Not as hard as Io can be, but no pushover either! Thanks Io.
There is a theme here: see Hovis @1 for the explanation
| Across | ||
| 1 | PAMPHLET | Tract’s moving plate, and speed across it (8) |
| anagram (moving) of PLATE contains (and…across it ?) MPH (speed) – I can’t quite explain how the containment indicator works | ||
| 5 | CAMP | Where holidaymakers may be affected (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 9 | LARKSPUR | Songbird settled beside egg on delphinium (8) |
| LARK (songbird) then (settled beside) SPUR (egg on) | ||
| 10 | PEARLS | Rope, say, belted chaps with power (6) |
| EARLS (belted chaps ?) following (with) P (power) – just a guess, but Wikipedia says this of earls: by the 14th century, creating an earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around the waist of the new earl, emphasizing the fact that the earl’s rights came from him. | ||
| 12 | SWINE | Function with suckling pigs (5) |
| SINE (function) contains (…suckling ?) W (with) – another containment indicator that I don’t understand, it seems the wrong way around | ||
| 13 | PLAIT | Provider’s left milk, French bread (5) |
| Provider (first letter, left letter of) then LAIT (milk, French) | ||
| 14 | NAB | It’s important to secure a nick (3) |
| NB (it’s important) containing (to secure) A | ||
| 15 | LAGOS | Left pass in a South African port (5) |
| L (left) then GO (pass) in A S (south) | ||
| 17 | BOMBAY MIX | Out of my box, I am after b—— spicy stuff (6,3) |
| anagram (out) of MY BOX I AM following (after) B | ||
| 19, 21 | BEFORE AND AFTER | End to end ale stalls? See what a difference X makes (6,3,5) |
| FORE AND AFT (end to end) inside (…that…stalls) BEER (ale) | ||
| 23 | ROO | Little jumper’s not enough space? (3) |
| ROOm (space) unfinished (not enough of) | ||
| 24 | LATHE | Turner Prize “Leather Zip Undone” failed to secure (5) |
| an anagram (undone) of LEATHER ZIP missing (…failed to secure) PRIZE | ||
| 26 | ELBOW | Frequent crooked drinking joint? (5) |
| definition/cryptic definition – “to bend your elbow” is to have a beer | ||
| 28 | DINNER | For banquet, hotel rejected wine boxes (6) |
| INN (hotel) inside (…boxes) RED (wine) reversed (rejected) | ||
| 29 | BUSINESS | Woman of opera keeps crossword compilers in employment (8) |
| BESS (woman of opera, Porgy and Bess) contains (keeps) US (crossword compilers) IN | ||
| 30 | MINT | New problem in these cases? (4) |
| found inside (cased by) probleM IN These | ||
| 31 | PLEASURE | Gratification – in modest jumble sale! (8) |
| PURE contains (in…is…) anagram (jumble) of SALE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PILLS | Pharmacist’s tip for suppressing coughs and colds? (5) |
| Pharmacist (tip, first letter) on top of (for suppressing) ILLS (coughs and colds) | ||
| 2 | MORNING | Uniform mislaid during bereavement period (7) |
| MOURNING (bereavement) missing (…mislaid during…) U (uniform) | ||
| 3 | HOSTESS TROLLEY | Yes! Those odd constitutional parts mechanised 28 service (7,7) |
| anagram (odd) of YES THOSE contains (…parts, separates) STROLL (constitutional) | ||
| 4 | EQUIP | Supply example of online wit? (5) |
| E-QUIP (example of online wit) | ||
| 6 | ACRONYM | 2 with friend in Nasa? (7) |
| AM (morning) contains (with…in) CRONY (friend) – Nasa is an example of an acronym | ||
| 7 | POSTBOX | 21 fight: some correspondence here? (7) |
| POST (after, 21) BOX (fight) | ||
| 8 | CENTRAL AMERICA | I rent a car and camel to get round here? (7,7) |
| anagram (to get round) of I RENT A CAR and CAMEL | ||
| 11 | TALMUD | Money invested in rewriting of adult legal code (6) |
| M (money) inside (invested in) anagram (rewriting) of ADULT | ||
| 16 | AGE | 25% knocked off jail term (3) |
| cAGE (jail) with 25% missing | ||
| 17 | BEAUTY | Nice water taps initially put in by Grace (6) |
| EAU (water in Nice, France) Taps (initial letter of) inside (put in) BY | ||
| 18 | ICE | Rocks kill American (3) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | BOREDOM | Pole’s signal to stop breaking monotony (7) |
| BOOM (pole) contains (has…breaking) RED (signal to stop) | ||
| 20 | FROWN ON | Disapprove of seaside walk being curtailed – acknowledge cuts (5,2) |
| FRONt (seaside walk, being curtailed) contains (…cuts) OWN (acknowledge) | ||
| 22 | TABLEAU | Letter from Athens about clever theatrical scene (7) |
| TAU (Greek letter, from Athens) contains (about) ABLE (clever) | ||
| 25 | EQUAL | Having the same value as in base 50 (5) |
| QUA (as) in E (e, base of natural logarithm) L (fifty) | ||
| 27 | WASTE | Unproductive bit in the middle, so to speak? (5) |
| sounds like (so to speak) “waist” (bit in the middle) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Wonderful puzzle from IO. Unusually, I managed to complete this without any cheats but wasn’t sure of the parsing for PEARLS. Indeed, I only got this after spotting the BEFORE AND AFTER THEME (PEARLS before SWINE, after DINNER MINT, MORNING after PILLS, AGE before BEAUTY, BUSINESS before PLEASURE). Did I miss any?
Many thanks to Io and PeeDee.
A wonderful surprise – a treat of a crossword – I spotted the theme too!
Thanks to IO for the fun and to PeeDee for the blog
I missed the theme again. I don’t think this will come as a great surprise to anyone!
Thanks, PeeDee.
This is my first solve of a JH puzzle in ages. I realised that it was less fiendish than usual, of course, but that didn’t detract from my satisfaction. And I didn’t see the lovely theme, either – but I might have known there’d be something more.
Many thanks, Io, for restoring my confidence. I really enjoyed it.
I was pondering on PLAIT and PEARLS so thanks for the blog and thanks Hovis
Didnt see AGE BEFORE BEAUTY or MORNING AFTER PILLS
And good to see JH (slightly) toning down on a Wednesday
Great stuff.
Had just one unsolved, 10a, so came here to put me out of my misery. As soon as I saw it was PEARLS, I spotted the theme and confirmed all the others. Brilliant, and of course a bit easier than the norm from JH.
Thanks Io and PeeDee
An Io crossword lured me back from a stint of doing Times puzzles and well worth the transition back it was. Only able to get to it in fits and starts unfortunately but still a most enjoyable solve, despite not seeing the clever theme (so thanks Hovis for pointing that out).
I liked the clues for BEFORE AND AFTER and BOMBAY MIX. Took the ‘across it’ to be MPH like on an auction board with the SOLD sticker across the for sale wording – a bit of a stretch. I wonder if he meant the W to be a like a piglet which would be suckling at the middle – another stretch …
Finished with AGE (taking a while to work out what 4-letter prison to take a letter from), PLAIT (an unexpected definition of bread) and PEARLS (where I eventually found the term ‘belted earls’ in wiktionary with the definition as given in the blog).
FT freebie in my hotel this morning, so a rare excursion into non-weekend xwords for me. When I saw the setter I groaned. I tend to find him heavy going and a bit look-at-me; but thought this was really good. Big fan of mint and pleasure in particular.
Belted earl invokes thoughts of Kipling: cook’s son, duke’s son, son of a belted earl/son of a Lambeth Publican/it’s all the same today.
Very enjoyable even though I missed the theme. PEARLS was my last in too, after I’d finally remembered the ‘belted earl’ bit. AGE was also more difficult than it should have been.
After a couple of more benign puzzles from JH recently I look forward with some trepidation to a return to the usual level of difficulty for his next offering.
Thanks to Io and PeeDee
Lagos is not in South Africa
SM @10
Nobody has said it is. The ‘South’ is part of the wordplay, the definition is simply ‘African port’.
Thanks PeeDee and IO.
Didn’t get PEARLS.
Thanks for parsing (too) many.
Delighted now, to see ‘before and after’ theme. Simply brilliant!
Liked this a lot even though I did not get them all. Missed ICE ….get the Rocks part but cannot the Kills American part. Great stuff! Thanks to setter and solver for this.
American is not the object of kill; ice is American slang for kill.
Thanks to PeeDee and Io
I must be thick. I can’t see how (or in some cases, what):
1a ACROSS IT means INCLUDED IN
9a SETTLED BESIDE changes the clue
12a W gets inside SINE
19,21a FORE AND AFT (front AND back) comes from END TO END, or how STALLS indicates that BEER encloses anything.
26a The function of FREQUENT is
I could go on but if someone can put me straight on the above perhaps I won’t need to.
Either everyone’s too busy or this remind me of the audience reaction to a Pinter play I had the misfortune to attend a few years back. At the end the entire audience, (bar a few mystified souls such as myself), cheered it to the rafters, but the look in their eyes betrayed them. ” Please God don’t let anyone ask me what it was all about” was etched in their retinas. If one had asked, of course, one would have received the sort of look oft bestowed at “modern art” exhibitions.
Anyway, on to the business at hand.
2d This clue is a gimme. But just to complicate matters instead of GOES MISSING IN or some such, we have MISLAID DURING. This suggests that MISLAID may have been used because the U is not disposed of, but simply repositioned in MOURNING. Nope.
8d I might expect to see this in a Red Top with Anag. written next to it instead of TO GET ROUND HERE
I don’t necessarily blame the setter. Enigmatist/Io etc. is clearly brilliant, but I humbly submit(and hope) that honest feedback is vital and welcome.
And all the other clues were either ok, good or very good (IMHO).
Thanks Coby – did not know that!