| No. |
Clue ✓[✗] |
X |
Answer |
Wordplay |
| Across |
| 1 |
College fertiliser’s ending Oxford’s flower emergency (6) |
|
CRISIS |
C(ollege) (fertilise)R ISIS (the River Thames in Oxford) |
| 6 |
Money from Faraday Society can run out (6) |
|
FRANCS |
[F(araday) S(ociety) CAN R(un)]* |
| 12 |
Chef wanting case of Orvieto after house wine (4) |
|
HOCK |
COOL (chef) ¬ O(rviet)O after HO(use) |
| 13 |
Cry with parting Scottish grandchild, somewhat sickly-looking (7) |
|
YELLOWY |
YELL (cry) W(ith) in OY (grandchild, Scot) |
| 14 |
Note, chapter missing from Semantics about irony (7) |
|
ASTEISM |
[SEMANTICS ¬ N(ote) ¬ C(hapter)]* |
| 15 |
{Change} before star comes back for opening (4) |
change |
ANUS |
A (ante, before) SUN< (star) |
| 17 |
Athletic support protects when relaxing (6, 2 words) |
|
AT EASE |
A(thletic) TEE (support) around AS (when) |
| 18 |
Worms from fish consumed by disease (8) |
|
ASCARIDS |
SCAR (fish) in AIDS (disease) |
| 22 |
Leading four of Secret {Seven} compromised spy’s chief plant (5) |
seven |
CRESS |
[SECR(et) S(py)]* |
| 25 |
Viscount’s subordinate reportedly having no issue (6) |
|
BARREN |
homophone of BARON (viscount’s subordinate) |
| 26 |
Along with revolutionary tirade, {throw} over Horace’s castle (7) |
throw |
OTRANTO |
TO< (along with) RANT (tirade) O(ver)
{ref.: H.Walpole, 1717-97} |
| 29 |
Voucher to return portion in transactions (7) |
|
RECEIPT |
PIECE (portion) TR(ansactions) all< |
| 31 |
Mbappe’s soul of French, bagging national penalty in Paris (6) |
|
AMENDE |
ÂME (soul, Fr) DE (of, Fr) around N(national) |
| 32 |
In retrospect essentially edits {out} urbane poet’s sudden expression of feeling (5) |
out |
BRUST |
(edi)TS URB(ane) all< |
| 33 |
Worthy Elizabethan astronomer going around to assemble special backing (8) |
|
ESTEEMED |
DEE (Elizabethan astronomer, John D. 1527–1608/9) around MEET (assemble) S(pecial) all< |
| 37 |
Amateur alto confused about number lacking any reference to scale (6) |
|
ATONAL |
A(mateur) [ALTO]* around N(umber) |
| 41 |
Starts to dig, adding loam, elevating low ground (4) |
|
DALE |
D(ig) A(dding) L(oam) E(levating) |
| 42 |
Strong gale buffeting northern resort (7) |
|
SNORTER |
[N(orthern) RESORT]* |
| 43 |
Source of {crime}: crude smear – base lines about women (7, 2 words) |
crime |
OIL WELL |
OIL (smear) E (base) LL (lines) around W(omen) |
| 44 |
Good {Lord}, darling! Daughter’s taken off dress! (4) |
lord |
GEAR |
G(ood) DEAR (darling) ¬ D(aughter) |
| 45 |
Stun grenade’s defective, lacking gross force internally (6) |
|
DEAFEN |
[GRENADE]* ¬ GR(oss) around F(orce) |
| 46 |
Bones endlessly restore genetic information (6) |
|
STERNA |
STE(t) (restore) RNA (genetic information) |
| Down |
| 1 |
Algae found in Loch Arail (5) |
|
CHARA |
(Lo)CH ARA(il) |
| 2 |
Flower genus, yellow, climbing over tops of s[y]our azaleas (4) |
S |
ROSA |
OR< (yellow) S(our) A(zaleas) |
| 3 |
T[S]witch, relegating leader in charge of sudden attack (5) |
T |
ICTIC |
TIC (twitch) with first letter later I/C (in charge) |
| 4 |
Swellings at centre of anginal acr[h]e (4) |
R |
INIA |
IN (at) (ang)I(nal) A(cre) |
| 5 |
Yeats succeeded in rewriting, having no yen for old verse form (7) |
|
SESTINA |
[YEATS S(ucceeded) IN]* ¬ Y(en) |
| 7 |
Reassign pa[o]rts; cases taken by river estuary (6) |
A |
RECAST |
CA(ses) in R(iver) EST(uary) |
| 8 |
Charity’s money cutting motor neuron disease? (4) |
|
ALMS |
M(oney) in ALS (motor neuron disease) |
| 9 |
Sisters’ body to study with vers[v]e, supported by hospital department (7) |
S |
CONVENT |
CON (study) V(erse) ENT (hospital department) |
| 10 |
Travelled by water once, wes[n]t into bottomless reservoir (4) |
S |
SWUM |
W(est) in SUM(p) (reservoir) |
| 11 |
Tolerable medium found in alkaline solution for digesting particle (8) |
|
LYSOSOME |
SO-SO (tolerable) M(edium) in LYE (alkaline solution) |
| 16 |
Rod above ends of mirror assemble[y] creates balancing rails (6) |
E |
BARRES |
BAR (rod) (mirro)R (assembl)E (create)S |
| 19 |
Person raising sunken ship loses lir[f]e preserver (5) |
R |
SAVER |
SALVER (person raising sunken ship) ¬ L(ire) |
| 20 |
Freshened engraving plate bringing up river (5) |
|
REBIT |
TIBER< (river) |
| 21 |
Ch[r]umps exhaust officers (5) |
H |
DOLTS |
DO (exhaust) LTS (lieutenants, officers) |
| 22 |
Fra[e]ud, for one, turned out – sacrificing afternoon for society promoting science (5) |
A |
CRIME |
CAME (turned out) with A(fternoon) replaced by RI (society promoting science) |
| 23 |
Indian princesses hurried, ris[l]ing escort (6) |
S |
RANEES |
RAN (hurried) SEE< (escort) |
| 24 |
B[G]low Up dates for Wembley? (5) |
B |
STADE |
[DATES]* |
| 25 |
Caribbean island’s be[o]ard having difficulties (8) |
E |
BARBADOS |
BARB (beard) ADOS (difficulties) |
| 27 |
Remove edges of rounded mass under e[c]ast copper bowl (7) |
E |
ÉCUELLE |
(p)ELLE(t) (rounded mass) after E(ast) CU (copper) |
| 28 |
Japanese title to a knight overturning samurai swords (7) |
|
KATANAS |
SAN (Japanese title) AT (to) A K(night) all< |
| 30 |
N[R]ation work occupying star footballer (6) |
N |
PEOPLE |
OP (work) in PELÉ (star footballer) |
| 34 |
Mas[t]ter periodically parts ear membrane (5) |
S |
MATER |
M(aster) (p)A(r)T(s) E(a)R |
| 35 |
Dutch artists collecting take for Millet (5) |
|
DURRA |
DU(tch) RA (artists) around R (recipe, take) |
| 36 |
King to help African chief (4) |
|
KAID |
K(ing) AID (help) |
| 38 |
Off-centre flume h[r]iding forbidden (4) |
H |
TREF |
(off-cen)TRE F(lume) |
| 39 |
TO[A]SS to record name of unfinished newspaper (4) |
O |
LOFT |
LO(g) (record name of) FT (newspaper) |
| 40 |
Persuade party to leave – not fat[r] (4) |
T |
LEAN |
LEAD ON (persuade) ¬ DO (party) |
| :: |
I was struggling a bit with the correct letters in the down clues, missing a few here & there, but was confident that the quotation started STRASSE. I checked in the index of my copy of the ODQ but there was no entry starting STRASSE. So I googled HOCKNEY MCMANUS and was led immediately to The Usual Suspects, a 1995 crime thriller film which I remember fondly. And now checking the ODQ for the The Usual Suspects the full quotation was revealed as Major STRASSER HAS BEEN SHOT … round up the usual suspects, a line very near the end of Casablanca.
I know Casablanca well, and once “has been shot” started to emerge I could place the quote. However I don’t know The Usual Suspects, and had to research it. This told me that Verbal Klint is revealed at the end to be Keyser Soze, so I had few doubts about where all this was going. On the other hand I was flummoxed by the apparent instruction to change seven letters, since I could see I had to change nine; the idea of the seventh row never occurred to me (and I don’t think it’s needed). But that is a minor quibble: I found the puzzle hard but not too hard, and admired the nine new words created by the changes. Many thanks to Yimin and HolyGhost.
Much enjoyed — thanks from me too to Yimin and HolyGhost. I has no problem with the Casablanca line but was only dimly aware of the 1995 film. However, the names HOCKNEY, MCMANUS and FENSTER leapt out from the grid and Google/Wikipedia revealed all, including the final transformation. Particularly liked RANEES becoming RAZEES.
This was a very enjoyable challenge, especially as The Usual Suspects is a favourite of mine. I picked up on Verbal Kint fairly quickly, but tracing the link to the White House took a bit more effort. It all became clear in the end, as it did to Agent Kujan in the film. Thanks to our new setter for an engaging puzzle and some new vocabulary – and to HG for a concise blog.
I took the conventional route – Casablanca quote (I searched ‘Stassen has been shot’); The Usual Suspects: Kevin Spacey film. I couldn’t see past “Change Seven”, and could only assume we were throwing out Verbal Kint, which didn’t feel quite right. My bad. Fun puzzle, thanks to Yimin and HolyGhost
I did wonder why the preamble referred to “their letters” rather than “the words”, until I realised the SEVEN-THROW trick which I thought was neat.
And I assumed White House referred to Casablanca, but it didn’t help in the slightest – I had no idea the two films were related.
A nice puzzle overall and a fun reminder of a good film so thank you!
We had the correct grid at the end but we were somewhat perplexed by the nine changes not seven. Cannot believe how we missed that.
Also we wondered about the title despite reading about the link to Casablanca.
Thanks to HolyGhost for sorting everything out.
Welcome to Yimin too for their debut puzzle. Looking forward to the next one.
I really enjoyed this puzzle as it referenced not one but two of my favourite films. From the title (a helpful title) I got Casablanca which led to the quote (as someone once said: “Casablanca is a really good film. But it is full of quotations”) and then to The Usual Suspects. Impressed that the setter was able to hide all the characters; and particularly impressed by the use of “anus” to form part of McManus.
Lots of thanks to Yimin and HolyGhost.
A very enjoyable puzzle with good clues that were hard but not too hard. The endgame was neat. I failed at the final hurdle, however, as I interpreted the Crime Lord as being FERRARI from Casablanca – I thus deleted 7 consecutive letters spelling this name from the grid.
Thanks to setter and blogger for all the good work.