A typically enjoyable Sunday Lunch puzzle from the Indy. Thank you Poins.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PERISH | To die from contents of hamper is horrendous (6) |
| found inside hamPER IS Horrendous | ||
| 4 | UP IN ARMS | Indignant when Dicky ruins map (2,2,4) |
| anagram (dicky) of RUINS MAP | ||
| 9 | INMATE | Popular film about holding Massachusetts’ fellow in prison (6) |
| IN (popular) ET (a film) reversed (about) contains (holding) MA (Massachusetts) | ||
| 10 | WIND FARM | Spooner’s to come across kind-hearted energy supplier (4,4) |
| WIND FARM is a written Spoonerism of “find warm” (come across kind-hearted) | ||
| 12 | TUNE | Head over to Spain by air (4) |
| NUT (head) reversed (over) by E (Espana, Spain) | ||
| 13 | CANON | Is able to proceed with church decree (5) |
| CAN ON (is able to proceed) | ||
| 14 | CALL | Start to check everyone’s name (4) |
| Check (starting letter of) then ALL (everyone) | ||
| 17 | NUTS AND BOLTS | The basic facts revealed by demented novelist and playwright found inside (4,3,5) |
| NUTS (demented) contains (with…found inside) SAND (George Sand, novelist) and BOLT (Robert Bolt, playwright) | ||
| 20 | RIGHT-HAND MAN | Round of applause after preferred fellow becomes chief assistant (5-4,3) |
| HAND (round of applause) following RIGHT (preferred) then MAN (fellow) | ||
| 23 | ELAN | Vigour and style exhibited by the French in Parisian houses (4) |
| LA (the, French) inside (housed by) EN (in, French again, as spoken in Paris) | ||
| 24 | NURSE | Tend to manage in recession with a couple of servants (5) |
| RUN (to manage) reversed (in recession) with SErvants (a couple of letters of) | ||
| 25 | LOGO | Symbol for ‘Gentlemen’ primarily seen outside toilet? Just the opposite (4) |
| LOO (toilet) contains (seen outside) Gentlemen (first letter, primarily) | ||
| 28 | OVERRIDE | Foreign order I’ve set aside (8) |
| anagram (foreign) of ORDER I’VE | ||
| 29 | TUT-TUT | An exclamation of mild disapprobation whichever way you look at it (3-3) |
| tut-tut is a palindrome (whichever way you look at it) | ||
| 30 | FOOTWORK | Skilful Manoeuvring‘s a book by a former Labour leader (8) |
| WORK (a book perhaps) by FOOT (Michael Foot, former Labour Leader) | ||
| 31 | NEARLY | John’s back in good time? Not quite (6) |
| johN (back, last letter of) then EARLY (in good time) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PRISTINE | Original reward for victory said to include money (8) |
| PRISE sounds like (said) prize (reward) contains (to include) TIN (money) | ||
| 2 | RUMINATE | Ponder upon team in trouble after game (8) |
| anagram (trouble) of TEAM IN following (after) RU (rugby union, a game) | ||
| 3 | SITE | Locate it in the middle of Ossett (4) |
| IT inside osSEtt (middle letters of) | ||
| 5 | PHILOSOPHISE | Caught out of school with hippies struggling to reason like Kant (12) |
| anagram (struggling) of ScHOOL missing C (caught) and HIPPIES | ||
| 6 | NODE | Growth of new type of poem (4) |
| N (new) ODE (type of poem) | ||
| 7 | REAGAN | President from Georgia featured in article supporting soldiers (6) |
| GA (Georgia) in AN (indefinite article) on (supporting) RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) | ||
| 8 | SOMALI | Note on West African country’s language (6) |
| SO (note, of the scale) on MALI (West African country) | ||
| 11 | HARD SHOULDER | Carry with difficulty from edge of motorway (4,8) |
| SHOULDER (carry) HARD (with difficulty) – I don’t see why these are reversed | ||
| 15 | PANIC | Freak out as Spanish-speaker’s husband is taken away (5) |
| hisPANIC (a Spanish speaker) missing H (husband) IS | ||
| 16 | STAND | Son died going after brown bear (5) |
| S (son) then D (died) following TAN (brown) | ||
| 18 | IMPORTER | A kind of merchant is how Cole introduced himself (8) |
| I’M PORTER (how Cole Porter introduced himself) | ||
| 19 | UNWORTHY | Why tour rearranged to take in Norway is not acceptable (8) |
| anagram (rearranged) of WHY TOUR contains (to take in) N (Norway) | ||
| 21 | LED OFF | Began to remove loose ends at first (3,3) |
| DOFF (to remove) follows (with…at first) LoosE (end letters of) | ||
| 22 | MADE DO | Managed with what was available when appointed by Rob (4,2) |
| MADE (appointed) by DO (rob) | ||
| 26 | DRAW | Conflict with Germany sent up in sketch (4) |
| WAR (conflict) with D (Deutschland, Germany) all reversed (set up) | ||
| 27 | PURE | Sheer power shown by river (4) |
| P (power) by URE (river) | ||
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.
Nice and gentle after yesterday’s trial by Nimrod. I was thrown by the Spooner attribution in 10ac. It doesn’t work verbally and I’m sure the good reverend would never have written the phrase, not least because wind farms weren’t around then. Not too keen on the ‘on’ bit of canon either. Last one in 17ac, purely because the phone app chose to omit the (4,3,5). Thanks to S&B.
Any crossword easier after yesterday’s Nimrod (not a criticism of either). LOI was PANIC, which took me ages.
I gather many posters do not like Spoonerisms. I do and 10A is entirely unacceptable. Emphatically does not qualify.
Thanks to Poins and PeeDee.
Enjoyed this one but failed on the parsing of 21d – so easy when you know how!
Thanks to Poins for the puzzle and to PD for the blog and the required help.
Wasn’t too impressed by this. I had the same misgivings about the ‘Spoonerism’ as Paul & gwep. I’m sure some definitions would allow this but I shall stick with the Chambers definition which emphatically does not. Also didn’t like ‘on’ in 13a as Paul expressed. Not mad on ‘right’ for ‘preferred’ in 20a but think it may just work. Finally, I thought the construction in 1d was a bit clumsy. Ok, ‘prise’ does sound like ‘prize’, but it doesn’t in ‘pristine’. So, technically ok but not great imo. ‘Made’ for ‘managed’ in 22d is not the best of synonyms.
On a side note, there is a typo in blog for 27d. Thanks to S&B.
That 10a isn’t actually a Spoonerism was pointed out by the editor at the checking stage. Unfortunately, the gremlins have ensured that its replacement clue has failed to appear in the published puzzle. These things happen – occasionally!
Typo fixed now. As always, thanks for pointing them out.
I get what everyone is saying about the marginal definitions etc but I was in too good a mood to worry about them. I think of the IoS on Sunday afternoons a bit like watching an old black and white movie. They are plenty of holes in the plot but at the time it doesn’t matter, sometimes it even makes them better.
We got through this fairly quickly, not bothered too much by iffy definitions (seeing Sunday puzzles as – usually – a bit of relaxation) although we weren’t happy about 10ac. Our LOI was PANIC, too, as we were looking something that we could just remove an H. Favourite was LOGO.
Thanks, Poins and PeeDee.
Poins @ 5 Gremlins are picky: My paper in New Delhi publishes this crossword by arrangement with the Independent and it did have the replacement clue — Energy supplier to turn on power after the first of February
h.eckler @ 8 Thanks for the info. Very interesting.