Don’t be fooled by the first two clues…
which are very easy, because this puzzle is not as easy as it first appears.
I took a while to complete this because of the SW corner, where my mind went blank until I worked out CUCKOO, then the others followed. However, even after writing in LAKESIDE, I struggled with the parsing, not being aware of a Hollywood film called LAKES, but I went back to basics and broke down the clue, and an aha moment reveal L.A. and KES (actaully one of my favourite movies).
I did have a minor quibble with the grammar of 21ac (the clue’s grammar is fine, but the “crossword grammar” is wrong). On the other hand, I gave ticks to 11dn and 17dn as being excellent clues.
Thanks, Chalmie, for blowing away a few cbwebs this morning.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MIRAGE | Precious metal seen in swamp is an illusion (6) |
| Ag (silver, so “precious metal”) seen in MIRE (“swamp”) | ||
| 4 | BLEACHER | Cheer lab that constructs whitening mechanism (8) |
| *(cheer lab) | ||
| 9 | RAPTOR | Paying close attention to golden eagle? (6) |
| RAPT (“paying close attention”) to OR (“golden”) | ||
| 10 | IMPAIRED | Undermined MP’s excuse for not voting (8) |
| I’M PAIRED (“MP’s excuse for not voting”)
“Pairing” is the system by which two opposition MPs agree not to vote, so that they can both be absent from the house. |
||
| 12 | INDUSTRY | As disused stations are covered by railway work (8) |
| IN DUST (“as disused stations are covered”) by RY (“railway”) | ||
| 13 | CORYZA | Head cold interrupting crazy rocker’s comeback (6) |
| Hidden backwards in “crAZY ROCker” | ||
| 15 | SLAP | Hit friends back (4) |
| <=PALS (“friends”, back) | ||
| 16 | PENICILLIN | Antibiotic fix covering nurse in charge getting sick (10) |
| PIN (“fix”) covering E(nrolled) N(urse) I(n) C(harge) + ILL, so P(EN-IC-ILL)IN | ||
| 19 | RHETORICAL | Choral rite oddly not expecting responses (10) |
| *(choral rite) | ||
| 20 | ANNA | Woman from Clackmannan (4) |
| Hidden in (from) “clackmANNAn” | ||
| 23 | CUCKOO | Mad mother who has her child adopted? (6) |
| Cuckoos lay their eggs in the nest of other birds, so their “children are adopted” by other birds. | ||
| 25 | THIRD MAN | A way mother fills up anorexic fielder (5,3) |
| RD (road, so “way”) + MA (“mother”) fills up THIN (“anorexic”)
Third man is a fielding position in cricket. |
||
| 27 | TROUNCES | Beats Turkey with lightweights (8) |
| TR (international car registration for “Turkey”) + OUNCES (“lightweights”) | ||
| 28 | VIENNA | Capital WW2 weapon Anne brought back (6) |
| V1 (“WW2 weapon”) +<=ANNE | ||
| 29 | LAKESIDE | Hollywood film with fish on inland beach (8) |
| L.A. (“Hollywood”) + KES (“film”) with IDE (“fish”) | ||
| 30 | GHOSTS | Writes on behalf of good MCs (6) |
| G(ood) + HOSTS (“MCs”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MARTINS | Flyers for service inspiring rector (7) |
| MATINS (“service”) inspiring R(ector) | ||
| 2 | REPUDIATE | Push back about dessert one had (9) |
| RE (“about”) + PUD (“dessert”) + I ATE (“I had”) | ||
| 3 | GROUSE | Greek flower game (6) |
| Gr(eek) + OUSE (river, so “flower” ie that which flows) | ||
| 5 | LIME | Unpleasant secretion wipes out second tree (4) |
| (s)LIME (“unpleasant secretion” with S(econd) wiped out) | ||
| 6 | ANATOMIC | Showing body structure of a new type of bomb (8) |
| A + N(ew) + ATOMIC (“type of bomb”) | ||
| 7 | HARRY | Pester bishop to visit literary festival (5) |
| RR (right reverend, so “bishop”) to visit HAY (on-Wye)(“literary festival”) | ||
| 8 | REDRAWN | Again pulled prison guard up north (7) |
| <=WARDER (“prison guard”, up) + N(orth) | ||
| 11 | ARSENIC | As classical art ruined Nice (7) |
| ARS (Latin for “art”, so classical art) + *(nice) As is the chemical symobol for arsenic. | ||
| 14 | HITACHI | Electronics company has increased turnover after changing half its leaders (7) |
| First letters (leaders) of H(as) I(ncreased) T(urnover) A(fter) C(hanging) H(alf) I(ts) | ||
| 17 | LANDMINES | Weapons indicating elms (9) |
| L AND M IN ES Clever clue – if you put “L and M in ES”, you get E(LM)S | ||
| 18 | COLOGNES | Fragrances pass over genders, oddly (8) |
| COL (“pass”) + O(ver) + G(e)N(d)E(r)S (odd letters only) | ||
| 19 | RECITAL | Park country’s unfinished concert (7) |
| REC (“park”) + ITAL(y) (“country”, unfinished) | ||
| 21 | ANNUALS | You break records for chrysanthemums? (7) |
| U (textspeak for “you”) breaking ANNALS (“records”)
This one is a little clumsy grammatically, as U is breakING ANNALS. |
||
| 22 | WRAITH | Artist comes in with an apparition (6) |
| RA (“artist”) comes in WITH | ||
| 24 | CLOCK | Time for male to cross line (5) |
| COCK (“male”) to cross L(ine) | ||
| 26 | REED | Grass woodlanders up (4) |
| <=DEER (“woodlanders”, up) | ||
*anagram
Enjoyed this. A fairly quick solve with the NW last to fall. I do like clues such as the one for LANDMINES.
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick.
Thanks loonapick. If you look carefully, a number of entries relate to 25a.
Gosh yes – didn’t see that at all, but it’s obvious after you point it out.
Loved the theme, one of my very favourites. That last scene… magnificent. I can spot ten thematic clues and there are probably a few I’ve missed. It’s the second time we’ve had this theme in about the last year, (Hoskins in the Indy I think), but I’m definitely not complaining.
A big thanks to Chalmie and loonapick.
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Really enjoyed this one, completely oblivious to any theme – in fact, after Chalmie@2 suggested there was one, I quite happily found about 7 or 8 man’s names (MARTIN, HARRY, CORY, TOM, COL, SID, AL and ED) scattered throughout the grid … :-/ Haven’t read or seen The THIRD MAN so most of the references would have passed me by anyway.
Didn’t know this meaning of PAIR, hadn’t heard of CORYZA and twigging that it might be a reverse hidden had to look up what it was. Hadn’t come across the V-1 bomb to round out a day that showed more about what I didn’t know than what I did !
Loved the clue for LANDMINES when it finally dawned on me what was going on with ‘elms’.
Finished with RAPTOR (an original clue for it), MARTINS (put off by thinking that it had MASS around instead of MATINS) and the very clever ARSENIC (with another unknown term in the Latin ARS for ‘art’ and again falling for not seeing the chemical symbol for it until way too late !!)