If this puzzle from Klingsor was a meal, I rushed through the starter, and choked on a couple of small bones towards the end…but was left with a sweet taste overall…
I made fairly swift progress on the first pass – some pretty much ‘write-ins’, like APSE (recess), TREE (box), DRAFTEE; some interesting surface readings – especially 15A – kinky! – and I enjoyed 5D. But then things slowed a little, and I spent far too long on GOON at 10A and FARE at 14A, my LOI.
It also didn’t help that I lazily anagrammed ROPE IN and O (old) at 19D to make PIONEER, as it fitted the crossings then available – eventually corrected. And 4A DESICCATED reminded me a) how much I dislike desiccated coconut (vs. fresh) and b) how I can never spell it correctly, as the way I pronounce it sounds like it should have two SS’s…hence the crossing out/Tippex on my working copy…
So many more deft touches – ‘pork pie’ and ‘Melton’ (Mowbray) in 3D; the ageing socialist turning Conservative at 9A; the cricket report at 24 (although Klingsor may be showing his age by referencing Graeme Hick?!)
I think my favourite was GUTTERSNIPE – not just for the surface reading of the clue, but because it is such a wonderfully evocative word!
No obvious Nina or theme-ette that I can see, but an enjoyable solve and fun to pick over for the blog. My thanks to Klingsor, you stomach-churning, derogatory, emollient, resilient, exhilarate-ing, desiccated gutter-snipe!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | APSE | Head off to relax around start of parliamentary recess (4) | recess / ( |
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| 4A | DESICCATED | After wasting little time, decide case that’s cut and dried (10) | dried / anag, i.e.after wasting, of T (little time) + DECIDE + CAS(E) (cut short) |
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| 9A | DEROGATORY | Disparaging past socialist turned Conservative (10) | disparaging / DEROGA (AGO – past – plus RED – socialist, all turned) + TORY (Conservative |
|
| 10A | GOON | Sellers perhaps talk a lot (4) | (Peter) Sellers, perhaps / if someone talks a lot, they might GO ON (and on) |
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| 11A | GIMLET | Cocktail of gin taken primarily with lime (6) | cocktail / anag, i.e. cocktail (doing double duty?), of G+T (primary letters of Gin and Taken) + LIME |
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| 12A | ALTER EGO | Intimate friend first to entrust with key therefore to house (5,3) | intimate friend / ALT (key on computer keyboard) + ER_GO (therefore) around (housing) E (first letter of Entrust) |
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| 14A | FARE | Food from Japan, say? (4) | food / If something or someone is from Japan, say, then they might be Far Eastern, or FAR + E |
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| 15A | EXHILARATE | I hear latex is kinky, providing thrill (10) | thrill / anag, i.e. kinky!, of I HEAR LATEX |
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| 17A | GET THE CHOP | Do this at the butcher’s and lose your job! (3,3,4) | lose your job / You might go to the butcher’s to GET THE CHOP… |
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| 20A | STEP | Stage actress is disheartened (4) | stage / ST( |
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| 21A | STRIPPER | Person tearing after street entertainer (8) | entertainer(?!) / ST (street) + RIPPER (someone who rips, or tears) |
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| 23A | IDLEST | Learner that is outwardly least diligent (6) | least diligent / ID_EST (that is, Latin) around L (learner driver) |
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| 24A | RUBE | 64 for one having lost opener, with runs for Hick (4) | hick / R (runs) + ( |
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| 25A | UP IN THE AIR | Sounds like you try nursing a beer to keep one excited (2,2,3,3) | excited / P IN T (beer) in (nursed by) U (homophone, sounds like you) + HE A_R (try) around (keeping) I (one) |
|
| 26A | PRINCE IGOR | Opera North cuts cost with one attempt, right? (6,4) | opera / PRI_CE (cost) around (cut by) N (northern), plus I (one) + GO (attempt) + R (right) |
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| 27A | TREE | Part of theatre encompassing box? (4) | box? (type of tree/shrub) / hidden word, i.e. part of, in ‘theaTRE Encompassing’ |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | PREDICAMENT | American chaps occupy divine spot (11) | spot / PREDIC_T (divine, foretell) around (occupied by) A (American) + MEN (chaps) |
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| 3D | EMOLLIENT | Making soft pork pie in Melton? That’s unusual (9) | making soft / EMOL_NT (anag, i.e. that’s unusual, of MELTON) around LIE (pork pie, Cockney rhyming slang) |
|
| 4D | DRAFTEE | One called up doctor, needing back pills (7) | one called up (to military service) / DR (doctor) + AFT (back, rear, nautical) + EE (Es – Ecstasy tablets, or pills) |
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| 5D | STOMACH CHURNING | What makes match so sickening? (7-8) | sickening / By CHURNING the letters of ‘MATCH SO’ you get STOMACH |
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| 6D | CRYSTAL | Lament having smashed last glass (7) | glass / CRY (lament) + STAL (anag, i.e. smashed, of LAST) |
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| 7D | TROPE | Figure of speech seen in poet’s last line (5) | figure of speech / T (last letter of poeT) + ROPE (line) |
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| 8D | DINGO | Wild dog, canine at heart? (5) | wild dog / anag, i.e. wild (doing double duty?), of DOG (also on double duty!) + NI (middle letters, or heart, of caNIne |
|
| 13D | GUTTERSNIPE | Threaten to go out and shoot street urchin (11) | street urchin / GUTTER (threaten to go out, as in a candle) + SNIPE (shoot) |
|
| 16D | RESILIENT | Begrudge eating sirloin regularly? Tough! (9) | tough! / RES_ENT (begrudge) around (eating) ILI (alternate, or regular, letters of sIrLoIn) |
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| 18D | ESPOUSE | Bridge player could be Dutch champion (7) | champion / E (East, bridge player) + SPOUSE (could be Dutch, slang for wife) |
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| 19D | PAINTER | Rope in cracking old man (7) | rope / PA_TER (Latin, father, old man) around (cracked by) IN |
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| 21D | STROP | Paddy drinks up (5) | paddy / STROP (angry fit, or paddy) = PORTS (drinks) upwards |
|
| 22D | RABBI | Religious leader is a timid person mostly (5) | religious leader / RABBI( |
|
Loved this. Thought some of the definitions were possibly a bit dodgy, e.g. ‘making soft’ for ‘emollient ‘.
The definition for DESICCANT is just dried. ‘Cut’ refers to losing the last letter of ‘case’.
Strangely enough, FARE was also my LOI.
I stupidly didn’t parse TROPE. I just guessed there was a poet called Trop followed by linE. Sheesh!
Thanks to Klingsor and mc_rapper67.
I wondered about EMOLLIENT too, Hovis, so looked it up in Chambers. The first listed definition is “softening” i.e. making soft!
True, but as an adjective. I couldn’t see ‘making soft’ as an adjective.
Always hits the spot. ESPOUSE, GOON, STRIPPER, RUBE, DESICCATED all v good. Thanks Klingsor, mc_rapper67
Very good crossword (again).
What struck me (but perhaps I’m wrong) was that the clues are much more concise than they usually are in a Klingsor puzzle.
Not that it’s really important (to me) because my view on clues is just that “every word should be there for a reason” (but ‘the surface’ is generally not one of these reasons).
Another thing and something that surprised me was that the grid had no less than four double unches, affecting 4ac, 12ac, 21ac and 26ac.
However, nothing of it stood in the way of this enjoyable solve – I always take crosswords (and grids) as they come.
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 and Klingsor.
14ac would have been my last one in, if I’d got it. I could see how FARE could be food, but I could see no way it fitted in with the word play so I left it blank to come here to find out what the answer really was.
GOON was more or less a write-in for me, but APSE took me ages to get.
Thanks for explaining 12ac. Totally failed to think of the alt-key. Maybe if I’d been doing it online with the keyboard in front of me I might have got it, but probably not.
Great stuff (as usual) from Klingsor. Really lovely concise, grammatically sound clues, with smooth surface readings to boot. Nothing at all “forced”. Top job: bravo Neil!
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – I have corrected the parsing of DESICCATED, as per Hovis at #1 (I still think of it as DECIMATED COCONUT!)
My Chambers app has ‘making supple’ (adjective) as the second definition of EMOLLIENT, so I think that clue is fair enough.
Sil – incisive, detailed, and technical as ever – thanks for your input… I had thought that the grid looked a little unusual, but I thought that just saying it looked ‘a little unusual’ doesn’t really add much. ‘Four double unches’ sums it up a lot more succinctly! And, as many cliché’d football managers say, we can only play against what is put in front of us…
Dormouse – interesting that you spotted GOON/GO ON straight away – Peter Sellers was an integral part of my cultural upbringing, but mainly as Clouseau, as I just missed the Goons’ heyday and never really ‘got’ them…whereas for me APSE/RECESS has been a crosswording staple as long as I can remember…along with ETUI!…
mc_rapper67, as I said, these double unches didn’t bother me at all.
Yet, I know that some editors do not want them, so I was a bit surprised to see them in the Indy.
Three weeks ago I sat in a Cambridge pub having a chat with John Henderson [yes, that one], telling him that I once changed a grid because someone told me that it contained double (and even triple) unches. John was on the point of finishing that day’s Times crossword and then saw that it contained also double unches! I just had to think of that.
And, as many cliché’d football managers say, we can only play against what is put in front of us – as I do!
mc_rapper67@8 You may be right. I’m not yet convinced that saying EMOLLIENT as an adjective can mean ‘making supple’ implies that ‘making supple’ is itself an adjective. I might refer to an ‘emollient cream, for example but would never say ‘a making supple cream’. It’s a minor comment at best but I find the issue interesting in that it questions how we interpret dictionary definitions.