
PeterO — in your blog for FASCINATE you give the anagram fodder as “cat in cafe.” It’s “sat in cafe.” Too bad, I miss the cat.
nho Boney M, so I revealed that. BONEY was obvious, but what came next?
I enjoyed the puzzle, thanks Anto and PeterO. Happy shoveling, Peter, we’re getting more!
BOONDOCKS is a fascinating word. It comes from Tagalog, of all places. Bundok is Tagalog for “mountain”. During the failed Philippine war for independence–after the US took over from the Spanish as colonizers in 1898, and I’ll spare you the rest of the history lesson–the Philippine guerrillas would strike and then disappear into the bundoks. The American army that was suppressing the independence movement picked up the word, took it home, Anglicized the spelling, and changed its meaning to simply “the middle of nowhere.” It’s never singular, by the way–there’s no such thing as just one boondock.
That’s a war that most Americans forget ever even happened, by the way. Perhaps because we were so clearly in the wrong?
I got HOBBIT no problems, not being a fan of the genre – boyhood fantasy. Didn’t get LOOPER and didn’t even try. Couldn’t parse FAN at 1d, and having seen the logic I am sorta pleased about it… at least it was gettable from the clue.
BOONDOCKS reminds me of living in Brisbane and becoming a fan of the Bullets in the NBL basketball. We lived on the south side and the stadium we had to travel to was all the way out in the north side in Boondall, which seemed like the middle of industrial nowhere. For a while I just assumed that is where the expression ‘out in the boondocks’ came from…
Thanks Anto and Peter O.
Mark Twain was outraged at the US’s conduct in the Philippines, and wrote plenty on the subject.
I didn’t get looper. Put ‘looney’ just because it’s all I could think of that fitted with ‘fool’.
[LOOPER brought immediately to mind the time-travel film of that name; with Bruce Willis, as ever, playing “Bruce Willis”. It’s pretty good, IMO.]
DTS@51 Me too, but I haven’t seen it before. Thanks for the recommendation — added to my queue
Think I knew boondocks from the lyrics of some otherwise forgotten pop song?
[mrpenney@47: I didn’t know that! Thank you. It’s insights like that which make this such a go-to site.]
I think the design for HOBBIT was brilliant and once suitably named deserves a place in cryptic clue taxonomy. Quite enjoyable on the whole. My only quibble is with “warrior” in 19, which seems based on a syllogism gone awry: Geronimo was an Apache; Geronimo was a warrior; ergo all Apaches are warriors.
The clue for HOBBIT is grossly unfair, with FAN and LOOPER not far behind.
I had WARM TO at 20d, which held me up with BROCHURE – in fact it was only being “sure” about the latter that made me look again at the former, since ‘become keen on’ is a perfect definition for my version of the answer.
I really don’t like FAN , and I’m pretty sure Paul would not have clued it that way, whatever anyone else says.
Thanks to Anto and PeterO.
KateE @53: I think you’re thinking of Down in the Boondocks, by Billy Joe Royal.
SH @56
Yes, HOBBIT was unfair, because (as someone said earlier) there was no wordplay to give the actual answer. However, it was amusing!
Thanks PeterO and Anto! I breezed through about half of this and battled my way through the rest, giving up on the parsing of FAN, LOOPER, and HOBBIT, in which I see I have good company. I think some indication of unusual hijinks would have made the HOBBIT clue fairer, though I do enjoy the creativity.
I agree with Coloradan@55 re the syllogism, and thanks to mrpenney@47 for the etymology/history lesson!
Loved most of it thx Anto. I also failed on LOOPER. Got as far as LOO and thought of LOOPEY. Inclined to the view that complex clue together with obscure non-British solution is not really fair. Especially since some
Irish commenters disagree with the the definition!
Sorry – I’ve read all the comments before and since my previous visit @28, and just do not get the big beef about HOBBIT. The Lord knows, Species Identification in the Works of JRR Tolkien would NOT be my Mastermind special subject – never read a word of any of them – but I know, just from the cultural percolation of such things over the years, that Frodo was a Hobbit, and with the H in place from UPHOLSTERED it was a gimme.
Balfour @61
See mine @58. The wordplay actually gives FRODO, not HOBBIT.
Balfour@61. “Frodo was a Hobbit” – no, FRODO is the name of a particular example of a HOBBIT. I got the answer but I did not see the parsing, which is frustrating. A simple question mark at the end of the clue would have been helpful. Or is Frodo the only Hobbit?
mrpenny @57 – Yes, I remember the song, but I though it was Gene Pitney. I dont think I would have solved the clue without that help.
I also failed on LOOPER.
Thanks both.
Sour grapes, possibly, but I thought that LOOPER was the really unfair one. The wordplay works, but isn’t obvious, and the expression is very niche – it seems that even several Dubliners hadn’t heard it!
I second Balfour’s comment at 61 re the complaints about 15a HOBBIT. I too haven’t read LOTR, but the clue was both gettable and clever.
Ace@32, I’ll bite. I’ve never heard (of) BONEY M, and based on the comments here, I hope I never will.
PeterO, thanks for the “can belto”. With 18a, it conjures up the image of a foolish Irish tenor warming up in the backstage loo.
Thanks A & P for the amusement and parsing.
I think it might have been Harry Secombe who used to describe himself as a “can belto singer”.
At the risk of NONET becoming a crossword cliche here’s an example of the real thing by Louis Spohr. Thank you Anto and PeterO
[ gladys@67, Needle Nardle Noo. ]
I got loopers from the wordplay but like PeterO I struggled to find confirmation of the definition. Eventually ran it to ground in an old article from the Irish Times, discussing the origin of the term.
[Ace@32, Cellomaniac@66: BONEY M’s best known single was probably a decent-ish version of “Rivers of Babylon”, though it’s pretty much a rip-off of The Melodians’ excellent rendering on “The Harder They Come”.
The Boney M version was lampooned by The Barron Knights as “There is a dentist in Birmingham, he fixed my crown…” which starts Ahhh aah ahh ahh (wider!) : AAHH AAH AHH AHH (WIDER!!).. etc… . Wikipedia even has a piece on it.]
I got the “frodo” part in 15ac, and guessed “hobbit”. Please can somebody explain the parsing? I’m a relative crossword novice, and somebody who’s heard of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but not read any of the “Ring” books.
Thanks PeterO (very clear explanations) and Anto.
AR @72
I think you have just about got it: compare Balfour @61. The problem is that the clue does not follow any standard parsing – which can be a slippery slope, and, at the bottom of the slope, has produced many weird and wonderful attempts at deciphering clues, which tend to pop up at the end of blog comments, from unfamiliar names. However, in this case you are justified.
PeterO @73, thank you.
I really did like FAN; maybe today, as I’ve childishly been trying to see if some AI chat bots would take part in chats with slightly rude crossword clues. For the FAN one, grok 4.1(fast reasoning) and openai 5.2 (thinking) both started off with ICE.
grok did ICE as a three letter word for cooling, but ignored definition. When I prompted it that it’s a cryptic definition, it hilariously went for BUM as a “number two distributor” and made references to a sore / inflamed bottom needing to be cooled down. I then said, “That is hilariously funny (or should I say “dunny”) but you’re not quite there…”, and it came back with LOO and then tried to claim that one should “chill” when using a blocked (“in trouble”) loo. It eventually came up with FAN when I explained about “stuff” hitting the … when in trouble.
openai used “number two” –> “second in command” –> 21C with “distributor in trouble” as anagrind –> ICE. Even with further chat, it tried to push this parsing. Only when I said that the setter intended FAN, it “grudgingly” said it made sense.
When the penny dropped for HOBBIT I did give an inward “Tsk, he is a little tinker” to myself.
Oddly enough – and I didn’t spend that long – the only one I had left unparsed was LUMP, thinking that there was probably a fictional chubby priest called Lumpo or similar…
FAN I thought outstanding.
Cheers one and all.
That HOBBIT clue is an interesting one, not so much a reverse clue (though it has something of the feeling of inverting the natural order of things) as – what should we call it – an indirect definition by example? The point is that solving the wordplay reveals the full (non-cryptic) definition rather than the solution. In a way, it’s the same construction as “country with its capital in Czechoslovakia” but more elaborately disguised. I wouldn’t have solved it, but I can admire it!
We thought that “one two” was a minor theme. Many references to one and to two!