A standard plain crossword. this week.
I thought this was more difficult than many plain puzzles. Of course it didn’t help by putting in CHIPMUNK originally at 1 across, rather than the correct CHIPMUCK. Eventually that got sorted out when I realised there weren’t many words going to begin NH at 6 down.
Just the one compound anagram this week, but it was a really good one for the small constellation, ANTLIA at 30 across.
I liked the allusion to ill-fated gangster in the clue for CEREMENT In fact, I thought the surfaces of all the clues this week were excellent
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Imp deviously tucked into food for squirrel (8) |
Anagram of (deviously) IMP contained in (tucked into) CHUCK (cut of beef; food) CH (IPM*) UCK |
CHIPMUCK (any mainly terrestrial squirrel of North America) |
| 8 | Country gardener (4) |
MALI (country in Africa) MALI |
MALI (member of the gardener caste in India, etc) double definition |
| 13 | Like a marine invertebrate, form of headless sea-urchin (9) |
Anagram of (form of) SEA-URCHIN excluding the first letter (headless) S ECHIURAN* |
ECHIURAN (like a marine vertebrate) |
| 14 | Full-voiced native to get excited endlessly about nothing (8) |
(SON [native] + ROUSE [get excited] excluding the last letter [endlessly] E) containing (about) O (zero; nothing) Alternatively it could be AROUSE excluding both end letters (endlessly) A and E SON (O) ROUS |
SONOROUS (sounding, especially loudly, deeply, impressively, etc; full-voiced) |
| 15 | Scottish mat, wide, incorporated in E. Indian matting (4) |
W (wide) contained in (included in) TAT (East Indian hempen matting) TA (W) T |
TAWT (Scottish verb meaning ‘to mat’) |
| 16 | One sending message in part broadcast externally (6) |
TEXTER (hidden word in [in part] BROADCAST EXTERNALLY) TEXTER |
TEXTER (one who sends a TEXT message) |
| 18 | Short lines, not many lacking width, prevalent in old poetry (4) |
RY (abbreviation for railway; short lines) + FEW (not many) excluding (lacking) W (width) RY FE |
RYFE (Spenserian [old poet’s] word for RIFE [prevalent]) |
| 19 | Beetle to cause alarm in places? Lot losing heart kept inside (7) |
LOT excluding the central letter (losing heart) O contained in (kept inside) SKEER (dialect [in places] word meaning scary [cause alarm]) SKE (LT) ER |
SKELTER (scurry; beetle) |
| 20 | Exaggerates distance abroad covered by polar hero (10) |
VERST (Russian measure of length, approximately 1.07km) contained in (covered by) OATES (reference Captain Lawrence OATES [1880 – 1912], who died during an Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole) O (VERST) ATES |
OVERSTATES (exaggerates) |
| 22 | Club poem’s recast, causing fluster (10) |
DISCO (club where music is provided) + an anagram of (recast) POEM’S DISCO MPOSE* |
DISCOMPOSE (disturb or agitate; fluster) |
| 26 | Woodlice disconcerted cousins (7) |
Anagram of (disconcerted) COUSINS ONISCUS* |
ONISCUS (genus of woodlice) |
| 27 | Head (see) disposed of rustic cat (4) |
CHURL (agricultural labourer; rustic) excluding (disposed of) the first letter (head) C (see) HURL |
HURL (slang for vomit, as is cat) |
| 30 | Small constellation? There’s lines solemn Scot composed with this one (6) |
This is one of Azed’s compound anagrams involving words in the clue and the answer. SMALL CONSTELLATION is an anagram of (composed with) SOLEMN, SCOT, LL (lines) and ANTLIA (the grid entry) SMALL CONSTELLATION* ANTLIA |
ANTLIA (small southern constellation) |
| 32 | Idle woman getting stuck into hock (4) |
W (women) contained in (getting stuck into) HAM (a hock can be a joint of HAM or pork) HA (W) M |
HAWM (lounge about; idle) |
| 33 | Part of Burns night menu, tons of minimum quality (8) |
TATTIES (reference haggis, neaps and TATTIES that form the main components of a Burns night meal) + T (tons) TATTIES T |
TATTIEST (mist tawdry or shabby; of minimum quality) |
| 34 | Fatty substances, one in blended lotions (8) |
I (Roman numeral for one) contained in (in) an anagram of (blended) LOTIONS INOS (I) TOL* |
INOSITOL (a lipid that is essential for the formation of cell membranes; fatty substance) |
| 35 | One famous for severity? Requires working on in company (4) |
AT (working on) contained in (in) CO (company) C (AT) O |
CATO (reference CATO the Elder [234 -149BC), a Roman senator and historian known for his conservatism and severity) |
| 36 | About to be buried in mortar – equivalent of this for ill-fated gangster? (8) |
RE (with reference to; about) contained in (to be buried) in CEMENT (mortar) CE (RE) MENT |
CEREMENT (cloth dipped in melted wax, formerly used to wrap a dead body in; any burial clothes.) Jimmy Hoffa [1913 – somewhere between 1975 and 1982] was allegedly buried in cement by mobsters in Chicago |
| Down | |||
| 2 | Eggs laid in alternative to hay stuff (5) |
OO (two letters shaped like eggs) contained in (laid in) HEY (alternative spelling of HAY where the meaning is a winding country dance) H (OO) EY |
HOOEY (nonsense; stuff) |
| 3 | Relatives of woodpecker, one cat topped (4) |
I (Roman numeral for one) + LYNX (type of cat) excluding the first letter (topped) L I YNX |
IYNX (variant spelling of JYNX, the wryneck genus which is related to the woodpecker) |
| 4 | Petit-bourgeois passion to climb in what’s ‘smart’ (9) |
(IRE [passion] + TO) reversed (to climb; down clue) contained in (in) POSH (smart) PO (OT ERI)< SH |
POOTERISH (petiti-bourgeois, conventional and unimaginative) |
| 5 | Traditional game – league retained by clubs (6) |
L (league) contained in (retained by) MERES (war-clubs) MERE (L) S |
MERELS (a rustic game played by two people with counters on a figure marked on the ground, a board, etc, consisting of three squares, one within another, the object to get three counters in a row at the intersection of the lines joining the corners and the mid-points of the sides; traditional game) |
| 6 | One responsible for pitch, we hear, in period of play (6) |
CHUKKA (sounds like [we hear] CHUCKER [one who pitches a ball]) CHUKKA |
CHUKKA (period of play, being one of the divisions in a game of polo) |
| 7 | Fate placing the writer in coffin (6) |
ME (the writer) contained in (placing … in) KIST (coffin) KIS (ME) T |
KISMET (fate or destiny) |
| 9 | Horse, adult, frenzied, I had docked (4) |
A (adult) + RABID (frenzied) excluding (docked) I’D (I had) A RAB |
ARAB (a horse of a native Arabian breed popular for its grace and speed) |
| 10 | I lost trick being trapped by girl’s unruly (7) |
WILE (trick) excluding (lost) I contained in (being trapped by) LASS (girl) LA (WLE) SS |
LAWLESS (unruly) |
| 11 | Link involved with Parisian ground, behindhand (11) |
IN (involved with) + TERRE (French [Parisian] for soil, earth; ground) + LATE (behindhand) IN TERRE LATE |
INTERRELATE (link) |
| 12 | Germanic of a kind? Varied roots run deep, mostly (11) |
Anagram of (varied) ROOTS + GO (run) + THICK (deep) excluding the final letter (mostly) K OSTRO* GO THIC |
OSTROGOTHIC (relating to a member of the Germanic people who established their power in Italy in 493, and were overthrown in 555; Germanic of a kind) |
| 17 | Met ship foundering south of Asian capital, the work of brigands (9) |
KL (Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia; Asian capital) + an anagram of (foundering) MET SHIP KL EPHTISM* |
KLEPHTISM (Originally reference to the KLEPHT, one of the Greeks who took to the mountains in patriotic resistance to the 15c Turkish conquest of Greece, or one of their descendants, but by the 19c merely brigands) |
| 21 | Window, in nave, cracked, letting sun in (7) |
Anagram of (cracked) NAVE containing (letting … in) TAN (expose to the sun; TAN and sun are verbs in this context) VEN (TAN) A* |
VENTANA (window) |
| 23 | Regarding early Irish immigrants, I brought in block (not the last) (6) |
I contained in (brought in) SCOTCH (frustrate; quash; block) excluding the final letter (not the last) H SCOT (I) C |
SCOTIC (relating to the ancient Scots, incomers from Ireland. |
| 24 | No 2 in pub opening quantity of bottles? Possibly (6) |
U (second letter in [no 2 in] PUB) contained in (opening) CRATE (quantity of bottles) C (U) RATE |
CURATE (in Ireland, an assistant barman who could well be No 2 in a pub opening quantity of bottles) &Lit clue |
| 25 | Obscure insect found in climbing tree (6) |
ANT (insect) contained in (found in) ELM (type of tree) reversed (climbing; down clue) M (ANT) LE< |
MANTLE (cover; obscure) |
| 28 | Advanced in rank from nothing at Mons around end thereof (5) |
RIEN (nothing in French. Mons is in Belgium where French is spoken) containing (around) S (last letter of [end] MONS) RI (S) EN |
RISEN (advanced in rank) |
| 29 | Mug drunk with a dash of water in (4) |
SOT (drunk) containing (with a ) W (first letter of [dash of] WATER) S (W) OT |
SWOT (mug) |
| 31 | Light now rarely seen in the battlements (4) |
LEME (hidden word in [in] BATTLEMENTS) LEME |
LEME (old word [rarely seen] for a gleam of light) |
I don’t like 30 across. The “ll” for “lines” is sneaking towards the “clue to a clue”. I know Don Manley condones it in some cases but it’s not for me.
Stefan
Marmite Smauggler@1
ll for lines is a specific entry in Chambers
Aye: ll abbrev. And “CV” might, or might not, mean “chevaux”. And, if I see “CV” in a clue and I’m supposed to construe it as “chevaux” for the purpose of forming an anagram, I’ll raise an eyebrow. Likewise if I see “chevaux” in a clue and I’m supposed to construe it as “CV” for the purpose of forming an anagram, I shall raise an eyebrow.
I have only two eyebrows and I’m just too old to get spatty.
Stefan
Marmite Smuggler @3
I think CV for Chevaux is OK, as in the Citroen 2CV – Deux Chevaux
I have a slight issue with 34a – strictly speaking, Inositol is a sugar, not a lipid, but Chambers doesn’t tell you this.
Thanks to Duncanshiell and Azed.