This is my 500th blog for Fifteensquared and it is a pleasure to get a Gozo puzzle to solve and explain for the occasion. Thank you Gozo.
The theme this week is fish.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BASSES | Hounds having no time for singers (6) |
BASSEtS (hounds) missing T (time), singers is bonus definition. In this case fish is plural. |
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| 4 | PILCHARD | Cut-back that’s unfeeling (8) |
CLIP (cut) reversed (back) then HARD (unfeeling) |
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| 10 | ABALONE | Leading academic’s endless nonsense (7) |
Academic (leading letter of) then BALONEy (nonsense, endless) – in this case a shellfish |
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| 11 | PIRANHA | Secretary circling country hospital (7) |
PA (secretary) contains (circling) IRAN (country) H (hospital) |
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| 12 | CHAR | 4 having tea (4) |
tea found inside (having) pilCHARd (4 across) – various types of fish including the trout shown here |
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| 13 | GOLDEN ORFE | Done for. Leg broken (6,4) |
anagram (broken) of DONE FOR LEG. Also known as the Ide, a favourite word of crossword setters. |
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| 15 | TURBOT | High-powered tourer starts (6) |
TURBO (high-powered) the Tourer (starting letter of) |
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| 16 | ANCHOVY | Some children love verses inside (7) |
ANY (some) containing (with…inside) CH (children) O (love) V (verses) |
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| 20 | BLOATER | Left hat outside (7) |
L (left) inside (with…outside) BOATER (hat) – a North American freshwater fish. Also the name of a smoked herring dish. |
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| 21 | MARLIN | Both sides in principal (6) |
R and L (both side) in MAIN (principal) |
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| 24 | ROCK SALMON | Diamonds and nut cut (4,6) |
ROCKS (diamonds) and ALMONd (nut, cut short) |
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| 26 | DACE | Heads of department always claim exemption (4) |
first letters (heads) of Department Always Claim Exemption |
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| 28 | SARDINE | Arnside review of biblical precious stone (7) |
anagram (review) od ARNSIDE – also the Sardine Stone from Revelations. Another name for the Pilchard. |
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| 29 | HERRING | What fiancee wears for operatic Albert (7) |
a fiancee wears HER RING – Albert Herring is an opera by Benjamin Britten. A lover of opera Gozo cannot resist adding a definition for this clue. |
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| 30 | RED BELLY | Soviet corporation (3,5) |
RED (soviet) and BELLY (corporation) – one of several fish, showing here the Arctic Char |
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| 31 | LAUNCE | Pleasure boat with top helmsman away at Exmouth (6) |
LAUNCh (pleasure boat) missing Helmsman (top letter of) then Ex (opening letter, mouth of) – aka the Sand Eel |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | BEARCATS | A Catholic hits out at red pandas (8) |
| A RC (Roman Catholic) inside (with…out) BEATS (hits) | ||
| 2 | SEA LAUREL | Red marine plant as a rule culitvated by the Spanish (3,6) |
| anagram (cultivated) of AS A RULE then EL (the, Spanish) – there is a minor typo in the clue: “culitvated” | ||
| 3 | EBOR | Sentamu’s signature on dress lifted (4) |
| ROBE (dress) reversed (lifted) – meaning “of York”, such as John Sentamu the Archbishop of York | ||
| 5 | IMPUDENT | Disrespectful and lacking foresight dropping top of reins (8) |
| IMPrUDENT (lacking foresight) missing Reins (top letter of) | ||
| 6 | CORINTHIAN | Amateur sportsman is a rakish fop (10) |
| double definition | ||
| 7 | ABNER | Saul’s cousin brought up some children badly (5) |
| found reversed (brought up inside (some of) childREN BAdly | ||
| 8 | DRAWER | Artist who gets pulled? (6) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | DEPOT | Drank up at store (5) |
| TOPED (drank) reversed (up) | ||
| 14 | MORAYSHIRE | Some hairy redhead wandering in old county (10) |
| anagram (wandering) of SOME HAIRY Red (head, first letter of) | ||
| 17 | VALUATION | Estimate of price with or without a touch of expertise (9) |
| could be valuation or evaluation, with or without a E, first letter (a touch) of Expertise | ||
| 18 | PELL-MELL | Hand-to hand fight on helter- skelter (4-4) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | INVEIGLE | Cajole and flatter mid-week, living wildly (8) |
| anagram (wildly) of wEEk (middle of) and LIVING | ||
| 22 | ERASER | Applying this, expect a blank look (6) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 23 | LOCHS | Waters from pass up on borders of Himalayas (5) |
| COL (pass) reversed (up) on HimalayaS (borders of) | ||
| 25 | CARED | Headless chicken thought it mattered (5) |
| sCARED (chciken) missing first letter (headless) | ||
| 27 | IRMA | Some air-mass that was destructive during September (4) |
| found inside (some of) aIR-MAss – name of a Hurricane | ||
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.
Many congratulations PeeDee. Here’s to the next 500!
And a lovely puzzle (in one of his customary styles) from Gozo. I have to admit I was scratching my head until it dawned that 1a and 29a did in fact have definitions. Serious misdirection in saying they didn’t!
Congratulations, PeeDee – and many thanks for the blog and the pictures.
I hadn’t heard of REDBELLY or LAUNCE- but it’s nice to see the ABALONE making a comeback, with original wordplay [not a solitary sailor in sight 😉 ].
I didn’t know the hand-to-hand fight meaning of PELL-MELL, either. In fact, I think I’ve only ever come across the expression in Rupert Bear books, as a child: he always seemed to run everywhere pell-mell.
Many thanks, as ever, to Gozo – as Conrad says, a lovely puzzle.
Many thanks PeeDee for the luverly pics.I enjoyed this one much more than I usually do from this setter.
Applause all round for S&B
@Eileen: re ABALONE; not only that, but I saw ESOTERIC clued recently without the coteries anag.
Or maybe it was the other way round.
Exactly what Eileen said except that I did know the fighting meaning of Pell-Mell
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee – lovely illustrations
Baerchen @4: Chifonie a week ago had “Inscrutable Tories assembled in the City”. It’s odd how you come to notice these things.
Congratulations PeeDee and thank you for the wonderful pictures.
I don’t know of course whether you read The Times but a short while ago there was a Peter Brookes cartoon portraying the cabinet as fishes.
The best one was of Boris Johnson with the tag “Ah! Sole”.
Congratulations PeeDee, and thanks for all your blogs.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Another entertaining themed puzzle from Gozo which revealed itself quite early on after the first few across clues in BASSES, RED BELLY and MARLIN were entered.
Took a number of shortish sessions to get it all out and even though there were no really unusual fish, apart from LAUNCE that I hadn’t come across before, they did seem to take a while to all come out.
There were a number of the down clues that required some reference checking – BEARCATS (had known of them, but did need to check for them after working out the word play), SEA LAUREL (likewise), EBOR (didn’t know the current Archbishop of York at all), MORAYSHIRE (could see the anagram fodder but had to chase down the former Scottish county) and Saul’s cousin was a biblical character that I had not seen before.
The tricky ERASER was the last one in.
Congratulations PeeDee on your landmark blog … which with the pictorial description of the theme was an excellent one !