Very tricky – held up by two of the longer ones and then in the top right corner. Favourites 15ac and 24ac. Thanks, Imogen.
| Across | ||
| 1, 26, 20 | HATCHES MATCHES DISPATCHES | Splashing the cash, ties reports in paper columns (7,7,10) |
| =newspaper columns for births, marriages, and deaths (the cash)* gives HATCHES, plus MATCHES=”ties” and DISPATCHES=”reports” |
||
| 5 | POSTBUS | Dual-purpose vehicle needed after boat returns (7) |
| =a bus that transports mail as well as people POST=”after”, plus SUB[marine]=”boat” reversed/”returns” |
||
| 9 | MARMOREAL | Cause further damage to a line of stone (9) |
| =made of marble MAR MORE=”Cause further damage to”; plus A L[ine] |
||
| 10 | CADGE | Bum died in prison (5) |
| =to ask/beg for something D[ied] in CAGE=”prison” |
||
| 11 | DRAW | Raffle that has no winner (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 12 | See 18 | |
| 14 | MONACO | Doctor can back old GP site (6) |
| =site for a Formula One Grand Prix M[edical] O[fficer]=”Doctor”; plus CAN reversed/”back”; plus O[ld] |
||
| 15 | EMAILER | English novelist, who doesn’t use a pen? (7) |
| E[nglish], plus Norman MAILER=”novelist” [wiki] | ||
| 16 | COLOGNE | Officer’s gone mad for alcoholic mixture (7) |
| =as in Eau de Cologne, a mixture of perfume oils and alcohol COL[onel]=”officer”, plus (gone)* |
||
| 18, 12 | TURN UP FOR THE BOOK | Attend literary launch? What a surprise! (4,2,3,3,4) |
| cryptic definition plus straight definition | ||
| 20 | See 1 | |
| 21 | STAG | Animal‘s period of development cut short (4) |
| STAG[e]=”period of development” cut short | ||
| 24 | IN ONE | 1-0 for United (2,3) |
| I=one=1; plus NONE=0 | ||
| 25 | RHODOLITE | Love having settled in American island, a gem (9) |
| =a pink or purple garnet O=”Love”; plus LIT=past tense of light/alight=”settled”; both inside RHODE=”American island” as in the US state of Rhode Island |
||
| 26 | See 1 | |
| 27 | EVEREST | Peak tennis champion overcomes opponents in another game (7) |
| Chris EVERT=”tennis champion” [wiki] around E[ast] and S[outh], “opponents” in games of bridge | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HUMID | Smell one dog’s head that’s damp (5) |
| HUM=slang for an unpleasant “Smell”; plus I=”one”; plus D[og] | ||
| 2 | TORNADO | In two minds over a party is a disaster, naturally (7) |
| TORN=”In two minds”, plus A DO=”a party” | ||
| 3 | HOOP | Housework, something to jump through (4) |
| HO[use] plus OP[us]=”work” | ||
| 4 | STEP ON ONE’S CORNS | Disdains shutting up bad poet — nobody’s upset feelings (4,2,4,5) |
| =to upset someone by going over a sensitive topic SCORNS=”Disdains”, around all of: (poet)* plus NONE’S=”nobody’s” |
||
| 5 | PULL THE OTHER ONE | Procure a person to secure sex? I don’t think so (4,3,5,3) |
| cryptic definition plus straight definition, with the cryptic definition using PULL=to attract a sexual partner | ||
| 6 | SECRETAIRE | Confidence not quite voiced in cabinet (10) |
| =a cabinet folding out to form a writing desk SECRET=”Confidence”, plus AIRE[d]=”not quite voiced” |
||
| 7 | BEDROLL | Speak wittily, as may be needed for the camp (7) |
| BE DROLL=”Speak wittily” | ||
| 8 | SNEAKER | One stealing a shoe (7) |
| double definition | ||
| 13 | BANGLADESH | Bill wears Sikh wedding rings, hard in a Muslim land (10) |
| AD[vert]=”Bill” inside BANGLES=”Sikh wedding rings” [wiki], plus H[ard] | ||
| 16 | CADMIUM | In copper money almost allow a sort of yellow (7) |
| =cadmium yellow, a pigment of cadmium sulphide CU=chemical symbol for “copper” plus M[oney]; both around ADMI[t]=”almost allow” |
||
| 17 | LASH OUT | In city, call to spend extravagantly (4,3) |
| L[os] A[ngeles]=”city”, plus SHOUT=”call” | ||
| 19 | UNTWINE | Disentangle new unit snarled up (7) |
| (new unit)* | ||
| 22 | GHENT | Layer within great city (5) |
| =Belgian city HEN=”Layer” of eggs, inside G[rea]T |
||
| 23 | HOLE | Poor housing contributes to cholera (4) |
| hidden in [c]HOLE[ra] | ||
Re 4: in dictionary writing ‘one’s’ is used to mean the subject’s own, e.g. clap one’s hands, shake one’s head; this would have to be ‘step on sb’s corns’ or similar.
Lovely stuff. Spent a while scratching my head thinking “what can go after HATCHES to make a three-word phrase” until the penny dropped.
Luckily, I have seen CORNS before (rather than TOES) in 4d.
BEDROLL was my favourite.
Thanks, Imogen and manehi.
Thanks for the blog, manehi – some tricky clues, as you say, with a few more straightforward ones to give a toehold.
I think there’s wordplay in 5dn: PULL ONE [procure a person] round [to secure] THE OTHER [sex].
My favourites were MARMOREAL, TURN UP FOR THE BOOK and BANGLADESH.
Thanks to Imogen for an enjoyable challenge.
Thanks Imogen and manehi
If there are edge clues I always try them first, so CADMIUM was my FOI, and I thought “Here we go again – another joyless Imogen puzzle, full of ridiculous surfaces”. I was wrong; I enjoyed the rest of it very much (though I didn’t bother to work out the parsing of 1,26,20). Favourites were TURN UP FOR THE BOOK, IN ONE and BEDROLL.
Oh, I didn’t know “sneak” as “steal”, but it’s in Chambers.
Very tough.
Despite the somewhat nonsensical surface, I really liked 1,26,20a – as a Civil Celebrant, I sometimes answer with this phrase when people ask what I am doing since I retired from teaching. In fact, maybe I should get a new business card????
Other favourites were 14a MONACO, my LOI, where I had been totally baffled by the clever diversionary tactic in pairing “Doctor” and “GP”, and 5d PULL THE OTHER ONE.
I always thought the phrase for 18,12a was TURN UP FOR THE BOOKS (plural), so this one jarred a bit for me.
Thanks Imogen and manehi.
17d – does lash out really mean the same as splash out?
Yes. I had the same reservation about lash out.
Tricky but good fun. I like it when there are more unusual words – RHODOLITE was new to me. LASH OUT is in Oxford Dictionaries. Thanks to Imogen and Manehi.
Comment @7 looks to have been generated by a bot that has lifted the first line of my comment @2 to push some dodgy link. Avoid. 🙁
Chris in France
Thanks for the heads-up. Your observation is correct and the offending comment has now been removed.
All good fun. Liked BEDROLL, MONACO and IN ONE. Many thanks to Imogen and manehi.
Quite a challenging one for those of us who weren’t familiar with HATCHES etc & CORNS. RHODOLITE and MARMOREAL were only distantly familiar. At least there were enough easier ones to get a toehold, and in the end I found this quite enjoyable.
Thanks to Imogen and manehi
The expression in Collins and Chambers is TREAD ON ONE’S CORNS. I also thought the more usual expression is TURN-UP FOR THE BOOKS, although Chambers has both singular and plural versions.
So, I gave up on this one with too many obscurities for me. Thanks to manehi for a good blog.
I suppose it is a bit picky, but the other expression seems to be HATCHES, MATCHES AND DISPATCHES.
Thank you Imogen and manehi.
Wow, yes, that was tricky. TURN UP FOR THE BOOK was new to me and I only faintly remembered PULL THE OTHER ONE after struggling with the clue and crossers.
I did not have a problem with 4d like Flavia did @1, I agree with her comment, but considered the words in the context of someone pleading “Don’t upset feelings”, “Don’t STEP ON ONE’S CORNS”, or the sarcastic converse.
Robi @14, apologies, I did not refresh before posting.
[I meant to say something about GHENT. Locally it is called GANT – when we were on a train from Brussels to Ghent, the destination text changed from Ghent to Gant as we passed through an invisible linguistic border.
John of Gaunt, one of Edward III’s sons, Duke of Lancaster and powerful baron, was so-called as he was born in Ghent.]
“Pull the other one” is an alternative to “pull the other leg” (which I considered too). To “pull ones leg” is to tease, lie etc., so “pull the other leg” implies that the previous statement was a leg-pull too.
CyniCure and Old Tom @ 7 & 8. Lash out and splash out are almost synonymous in this Antipodean’s vocab, as opposed to the other meaning of lash out.
Agree with Eileen’s reading of 5 down. And like Julie and Robi I thought there was more than one book.
Here is a reference from “Green Pastures and Piccadilly” by William Black
“portentously serious Scotchpaan, a little too eager to tread on one’s corns.”
Here STEP ON ONE’S CORNS, or “hurt feelings”, could replace “tread on one’s corns”.
PS, I meant to type “upset feelings”.
My father used to say pull the other leg – it’s got bells on!” I don’t know how prevalent this longer expression is.
PPS, on checking, that should be SCOTCHMAN – I copied and pasted from Google’s archive of the book…
muffin, I don’t think you need to know the meaning of “sneak” as “steal” (I didn’t), as long as you know the meaning of “steal” as “sneak”: to move surrpetitiously: he stole down to the kitchen.
Lovely puzzle. I had “Ewriter” for 15 (which I think works) which held me up for ages.
VinnyD @25
Do you think that’s the meaning of “steal” that Chambers is referring to?
If it is, it could give rise to confusion in the future if “sneak” is used as a synonym for “nick”, as the “it’s in the dictionary” apologists would have the mistaken evidence 🙂
Now I see how 25 fits. Would never have thought of ‘lit’ in that context even though ‘alighted’ went through my to mind.
Thanks to Imogen and manehi. I struggled with POSTBUS (new to me), RHODOLITE, and the “lash” in LASH OUT and finally (after incorporating “scorns”) managed to to get STEP ON ONES CORNS (when “toes” clearly did not fit), but I was mystified by the other phrases (TURN UP FOR THE BOOK, PULL THE OTHER ONE, and especially HATCHES, MATCHES, DISPATCHES). Tough going for me.
muffin @27, the COED gives for
sneak v. 1 intr. & tr (foll. by in, out, past, away etc.) go or convey furtively; slink. 2 tr. colloq steal unobserved; make off with.
steal v. 4 intr. (foll. by in, out, away, up etc.) a move, esp. silently or stealthily (stole out of the room).
Hardest of the week by some way. I’ve never heard of STEP ON ONE’S CORNS, and in eventual desperation wrote in … CARES, even though ‘scares’ is wrong for ‘disdains’.
Tough and perplexing but after a struggle and some inspired guesses we got there. Never heard of Hatches,etc.etc but we’ll remember it forever, now
Thanks to everyone.
I think 5d is PULL (procure) ONE (a person) to secure, i.e., contain, THE OTHER (sex)
notarobot @33 – see comment 3. 😉
I liked most of this- and BEDROLL was lovely,as was GHENT- but I got in a mess with HATCHES etc by putting it in the past tense which wreaked havoc with 4dn. Even when I’d seen my error I still had problems and, like Trailman,I was going to settle for CARES but plumped for CORNS which didn’t look much better! I’ve never heard the expression used I don’t think.
Still, I did better with this than I usually do with Imogen.
Thanks.
Thanks Imogen and manehi.
Ref SNEAK vs STEAL, in cricket batsmen are often said to sneak/steal a run when there’s confusion among the fielders.
You can also say (eg) “I sneaked a sweet from the bag” when you’re stealing it.
This came out eventually, although the long phrase at 1/26/20a surprised me as I have never seen the phrase in that form. I knew ‘hatched, matched and dispatched’, and when I looked up the phrase I found that ‘hatches, matches and dispatches’ is in the Oxford Dictionary. However, I didn’t find Imogen’s version (without the ‘and’) anywhere. (Where did he get it from?)
Pentman @28 has highlighted the possibly dodgy use of ‘lit’ to mean ‘settled’ in 25a RHODOLITE. The past tense of ‘alight’ is ‘alighted’, and I’m pretty sure the shorter form ‘light’ follows the same pattern (‘lighted’). This was the only answer I wasn’t sure of as I haven’t come across RHODOLITE before.
This crossword took rather a long time to finish, as I found myself off the setter’s wavelength, but my only real doubts were the two I have mentioned. Other questions I had have been answered in the blog and comnments.
Thanks to setter, blogger and commenters.
Loved BEDROLL (once it was parsed for me) but otherwise this was far too difficult for my skill level. Stepping on corns and turned up books are both things I’ve never heard of. POSTBUS and LASH OUT (except as in anger) were also new to me. I’ll need the weekend to rest my brain.
Muffin. Ghent is “Gand” in its French version. Brussels is officially bilingual, hence the dual-language announcements on the metro (Arts-Loi Kunst-Wet going one way, the reverse in the other!), but it’s an island in Wallonia (the French part of Belgium starts further south). Some of the road signs are positively confusing. Liege-Luik is OK, Lille-Rijsel and Tournai-Doornik just about OK, but Mons-Bergen is a real showstopper unless you are prepared.
re: 18,12: I could not help thinking of another Tommy Cooper gag (“just like that”), having posted the “It’s not unusual” one only a few days ago.
He said ‘I’m going to chop off the bottom of one of your trouser legs and put it in a library.’
I thought ‘That’s a turn-up for the books.’
More please!
Ouch – that took way longer than I thought it was going to – started well but then absolutely stymied – can’t decide whether I’ve heard of “Hatches…” – once it’s in it feels familiar – similar with “corns” – “rhodonite” was new and have to admit looked for words starting “rhodo…” – I think 10A FOI and 5A last one in – seemed very well constructed because I kept feeling “If I just get this one the rest will fall…” – but the key clues were very challenging…
PS ah it was “rhodolite” – I had convinced myself that “love” gave “on it” – hey ho 🙂
I was OK with “lit” for “settled”, as I remembered this riddle (from “Now we are six”, by Steeleye Span, in fact):
White bird featherless
Flew from paradise
Lit on the castle wall
Along came Lord Landless
Took it up handless
Rode away horseless
To the King’s white hall
@muffin – a Tolkien riddle, originally. Can’t read his prose but I like the rest of his stuff.
dirkybee @44
I don’t remember it from Tolkien (with whom I am fairly familiar) – where does it occur?
(When I searched, the nursery rhyme I found actually had “pitched” rather than “lit”.)
muffin @43, dirkybee @44
Thanks for that lesson in the poetic use (if I may call it that) of ‘lit’ to mean ‘lighted’. I stand corrected [ref. my comment @37).
Since writing my earlier comment I looked up ‘alight’ in Collins and was surprised to find that ‘alighted’ and ‘alit’ are given as alternatives for the past tense of ‘alight’.
Clearly I was caught out today, although I did guess ‘lit’ correctly in RHODOLITE (my last one in).
A bit late coming to the puzzle today, but for what it’s worth, I think the answer to 24a should be “is one”.
1 minus 0 is one. “Is one” could also be “united”.
Thanks Imogen and Manehi.
Once upon a time, I compiled a Book of Riddles
@Muffin – I genuinely do not know how to post appropriately here.
Can we say stuff without linking to another’s thoughts?
I’d be glad to know the posting protocol. Guess I`ll find out…
ACD @29 has stated almost precisely the same experience that I had with this crossword, the only exceptions being that I would add MARMOREAL to the list of answers I struggled with, and that I didn’t struggle with PULL THE OTHER ONE at all. Although that is not a phrase I can recall hearing from any of my fellow Americans, it was used to comic effect in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (look it up!), and I believe it has turned up in other British comedies (movies and/or TV shows) that are popular here.
Check my last remark: I should have stated “… other British comedies [etc.] that are AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING here.” The outcome of our last presidential election made it clear to me that I am not skilled at predicting what appeals to many of my fellow Americans.
Given the fearsome complexity of Belgian nomenclature it is not surprising that Muffin @18 and Keith @39 have not got things quite right. The official (Flemish) name for the city is GENT. GAND is the French language name. GHENT is the English name. A lovely city which deserves to be better known by we Brits.
As Keith says, the insistence on using the correct language on roadsigns depending on the official language of the piece of land you are on ( Flemish, French, or – in Brussels and a few other places – both) produces complicated results, often very unhelpful to visitors. Driving south from Brussels your destination changes from LUXEMBOURG to LUXEMBURG and back as you cross linguistic borders. Some of the translations are impenetrable – Braine l’Alleud becomes Eigenbrakel, for example.
Finally, Brussels is a bilingual island in Flanders, not in Wallonia.
Sorry, I must get out more, as they say in Private Eye.
g larsen @52
I bow to your superior knowledge, but it really did say GANT on the train!
Our daughter was doing a History of Art degree at the time, so we were on our way to see the Van Eyck altarpiece.