Everyman’s on good form this week. A fun solve.
We have the usual pair of long answers, 1a and 29a – well, not really a pair, but they rhyme and they both refer to yellow food items. A couple of EU references too, which seem to be compulsory these days.
The clue constructions are not necessarily obvious, but they all make sense after a bit of thought. I particularly liked the &lit in 1a and the misleading definition in 22a. Thanks Everyman.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COLONEL MUSTARD | Cluedo. Mortal sin. I will be outstanding suspect! (7,7) |
| Anagram (suspect) of CLUEDO MORTAL S[i]N, with the I removed (outstanding). Clue-as-definition (&lit): Colonel Mustard is one of the suspects in the murder mystery board game Cluedo. |
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| 10 | HEGEL | Tip describes good philosopher (5) |
| HEEL (tip = end) around (describing) G (good). “Philosopher” in crosswords always makes me think of the Monty Python Philosophers Song, which includes (and slanders wickedly) many of the great minds of Western thought. CORRECTION: as a couple of solvers have pointed out, HEEL = tip = lean over. |
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| 11 | VOL-AU-VENT | Pastry: victual cooked with oven (wanting no internal combustion?) (3-2-4) |
| Anagram (cooked) of V[ic]TUAL + OVEN, without the IC (internal combustion). | ||
| 12 | PS AND QS | Manners princes, queens curtly display (2,3,2) |
| Abbreviation (curtly) of Princes AND Queens. “Mind your Ps and Qs” = expression meaning “behave yourself” or “mind your language”. |
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| 13 | ATHLETE | Competitor permitted to enter re-staged heat (7) |
| LET (permitted) entered into an anagram (re-staged) of HEAT. | ||
| 14 | SET UP | Begin to incriminate (3,2) |
| Double definition: to prepare, or to trick someone into being implicated in a crime. | ||
| 16 | RECTORIES | Conservatives pursue fun in ecclesiastical dwellings (9) |
| TORIES (Conservatives) after REC (abbreviation for recreation = fun). | ||
| 19 | EUCALYPTI | Typical! EU corrupted by oil suppliers (9) |
| Anagram (corrupted) of TYPICAL EU. Plural of Eucalyptus, the oil-producing tree. |
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| 20 | EXACT | Bang on, demand and obtain (5) |
| Double definition: bang on = slang for exactly right, or as in “to exact a high price”. | ||
| 22 | AIRDROP | Broadcast to omit sudden lowering of food supplies (7) |
| AIR (broadcast, on radio or television) + DROP (omit). Nicely misleading definition: “lowering of supplies” at first sight suggests a shortage, but in fact the intended meaning is dropping supplies by parachute into a crisis region. |
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| 25 | TUSSAUD | Creator of effigies leaving EU bigwig and Arabian unfinished (7) |
| Donald TUS[k] (EU bigwig) and SAUD[i] (Arabian), both with the last letter missing (unfinished). Madame Tussaud, creator of waxworks and founder of a museum to display them. |
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| 27 | TENNESSEE | Teens seen around Elvis’ home (9) |
| Anagram (around) of TEENS SEEN. Specifically: Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. |
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| 28 | ETHYL | Source of alcohol the drunken yokel emptied (5) |
| Anagram (drunken) of THE, then Y[oke]L (emptied). Ethyl alcohol, the popular recreational drug. |
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| 29 | COWARDY CUSTARD | Chicken? Playwright has yen to get a bit of pudding (7,7) |
| Noel COWARD (English playwright) + Y (yen) + CUSTARD (a possible component of pudding). Chicken = slang for coward = “cowardy custard” in playground taunts. |
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| Down | ||
| 2 | ORGIASTIC | Corgi a stick’s helping to make frenzied (9) |
| Hidden answer in (a helping of) [c]ORGI A STIC[k]. | ||
| 3 | OILED | Tipsy – oldies almost sozzled! (5) |
| Anagram (sozzled = drunk) of OLDIE[s] (almost = last letter removed). Oiled = tipsy = slang for drunk. |
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| 4 | EAVESDROP | Parts of roof fall away, exposing a snoop (9) |
| EAVES (parts of a roof projecting over the edge of a wall) + DROP (fall away). Eavesdrop = snoop = listen to someone else’s private conversation. The word originally meant water dripping from the eaves, but was extended to mean the practice of hanging around under the eaves to hear conversations in the house. |
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| 5 | MALTA | Month on topless resort somewhere in the Med (5) |
| M (month) + [y]ALTA (Yalta, a resort on the Crimea peninsula, without the top letter). This clue caused a sense of déjà vu, and a quick search in the Fifteensquared archive confirmed my suspicions. Last month, Everyman clued YALTA by replacing the top letter of MALTA with “year”; here we have the same construction in reverse. |
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| 6 | SOUTH POLE | Ill-frequented locale where forbidden sauce is stuffed into fish (5,4) |
| OUT (forbidden) + HP (as in HP Sauce), stuffed into SOLE (a fish). | ||
| 7 | ADELE | Comrade Lenin provides cover for artist (5) |
| Hidden answer in (. . . provides cover for) [comr]ADE LE[nin]. Artist = singer: Adele. |
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| 8 | DITHERS | Deserted soul singer, not given intro, panics (7) |
| D (d = abbreviation for deserted, according to Chambers) + Bill WITHERS (soul singer) without the first letter (not given intro). Dither = be indecisive, or panic instead of taking action. |
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| 9 | SHAPES | Fashions displayed by quiet monkeys (6) |
| SH (quiet, as a command) + APES. Fashion (as a verb) = shape = make. |
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| 15 | POLAR BEAR | Hairy figure to dismiss two batsmen, according to Spooner (5,4) |
| Spoonerism of BOWL A PAIR (to dismiss two batsmen in cricket). | ||
| 17 | COINTREAU | A neurotic ordered strong liquor (9) |
| Anagram (ordered) of A NEUROTIC. French orange-flavoured liqueur, 40% alcohol by volume. |
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| 18 | IN A LATHER | Wanting kiss, exhilarant, worked up and rabid (2,1,6) |
| Anagram (worked up) of E[x]HILARANT without the X (kiss). | ||
| 19 | ELASTIC | The Spanish bubbly (cava, primarily) is reminiscent of rubber (7) |
| EL (“the” in Spanish) + ASTI (Asti Spumante = Italian sparkling wine = bubbly) + C[ava] (primarily = first letter). “Reminiscent of rubber” is slightly tortuous for “elastic” (I could say “a bit of a stretch”), but it makes for a good surface parodying wine-speak. |
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| 21 | TIDILY | Not dead drunk, embracing one in orderly fashion (6) |
| TIDDLY (drunk), removing one D (not dead), containing (embracing) I (1 in Roman numerals). | ||
| 23 | RENEW | Renovate Magritte, perhaps, with tip of hacksaw (5) |
| RENE (perhaps René Magritte) + last letter (tip) of [hacksa]W. | ||
| 24 | PASTY | Unhealthy-looking pie (5) |
| Double definition: pale and ill, or a meal-in-one pastry usually filled with meat and vegetables (alternative fillings are available). | ||
| 26 | SMELT | Got a whiff of fish (5) |
| Double definition: perceived using the sense of smell, or one of various types of fish. | ||
I thought ‘tip’ in 10a was a verb, as in list or tilt.
The surface reading for SHAPES seemed a little odd, and that’s before you get to the monkeys/apes issue!
All in all, a very enjoyable and sometimes witty puzzle. COLONEL MUSTARD was superb.
Very enjoyable.
My favourites were vol-au-vent and Colonel Mustard.
Thank Everyman and Quirister
Enjoyable and mostly straightforward. I also had ‘tip’ as tilt = heel. Just one quibble – at 11ac we have “wanting no” as the instruction to remove IC from the anagram fodder, while at 18dn just “wanting” is used to remove the X. I am never sure whether the instruction “wanting” is intended to include or omit. The setter is entitled to take advantage of that ambiguity, but it can’t be both in the same puzzle.
Thks Everyman and Quirister.
I had no idea about Withers at 6dn, but fortunately it’s not necessary to understand every last detail all the time.
Re KLColin’s point above I think it’s all part of a setter’s skill and the fun of solving to have the same word to indicate different things within the same puzzle and would be even better if it could be managed within the same clue.
COWARDY CUSTARD was the title of a rather fine West End revue celebrating the life and works of the playwright.
Thanks Nila Palin and KLColin – I think you’re right about tip = heel = lean over. I’ve updated the blog.
jackktt @ 4
Re your second paragraph, I agree entirely. I think it’s Chalmie who has said recently that he’s writing puzzles that use tha same word with different meanings several times in the clues, including as anagrist.
All part of setters’ evolving armoury.
Slight grumble at the ‘a’ in 4D since Eavesdrop isn’t a noun. Otherwise all good this time.
I really enjoyed some of the answers here, although I ever got South Pole having decided to myself that the second word was Hole as in a dive of a pub. Never occurred to me to find another thought process. I also had written in Distress for 8d – couldnt relate it to a sole singer but now I see the answer, I don’t entirely agree that dither = panic as the ditherer in my mind shows no sign of panicking quite the opposite. Loved both the custard and the mustard and was chuffed I got both. My other favourites were Elastic, Eavesdrop,Tussaud and Tidily
Enjoyable puzzle. Not knowing any EU bigwigs I had a question mark against 25ac so appreciate the explanation. Looks like we might see the obligatory EU references for a while yet. Thanks Everyman & Quirister.
15d brought a smile to my face, I think this bloke, or blokess is good.
Thanks Everyman and Quirister, often the answer is achieved without really knowing why!
Got it all out but struggled with 8 down (“dithers”). Did not know Bill Withers (had to Google “Withers soul singer) and thought that dithers==panics was not really correct. However an onlne thesaurus gives panic as a synonym of dither, so I guess it’s OK.
Looking over possible *ithers, I thought about Pick Withers, but he’s a drummer, not a soul singer. (One time drummer for Dire Straits.)
Thanks to Everyman and Quirister.