Crosophile is a regular contributor to the Independent crossword series
There was quite a lot of TURNing and TABLEs in this puzzle – grid and clues – but I can’t see how they form a concrete theme.
I’m a solver who likes his word play to construct the solution from a variety of component parts rather than having to deduce the entry from cryptic definitions and imprecise allusions. I find the cryptic definition clue quite difficult to parse in a satisfactory way. Perhaps it just me but I thought there were quite a few of the latter clue types today leading to TURNED THE TABLES and EASY CHAIR in particular. The solutions to these clues are usually quite obvious so I shouldn’t complain.
Examples of the clues I prefer include those for BATH TUBS, BOADICEA and OCCASIONAL Crosswords though should have a wide range of clue types and Crosophile delivered on that score today.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Steamboat Bill’s last changes to thin-sliced food (5,5)
|
Anagram of (changes) STEAMBOAT and L (final letter of [last] BILL]) MELBA TOAST* |
MELBA TOAST (very thin crisp TOAST; thin-sliced food)
|
|
7
|
This roll on table might be turning potentially (4)
|
ROTA (If you place ROTA on TABLE you get the word ROTATABLE [with the potential to turn])
|
ROTA (roster; roll)
|
|
9
|
Text says you certainly are a man of great interest (6)
|
U [sounds like [says] YOU) + SURE (certainly) + R (the letter R is pronounced as [says] the word ARE) – putting the whole thing together the various components of USURER can be said as ‘you sure are’
|
USURER (moneylender charging very high interest rates; a man of great interest)
|
|
10
|
They follow streaming songs, both loud and soft included (8)
|
(F [forte; loud] + LOW [soft]) contained in (included) AIRS (songs) AIR (F LOW) S |
AIRFLOWS (FLOWs of air past a moving vehicle or in a wind tunnel; reference AIRSTREAMS which are FLOWs of AIR)
|
|
11
|
Can cast set round broken radii? It’s not a 21Dn fall (4,4)
|
Anagram of (cast) CAN containing (set round) an anagram of (broken) RADII AC (ID RAI*) N* |
ACID RAIN (rain or other forms of precipitation containing sulphur and nitrogen compounds and other pollutants released by the combustion of fossil fuels in industrial processes; a complex form of rain, something other than BASIC [entry at 21 down] rain)
|
|
12
|
Temperature finally touches 90 – the Spanish sun shines (6)
|
E (last letter of [finally] TEMPERATURE) + XC (Roman numerals for 90) + EL (Spanish form of ‘the’) + S (sun) E XC EL S |
EXCELS (performs exceptionally; shines)
|
|
13
|
Right place for playing organ with style? (6)
|
Anagram of (playing) R [right] and PLACE CARPEL* |
CARPEL (female organ of a flower, a modified leaf comprising ovary, stigma and style)
|
|
15
|
Crazy about hot water container shortly making comeback – these maybe? (8)
|
BATS (crazy) containing (about) (H [hot] + [BUTT {water container} excluding the last letter {shortly} T, reversed {making comeback}]) BAT (H TUB<) S |
BATH TUBS (examples of container of hot water)
|
|
17
|
With regulation I should be going great guns (8)
|
ORDINANCE (regulation) excluding (should be going) I
|
ORDNANCE (great guns)
|
|
18
|
Substitute fed to tigers at zoo (6)
|
ERSATZ (hidden word in [fed to] TIGERS AT ZOO)
|
ERSATZ (substitute)
|
|
19
|
Irish boy’s coke not satisfactory – where to find some spirits? (6)
|
SEAN (Irish boy’s name) + CE (COKE excluding [not] the letters OK [satisfactory]) SEAN CE |
SEANCE (meeting of psychical researchers or spiritualists for the purpose of trying to contact the spirits of the dead or promote supernatural manifestations of various kinds)
|
|
21
|
Take huge risks with head of army following serpent queen (8)
|
BOA (snake; serpent) + DICE (take great risks) + A (first letter of [head of] ARMY) BOA DICE A |
BOADICEA (reference BOADICEA [33 – 51], queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire)
|
|
23
|
Blur seen in hotel magazines after Margaret leaves with son (8)
|
H (hotel) + (MAGAZINES excluding (after … leaves) MAG [Margaret]) + S [son]) H AZINES S |
HAZINESS (lack of definition; blur) |
|
24
|
Capital of Libya, India, The Road to York, Kent area. Only Connect? (6)
|
LI (first letters of [capitals of] each of LIBYA and INDIA) + AI (A one; road from Edinburgh [or London] to York] + SE (South East; Kent area) LI AI SE |
LIAISE (link with; connect)
|
|
25
|
By end of year Kelvin’s put up holly etc (4)
|
DEC (December, month at the end of the year) + K (Kelvin; unit of thermodynamic temperature) DEC K |
DECK (decorate; put up holly etc at Christmas [December])
|
|
26
|
Company backing electronics firm turned local area network on and off (10)
|
CO (company) reversed (backing) + CASIO (Japanese multinational electronics firm) + (LAN [local area network] reversed [turned]) OC< CASIO NAL< |
OCCASIONAL (every so often ; on and off)
|
| Down | |||
|
2
|
Professional sinecure? (4,5)
|
A CHAIR is a professorship. A sinecure is a cushy or EASY job. Hence an EASY CHAIR would be one where the incumbent professor had to do very little work. – i.e. a professional sinecure.
|
EASY CHAIR (a comfortable arm CHAIR) I can’t see a definition for a comfortable chair. The whole thing just looks like a slightly cryptic definition. Perhaps I’m missing something.
|
|
3
|
Reportedly the management is not interested (5)
|
BORED (sounds like [reportedly] BOARD [reference the Management BOARD, a group of senior staff who run the company])
|
BORED (wearied by tedious things; not interested)
|
|
4
|
Still taken in by Round Table in Barking? Pretend not to notice (4,1,5,3,2)
|
YET (still) contained in (taken in by) an anagram of (barking) ROUND TABLE IN TURN A BLIND E (YE T) O* |
TURN A BLIND EYE TO (pretend not to notice)
|
|
5
|
Leader in Turkey’s elected once more (5)
|
AGA (Turkish commander or chief office; leader) + IN (elected) AGA IN |
AGAIN (once more)
|
|
6
|
What pirate radio DJ did above 25, or medium in 18, 19 made a volte-face (6,3,6)
|
TURNED THE TABLES (a disc jockey of old [most pirate radio stations date back into days of yore] moved THE TURNTABLEs on a record DECK [entry at 25 across])
|
TURNED THE TABLES (SEANCEs [19 across] tend to take place around a TABLE so a substitute or ERSATZ (18 across] SEANCE involving a volte-face [a TURNing around] would result in a TURNing of the TABLES)
|
|
7
|
Tells stories about Old Charlie and moves elsewhere (9)
|
RELATES (tells stories) containing (about) (O [old] + C [cocaine; charlie]) REL (O C) ATES |
RELOCATES (moves elsewhere)
|
|
8
|
Drier‘s by source of water when left out (5)
|
TO (beside; by) + WELL (source of water) excluding (out) L [left] TO WEL |
TOWEL (piece of absorbent cloth or paper for drying the body; drier) |
|
14
|
Drawing in pale red is Echo and head of Narcissus (back to front) (3-3-3)
|
(E [ECHO is the international radio communication codeword for the letter E] + [AND + N {first letter of; head of} NARCISSUS] with the component parts swapped round [back to front] to appear as N + AND]) all contained in (in) PINK (pale red colour) P (E N AND) INK |
PEN-AND-INK (a PEN drawing)
|
| 15 | This worker fellow makes complaint (3) |
BEEF (complaint) can be split into two components BEE (the entry) + F (fellow). The F [fellow] is required by the entry (BEE) to make a complaint (BEEF) |
BEE (busy person; worker) |
|
16
|
Where dogs might get picked up by ears cruelly after getting hit by heartless type (9)
|
BAT (hit) + TE (TYPE omitting the central letters [heartless] YP) + an anagram of (cruelly) EARS BAT TE RSEA* |
BATTERSEA (reference BATTERSEA dogs’ home, well known dog rescue centre where you may be able to acquire a dog in need of tender loving care)
|
|
20
|
Get out of a channel in reverse drive finally (5)
|
DAVE (reference the television channel named DAVE) reversed (in reverse) + E (last letter of [finally] DRIVE) EVAD< E |
EVADE (avoid; get out of)
|
|
21
|
A herb cut about root (5)
|
BASIL (herb) excluding the last letter (cut) L + C (circa; about) BASI C |
BASIC (fundamental; at the root)
|
| 22 | I am adult having to be in working order (a 15Dn say) (5) |
I’M (I am) + A (adult) + GO (operate; be in working order) IM A GO |
IMAGO (last or perfect stage of an insect’s development; a fully grown BEE [15 down] is in that state) I’m not sure if I’ve got their allusion to 15 down and BEE right. |
ACID RAIN is the opposite of BASIC or alkaline rather than complex I suspect.
I think the DECK in 6D must be a reference to the fact that pirate radio stations were generally located on ships off the coast, to avoid law enforcement.
A nice variety of clues with some very clever parsings, a few of which evaded me.
Like sidey @1, I took ACID and BASIC to be on opposite sides of the pH scale, and a satisfying pdm it was too.
Lots of good stuff here, I thought. LOI was 13a the WP of which took ages for me to see; my COD goes to the lovely surfaced and excellent deffed 9a. Many thanks to DS for the blog and Crosophile for an engaging solve.
Got everything except 7ac and 13 ac – I thought 7 might be ROTA but couldn’t see why; similarly I thought of CARPEL for 13 with the definition being ‘organ’ but couldn’t parse it. Also, I confidently entered URGENT for 9ac, parsing it as U R (textspeak) + GENT (certainly a man) thinking something such as a letter of great interest could be called urgent. That of course conflicted with 2,3 and 4dn but they were so obvious that my 9ac was clearly wrong, although it took me a while to get the correct answer.
Lots to like, though, including ERSATZ, BOADICEA (even if historians now call her ‘Boudicca’), LIAISE and EVADE.
Thanks, Crosophile and Duncan
… and there’s another layer to 24ac. ‘Capital’ is singular and just refers to ‘Libya’. ‘India’ still leads to ‘I’, but from the NATO alphabet. And the punctuation is full stops, not commas, so there are four separate items before the last part of the clue, ‘Only Connect?’ with both words capitalised. So the whole thing is a reference to the TV programme Only Connect where in the first round contestants have to find the link between four apparently unrelated clues.
Belated thanks, Duncan, for the blog and thanks too for the comments.
By the way, 2D was Professorial sinecure – hence chair.
There were some turned tables also in the grid itself [mELBA Toast, carpEL BAThtubs and towEL BATtersea]. 🙂