A fairly straightforward Monday morning solve from Hypnos. I don’t think I’ve blogged one of his puzzles before, so this was a good start.
There were one or two not-so-common names, but the clues were all clear enough. The ideal cryptic clue should leave you puzzling for a bit, but the answer should be obviously right when you get it – and on that basis I was happy with all of these. My favourites were probably 3a, 13a, 23d and 30a for the surfaces. Thanks to Hypnos for the entertainment.
| Across | ||
| 1 | POST | Leave message online for job (4) |
| A nice simple double definition to get started. | ||
| 3 | MASCARPONE | Roman with space for manufacturing cream cheese (10) |
| Anagram (for manufacturing) of ROMAN + SPACE. | ||
| 10 | GAINFUL | Popular fellow entering France in past proves profitable (7) |
| IN (popular) F (fellow) within GAUL (a past name for France). | ||
| 11 | UTENSIL | Figure’s stuck in middle of guild showing knife, maybe (7) |
| TEN’S (figure’s) within [g]UIL[d]. | ||
| 12 | TEPEE | First place on course containing exercise in shelter (5) |
| TEE (where you start from on a golf course) containing PE (exercise). | ||
| 13 | RED-FACED | Wine expert interrupted by female director is embarrassed (3-5) |
| RED ACE (an expert on red wine) containing F (female), then D (director). | ||
| 16 | ROTATE | Turn to be enthralled by Corot at exhibition (6) |
| Hidden answer in (enthralled by) [co]ROT AT E[xhibition]. Enthral is now mostly used figuratively, in the sense of holding someone’s attention, but it originally meant to hold captive, so it’s a good insertion indicator. | ||
| 17 | ROUSSEAU | Regret in this way that’s pronounced in philosopher (8) |
| Homophone (pronounced) of RUE SO (regret in this way). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau | ||
| 19 | EXPOSURE | Industrial display certain to get airing (8) |
| EXPO (short for exposition) + SURE (certain). | ||
| 21 | FRESCO | Work of art characterised by originality largely, oddly cool (6) |
| FRES[h] (characterised by originality, largely) + odd-numbered letters of C[o]O[l]. | ||
| 24 | UPPERCUT | Part of boxer’s repertoire in higher division (8) |
| UPPER (higher) CUT (division), or an upwards punch in boxing. | ||
| 25 | LEEDS | Investigative aids for hearing in English city (5) |
| Homophone (for hearing) of LEADS (investigative aids, as in “the police are following a number of leads”). | ||
| 27 | EXHAUST | Old American in headwear in lower part of estate? (7) |
| EX (prefix indicating “no longer”) + US within HAT. Estate as in estate car: the question-mark suggests that we’re looking for an example of a car part. I’m not sure what “lower” is there for; it’s correct as a description of where the exhaust generally is, but it doesn’t help much with the meaning. | ||
| 29 | GRANADA | Imposing area around a Spanish city (7) |
| GRAND (imposing) A (area), around another A. | ||
| 30 | HOPPING MAD | A PM hoping to mobilise department gets very angry (7,3) |
| Anagram (to mobilise) of A PM HOPING, then D for department. | ||
| 31 | EDGE | Advantage in financial document shorn of trappings (4) |
| LEDGER (book of financial transactions) with the outer letters shorn off. Advantage = edge as in “The home team had the edge in this match”. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PAGE-TURNER | A pure gent terribly close to disaster in exciting book (4-6) |
| Anagram (terribly) of A PURE GENT, then the closing letter of [disaste]R. | ||
| 2 | SNIPPET | Bargain obtained with favourite excerpt of literature? (7) |
| SNIP (bargain, as in “it’s a snip at £5.99”) with PET (favourite). | ||
| 4 | ALLURE | Attraction in a lake and large river in Yorkshire (6) |
| A L[ake] + L[arge] + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Ure. | ||
| 5 | CAULDRON | Place that’s seething about university lecturer, endlessly idle type (8) |
| CA (circa = about) + U[niversity] L[ecturer] + DRON[e] (idle type, for example a drone bee, endlessly). Seething in the literal sense of boiling hot, not the metaphorical sense of angry. | ||
| 6 | RYE | Speaker’s mocking place in East Sussex (3) |
| Homophone (speaker’s) of WRY (mocking). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye,_East_Sussex | ||
| 7 | OBSCENE | How one might describe alumni’s world offending sensibilities? (7) |
| OB = old boys = alumni, so their world could be called the OB SCENE. | ||
| 8 | EELS | Slippery types, scoundrels in the East End (4) |
| Mentions of the East End in crosswords usually imply Cockney pronunciation, dropping an initial H (or occasionally adding one where it doesn’t belong). So this is ‘EELS = Cockney for heels = scoundrels. | ||
| 9 | AFTERTASTE | Fantastic treat with feast leaving residual sensation (10) |
| Anagram (fantastic) of TREAT + FEAST. | ||
| 14 | AUSTRALIAN | Cash, say, as a ritual exchanged with note (10) |
| Anagram (exchanged) of AS A RITUAL, with N (note, as in NB = nota bene). The reference is to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Cash – a little obscure, but Wimbledon starts today so it’s probably fair. | ||
| 15 | OUT OF SHAPE | How one might find phase being unfit? (3,2,5) |
| A reverse anagram: PHASE is an anagram of SHAPE, so you could say you get it “out of SHAPE”. | ||
| 18 | PRICE TAG | Cost in carpeting woven with no end of decoration (5,3) |
| Anagram (woven) of CARPETI[n]G without the N (the last letter of decoratioN). | ||
| 20 | POP SHOP | Old man gets concession touring hard place to get money? (3,4) |
| POP (= old man = slang for father) + SOP (concession) around H (hard, as in grades of pencil). Pop shop = pawn shop. | ||
| 22 | STEWARD | Racing official, good man beginning to exempt charge (7) |
| ST (saint = good man) + E[xempt] + WARD (charge = person under one’s guardianship). Steward = official at a horse racing meeting. | ||
| 23 | STIGMA | Unorthodox magistrate ignoring judge is a disgrace (6) |
| Anagram (unorthodox) of MAGIST[rate], ignoring RATE (judge, as a verb). | ||
| 26 | MESH | First person put on quiet network (4) |
| ME (first person, grammatically) added to SH (quiet, as a command). | ||
| 28 | UNI | Some municipal academic establishment (3) |
| Hidden answer (some) in [m]UNI[cipal]. Short for university. | ||
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
Just right for a Monday. I did wonder whether Cash was fair in 14d, but then as Quirister says, Wimbledon does start today
Thanks to Hypnos and Quirister
I haven’t had the chance to look at any Indy crosswords for a month or so, and this was a great way to get back into it again with a puzzle that was not too difficult and a lot of fun.
My joint favourites were 30a & 23d.
Many thanks to Hypnos and to Quirister.
crypicsue@1 agree entirely.
A steady solve with no recourse to any help. A good start to the week, and the month.
It was only after seeing that AUSTRALIAN fitted the crossing letters in 14dn that we twigged that ‘Cash’ was a definition by example, but otherwise no problems. MASCARPONE was a write-in as we’d used some yesterday making a cheesecake.
Thanks, Hypnos and Quirister.
I do enjoy puzzles from the twinkly-eyed leprechaun – such a shame that the pressures of ‘real life’ prevent him from setting more often these days.
Didn’t know the 20d expression – just how many different words are there for a pawn shop! I’m also ashamed to say that I didn’t immediately twig the right sort of Cash in 14d – definitely my pin-up boy in the tennis world in the halcyon days of lawn tennis.
Many thanks to Hypnos for the fun and to Quirister for a very comprehensive review.