A fun puzzle from CHALMIE this Thursday, with a higher-than-average number of anagrams sprinkled around the grid. A few clues that raised a grin in their construction. Thanks CHALMIE!
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 9 | ANNOYANCE | Proclaim Russian character is replacing you, causing irritation (9) |
| ANNOuNCE (proclaim, with YA – russian character, replacing U – you) | ||
| 10 | OF USE | Round electrical component is functional (2,3) |
| O (round) FUSE (electrical component) | ||
| 11 | FUEL OIL | Foul lie about source of power (4,3) |
| FOUL LIE* | ||
| 12 | SPENSER | Writer of series about writers (7) |
| SER (series) around PENS (writers) | ||
| 13 | REV | Increase speed turning over …. over …. not over (3) |
| reverse (over) of oVER (without O – over) – witty construction! | ||
| 14 | OPPORTUNITY | Big break from work one left earlier (11) |
| OP (work) [ PORT (left) before (earlier) UNITY (one) ] | ||
| 17 | RELIT | One leaving retail organisation set off again (5) |
| RETaIL* (without A – one) | ||
| 18 | AMI | Flamingo’s foreign friend (3) |
| hidden in “flAMIngo..” (french) | ||
| 19 | DEFER | Reschedule return of concerning American agent (5) |
| reverse of RE (concerning) FED (american agent) | ||
| 21 | DEBORAH KERR | Working harder broke film actress (7,4) |
| HARDER BROKE* | ||
| 23 | ASH | Remains quiet after acceleration (3) |
| SH (quiet) after A (acceleration) | ||
| 25 | AURICLE | Ear picked up at Delphi? (7) |
| sounds like (picked up) ORACLE (~ at delphi) | ||
| 27 | BERETTA | Thanks to cap gun (7) |
| BERET (cap) TA (thanks) | ||
| 28 | LOESS | Nothing found in smaller deposit (5) |
| O (nothing) in LESS (smaller) | ||
| 29 | BACKFIRES | Defender shoots, which works out badly (9) |
| BACK (defender) FIRES (shoots) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CAT FUR | Dog swallows congealed fat and his enemy’s coat (3,3) |
| CUR (dog) containing FAT* | ||
| 2 | INTERVAL | Break travel in resort (8) |
| TRAVEL IN* | ||
| 3 | GYROCOPTER | Top grocery distributed flyer (10) |
| TOP GROCERY* | ||
| 4 | ANIL | Colouring of Gregorian illuminations (4) |
| hidden in “..gregoriAN ILlumination” – refers to indigo | ||
| 5 | TEA SERVICE | China problem – get a grip (3,7) |
| TEASER (problem) VICE (grip) | ||
| 6 | MOLE | The French supporting second breakwater (4) |
| MO (second) LE (the, french) | ||
| 7 | MUESLI | Use most of milk to mix breakfast food (6) |
| USE MILk (mostly)* | ||
| 8 | BETRAYER | Teaberry cultivated by one breaking trust (8) |
| TEABERRY* | ||
| 15 | PEACH MELBA | During personal appearance, every Spice Girl is sweet (5,5) |
| PA (Personal Appearance) containing [ EACH (every) MEL B (spice girl) ] | ||
| 16 | UNDERCROFT | Vault below sea-level containing empty chair (10) |
| UNDER O FT (below sea-level, read as UNDER 0 FT) containing CR (empty ChaiR, i.e. without inner characters) | ||
| 17 | RED BALLS | Republican politician once often sunk in breaks (3,5) |
| R (republican) ED BALLS (politician once, british mp) | ||
| 20 | FRACTURE | 1 ingeniously engineers break (8) |
| [CAT FUR]* (answer to 1d) RE (engineers) | ||
| 22 | BARKED | Unfortunately break down, as boxer perhaps did (6) |
| BREAK* D (down) | ||
| 24 | HOARSE | Pack animal swallows a husky (6) |
| HORSE (pack animal) containing A | ||
| 26 | COSH | Club’s hyperbolic function (4) |
| double def | ||
| 27 | BUCK | American money sounds dear (4) |
| sounds like DEER (dear) | ||
*anagram
What a great day for crosswords. Loved this and today’s Independent and Guardian offerings.
Thanks to Chalmie and Turbolegs.
There are nine (!) clues in which ‘break’ (verb or noun) plays a part.
Cannot be non-intentional.
Fine crossword and, just like yesterday, I thought this was at the easier end of the setter’s spectrum.
I enjoyed it!
Many thanks to Turbolegs & Chalmie.
A fine offering from Chalmie — not a breeze for me but not impossible either, except for COSH, a word new to me. Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs.
Yes, also failed on cosh and really, I should have had a stab at club=cosh but just didn’t see it.
Lots to like, thanks to all
A beauty. Great as an ex-mathematician to use specialist knowledge for once (COSH), laughed heartily at 13ac, loved the repeated use of break (different function each time?), and some – but not too many – new words, both parseable (LOESS, ANIL). Thanks to all
…oh and I particularly liked Mel B too.
Thanks everyone. I’m currently very fond of setting puzzles in which the same word keeps popping up doing different things, particularly because people say such nice things about them. If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that the theme-word which is mostly being used as definition will appear somewhere as anagram fodder.
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Only had the opportunity to do this in short spells for some reason … and was surprised how little time each of those times added up to when I’d finished. Really enjoyable puzzle with some terrific clues sprinkled in it and probably as a result of not doing it in a single sitting, actually missed the recurrence of ‘break’ in the clues.
As a mathematics graduate, was easily able to see COSH at 26d, but after not having any use for it since uni days, would fail to be able to explain the nature or use of that function in plain English to anyone now.
Finished with a couple of the long down clues – TEA SERVICE (which was cleverly ‘misdirect-ful’) and UNDERCROFT (a new term for me and one that took an age to see how 0 ft = ‘sea-level’). Great stuff !