An enjoyable dose of Morph’s somewhat cheeky wit today.
Not the easiest Monday crossword, with a few slightly obscure words and one (in my opinion) unlikely abbreviation, but all well clued, and with some neat surfaces. Plenty of laughs, particularly at 22a and the outrageous 29a. Thanks to Morph.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LAUNCH PAD | A cracking place for meal, perhaps for rocket starter? (6,3) |
| LUNCH PAD (place for meal), with A “cracking” (inserted into) it. Launch pad = facility from which space rockets are launched. In a surface referring to meals, rocket leaf salad is a good misdirection. | ||
| 6 | DATES | Fruits that one takes out? (5) |
| Double definition: the second refers to romantic partners. | ||
| 9 | MAELSTROM | Malts mixed with more water being circulated (9) |
| Anagram (mixed) of MALTS + MORE. Maelstrom = whirlpool. | ||
| 10 | BRAVO | Applause in anticipation of Charlie? (5) |
| In the radio alphabet, BRAVO (B) comes before CHARLIE (C). Applause is typically hand-clapping, but can also mean vocal expressions of approval. | ||
| 11 | AISLE | I’ll read out a key passage (5) |
| Two wordplays: homophone (read out) of I’LL, or A ISLE (key = island). Aisle = passage between seats or supermarket shelves. | ||
| 12 | FENUGREEK | Chinese change united European culinary product (9) |
| FEN (a Chinese coin = change) + U (united) + GREEK (European). Wikipedia entry Fenugreek: used to flavour Asian cooking. | ||
| 13 | AT LONG LAST | Where size 12s are made, eventually? (2,4,4) |
| Cryptic and straight definitions: a last is a device used for shaping shoes, so a UK size 12 (a fairly large size for men’s shoes) would need a long last. | ||
| 16 | ROIL | Prince perhaps said to get turbulent (4) |
| Homophone (said) of ROYAL (prince, perhaps). Roil = to move turbulently. | ||
| 18 | VIBE | Brexiteer at heart, caught in very Remain atmosphere (4) |
| [brex]I[teer] (at heart = middle letter) between V (very) + BE (remain). | ||
| 19 | TOUCH-AND-GO | To demand money before leaving is iffy (5-3-2) |
| TOUCH (slang for “extract money from”) AND GO (leave). Touch-and-go = iffy = something precarious or not certain to succeed. | ||
| 22 | SKINNY-DIP | No dressing needed for this low fat hummus? (6-3) |
| SKINNY (low-fat) + DIP (for example hummus), or swimming unclothed. | ||
| 24 | ADDED | Extra confused when left out (5) |
| ADDLED (confused) with L (left) taken out. | ||
| 26 | BRACE | Steady couple (5) |
| Double definition: to support / stabilise something, or a pair (as in a brace of pheasants). | ||
| 27 | ON AVERAGE | Typically ordinary part of church to get cross (2,7) |
| O (ordinary, as in O-level) + NAVE (part of church) + RAGE (to be angry / cross). | ||
| 28 | EVENT | Occurrence of character in Genesis and later books (5) |
| EVE (character in the Old Testament book of Genesis) + NT (New Testament = later books). | ||
| 29 | PETIT PAIN | Jogger’s nipple perhaps after exercise for one of Nancy’s baps? (5,4) |
| TIT PAIN (of which jogger’s nipple, an inflammation caused by friction from a running vest, is an example) after PE (exercise). Bap is a British word for a bread roll, petit pain a French one; Nancy in crosswords almost always means the French city and therefore a French word for something. I think bap and petit pain are actually quite specific terms for different forms of bread, so the words aren’t really interchangeable, but I enjoyed the sheer cheek of this clue. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LAMBADA | Priest suppressing wicked dance (7) |
| LAMA (Buddhist priest) containing (suppressing) BAD. Wikipedia entry Lambada | ||
| 2 | USERS | Cinema staff shifting heroin for people involved in drugs (5) |
| USHERS (cinema staff) without the H (heroin). | ||
| 3 | CISTERNS | Tanks and fliers coming under ex-Soviet grouping (8) |
| TERNS (fliers = birds) below CIS (Wikipedia entry Commonwealth_of_Independent_States, a regional group of states formed after the break-up of the Soviet Union). | ||
| 4 | PORTFOLIO | Painting depicting heartless soldiers turned up in collection (9) |
| OIL OF (oil painting depicting) TR[o]OP (soldiers, without the heart / middle letter), all reversed (turned up in a down clue). | ||
| 5 | DEMON | Protest over nationalist bogeyman (5) |
| DEMO (demonstration = protest) + N (nationalist). | ||
| 6 | DEBUGS | Finds fault with opening performances, but tenor must be good (6) |
| DEBUTS (opening performances = first performances), changing T (tenor) to G (good). Debug = to search for a fault in a computer program. | ||
| 7 | TRAPEZOID | Figure outrageously paid zero tax initially (9) |
| Anagram (outrageously) of PAID ZERO + T[ax] (initially = first letter). In British English it’s normally called a trapezium. | ||
| 8 | SNORKEL | To inhale endless seaweed mostly provides source of inspiration at sea (7) |
| SNOR[t] (inhale, endlessly) + KEL[p] (seaweed, mostly). Snorkel = device for breathing (inspiration) underwater. | ||
| 14 | LUBRICATE | Badly built car needs a drop of engine oil (9) |
| Anagram (badly) of BUILT CAR + a small part (a drop) of E[ngine]. Oil as a verb; I was held up for a while trying to work out why this was LUBRICANT, until 28a showed me it wasn’t. | ||
| 15 | SYCOPHANT | Psycho crushed insect, one crawling (9) |
| Anagram (crushed) of PSYCHO, then ANT (insect). Sycophant = crawler = a flatterer. | ||
| 17 | PARAKEET | Bird ready for fluent repetition after drinking firewater (8) |
| PAT (ready for fluent repetition, for example a prepared answer to an expected question) containing (drinking) RAKEE (or raki: a Turkish alcoholic drink). | ||
| 18 | VISIBLE | Grasping relative’s loathsome to be seen (7) |
| VILE (loathsome), containing (grasping) SIB (relation, usually brother or sister). The grammar of the wordplay is a little tricky but I think it’s “grasping relative is loathsome”, so “loathsome (vile) is grasping (contains) relative (sib)”. | ||
| 20 | OLD BEAN | A blonde’s ghastly, chummy address (3,4) |
| Anagram (ghastly) of A BLONDE. Someone old-fashioned enough to use the word “chums” for their friends might address one of them as “old bean”. | ||
| 21 | IN DEBT | Behind with payment as rise in base interest comes around (2,4) |
| Reversal (rise) of BED (base = lowest level), with INT (short for interest) around it. | ||
| 23 | DROOP | Democratic to lift less well-off in downturn (5) |
| D (Democratic) + reversal (lift, in a down clue) of POOR (less well-off). | ||
| 25 | DRAMA | Short afternoon play (5) |
| DRAM (short = a measure of alcoholic drink) + A (Chambers says this is an abbreviation of “afternoon” but I can’t find an example). | ||
Enjoyed this. Unfortunately, at least reading on my iPad, the blog has a section on the right chopped off.
On the word TRAPEZOID, it is rather a strange one. Both TRAPEZOID and TRAPEZIUM are British and American but trapezoid is American for trapezium and vice versa. To be honest, most mathematicians I know take both to mean a quadrilateral with just one pair of parallel sides and don’t use any term for one with no pair of parallel sides.
Didn’t know RAKEE, so bunged in PARAKEET but didn’t parse it.
Thanks to Morph and Quirister.
It seems a long time since we last had a Morph crossword to enjoy (or his alter ego Micawber come to that) but it was well worth the wait.
29a is the sort of brilliant laugh-out-loud clue we need on a rainy Monday morning (or any other morning) and I’d also select 22a for favouritism
Thanks to Morph (come back soon) and to Quirister
Hovis, thanks for this – I’m not sure about the layout problem (I don’t have an iPad to check) but it might be caused by some long hyperlinks, so I’ve reworked those. Let me know if it’s better now.
Quirister @3. Yes, it is fine now. Thanks.
As an added note, I wasn’t convinced by the clueing of “and” in TOUCH-AND-GO.
Perhaps we should also add for some of our foreign solvers that “bap” (usually in the plural) is slang for the female breast hence the surface for 29a – also my COD.
Really enjoyed this, though fell at the last hurdle (16A) because I didn’t know ROIL so bunged in BOIL in desperation – well it half fits! 29A was brilliant, though no doubt some posters recoiled in horror. 13A too was top class. Well done Morph and thanks Quirister
Mostly good fun. I didn’t know 16a and I was stumped by the parsing of both 17d & 25d, the latter because it never occurred to me that “a” could be an abbreviation for afternoon – I can’t imagine anyone using it in practice.
22a was my favourite with 13a running it close.
Many tanks to Morph and to Quirister.
The most enjoyable puzzle I’ve solved in quite a while from one of the nicest setters I’ve ever had the good fortune to meet.
So hard to isolate a favourite but I think I’ll opt for 13&22a taking the top spots with a cheeky third place going to 29a.
Many thanks, Morph – please let’s see more from you soon. Thanks also to Quirister for the review.
Not the usual, easier than average Monday offering I’d been expecting and all the better for that. I couldn’t work out the PARAKEET parsing, but everything else eventually fell into place, with a few guesses along the way including the ‘Chinese change’ and A for ‘afternoon’.
SKINNY-DIP was the stand-out for me, but lots of other good ones to enjoy.
Thanks to Morph and Quirister
If I’d been solving on a markable page, then that page would be marked with plenty of smiley faces. Enjoyed the obvious, of course, but also much more.
Hovis@4 – TOUCH-AND-GO worked for me, interpreted as touch and [then] go. (Which has put me in mind of eats, shoots and leaves. Which in turn has reminded me of its ruder versions … )
RAKEE was new to me too but I worked it out when I (finally!) spotted PAT.
Many thanks Morph and Quirister.
Kitty, that was how I read it but don’t like “and” for “and then”. An “iffy” clue imo but that didn’t distract from an otherwise excellent offering.
Definitely trickier than some Monday offerings, and we had to resort to help in the NE quadrant. In 10ac we realised ‘Charlie’ meant C, but didn’t think of BRAVO as the preceding letter – Doh! ROIL was a new word for us. We got the right answer to 17dn thinking of arak as the firewater, but realised that it wouldn’t parse, so raked was new to us, too. But there was plenty to like, such as 1ac, 13ac and of course 29ac.
Thanks, Morph and Quirister.
Rakee, not raked – flipping predictive text!