Took me a while to complete this puzzle this morning.
I couldn’t get into the top half of the grid at all, but thankfully the bottom half was a bit more straightforward, and I built the solutions up from the bottom, and got there in the end.
I think “auxiliaries” in 21ac is superfluous, and I’m not sure why “commands” in 27ac should be used as an insertion indicator, but otherwise this was a fine puzzle with some interesting definitions. My favourites were 14dn and 31ac.
Thanks, Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SUPPLE | Flexible accessory releasing workers on time (6) |
| SUPPLE (ment) (“accessory” releasing MEN (“workers”) and T (time)) | ||
| 4 | ASBESTOS | A distress call brings in top firefighter (8) |
| A S.O.S. (“distress call”) brings in BEST (“top”) | ||
| 10 | EXECUTE | Top director sacking four (7) |
| EXECUT(iv)E (“director”, sacking IV (“four”)) | ||
| 11 | OPUS DEI | Religious group’s Oedipus complex (4,3) |
| *(oedipus) | ||
| 12 | ROOM | Bouncer beginning to make space (4) |
| (kanga)ROO (“bouncer”) + [beginning to] M(ake) | ||
| 13 | FULL-LENGTH | Like ball gowns and some balls (4-6) |
| Long ball gowns and balls in cricket which pitch near the batsman can both be described as full-length. | ||
| 16 | GRISLY | Horrible bear caught (6) |
| Homophone [caught] of GRIZZLY (“bear”) | ||
| 17 | PELICAN | Big bird left one clutching nut? On the contrary (7) |
| PECAN (“nut”) clutching L (left) + I (“one”) | ||
| 20 | PALE ALE | Faint, swallowing green drink (4,3) |
| PALE (“faint”) swallowng LEA (“green”) | ||
| 21 | CANDID | Frank’s auxiliaries also in police (6) |
| AND (“also”) in CID (Criminal Investigation Department, so “police”)
Not sure why “auxiliaries” is in the clue? |
||
| 24 | EYE CONTACT | Method when grilling star on air with discretion (3,7) |
| Homophone [on air] of ICON (“star”) with TACT (“discretion”) | ||
| 25 | BAIL | Herb avoids middle one of four bars at Lord’s (4) |
| BA(s)IL (“herb”, with middle letter avoided).
For those not au fait with cricket, the bail is the small piece of fashioned wood that sits on top of the wicket, two on each, thus “one of four bars at Lord’s (cricket ground)” |
||
| 27 | BEWITCH | Black and white bust commands college entrance (7) |
| B (black) + *(white) commands C (college) | ||
| 29 | ANCIENT | Very old soldier owns new company in Paris (7) |
| ANT (“soldier”) owns N (new) + Cie. (French equivalent of Co. (company), short for companie) | ||
| 30 | GEOMETRY | Travel round Spain with this writer to test some maths (8) |
| GO (“travel”) round E (international vehicle registration for “Spain”) with ME (“this writer”) + TRY (“to test”) | ||
| 31 | SENTRY | Guard who’s maybe boxed first of several competitors (6) |
| [first of] S(everal) + ENTRY (“competitors”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STEERAGE | Lowest fare always for poet in coach (8) |
| E’ER (“always for poet”) in STAGE (“coach”) | ||
| 2 | PREDOMINATE | Groom roped in mate to be best man? (11) |
| *(roped in mate) | ||
| 3 | LOUD | Large rotund regulars ignored forte (4) |
| L (large) + (r)O(t)U(n)D [regulars ignored] | ||
| 5 | SHOULDER | Smallholder traps superior bear (8) |
| S (small) + HOLDER traps U (“superior”) | ||
| 6 | ECUMENICAL | Catholic English copper with minion casing clubs (10) |
| E (English) + Cu (chemical symbol for “copper”) with MENIAL (“minion”) casing C (clubs) | ||
| 7 | TED | Dry Irish politician hosts European (3) |
| T.D. (Irish politician, equivalent of our M.P) hosts E (European) | ||
| 8 | SMITHY | Hot work here with German in cast (6) |
| MIT (“with” in German) in SHY (“cast”) | ||
| 9 | LEMUR | Primate breaks rule governing Mass (5) |
| *(rule) covering M (mass) | ||
| 14 | GRANDPARENT | Golf partner played round with relative (11) |
| G (golf, in the phonetic alphabet) + *(partner) round AND (“with”) | ||
| 15 | BLUEBOTTLE | Bobby’s fly (10) |
| Double definition; policemen are sometimes (or at least used to be) referred to as bluebottles due to their dark blue uniforms. | ||
| 18 | FLETCHER | Christian who makes flights (8) |
| Refers to Fletcher Christian, who famously took control of HMS Bounty from Lieutenant Bligh in 1789. A fletcher is also someone who makes arrows (hence “who makes flights”) | ||
| 19 | IDOLATRY | I go over to visit Los Angeles for hero-worshipping (8) |
| I + TRY (“go”) over DO L.A. (“to visit Los Angeles”) | ||
| 22 | TEA BAG | Leaves container label covering each barrel (3,3) |
| TAG (“label”) covering EA. (each) + B (barrel) | ||
| 23 | OCEAN | Main canoe wrecked (5) |
| *(canoe) | ||
| 26 | ACHE | Gouda cheese suppresses thirst (4) |
| Hidden in (suppressed by) “goudA CHEese” | ||
| 28 | WOO | Attempt to win with rings (3) |
| W (with) + OO (“rings”) | ||
*anagram
Thanks for a great blog, loonapick.
I made little headway with the across clues [apart from the inspired Oedipus complex and a couple of others] but once I got to the downs it started to unravel most satisfyingly.
I had question marks against ‘auxiliaries’ and ‘commands’, too, but, apart from that, I thought the cluing was ingenious and meticulous as always. I smiled at the smallholder, once I saw it – in fact, as expected, the surfaces throughout were apt and amusing. I particularly liked PREDOMINATE and GRANDPARENT.
Many thanks to Redshank – I really enjoyed it.
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick.
I also had question marks against ‘auxiliaries’ and ‘commands’ but also, in a very similar way to the latter, had a question mark against ‘governing’ in 9d.
I like Redshank/Crucible so I would like to be able to defend “auxiliaries” but I cant really other than say if you remove that word it is a rather bleak surface.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick.
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick. A good workout. I had the same problem with “commands” but also did not know TD for TED and at first did not see “caught” as a homophone indicator for GRISLY. I had recently come across “bear” = SHOULDER in another cryptic, and my LOI was BAIL which I did parse but had to look up to be sure it was a cricket term.
In 21a, can and did are auxiliary verbs. Bonus route to the solution.
Well done Nila Palin – a good crossword just got better. Thanks Redshank & Loonapick.
I wonder if ‘commands’ in 27 across and ‘governing’ in 9 down are misprints. In the blog ‘governing’ is replaced by ‘covering’, which may have been what Redshank intended. Perhaps ‘commands’ was meant to be ‘commandeers’.
Thanks for the blog, Loonapick.
I had to give up on this as I was losing my temper with its irritating awfulness.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Actually started in the top left hand corner getting STEERAGE, ROOM and EXECUTE quite quickly but did have to go away soon after and come back to finish that corner off with GRISLY at the end of the solve.
The only new term was the TD – Teachia Daia – for the Irish politician. Particularly liked GEOMETRY and thought that EYE CONTACT was quite good as well.
Enjoyed the puzzle a lot.