It is Tuesday today and so probably time for a themed puzzle.
A first glance at the clues shows that 1D is to provide the gateway clue to a theme running through the across clues. 1D revealed itself fairly swiftly to me and after solving a few of the across clues, I realised that the 1D was the definition part of them all and that the entries would all be types of fruit. It must have been quite a feat for Hieroglyph to fill all the across solutions without needing to resort to too many obscure species and without needing abstruse words to fill the down entries – indeed, there were only two words, both for fruit, that perhaps seemed out of place in a daily cryptic: 19 and 21.
My last-one-in today was 19, a word which I was unfamiliar with and which I needed to track down in Chambers. My favourites today were 13, for its smooth surface, and the inter-related clues at 6 and 15. However, this is the kind of crossword where the solver appreciates the puzzle as a whole rather than just a few stand-out clues.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | CRANBERRY | 1D crumble’s topping? Bake Off judge stepped on it earlier
C<rumble> (“topping” means first letter only) + RAN (=stepped on it) + BERRY (=Bake Off judge, i.e. Mary Berry); the definition for all the across clues is FRUIT (=entry at 1D) |
| 08 | LEMON | 1D maiden fed to Trotsky
M (=maiden, in cricket) in LEON (=Trotsky, i.e. Marxist revolutionary) |
| 10 | LIME | 1D‘s peeled – goodness!
<b>LIME<y> (=goodness, as exclamation); “peeled” means first and last letters are dropped |
| 11 | NECTARINE | 1D from Tyneside stuffed in crate
NE (=from Tyneside, i.e. North-East) + *(IN CRATE); “stuffed” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | PEAR | 1D, a prize example, ultimately abandoned
PEAR<l> (=prize example); “ultimately abandoned” means last letter dropped |
| 14 | PEACHES | 1D goes around American church
[A (=American) + CH (=church)] in PEES (=goes, i.e. to toilet) |
| 17 | RHUBARB | 1D in French street, say, served with fancy pigeon
Homophone (“say”) of “rue” (=French street, i.e. the French word for street) + BARB (=fancy pigeon) |
| 19 | SOURSOP | 1D, starter of salad, or soup dished out?
*(S<alad> + OR SOUP); “starter of” means first letter only; “dished out” is anagram indicator; soursop is the sour, pulpy fruit of a West Indian tree |
| 21 | ACEROLA | 1D tree adjacent to oddly neglected tollway
ACER (=tree, i.e. maple) + <t>O<l>L<w>A<y> (“oddly neglected” means odd letters are dropped); acerola, or Barbados cherry, is the common name of malphigia emarginata |
| 22 | UGLI | 1D fly, perhaps? Head off with 10A, having ditched setter
<b>UG (=fly, perhaps; “head off” means first letter dropped) + LI<me> (=entry at 10A; “having ditched setter (=ME, i.e. Hieroglyph)” means letters “me” are dropped) |
| 24 | CRAB APPLE | 1D parcel surprisingly contains breadstuff
BAP (=breadstuff) in *(PARCEL); “surprisingly” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | PLUM | 1D, a considerable quantity Penny served first
LUM-P (=a considerable quantity); “Penny (=P) served first” means that letter “p” is moved to front of word |
| 26 | KIWIS | 1D, some plonk? I wish!
Hidden (“some”) in “plonK I WISh” |
| 27 | PERSIMMON | 1D for a boy taking Hieroglyph’s money
PER (=for a) + [(I’M (=Hieroglyph’s) + M (=money)] in SON (=boy)] |
| Down | ||
| 01 | FRUIT | Produce game, one wrapped in pink paper
[RU (=game, i.e. rugby union) + I (=one)] in FT (=pink paper, i.e. Financial Times); “produce” is a noun in the definition |
| 02 | ONCE | Former conservative embraced by individual
C (=conservative) in ONE (=individual) |
| 03 | TENNER | Note extremely talkative nonagenarian: the Queen?
T<alkativ>E N<onagenaria>N (“extremely” means first and last letters only) + ER (=the Queen) |
| 04 | TRICEPS | College athlete in the end takes drugs outside to get muscles
[C (=college) + <athlet>E (“in the end” means last letter only)] in TRIPS (=takes drugs) |
| 05 | PERIPHERAL | Minor poet’s introduction, arranged earlier, entertaining public house
P<oet> (“introduction” means first letter only) + [PH (=public house) in *(EARLIER)]; “arranged” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | SOLE | 15D minced inside fish
S-LO-E (=entry at 15D); “minced inside” means middle two letters switch places |
| 09 | LAVABO | Hot liquid initially brought out for washstand
LAVA (=hot liquid, from volcano) + B<rought> O<ut> (“initially” means first letters only) |
| 13 | EMBLEMATIC | Symbolic lamb, etc, I roasted after the beginning of Easter Mass
E<aster> (“beginning of” means first letter only) + M (=mass) + *(LAMB ETC I); “roasted” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | SLOE | 1D left over in southern Spain
[L (=left) + O (=over, in cricket)] in [S (=southern) + E (=Spain, IVR)] |
| 16 | RHEA | Grounded South American winger appearing in banner headlines
Hidden (“appearing in”) in “banneR HEAdlines”; the “grounded South American winger” suggests a flightless bird |
| 18 | RIOJAS | Table wines and port? Just a sherry, to begin with
RIO (=port, in Brazil) + J<ust> A S<herry> (“to begin with” means first letters only) |
| 20 | DAPPLES | Spots daughter and son squeezing 1D
APPLE (=fruit, i.e. entry at 1D) in [D (=daughter) + S (=son)] |
| 22 | UNEASY | Timeless air, say, about showing restlessness
<t>UNE (=air; “time (=T)-less” means letter “t” is dropped) + *(SAY); “about” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | OUZOS | In France, where cross leader of sansculottes drinks
OÙ (=in France, where, i.e. the French word for where) + ZO (=cross, i.e. between a yak and a cow) + S<ansculottes> (“leader of” means first letter only) |
| 24 | CHIP | Slice cold 1D
C (=cold) + HIP (=fruit, i.e. entry at 1D, e.g. rosehip) |
| 25 | POMP | Page in support of dog show
POM (=dog, i.e. Pomeranian) + P (=page) |
Very clever to have all of the across clues as fruits. They certainly weren’t all write-ins and I’d never even vaguely heard of 19, which I guessed and 21 which was possible from the wordplay. Mis-parsed a few including PERSIMMON, where I couldn’t get away from SIMON for ‘boy’. Didn’t know ZO (no, I’m not a Scrabble player) or BARB for ‘fancy pigeon’.
Thanks to Hieroglyph and RatkojaRiku.
A hugely enjoyable puzzle from Hieroglyph with yet another great grid-fill. I didn’t know ACEROLA but guessed the correct tree and, like @WordPlodder, learned about BARB. Unlike @WP though, I did know ZO (my daughter infuriates me with it at Scrabble.)
Lovely blog as always RR, many thanks.
Thanks RR. Filled correctly but 19 and 21 were educated guesses. Pity 1d was such a write in. Good fun if too quickly done. Cheers hieroglyph.
Don’t know if it was intentional but ‘crumble’ in the clue to 7ac does rather direct one’s thoughts towards fruit even if the clue for 1dn does make the theme rather obvious. But great fun nevetheless.
Had to check 19 and 21 in the dictionary (Collins – they’re not in my 1998 Chambers), though I did know ZO but had to check it was a cross.
To be pedantic, RHUBARB is not a fruit, but who’s bothered? And going off-topic slightly a tomato is a fruit: cue for the difference between Knowledge and Wisdom – knowledge tells you it’s a fruit, wisdom tells you not to put it in a fruit salad!
Thanks, Hieroglyph and RatkojaRiku.
@Allan_c and others, interesting point, when did a tomato become a fruit when to people at large it clearly isn’t, a strawberry not a berry? who the hell declared these to be the truth when the populace over the millennia said otherwise? To declare such and such is a berry or nut or fruit in clear disregard of the people who called them such in the first place, should surely mean you revise your definitions…
Hmmm. I should have qualified that by adding ‘botanically speaking’. There’s nearly always a difference between common usage and exact terminology – not just in botany but in many fields.
21ac isn’t in the latest Chambers, too, not even their list of missing words. I guessed it but then thought I must be wrong when I couldn’t find it. But Chambers Word Wizard threw it up and I googled it. 19ac is there. I deduced it was an anagram and that was the first combination I tried. Those were the only two to give me trouble.