A very enjoyable puzzle from Alberich. Understated rather than flashy, but none the worse for that. Thank you Alberich.
My apologies for the blog being a little later than usual this morning but I had to dig the puzzle out of a snowdrift.
| Across | ||
| 7 | RETIREES | They’ve stopped working on island with spades (8) |
| RE (regarding, on) TIREE (an island) and S (spades) | ||
| 8 | CICADA | Thoracic adaptation partly identifies insect (6) |
| found inside (partly) thoraCIC ADAptation | ||
| 11 | COLIC | Officer in charge gets stomach pain (5) |
| COL (colonel, officer) IC (in charge) | ||
| 12 | ROTTERDAM | A bad egg dish for starter served with a medium port (9) |
| ROTTER (a bad egg) then starting letter of Dish with A M (medium) | ||
| 13 | DUSTPAN | Stand-up comic that may be required to clean up (7) |
| anagram (comic) of STAND-UP | ||
| 14 | RUN DOWN | Disparage weak summary (3,4) |
| triple definition | ||
| 15 | LIKE THE CLAPPERS | Very quickly approve of appreciative audience? (4,3,8) |
| LIKE (approve of) and CLAPPERS (appreciative audience) | ||
| 18 | TWEETER | Be hesitant about watts needed for loudspeaker (7) |
| TEETER (be hesitant) containing (about) W (watts) | ||
| 20 | SLEEPER | Retiring salesman’s eating fish, a kipper (7) |
| REP’S (salesman’s) containing EEL (fish) all reversed (retiring) – a kip is a sleep | ||
| 22 | AGONY AUNT | She advises social worker to house a young criminal (5,4) |
| ANT (social worker, a worker ant, lives in colonies) contains (to house) anagram (criminal) of YOUNG | ||
| 23 | ABOUT | Engaged in a fight (5) |
| A BOUT (fight) | ||
| 24 | STEINS | One is packing guns? That’s for mugs (6) |
| I (one) inside (is packing) STENS (guns) | ||
| 25 | BORODINO | He composed Ring, resulting in pitched battle (8) |
| BORODIN (he composed) and O (ring) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CROCODILE TEARS | Playing role, cad cries to fake grief (9,5) |
| anagram (playing) of ROLE CAD CRIES | ||
| 2 | STILTS | Second on pitch, son means to walk tall? (6) |
| S (second) on TILT (pitch) then S (son) | ||
| 3 | CRACKPOT | Expert flipping lid becomes crazy (8) |
| CRACK (expert) then TOP (lid) reversed (flipping) | ||
| 4 | YEAR IN YEAR OUT | With tedious repetition suggesting clue for a rye, a rye? (4,2,4,3) |
| YEAR IN YEAR OUT would be a clue for “a rye, a rye” (year in anagram (out) of year) | ||
| 5 | One bird or another needing weight, not power (6) | |
| PIGEON (another bird) needing W (weight) not P (power) | ||
| 6 | HANDSOME | Liberal Democrat consumed by shame? No, sadly (8) |
| D (democrat) inside (consumed by) anagram (sadly) of SHAME NO | ||
| 9 | ADMINISTRATION | Notice car on street before helping management (14) |
| AD (notice) MINI (car) on ST (street) then (before) RATION (helping) | ||
| 10 | STERILISATION | Cleansing procedure riles one swimming in Channel (13) |
| anagram (swimming) of RILES I (one) in STATION (channel) | ||
| 16 | KEEL OVER | Almost prevent sweetheart’s collapse (4,4) |
| KEEp (prevent, almost) and LOVER (sweetheart) | ||
| 17 | PREDATOR | Perhaps wolf prowled, striking bird on a hill (8) |
| PRowlED missing (striked) OWL (bird) on A TOR (hill) | ||
| 19 | TRYING | Tiresome scribbler finally stops drawing (6) |
| scribbleR (finally) inside (stops, like a cork) TYING (drawing, closing with string) | ||
| 21 | PROFIT | Tom has healthy advantage (6) |
| PRO (tom, prostitute) and FIT (healthy) | ||
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 both.
Reasonably straightforward puzzle and I quite enjoyed it. Had to check on Google that there was a Borodino battle.
Needed an aid to get Borodino. Knew the composer but not the battle. You know how much I like pointing out typos 🙂 so here we go: in 20a it is EEL not ELL and in 10d it is an anagram of RILES I not RILES ONE.
Also had to check you could spell widgeon without the D. Thanks to Alberich and PeeDee.
Thank you Hovis. I find your proof reading service invaluable!
I also had to check Wigeon without the d. Apparently Widgeon is now rarely used, so showing my age there.
Thanks, Peedee.
Most enjoyable: I particularly liked the stand-up comic, LIKE THE CLAPPERS, AGONY AUNT and the clever anagram in CROCODILE TEARS.
I was another who had to check the spelling of the bird.
Many thanks, Alberich, for another great puzzle.
Very straightforward indeed. I didn’t have to check the bird spelling as this is the one that turns up most in crosswords. 15a has appeared elsewhere quite recently – it is obviously setters’ expression of the month, just like sage derby appears to be crossword cheese of the month.
Thanks to Alberich and PeeDee
24a I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and this clue reminded me of a limerick I read many moons ago which some of you might not know. Might I share it with uou?
There’s a wonderful family called Stein,
There’s Gert and there’s Epp and there’s Ein;
Gert’s poems are bunk,
Epp’s statues are junk,
And no one can understand Ein.
Thanks Alberich and PeeDee
in 5, I had WIGEON as the solution: ‘needing weight, not power’ says to me “add W, delete P”. That’s almost always the problem with unchecked alternates, isn’t it?
Anyone else follow that route?
Simon @7 – I too thought it was a wigeon not a pigeon for the reason you state
Thanks to Alberich and PeeDee. Lots of fun. I knew BORODINO but not LIKE THE CLAPPERS or Tom = pro for PROFIT and I was not certain that keep = prevent for KEEL OVER.
Many thanks Alberich ans PeeDee
I do not solve the FT regularly, but with an hour to while away as my car was being serviced, and with wi-fi on hand, I was rewarded with an excellent puzzle. I particularly liked 25A BORODINO for ithe feint to Wagner and its nod to the 1812 Overture – ‘pitched battle’ (between that and War and Peace I would have thought that the battle was well-known).
Simon S – I think you may be right about WIGEON being the solution. It could be read wither way. Let’s wait until tomorrow and see which one Alberich had in mind.
PeterO – having read War and Peace is how I knew The Battle of Borodino too.
Thanks Alberich, Peedee
Fairly straightforward, quality stuff. AGONY AUNT, DUSTPAN favourites.
I was going to say something rather amusing about not having had to check wigeon because widgeon wouldn’t fit, but I hadn’t even noticed until the later comments that you’ve given PIGEON as the answer. I think my money’s on WIGEON, just.
I like PeterO’s note on ‘pitched’ – I know the battle from the book, but didn’t know there was a specific connection with the overture.
Re 5d. I did think at the time that either answer works but still think PIGEON is more likely. The definition is usually at one end or another and, as in the blog, ‘one bird’ is the likely definition. The other bird, ‘wigeon’, needs W not P. So my money is on pigeon.
Thanks Alberich and PeeDee
Not quite as tough as he can be here but still most enjoyable.
Some new learnings with the Battle of BORODINO and ‘tom’ = prostitute.
I’m a WIGEON entrant and would be surprised if it wasn’t .
Ended up with DUSTPAN (after not being able to parse DISHPAN) and KEEL OVER as the last one in.
This solution given in this morning’s paper is WIGEON. So, well done to all you Wigeons out there and bad luck to all the Pigeons. Sadly the Widgeons didn’t even get a look in.
PeeDee@16 – I’m not sure whether its because I’m getting a little fed up of days of being indoors looking out at snow (the most we’ve had in East Kent for donkey’s years) but I got surprisingly over-excited this morning when I found that we wigeon-fanciers were correct. The spell checker seems to think widgeon is the correct spelling too!
Enjoyed this a day late, ran out of printer paper so can’t print out today’s dailies. Trip to tesco’s is best delayed.
I really liked agony aunt and trying, for smooth surface.
Solid puzzle all round, as of course you would expect from this excellent setter.
Many thanks peedee and Alberich
One bird (definition) or another needing W , “Not power”, of course it is wigeon. although the needing can be taken two ways, the ‘not power’ is quite decisive I think.