A very enjoyable puzzle to solve and an especially enjoyable one to blog. Thank you Gozo.
The theme today is plants.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PATIENCE | Strong novelist of Bunthorne’s Bride (8) |
Patience Strong perhaps (listed as a poet rather than a novelist in Wikipedia), also Bunthorne’s Bride, alternative title for the G&S operetta Patience – the herb patience dock |
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| 5 | FESCUE | Fine save, knocking away header (6) |
F (fine) and rESCUE (save) missing first letter (away header) |
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| 9 | SNOWDROP | Avalanche? (8) |
cryptic definition |
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| 10 | LOVAGE | Adore silver inset (6) |
LOVE (adore) contains (inset) AG (silver, chem symbol) |
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| 12 | OXEYE | Singular paper and pencil game with tec, a neat looker! (5) |
O and X is singular version of “noughts and crosses” (paper and pencil game) with EYE (tec, detective), also OX (cow, neat) EYE (looker) – the oxeye daisy perhaps |
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| 13 | DOG VIOLET | Please go and fetch old instrument hidden inside (3,6) |
DO GET (please go and fetch) contains (with…hidden inside) VIOL (old instrument) |
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| 14 | STACTE | Film musical setback (6) |
ET (film) and CATS (musical) all reversed (set back) – a herb extract mentioned in The Bible. This word is listed in Chambers but not in the OED. No-one knows for sure what plant stacte came from, but possibly from myrrh, extract of the gum tree |
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| 16 | GENISTA | Gets in a mess (7) |
anagram (mess) of GETS IN A |
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| 19 | TARWEED | Poorly watered (7) |
anagram (poorly) of WATERED |
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| 21 | MALLOW | Everyone has cut out town in Co. Cork (6) |
ALL (everyone) inside (has… out) MOW (cut) – the marshmallow perhaps |
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| 23 | GERMANDER | European with his article (9) |
GERMAN (European) with DER (the, definite article in German) |
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| 25 | ASTER | Reduced to tears, as festival fails to start (5) |
anagram (reduced) of TEARS and also eASTER (festival) missing first letter (fails to start) |
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| 26 | ACACIA | 3A’s cross-country international, initially, rerranged on a cold continent, reportedly (6) |
anagram (rearranged) of AAA (3A) with initial letters of Country International, or A C (cold) ACIA sounds like (reportedly) “Asia” (continent) |
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| 27 | GERANIUM | Good manure spread around 1 (8) |
anagram (spread) of G (good) and MANURE containing I (1) |
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| 28 | ERYNGO | Last of Beatle drummer’s sounds (6) |
beatlE (last letter of) with RYNGO sounds like “Ringo” (Ringo Starr, drummer) |
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| 29 | CLEMATIS | Is after cold meal served on time (8) |
IS following C (cold) with anagram (served) of MEAL on T (time) |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | PASTOR | Clergyman too old to row, we hear (6) |
| PAST (tool old) with OR sounds like “oar” (to row) | ||
| 2 | TWO-SEATER | Company car? (3-6) |
| cryptic definition – two’s company | ||
| 3 | ENDUE | Provide clothing to nude dancing before entertainment begins (5) |
| anagram (dancing) of NUDE following Entertainment (begins, first letter of) – Chambers and OED list endue as providing a quality or ability rather than clothing | ||
| 4 | CROWDIE | Boast of cube of Scottish cheese (7) |
| CROW (boast) and DIE (cube) | ||
| 6 | EMOTIONAL | Fantastic oil, a Monet, arousing feeling (9) |
| anagram (fantastic) of OIL A MONET | ||
| 7 | CRAWL | But it’s the fastest stroke! (5) |
| cryptic definition, implied double definition | ||
| 8 | EVENTUAL | Final net value worked out (8) |
| anagram of NET VALUE | ||
| 11 | AGOG | Bursting, and past caring finally (4) |
| AGO (past) with carinG (final letter of) | ||
| 15 | CREMATING | Corrupt tragic men burning (9) |
| anagram (corrupt) of TRAGIC MEN | ||
| 17 | SHORT LIST | There’s little shopping to do for the final candidates (5,4) |
| cryptic/double definition | ||
| 18 | STAGNATE | Keep still, by the way, and relatively close (8) |
| ST (street, a way) with AGNATE ( a close male relative) | ||
| 20 | DODO | Double act that’s no longer seen (4) |
| DO (act) twice (double) | ||
| 21 | MARVELL | Poet adding extra line in wonder (7) |
| MARVEL (wonder) with additional L (line) | ||
| 22 | TRUMPS | Donald’s superior suit (6) |
| double definition, possibly triple definition | ||
| 24 | READY | Quick sapper at daybreak (5) |
| RE (Royal Engineer, sapper) with anagram (break) of DAY | ||
| 25 | ALARM | Startle some nocturnal armadillos (5) |
| found inside (some of) nocturnAL ARMadillos | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Clever and enjoyable puzzle. I liked the 2-for-the-price-of-1 wordplays in 12 and 25a.
A small point, but I see “on” in 29a is technically wrong, at least in the old tradition of across clues anyway, something I’ve noticed happening more and more. Does that mean the convention is dying out?
Thanks to Gozo, and to PeeDee for the prettiest blog I’ve ever seen!
Hello Michael, out of interest why is “on” considered, or used to be considered, wrong?
There is a convention with at least one newspaper that A on B must mean BA and not AB. When I set for that paper I have to adhere to it — rather reluctantly, I must say, since I do not accept that it is logical. Some papers allow ‘extremely’ to indicate the D and F of DAFT, which as Azed says is not strictly justifiable. Each editor tends to have his own quirks. Such is our language and the way different authorities interpret or misinterpret it!
Love the piccies!
Thanks for the explanation Bradman. Many of these subtleties go over my head.
Bradman @3 – did you mean D and T for extremely daft, or are there yet more subtleties whizzing over my head here?
PeeDee, what Bradman says @3 is what I meant. Hoskins’s guide here http://www.hoskinscrosswords.com/positional-indicators.html confirms it, but doesn’t mention that it may vary according to the publication. I would hazard a guess that Bradman @3 is referring to his puzzles for The Times.
Nice to be reminded of the late Bob Smithies at 1a, by the way.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Really enjoyable puzzle – not too difficult but was a pleasure to do. Took three short sessions to polish off.
Michael@1 – I think that 1a and 26a also both qualify as your ‘2-for-the-price-of-1 wordplays’. The first one in 26a being the anagram of AAA C(ross) C(ountry) I(nternational). It did take a while to work out what the first wordplay meant at 12a.
Thought that the blog was excellent with the pictures both informative and pretty to the eye. I had PATIENCE as an alternative name for impatiens rather than ‘patience dock’ – but both work !!
Didn’t know a few of the plants – FESCUE, TARWEED, STACTE (wondered whether it actually qualified as a plant in its own right or that it was merely a product of a plant) and ERYNGO.
Finished in the SW corner with STAGNATE, ERYNGO and STACTE as the last few in.
Well I reluctantly have to say I didn’t enjoy this one very much. Many of the plants were far too obscure and I was repeatedly making a stab at the wordplay and then googling to find I had uncovered a genus of South American grass….
Downs were nice.
Thanks Gozo for the horticultural lesson which is very unlikely to stick.
Bruce @9, point taken, but it was just those two of the double wordplays that I particularly liked. Like PeeDee, I think “novelist” for Patience Strong at 1a can’t be right, but I guess no one else qualifies. (Patience Worth was a supposed spirit guide to the novelist Pearl Curran, but that makes her even less likely!)
On the convention of “on” in across clues, I’ve since seen in Chambers Crossword Manual under the sample clue for Hatred – Headgear on communist evokes strong dislike – that Bradman himself notes it should be a Down clue only. The rule does seem odd, given that “on” can mean “attached to” – there’s at least one Sunday Times setter who ignores it.