Straightforward fare from Dogberry
This is one of those puzzles that takes longer to blog about than to solve.
A couple of rare words (14 and 17) weren’t difficult to work put from wordplay and crossing letters, and there were a few chestnuts in here as well (I don’t keep a count of how many times clues come up, but I’m sure beery hiker could confirm that the clue at 1dn has been used multiple times, for example).
After yesterday’s debate on this site about INSET in the Guardian, I’d be interested in people’s views about 3dn, as I think the “out” in the clue is doing double duty.
My favourite clue was 13, with an honourable mention for 16.
Thanks, Dogberry.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LOCUST | Clouts cast by insect (6) |
| *(clouts) | ||
| 4 | SPLASH | Cut around page featuring prominent headline (6) |
| SLASH “around” P(age) | ||
| 8 | BARMAID | Froth of liquor giving succour to one who serves it (7) |
| BARM (a yeasty froth on some alcoholic drinks) + AID (succour) | ||
| 9 | ORCHARD | Where to grow fruit or vegetable (7) |
| OR + CHARD (vegetable) | ||
| 11 | DEPRECIATE | Speak ill of one taken in by decrease in value (10) |
| DEPRECATE (speak ill off) with 1 “taken in” | ||
| 12 | ITEM | Couple I bumped into on the way back (4) |
| I + <=MET (bumped into) | ||
| 13 | DRAMA | Play with a tot first (5) |
| DRAM + A | ||
| 14 | ENCOMIUM | Plaudit for commune I reformed (8) |
| *(commune i) | ||
| 16 | AMETHYST | Drug being injected, stay Rolling Stone (of sorts) (8) |
| METH (drug) “injected” into *(stay) | ||
| 18 | ROBIN | Endlessly dressing bird (5) |
| ROBIN(g) | ||
| 20 | SCAR | Relic of damage to cliff (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | CONSULTANT | Advisor finding new ruler in bed (10) |
| N(ew) SULTAN (ruler) “in” COT (bed) | ||
| 23 | BATHTUB | Be in centre, keeping time – be in hot water here? (7) |
| BAT (be in, think cricket) + HUB (centre) “keeping” T(ime) | ||
| 24 | HERETIC | Dissenter causing present convulsion (7) |
| HERE (present) + TIC (convulsion) | ||
| 25 | YONDER | Left number – unspecified number – back over there (6) |
| <=RED No. Y, where RED = “left” (think politics), and Y is an unspecified number | ||
| 26 | STINGY | Mean fish sun-god’s eradicated (6) |
| STING(Ra)Y Ra was a sun-god of the ancient Egyptians. |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LEAVE | Permission to quit (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | CUMBRIA | Cold part of Italy – or of England? (7) |
| C(old) + UMBRIA (part of Italy) | ||
| 3 | STIR CRAZY | Desperate to get out of ritzy cars (4,5) |
| *(ritzy cars)
There is no satisfactory anagram indicator here. It can’t be “out” or “out of” as the “out” is a necessary part of the definition, so would be doing double dutry, and I don’t think “of” is enough in itself to indicate an anagram. |
||
| 5 | PURGE | Eradicate source of pruritis (itch) (5) |
| P(ruritis) + URGE (itch) | ||
| 6 | ATHEISM | One in Thames struggling with unbelief (7) |
| 1 in *(thames) | ||
| 7 | HARLEQUIN | Clown Prince unbounded, one of five (9) |
| (c)HARLE(s) (prince, “unbounded”) + QUIN (one of five) | ||
| 10 | VALENTINE | Sweetheart, conceited, holds fast to sweetheart (9) |
| VAIN (conceited) “holds” LENT (fast), then (sw)E(et) (the heart of “sweet”, so sweetheart) | ||
| 13 | DEMOCRACY | Incomplete farce maybe turned titillating – it gives people what they asked for! (9) |
| <=COMED(y) (“incomplete” farce) + RACY (titillating) | ||
| 15 | CORPULENT | About to get rich without initially running to fat (9) |
| C(irca) (about) + OPULENT “without” (ie outside) R(unning), so C O(R)PULENT | ||
| 17 | TORCHON | Flashlight illuminating dishcloth? (7) |
| TORCH ON (flashlight illuminating)
Torchon is an old word for a duster or dishcloth. |
||
| 19 | BITTERN | Bird giving name to beer (7) |
| BITTER (beer) + N(ame) | ||
| 21 | CRUDE | Waste matter and energy, lacking refinement (5) |
| CRUD (waste matter) + E(nergy) | ||
| 22 | NOISY | Loud part of casino is yours (5) |
| Hidden in “casiNO IS Yours” | ||
*anagram
Thanks Dogberry and loonapick.
Well, for me, it was all straightforward … until I hit the SW corner. 16 and 23 in particular were fine clues but more difficult and complicated than any of the others I thought.
The definition in 3 down could be ‘Desperate to get’ as Chambers gives ‘to clear out’
(inf; orig US) for ‘get’. This would be fair enough I think: STIR-CRAZY is a North American expression anyway.
Thanks Dogberry and loonapick.
I think you can justify 3dn in either of two ways, using Chambers 2008. One way is that the definition given for stir-crazy is “unbalanced from confinement, esp in prison”, in which case “Desperate” is a sufficient definition, and all of “to get out of” can be the anagram lead. Alternatively, the way I prefer is to use the fact that the definitions of of include “proceeding or derived from; made from, having for material”, which should be enough to allow “of” as a valid anagram lead on its own.
Thanks loonapick and Dogberry.
Another of my favorite setters …
Lots to like here..
17d is new to me .
Favs:
CORPULENT BARMAID in BATHTUB as VALENTINE 🙂
Thanks Dogberry and loonapick
The clock said fast … the mind thought “I had to work though!” A nice entertaining puzzle.
It drew the error at 23a where I entered WASHTUB and played off the tenses with ‘be’ and WAS. The BAT for ‘be in’ is very clever. Didn’t end up parsing the first part of CORPULENT properly either.
Like mike04@1, I ended up in the SW corner with YONDER, TORCHON and the faulty WASHTUB as the last few in.