Today’s mid-week entertainment has been supplied by Gila, one of the newer Indy compilers.
I found this to be a rather tough puzzle and I needed to work really hard to finish it. One of the difficulties was some more unusual vocabulary that I did not know and had to work out (satisfactorily) from the wordplay alone, e.g. at 11, 20D, 21, 25 and 26.
My favourite clues today were 28 and 10, both of which were clear in terms of what the answers had to be but which it took me a good long while to parse; 4, for its smooth surface and somewhat surprising definition; and 12, for its surface reading, which made me laugh out loud.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | ANTIBIOTICS | It’s always primarily Bitcoin getting traded for drugs
*(IT’S A<lways> + BITCOIN); “primarily” means first letter only; “getting traded for” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | BUS | Transport from Britain to America
B (=Britain) + US (=America) |
| 09 | RAITA | Portion of chapati arranged around another side dish
Reversed (“around”) and hidden in (“portion of”) “chapATI Arranged; a raita is an Indian dish of chopped vegetables in yoghurt |
| 10 | LIVERPOOL | One who is almost crazy about a British city
LIVER (=one who is, lives) + POOL (LOOP<y>=crazy; “almost” means last letter is dropped; “about” indicates reversal) |
| 11 | PARCHEESI | Board game is cheaper when damaged
*(IS CHEAPER); “when damaged” is anagram indicator; Parcheesi is an American brand-name version of the Indian cross and circle board game Pachisi |
| 12 | NUDGE | Jog naked without the first sign of guilt
G<uilt> (“first sign of” means first letter of) in NUDE (=naked); to jog someone’s memory is to nudge him/her a nudge |
| 13 | ETHICAL | In France, and in ancient Rome, this essentially heralded having good morals
ET (=in France and, i.e. the French word for and) + HIC (=in ancient Rome this, i.e. a Latin word for this) + <her>AL<ded> (“essentially” means middle letters only) |
| 15 | ECHO | Reverberating effect of an organ in 10
The Liverpool Echo is a local newspaper (=organ) in Liverpool (=entry at 10) |
| 18 | UBER | Taxi company over in Germany
“über” is the German word for “over” |
| 20 | GRENADE | Fruit syrup … in goes pineapple, for example
GRENAD<in>E (=fruit syrup; “in goes” means the letters “in” are dropped); “pineapple” is a slang word for a hand grenade |
| 23 | EXPEL | Chuck out extremely expensive laptop initially fitted with outdated OS
XP (=outdated OS, i.e. for Windows) in [E<xpensiv>E (“extremely” means first and last letters only) + L<aptop> (“initially” means first letter only)] |
| 24 | DONATIONS | People entering party with small gifts
NATION (=people) in [DO (=party) + S (=small, of sizes)] |
| 26 | WINNEBAGO | A motor home I won and began to convert
*(I WON + BEGAN); “to convert” is anagram indicator; Winnebago is an American manufacturer of motor homes |
| 27 | AUDEN | Poet seen in a university study
A + U (=university) + DEN (=study); the reference is to the English-American poet W H Auden (1907-23) |
| 28 | EAT | Have chicken, maybe, but no starter
<m>EAT (=chicken, maybe); “but no starter” means that the first letter is dropped |
| 29 | ORDERLINESS | Organisation supplied goods including cocaine?
LINES (=cocaine) in ORDERS (=supplied goods, i.e. goods that are supplied) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | AIRSPEED | Doctor praised when accepting drug for an elevated rate
E (=drug, i.e. Ecstasy) in *(PRAISED); “doctor” is anagram indicator; cryptically, “airspeed” could be described as an elevated (=”high up”, in the air) rate (=speed) |
| 02 | TRIARCHY | Attempt to comprehend one principal system of government involving few people
[I (=one) + ARCH (=principal)] in TRY (=attempt) |
| 03 | BRASH | Flashy underwear with see-through lining
BRA (=underwear) + S<ee-throug>H (“lining” means – here at least – the first and last letters only) |
| 04 | OIL WELL | From the outset, Othello is lacklustre and thoroughly boring
O<thello> I<s> L<acklsutre> (“from the outset” means first letters only) + WELL (=thoroughly) |
| 05 | INVOICE | Statement compiled by current head of narcotics and old vice cops
I (=current, in physics) + N<arcotics> (“head of” means first letter only) + [O (=old) in VICE)] |
| 06 | SCRUNCHIE | Chic nurse sporting colourful hair elastic
*(CHIC NURSE); “sporting” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | BLOODY | Gory, heartlessly brutal documentary receives two Oscars
O O (=two Oscars, i.e. in radio telecommunications) in [B<ruta>L + D<ocumentar>Y (“heartlessly” means all middle letters are dropped)] |
| 08 | SALTED | Large – with full coating – like some nuts?
L (=large, in sizes) in SATED (=full, satisfied) |
| 14 | CABALLERO | Spanish guy investing energy into renovation of local bar
E (=energy) in *(LOCAL BAR); “renovation of” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | CANOODLE | Fondle around the head
CA (=about, circa) + NOODLE (=the head, colloquially) |
| 17 | PERSONAS | Characters left out of newspaper dating ads
PERSONA<l>S (=dating ads); “left (=L) out” means letter “l” is dropped; personas are characters in works of fictions, especially in plays |
| 19 | RED CARD | One from Hearts maybe get punishment for a second booking
Hearts should be understood as a (red) suit in a pack of cards |
| 20 | GIN SOUR | Cocktail that may be rousing
*(ROUSING); “that may be” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | PEEWEE | Relieve yourself – more than once – of young children
PEE (=relieve yourself) + WEE (=relieve yourself) |
| 22 | SPINET | Special kind of glass used to cover electronic instrument
S (=special) + [E (=electronic) in PINT (=kind of glass)] |
| 25 | THALI | Piece of paratha likely to make an Indian meal
Hidden (“part of”) in “paraTHA LIkely”; a thali is a set meal of various curry dishes |
Finished this reasonably quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it. Had seen PEEWEE before, as in Peewee Herman, but was unsure of its meaning. Didn’t know THALI but this was an easy guess.
LIVERPOOL was the clue that took me longest to decipher.
Thanks to Gila and RatkojaRiku.
I’d never heard of PEEWEE. According to Collins and the ODE it’s US usage. It is listed in Chambers without any reference to US usage, but I didn’t think that Chambers was the primary reference for non-barred cryptics. I entered WEEWEE, but without any confidence that it was correct although it seemed to fit the clue, as it should be hyphenated. I was able to parse LIVERPOOL, but not EAT.
Some pretty good clues in this crossword.
Thanks Gila and RR
A good puzzle, I thought, that was quite stretching. I do have one minor quibble over 5, though, as a statement is more usually a periodic summary of invoices and credits.
Many thanks Gila
some obscurities, like LIVERPOOL (just kidding, but I didn’t know the ECHO). My only problem was whether to fill in peewee or weewee (ah autocorrect is deciding for me!). Plenty of fun. And sheer delight after today’s Guardian. Nudge was fun, ETHICAL tricky, liked CANOODLE and SCRUNCHIE as well as BLOODY and SALTED and BRASH.
thanks also RR as always
dutch@4: I did a WEEWEE on 21dn too.
Quite a few I couldn’t parse including 10ac and 15ac. And once I had them, well obviously the organ had to be the liver, so what had that to do with ECHO.
We print our own dead tree version so WEEWEE for 21dn seemed the obvious answer. Having lived in LIVERPOOL for a year I knew the ECHO and we thought that ‘organ’ suggesting ‘liver’ was a neat bit of misdirection – pity the two words aren’t the same length. And a nice misdirection in 22dn as well; it took a while for the penny to drop that we had to separate ‘electronic’ from ‘instrument’.
Regarding 23ac, having been incommunicado for about an hour this morning while Windows 10 updated itself, our feeling was ‘come back XP, all is forgiven!’
A nice challenge but not too difficult. Thanks, Gila and RatkojaRiku.