A fun offering from WANDERER, the solving of which became significantly faster once I figured out what C stood for, 6 clues in. Thanks WANDERER!
FF: 9 DD: 9
A couple of words (1d, 17d) that I didnt know for which I had to use the Chambers app on my phone to get some help.
C stands for Colour. I dont know if today is an important day with some special significance for colours.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FUCHSIA | Explorer primarily in Antarctica, sick if such a C (7) |
| double clue; FUCHS (explorer, vivian) IA (In Antarctica, primarily) ; IF SUCH A* | ||
| 5 | CLARETS | Drinks with county teams’ wingers (7) |
| CLARE (county) TS (TeamS, wingers i.e. end letters) | ||
| 9 | See 27 | |
| 10 | BEERSHEBA | Mild or bitter to a novel degree in Israeli town (9) |
| BEER (mild or bitter) SHE (novel, by rigger haggard) BA (degree) | ||
| 11 | COLOSTRUM | Yellow secretion from nipples, as first bits of milk sometimes this C, possibly (9) |
| MST (first letters of “..Milk Sometimes This..”) COLOUR (c)* | ||
| 12 | CORAL | C of fossil fuel? That’s about right (5) |
| COAL (fossil fuel) about R (right) | ||
| 13 | SYNTH | Instrument Yes then used, after twice dropping Ecstasy (5) |
| YeS THeN* (without the two Es – Ecstacy) | ||
| 15 | IN TRANSIT | Not willing to compromise, lacking knowledge en route? (2,7) |
| INTRANSIgenT (not willing to compromise, without GEN – knowledge) | ||
| 18 | CHAMELEON | Mouldy lemon? Each one can change its C (9) |
| LEMON EACH* | ||
| 19 | EULER | Sacré bleu! Wrong cab’s gone off for mathematician (5) |
| sacRE bLEU* (without letters of CAB’S) | ||
| 21 | RAT ON | Shop displaying five scores by the Gunners (3,2) |
| RA (gunners) TON (five scores, hundred) | ||
| 23 | GREYBEARD | Old man in dull and boring C, by Vandyke? (9) |
| GREY (dull and boring C) BEARD (vandyke) | ||
| 25 | INNOCENT I | Religious leader serving once, innit? (8,1) |
| ONCE INNIT* | ||
| 26 | IDAHO | Wanderer had a house somewhere in the US (5) |
| I’D (wanderer had) A HO (house) | ||
| 27, 9 | EVERY SO OFTEN | Forty-one? Eve’s knackered from time to time (5,2,5) |
| FORTY ONE EVE”S* | ||
| 28 | EMERALD | C of space-time, extremely lurid (7) |
| EM (space) ERA (time) LD (LuriD, extremely) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FLOCCUS | Woolly tuft of hair in which flerovium is found? That’s not right (7) |
| FL (flerovium) OCCUrS (found, without R – right) – new word for me and needed help to solve this | ||
| 2 | CATALONIA | Welsh band in state of stupor, getting lost for a short time in Spanish district (9) |
| double def; CATAtONIA (state of stupor), with L (lost) replacing T (time, short) | ||
| 3 | SANDS | French novelist’s C, initially seen in beach area (5) |
| double def; SAND (c) S (Seen, initially) | ||
| 4 | AUBERGINE | C in French inn, keeping cool (9) |
| IN (cool) in AUBERGE (french for inn) | ||
| 5 | CREAM | C of élite group (5) |
| double def | ||
| 6 | ASSOCIATE | Colleague ordering tea cosies (American not English) (9) |
| TEA COSIeS* with A (american) replacing E (english) | ||
| 7 | EMEER | Muslim ruler stuck up in tree, methinks (5) |
| hidden reversed in “..tREE MEthinks” | ||
| 8 | SCARLET | C of 5 across, roughly (7) |
| CLARETS (5a)* | ||
| 14 | HUE AND CRY | C can dry out, leading to public outburst (3,3,3) |
| HUE (c) [CAN DRY]* | ||
| 16 | TANGERINE | C in C, one wearing a sort of green (9) |
| TAN (c) [ I (one) in GREEN*] | ||
| 17 | SOLFATARA | System for naming notes taken on Irish hill showing gas-emitting volcanic vent (9) |
| SOL FA (system for naming notes) TARA (irish hill) | ||
| 18 | CARMINE | Dressed in 5 down C (7) |
| IN CREAM (5d)* | ||
| 20 | REDFORD | C, crossover actor/director (7) |
| RED (c) FORD (crossover) | ||
| 22 | TINGE | C slightly, as part of getting exasperated (5) |
| hidden in “..getTING Exasperated” | ||
| 23 | GENRO | Japanese elder statesmen appearing regularly in green (or not) (5) |
| GrEeN oR nOt (regularly) | ||
| 24 | BEIGE | C of raging 4, after a dodgy run- out (5) |
| auBErGInE (4d, without letters of A RUN)* | ||
*anagram
First in was CORAL but I did not draw any conclusions just from that.SYNTH was next. As I progressed I thought that the use of the theme excellent.
Always like seeing this setter on a Friday. Very entertaining-fave was AUBERGINE
Thanks Wanderer and Turbo.
For me, CORAL was the first one in too and I immediately guessed C = colour.
Confirmed by 28ac’s EMERALD.
I found most of this not particularly difficult, except the crossing 1d and 11ac.
Enjoyable crossword as ever from Wanderer.
In 2d “Welsh band” is not one of the definitions. Cerys Matthews’s band was called Catatonia.
Strictly, either “Welsh band” or “in state of stupor” is superfluous but I can see why Wanderer did it this way.
In my opinion, this clue would be better without “in state of stupor” but then, probably, many solvers will start complaining about “obscurities”.
And talking about bands, I saw 5d (CREAM) as a triple definiition, Cream being one of the supergroups (as we called them in those days) of the late sixties.
Many thanks to Turbolegs & Wanderer.
Very enjoyable – I do like a crossword where I ‘know’ there’s definitely a theme
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs
EMERALD was my way in to the C. I liked having the C as part of the wordplay in some clues and the def. in others. Never heard of FLOCCUS, which I guessed correctly, or SOLFATARA, which I didn’t.
I liked the FUCHS reference in 1a.
Thanks to Wanderer, for an enjoyable puzzle which added to my vocab along the way, and to Turbolegs
Thanks to Wanderer — I like theme crosswords — and to Turbolegs for the enlightenment. First word in was ASSOCIATE followed by CORAL. I guessed the theme at that point which sped up my solving. However, I never got FLOCCUS, CARMINE, or RAT ON. How does “shop” mean RAT ON? That’s new to me.
When I found out that ‘c’ stood for colours, everything went well. Tony, to ‘rat on’ is to betray someone to the police in British English,or, ‘to shop’
Thanks to Turbolegs and Wanderer
Very nice.
I got the “C” thing with CREAM @ 5d, which I also saw as a triple def.
Having already got FUCHSIA I was on the look out for any other rock bands but I think CHAMELEON, EMERALD, the CORAL, CATATONIA, and TANGERINE dream, might just be coincidences, even if some did use SYNTHS.
A bit of E gets Welsh band lost for a short time
Forgot to mention – in 1d it’s IS FOUND = OCCURS. A minor point, but it highlights this setter’s admirable attention to detail.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Was able to complete this over dinner last night on a balmy spring Melbourne evening. Had CORAL and CREAM, but needed SCARLET next to twig to the C-theme (the glass of red obviously hadn’t kicked in early). I did remember COLOSTRUM, but did have to stop and think and use word play components to spell it properly. FLOCCUS was new.
Didn’t know the ‘Welsh band’ and wasn’t able to parse AUBERGINE (limited French didn’t stretch that far).
Finished in the NW corner with FUCHSIA (after recalling the Antarctic explorer) and that FLOCCUS as the last couple in.