Julius is up there at the top of my favourite setters list but unusually this one I found this a bit of a mixed bag.
I started of by guessing both the two related long clues from the letter counts alone. I can see why Julius liked including them but I thought they could have been a bit more disguised. Some of the CDs left me feeling a little underwhelmed too, reminiscent of some Rufus/Dante clues where the challenge is not to find the answer but to discover how the definition could be cryptic. I think on the whole the puzzle felt unbalanced: typically I guessed the solution straight away from the definition and the wordplays were an afterthought (and often much more difficult than the definition).
Sorry to sound like a moaner here, most likely it is me having a bad start to the day and the puzzle is just fine. Thank you Julius.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PONTIAC | Carlo, Charlie take over American carmaker (7) |
| Carlo PONTI and C (Charlie, phonetic alphabet) contains A (American). Didn’t know Carlo Ponti but there are three listed in Wikipedia). | ||
| 5 | OVULATE | Regularly solve, upload the clue for “produce an egg” (7) |
| regular selection from sOlVe UpLoAd ThE | ||
| 9 | TAUNT | Sledge Somerset’s square short leg (5) |
| I can’t explain this. My best guess is: TAUNTon (a place in Somerset) missing (short of) ON (leg, side in cricket). I can’t explain “square”.
TAUNTon (Somerset’s cricket ground, where their square is) missing ON (short of) ON (leg, side in cricket). Thanks to James for this. |
||
| 10 | LODESTONE | Naturally magnetic, Rock Hudson finally visited Leeds; too wild! (9) |
| hudsoN (last letter of) in anagram (wild) of LEEDS TOO | ||
| 11 | HORSEPLAY | Shaffer’s main work decried as “a bit of fun” (9) |
| Peter Schaffer wrote Equus, a play about a horse | ||
| 12 | OKAPI | Central African resident to approve a 22/7, more or less (5) |
| OK (approve) A PI (22/7 approximately) | ||
| 13 | RALPH | Man Mountain accommodated in Queen’s Hotel (5) |
| ALP (maountain) in R (regina, queen) and H (hotel) | ||
| 15 | GRAPPLING | Greek petitioning Yankee to quit wrestling (9) |
| GR (Greek) then APPLyING (petitioning) missing (to quit) Y (Yankee) | ||
| 18 | SPYMASTER | Francis Pym: a sterling host for the head of 6? (9) |
| found inside (hosted in) franciS PYM A STERling – I presume 6 is MI6, The Secret Intelligence Service. | ||
| 19 | DATUM | Corporation chases US lawyer for a piece of information (5) |
| TUM (corporation) follows DA (US lawyer) | ||
| 21 | NACHO | Has the ability to switch head office chip production line unit (5) |
| CAN (has the ability) reversed (to switch) then HO (head office) – a nacho is a chip, so would be a unit in a chip production line. This is a bit of a meaningless as an XYZ is a unit in an XZY production line for anything. | ||
| 23 | NANDI BEAR | Out-of-the-ordinary Aberdonian shot legendary Kenyan (5,4) |
| anagram (shot) of ABERDoNIAN missing O (ordinary) – mythological animal of Eastern Africa. Never heard of this! | ||
| 25 | OLD STAGER | Barking dog alerts senior citizen (3,6) |
| anagram (barking) of DOG ALERTS | ||
| 26 | AMATI | He was instrumental in Cremona’s development (5) |
| cryptic definition – Nicolo Amati (and others of the same family), violin makers in Cremona. | ||
| 27 | NO SWEAT | Sounds like Fido’s been using Bob Martin’s tablets; simples! (2,5) |
| sounds like “nose wet”, sign of a healthy dog | ||
| 28 | DEAD LEG | Late stage impact injury (4,3) |
| DEAD (late) LEG (stage) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PITCHER | Tip up diva’s beer mug (7) |
| TIP reversed (up) then CHER (diva, singer) | ||
| 2 | NEUTRALLY | Without taking sides, protest Gingrich demo (9) |
| NEUT sounds like (protested) NEWT (Newt Gingrich) then RALLY (demo) | ||
| 3, 14, 23 | IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT | Film fans welcome during this dark period . . . . (2,3,4,2,3,5) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 3, 4, 5 | IN THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY | . . . . as opposed to this, a time for sober reflection (2,3,4,5,2,3) |
| more cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | UNSTOPPED | Opened a bottle, put out nuts, old Johnny’s turned up! (9) |
| anagram (put out) of NUTS then Johnny DEPP reversed (turned up) | ||
| 7 | ALOHA | Welcome to be found in two consecutive light rings? (5) |
| found inside hALO HAlo (two halos, light rings) | ||
| 8 | EVENING | Still elected government, at the end of the day (7) |
| EVEN (still) IN (elected) G (government) | ||
| 14 | See 3 | |
| 16 | AARON’S ROD | Novel sonar invention embraced by rising, precocious female explorer (6,3) |
| anagram (invention) inside (embraced by) DORA (Dora the Explorer, precocious female explorer, children’s TV program) – novel by DH Lawrence | ||
| 17 | IN THE MAIL | Posted plenty of rightwing comment here . . . . (2,3,4) |
| double definition – the Daily Mail is a right-wing newspaper | ||
| 18 | SUNDOWN | . . . . and in Germany broadcast round about 8 (7) |
| UND (and, in German) inside (with…round) SOWN (broadcast) – 8 is evening | ||
| 20 | MORNING | Menzies briefly entertained head of Omani navy before lunch (7) |
| MING (short for Menzies, Scottish name) contains Omani (head, first letter of) and RN (the navy). Menzies is a Gaelic name pronounced as “mingis”, the z being a stand-in for the letter yogh not found in the Latin alphabet. | ||
| 22 | CEDES | Gives way to those rumoured to be tipped for court success (5) |
| sounds like (rumoured) SEEDS (those tipped for court success) | ||
| 23 | See 3 | |
| 24 | IVANA | First daughter saved $1,000 for her mum (5) |
| IVANkA (Ivanka Trump, first daughter, cf First Lady) missing K ($1,000) – Ivanka Trump, Ivana’s mother. | ||
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.
Thanks Julius, Peedee
I think Taunton is a reference to where Somerset CCC play cricket – their ground
I certainly didn’t manage to write them all in straight away, and was enjoyably bamboozled by many, particularly Francis Pym. Never heard of Bob Martin or Carlo Ponti, or Nandi bear, though pleased to learn that one.
I thought ‘chip production line unit’ quite funny, and also liked UNSTOPPED and DEAD LEG among many.
Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid. Not a criticism of Julius – just too many clues containing stuff lying within my realms of ignorance. Didn’t know Carlo Ponti or Pontiac, didn’t get TAUNT (forgot sledge could mean this, mea culpa), didn’t know Shaffer so looked him up, never seen MI6 referred to as ‘6’, didn’t like 21a, never heard of 23a so gave up on it even though the anagram material was clear, didn’t know Gingrich so looked him up. I also failed to get CEDES and IVANKA, which I really should have seen. Liked ALOHA and NO SWEAT. Was pleased to get AARON’S ROD and remember a Scottish friend telling me about Menzies. Thanks to Julius and to PeeDee for the much-needed explanations.
He cant be expected to pack every puzzle with gags about the latest news(fake or otherwise) and I think the Ivana/Ivanka is a first in puzzles.Someone had to do it!
Always liked Carlo Ponti (not to mention his missus). Didnt know Ming/Menzies but worked it out by subtraction.Sounds like a SMERSH character (maybe he was).
17 a beauty. Easily the best puzzle of the day.
1000 dollars is a G not a K in my book.
Enjoyed this – lots of celebrity namedropping, fortunately all familiar to me. NANDI BEAR was unfamiliar, but easy enough to guess and Google once a few checkers were in place, and although AMATI is the setters’ favourite violin maker I did check the Cremona reference. Annoyingly IVANA was last in.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
I really enjoyed this, though the long ones did go in a bit too easily. I thought SPYMASTER was a particularly clever clue, though I wasted time googling Francis Pym who was unknown to me. I was slightly puzzled by NEUT for NEWT, not being convinced that ‘protest’ is a valid homophone indicator.
I was lucky enough to remember the Oz Prime Minister Bob Menzies, known as Ming, otherwise I would have been stumped by 20d.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Nice solve – not the usual topical allusions but I got all the famous folk – at least I wrote in IVANA – only guessing at Ivanka.
@Louise – I think Ming Campbell – the former Lib-Dem leader – is the better known Menzies to UK folk.
I didn’t know that Bob Menzies (aka Pig-Iron Bob)was also known as Ming but arriving later I found it amusing that, out of coyness, a women’s monthly magazine was called The Australian Women’s Weekly to avoid an obvious alternative interpretation (in the local vernacular) – yet nobody twigged the obvious homophone of the Prime Minister’s surname.
Thanks Julia’s and PeeDee
Liked this one which was a much needed diversion on a disastrous and prolonged train ride into work on Wednesday morning. Found it pretty tough even after getting the long ones quite early on … and looks like they form a mini theme as such, along with EVENING, MORNING and SUNDOWN.
Interesting mix of personalities, most of which I had heard of but nearly all of whom I had to check up again to confirm the relevant details of. Reread the synopsis of Shaffer’s Equus – not really about a horse but a teenager who has a pathological obsession with horses – an interesting play. Liked the mother-daughter play with my last one in at 24d.
Was pleased to eventually pick up on the HALO HALO trick at 7d.