A pleasing and appropriately gentle Monday puzzle from Anglio, who made his Indy debut almost exactly three years ago. All good stuff, apart from one clue which I can’t parse to my satisfaction.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Clever device, note, in Tom Sharpe novel
SMARTPHONE
N inserted into (TOM SHARPE)* A really clever, misleading surface. No need to think about Porterhouse College at all.
7 Figure on coin (fifty pence piece)
TYPE
Hidden in fifTY PEnce.
9 Circle Line, accordingly, goes around city
OSLO
A reversal (‘goes around’) of O, L and SO.
10 Church official‘s mischievous, having area coned off outside
ARCHDEACON
A charade of ARCH and A inserted into (CONED)* The insertion indicator is ‘outside’; the anagrind is ‘off’.
11 Brief film entertains wife
LAWYER
An insertion of W in LAYER.
12 Name of bird I refuse to eat
IDENTITY
An insertion of TIT in I DENY.
13 Forged ahead, mostly, with barn dance
HABANERA
(AHEA[D] BARN)* with ‘dance’ ‘forged’ as the anagrind. Dance is definitely not my specialist subject, so since all the crossers were vowels, it was a question of seeing how to arrange the consonants to see what looked most likely. BAHARENA sounded quite tempting for a while.
15 Slight charge for refreshments – not bad
BARB
Not the most obvious wordplay: it’s BARB[ILL]. Good surface though.
17 In fall, one dislocated thumb
LEAF
A cd cum dd.
19 Superman’s motive, it’s said, is philanthropy
LARGESSE
I can’t quite get this to work. Anglio is referring, I think, to the big letter S on the superhero in question: thus LARGE S, which is a homophone (‘it’s said’ of the solution). But the S is not a ‘motive’ but a ‘motif’. So I am confused, which is not unknown these days. Happen someone out there has a better explanation.
Edit: dictionaries do give ‘motive’ as an alternative spelling for the ‘design’ definition, so the clue is fine. Thanks to Hovis for explaining this one.
22 Volley first struck shoulder
ROADSIDE
[B]ROADSIDE
23 Worry about test for supporting metal framework
GANTRY
A reversal of NAG followed by TRY.
25 German veterans assembled around old memorial
GRAVESTONE
An insertion (‘around’) of O for ‘old’ in (G VETERANS)*
26 Call round for set
LAID
A reversal of DIAL. ‘Set’ holds the record for the longest entry in the OED (approx 60,000 words, the length of a novel). Which is what made this one tricky even with the crossing letters.
27 Notice jam stain
SPOT
Not a dd, but a td.
28 In here, might model meet biggest fan?
WIND TUNNEL
A cd.
Down
2 Mum’s car key could be found in handbag, perhaps
MASCARA
The contents of a woman’s handbag have always been a mystery to me, and I am happy for it to remain that way. A charade of MA’S, CAR and A for the ‘key’ with three sharps in it. Another brilliant surface.
3 Large anchor pulled up onto prow of yacht
ROOMY
A reversal of MOOR and Y for the first letter of ‘yacht’. The reversal indicator is ‘pulled up’, which works because it’s a down clue.
4 Colour match in ink container
PEA GREEN
I rather stupidly slapped in SEA GREEN at first, which didn’t help matters with the intersecting across clue. We are, of course, in Owl and Pussycat territory. It’s an insertion of AGREE in PEN.
5 Cryptic clue in one newspaper’s leader: ‘a boom with extremely low frequency‘
ONCE IN A BLUE MOON
(CLUE IN ONE N A BOOM)* with ‘cryptic’ as the anagrind.
6 Journalist quits current affairs?
EDDIES
A whimsical definition of the charade that is ED DIES.
7 Short circuit on board is easily managed
TRACTABLE
A charade of TRAC[K] and TABLE.
8 University official gets a month inside for extortion, essentially
PROCTOR
The setter is asking you to tease out R for the middle letter (‘essentially’) of extoRtion and then insert OCT into PRO and the said R.
14 A fellow, if climbing crane, supplies legal document
AFFIDAVIT
A charade of A, F, IF reversed and DAVIT for a ship’s ‘crane’.
16 Scrap paper surrounds Steptoe and Son?
FRAGMENT
The Pink’Un, or FT, is surrounding RAGMEN, which is what Albert and Harold were.
18 An act of self-importance, say, to put up rent
EGO TRIP
A charade of EG, a reversal of TO and RIP for ‘rent’ in its nounal sense.
20 Yes, six volts is maintained – it’s live
SURVIVE
An insertion of VI and V in SURE.
21 Talk about soldier going north then south in cutter
JIGSAW
Another insertion: of GI reversed (‘going north’, again because it’s a down clue) and S in JAW.
24 Broadcast only new material
NYLON
(ONLY N)* gives you the synthetic material whose name lots of people believe comes from the fact that it was developed in New York and London. Just in case it ever comes up in polite conversation, that’s complete bollocks. Someone made it up and because it’s vaguely plausible, people believed it. Like the £350m per week savings that are going to the NHS after 29th March.
Many thanks to Anglio for this morning’s puzzle to start the Indy week.
A brilliantly constructed crossword. Superb surfaces with a few tricky clues thrown in. Took me ages to get ROADSIDE and BARB, my LOI.
According to Chambers, ‘motive’ can mean ‘motif’, so another great construction.
Slight error in blog for 13a. Anagrind is ‘forged’ not ‘dance’.
Shame an almost identical clue appears in today’s FT. Won’t say which.
Thanks to Anglio for a great start to the week and to Pierre for the blog.
Thanks, Hovis, for the explanations.
I found this a bit tricky, but got there in the end. I only belatedly saw why ‘leaf’ was ‘thumb’ and DNK ‘davit’ as a crane, ‘motive’ as an alternative spelling for ‘motif’ or that ‘type’ was a figure on a coin, so I guess I’ve learnt something today. Thanks Anglio and Pierre.
Thanks Anglio; a really entertaining solve.
I loved LARGESSE, BARB and PROCTOR among others.
Thanks Pierre for the good blog; I missed the for = pro in PROCTOR, doh! I thought of SEA GREEN but soon discarded it.
I found this tricky in places so the least Monday-ish crossword I’ve solved so far today
Lots to enjoy – I particularly liked the ‘current affairs’ in 6d
Thanks to Anglio and Pierre
Full of brilliant surfaces and highly enjoyable. Admired 11A, 12A, 15A, 19A, 3D, 6D and 16D FRAGMENT particularly. L2I were BARB and ROADSIDE.
Thanks to Anglio – hope to see more of you – and to Pierre for the blog.
Thanks to Pierre and Anglio
Top stuff with lots of 1acrosses.
Collins seems to suggest that MOTIVE is an alternative spelling for MOTIF only in the sense of “a recurring theme”, and not for a one-off design element, but I suppose Clark had more than one change of clothes.
The point of 19 is that motif and motive are the homophones.
David@8. I have to disagree. The homonym is that LARGESSE sounds like LARGE S. One could argue that “it’s said” is doing double duty but I don’t like that and it’s not necessary.
David, I thought too about ‘motif’ and ‘motive’ being the homophones, but like Hovis, I don’t think it does, or can, work that way round. I’m happy now that the optional spellings have been pointed out.
We got it all but had the same thoughts as other people about motive/motif, and couldn’t see the parsing of ROADSIDE. We didn’t know TYPE as the figure on a coin, either.
Having worked in the dim and distant past for a company producing NYLON thread I heard the origin of the name as an acronym for a phrase challenging or defying certain orientals. I won’t quote the actual words as they’re probably not politically correct these days.
Thanks, Anglio and Pierre.
Thanks Pierre for a great blog, and thanks to all for the nice comments. I notice 19 was a little controversial – probably a bit cheeky that one, relying on the alternative spelling of motif/motive to make a good surface, but I was happy enough and thought it might raise a smile or two, if not the odd eyebrow.
I didn’t find this at all gentle, having had many attempts to complete it. In the end, I couldn’t get 15ac and 22ac.
For a long time I was playing witht eh idea that 19ac might be LUTHERAN playing on Lex Luthor being Superman’s nemesis.
A gentle Monday puzzle? I found this bloody hard! Very good though, with ROADSIDE and FRAGMENT absolutely top-notch.
Very, very good.
If I cannot complete a crossword on day 1 and if I really want to go back to it on day 2, then the feeling’s right.
My cup of tea with a couple of clues that no-one mentioned as favourites: the wonderfully simple 9ac (OSLO), and one that crosses it: 3d (ROOMY).
Not keen on 28ac (WIND TUNNEL) though [because I do not have a proper antenna for cryptic definitions – I always left those to Rufus].
Thanks to Pierre & Anglio.