It’s six months since I blogged a Tramp puzzle and wrote, ‘It’s many months since I blogged a Tramp puzzle and so I was delighted to land this one’. Ditto today.
Delight was replaced by momentary panic when [Nightmare on] Elm Street leaped out at me from several clues but I know Tramp well enough to be reassured that, whatever his theme, lack of knowledge of it need not hinder the solve, although some knowledge will surely enhance the experience, so I thought it was worthwhile doing a little bit of googling and found that Freddy Krueger, who appears three times in the clues, was the villain of the film: he killed people in their dreams [[17dn] with a glove armed with razors [18a]. What I really loved was the clever way that Tramp exploited Elm Street in the wordplay of three more clues – brilliant stuff.
Many thanks to Tramp for an amusing – not so scary after all – and highly enjoyable solve.
Across
1 Binds cuts without pressure (7)
SPLICES
SLICES [cuts] outside P [pressure]
5 This might be Elm Street, if in production (4,3)
FILM SET
Anagram [in production] of ELM ST IF
9 Get home and eat (3,2)
DIG IN
DIG [get – understand] + IN [home]
10 Protection secure, fellow made out (5,4)
CHAIN MAIL
CHAIN [secure] + MAIL [sounds like – made out – male {fellow}]
11 Krueger home detailed unusual killing regime (5,5)
KHMER ROUGE
Anagram [unusual] of KRUEGER HOM[e] [‘detailed’]
12 4 a 5 (4)
PERV
PER [a] + V [five] – reference to 4dn
14 Food complaint section concerned with food sent back (11)
BEEFBURGERS
BEEF [complaint] + a reversal [sent back] of S [section] + RE [concerned with] + GRUB [food]
18 He might take blade to Elm Street, without bounds he operates? (4,7)
TREE SURGEON
[s]TREE[t] [without bounds] + SURGEON [he operates]
21 Bucket to collect going round (4)
TEEM
A reversal [going round] of MEET [collect]: bucket as a verb – what rain does
22 Freddy Krueger’s third? All butchered in an horrific way (10)
DREADFULLY
Anagram [butchered] of FREDDY + krUeger + ALL
25 Sleepy? Old criminal heading for Nightmare on Elm Street houses (9)
SOMNOLENT
ST [street] round [houses] O [old] + an anagram [criminal] of N[ightmare] ON ELM
26 Good person out of bed, male breaks in to confuse (5)
STUMP
ST [saint – good person] + M [male] in UP [out of bed]
27 I must interrupt film ogre’s screams (7)
SHRIEKS
I in SHREK’S [film ogre’s]
28 Relaxes partners after endless sex (7)
SEDATES
SE[x] + DATES [partners – as a noun or verb]
Down
1 Son turns over magazine after daughter’s puzzle (6)
SUDOKU
S [son] + U U [turns] round OK [magazine] after D [daughter] – some people prefer these puzzles to crosswords
2 Pulse on bird rising (6)
LEGUME
LEG [on – in cricket] + a reversal [rising] of EMU [bird]
3 Do catch tailless fish: it sounds deep (10)
CONTRABASS
CON [do – cheat] + TRA[p] [catch – ‘tailless’] + BASS [fish]
4 So knock out American deviant (5)
SICKO
SIC [so] + KO [knock out]
5 Dainty one mostly lost blood after Freddy initially called (9)
FRANGIBLE
F[reddy] RANG + I [one] + BLE[d] [mostly lost blood]
6 Fast learner on specialist ward (4)
LENT
L [learner] + ENT [specialist ward]
7 John Barnes finally up front — English Liverpool player dribbled (8)
SLAVERED
[barne]S + LAV [john] + E [English] + RED [Liverpool player] – John Barnes played for England and Liverpool, which makes this a brilliant clue
8 Supporter’s jeans tucked in and put on show (8)
TELEVISE
LEVIS [jeans] tucked into TEE [supporter] – lovely!
13 Turning red fast, sun permeated (10)
TRANSFUSED
Anagram [turning] of RED FAST SUN
15 Right panic, time to go and save (9)
ERRORLESS
[t]ERROR [panic minus t – time] + LESS [save = except]
16 Ranks second in figures (8)
STATUSES
S [second] in STATUES [figures]
17 Sign of dreaming? Short deep cuts show for sin deliverer (8)
REDEEMER
DEE[p] in [cuts] REM [rapid eye movement – sign of dreaming] + ER [TV show]
19 Sport paper featuring foreign articles (6)
FLAUNT
FT [Financial Times – paper] round LA and UN [foreign articles]
20 American city street rates for voluptuous young women (6)
NYMPHS
NY [American city] + MPHS [street rates]
23 One closed American borders for cars (5)
AUTOS
A [one] + US [American] round [borders] TO [closed – as of a door]
24 Set off on bloodshed (4)
GORE
Go [set off] + RE [on]
brilliant the way 25a encapsulate the theme and the film. Thanks Tramp and Eileen for the blog.
I enjoyed this but needed your help in parsing 12a and 7d. Many thanks!
I’m with Eileen on this. My initial misgivings quickly gave way to admiration for the way the theme, about which I knew nothing, was skilfully worked into the puzzle as a whole. Too many really good clues to list, but liked 4, 5 & 6d particularly.
Thank you Tramp & Eileen.
15d: others may, like me, have written in ERRORFREE, since free = save when taken as a verb – even though the word might strictly have needed clueing as 5-4 rather than 9. But then the brilliant SOMNOLENT (cf @1 pex) caused a rethink.
One great bonus of the recent discovery of fifteensquared is being alerted more sharply to the authorial personalities of the setters. Many thanks to Eileen for doing this so well, and to Tramp for this fresh ‘crossword d’auteur’.
What Eileen said in her introduction and June in comment 3
Thanks to Tramp and Eileen from me too
Thank you, Eileen, I enjoyed this, too.
With another compiler, I would have groaned at the English football player reference at 7d, but knew I’d be able to derive it with this chap.
Far too many cracking clues to enumerate but I’ll just single out PERV, SOMNOLENT, & TREE SURGEON as favourites.
Took some time to equate ‘meet’ with ‘collect’, but I suppose, “I’ll meet/collect you at the bus stop” is good enough.
Held up at SEDATES trying to find the usual bridge partners instead of ‘dates’.
Smashing stuff, many thanks, Tramp.
Nice week, all.
Hi William @6 – I looked a bit sideways at meet = collect at first, thinking of one as transitive and the other intransitive but the first definition of collect in Collins is ‘to gather together or be gathered together’, so it works for me.
Great puzzle-John barnes clue particularly memorable.Thanks for blog too.
Thanks Tramp and Eileen
About half way through I wasn’t enjoying this much – obvious anagrams (FILM SET and KHMER ROUGE for example), unnecessarily complicated constructions (e.g. DREADFULLY) and meaningless surfaces (e.g. 2d), but it was then redeemed by some great clues; I particularly liked PERV, TREE SURGEON, FRANGIBLE and TELEVISE.
I didn’t parse SUDOKU or the ER part of REDEEMER.
STATUSES is an ugly word. I wasn’t convinced by MEET = “collect” either. I don’t think “street” is needed in 20d.
Thanks Tramp – great crossword – and Eileen for her usual precise blog, although I still don’t really get MPHS = ‘street rates?’ I assume these are the speeds but I don’t see the ‘street.’
I echo a lot of the comments above; I did know of Freddy Kreuger, although I’m pleased to say I’ve never watched the film.
As usual, ‘an horrific way’ (like ‘an historical novel’) rattled my cage. We’ll all be saying ‘an horse’ next!..
And, yes, I know this is popular usage – I tend to smile at the newsreaders tripping over this silly pronunciation.
P.S. I meant to say how much I enjoyed the John Barnes clue.
Flawless. Can’t say I agree with any of the criticisms made so far, not that there are that many.
Such a great puzzle. 7d just brilliant.
Many thanks to Tramp&Eileen
Thank you Tramp and Eileen.
I have never seen a horror film (unless The Birds counts?), so blissfully went through this – I tried to google, but fortunately the internet connection was out (it has just come on again).
When I got to 18d, there was a terrible noise from the field and looking out of the window I saw a TREE SURGEON starting to cut the sides of the boundary trees.
After reading the blog and comments, and googling, I can see that the clues for KHMER ROUGE, DREADFULLY, TREE SURGEON and SOMNOLENT were brilliant.
Robi @10, I, too, was going to complain about “an horrific way”, but remembered that a few years back we had gone into this and found that the stressed syllable could determine the use of ‘a’ or ‘an’, for instance, one might say “a history lesson”, but “an historical novel” – here Tramp was perhaps saying “an horrific way”, don’t think you need to worry about the horse.
I may have struggled more than many, especially in the SW corner, where STATUSES in particular had to be drawn out letter by letter and then TEEM could go in. I was aware of the film and Freddy Krueger, but not the killing-within-dreams, which might have speeded up SOMNOLENT.
Elsewhere I was much more confident though, and as well as the ingenious SLAVERED thought TREE SURGEON was a pretty good clue.
[Whooppee, I’ve just got 1x?=1 to prove I’m not a robot]
@Cookie
Perhaps I am something of a “wuss”, but from where I sat (behind the settee, mostly), The Birds was most definitely a horror film
As everyone else has said – great puzzle! It took me quite a long time, but it was worth it. Couldn’t parse AUTOS (thanks Eileen) and got stuck on TEEM and strangely BEEFBURGERS despite having most of the crossers. Many thanks to Tramp and Eileen.
baerchen @17, thanks, cannot remember the last time I went to the cinema, or watched the television for that matter…
Many thanks, Eileen, for the super blog and thanks to others for their comments.
I wrote this puzzle in October 2013. There are a few things I probably wouldn’t do now. For the record, I have never seen A Nightmare on Elm Street, although I did catch about five minutes of one of the sequels (it could have been the fourth in the series) before I managed to turn over. I think that’s what inspired the theme. I like writing puzzles based on themes of which I know very little.
As an Evertonian, 7 down was a struggle.
Neil
I did enjoy this challenge. I was able to complete the puzzle, though I was unable to parse a couple, so thanks. 18 was my favourite.
There’s a typo in your answer to 12A – it refers to 4D, not 5.
Can someone explain how ‘per’ means ‘a’ in 12A?
thanks
Tramp @20 Thanks for dropping in, Neil, lovely puzzle as I said earlier. Care to say more on the things you probably wouldn’t do now?
Eileen @7 Ah – didn’t think of that. As in, “let’s meet/collect at the station”. Thanks.
Found this pretty tricky though some of them should have been obvious much earlier, so i might just have been having an off day. SLAVERED is brilliant. ERRORLESS last in.
Thanks to Tramp and Eileen
bobloblaw @22
“It costs £10 per day” is the same as “it costs £10 a day”.
Along with Robi @10, I’m another puzzled by “street rates”.
MPHS would also apply to lanes, roads, motorways etc.
Perhaps a typo for speed rates?
Clever puzzle.
In 20, I read the whole phrase “American city street rates” as synonymous with NY MPHs rather than splitting it into two, in order to justify “street”.
I also wondered about meet/collect but the comments cleared that up nicely.
Re 1d, some of us like both 😉
Thanks, Tramp and Eileen
A great puzzle and blog and interesting to hear from Tramp too. We have never seen Nightmare on Elm Street either, but quickly realised that was not an obstacle to enjoying the crossword.
Thanks to Tramp and Eileen – and I’m another who likes both crosswords and Sudoku. I could not parse AUTOS and took a while before getting the “tree” in TREE SURGEON, but much enjoyed the process.
NY is the official designation of the state of New York, not the city.
Great puzzle which we thoroughly enjoyed. Last one in was teem as we couldn’t figure the collect = meet. But it all makes sense now. Thanks to everyone.
Rompiballe @30, this came up in Paul’s puzzle 27,115, Feb 8, and mrpenney, who lives in Chicago, commented @26
“As for NY for New York City (as opposed to State): that too is very common. Ever seen a Yankees cap? How about an I (heart) NY T-shirt? And both definitely mean the city: the I heart NY types are not talking about Niagara Falls, you know, and folks from Buffalo would hotly dispute that the New York Giants, at least, represent them. In short–in this country, anyway, which is the only country that matters in this case, since it’s our city–the C in NYC seems fully optional.”
Fabulous crossword. Too many super clues to mention. Just one complaint while the John Barnes clue was so clever it doesn’t go down well with an Everton season ticket holder and John Barnes always scored against us however you are forgiven Tramp as it was so clever. Many thanks to you and of course Eileen.
Everyone clearly adored this so I won’t rock the happy boat. But I just don’t enjoy clues like 17 which are, frankly, gibberish. Love and peace. And Lincoln for the cup!
Thanks both. A super puzzle. Is it just me, but I think of nymphs being somewhat elf-like and on the slim side rather than voluptuous.
I liked this,too and found it a nice gentle solve. I particularly enjoyed PERV and TEEM which was my LOI. I think I saw the first “Elm Street”but I can’t really remember much about it. As for “The Birds”,I have a phobia about our feathered friends so I found the film absolutely terrifying!
Finally, I loved SLAVERED and, as the only Liverpudlian who hates football (probably), I was glad to get it so easily!
Thanks Tramp.
Very entertaining puzzle – great exploitation of a theme.
@33 ezzie…
Re-read the last sentence of Tramp’s post @20!
Peter Aspinwall @ 36, I am so sorry to have mentioned The Birds, but there are many instances of birds really helping people, for instance, in Amazonia, parrots often look after the safety of young children while there parents are occupied.
Apologies, tired at this hour, that should read “their parents”…
Great puzzle and blog thanks both!!
Cookie @ 39: we lived in the Amazon for a few years (Rio Branco and Belem) and the parrots (araras) were magnificent. But I never heard any of my Brazilian friends claim to have delegated childcare to them. Am I missing something? Or was your tongue in your cheek!!
John Carney @21
Thanks for that – a careless error, corrected now. [I’ve been out for most of the day.]
S.Panza @41, no, I am quoting from personal letters from W .D. Hamilton.
I loved every minute of this Tramp puzzle, the blog by Eileen and all the comments. Lots of smiles and “Aha” moments. I remain very forgiving of any minor niggles when there is so much clever stuff going on in the clues and solutions. (This came after a panic moment when I saw the theme, which made my eyes glaze over and made me think I mightn’t even attempt this one.)
It’s all been said really and I’m posting very late, but despite the quibbles others have expressed over “street” in 20d, I thought this was another mild allusion to the Nightmare on Elm STREET theme.
Many thanks to all.
PS Thanks to a previous puzzle fail I actually knew about the Liverpool REDs this time, so I was able parse the delightful 7d, SLAVERED. Always grateful for the fifteensquared site.
[S.Panza, perhaps this obituary from Richard Dawkins is more relevant, incidentally Bill fostered two children from a family where they had had such “supervision” from a parrot.]
Cookie. All very interesting, I can certainly attest to the fact that “the ferocity of Piranha fish is over-rated”. On my next visit to Acre I shall take this up with my friends at EMBRAPA!! What an interesting place is crosswordland!!
[S Panza, I believe the parrots act like Border Collies, they will not let the children wander, Bill remembered taking his foster children to Regents Park Zoo, the elder child, a girl, burst into tears when she saw the parrots.]
Cookie, I wonder, was she afraid of being herded or just nostalgic for the floresta?
Loved it all too. Just stuck on parsing ‘autos’. Thanks Eileen. Too many favourites to mention. So many smiling ‘ah’ moments from clever misdirection. Spent ages trying to think of a food allergy before getting beefburger and a synonym for ‘panic or save when it was simply ‘right’ etc etc
Have to ask Martin D what is ‘gibberish’ about 17?
Phyllida @51. You don’t find ” Short deep cuts show for sin deliverer” to be virtually meaningless? Yes, I know it’s cryptic but for my taste good clues have smoother, wittier surfaces than that. De gustibus, however…..
Coming in late so Tramp (@20) may not see this.
I’m with the same side of the Park as you. Can we have a ‘blue’ theme someday?
MartinD: I did say this puzzle is old and that there are a few things I wouldn’t do now. I don’t like the clues for NYMPHS or REDEEMER. I don’t think the clue for the latter is complete gibberish though. I was trying to paint a picture in the surface of Freddie (the sin deliverer) seeing deep cuts when his victims are dreaming. It’s not brilliant but it’s ok. I dislike comments on blogs that characterise a whole puzzle/setter by one or two perceived flaws. There are some decent surfaces in this puzzle.
pex: maybe, one day. A whole puzzle though would upset too many people, I feel.
Neil
@Tramp – I’ve been on the move a lot of late and off-line for much of the time.
Herewith my belated thanks for a terrific puzzle: TREE SURGEON, SOMNOLENT & Johnny Barnes are `keepers’ and the entire solve gave a great deal of pleasure – and respite from `a turning world`.
@Eileen: I relish your ‘classes’ and try never to miss one. Many thanks.
(I’ve never seen the movie either – worra clever setter…)