The puzzle can be found here.
Hi all. A bit of an education for me today although not one which detained me past morning break. I needed to unscramble a few unknown words and didn’t quite guess perfectly but still enjoyed it. My picks are the clues for SILESIA and OBTAIN, the surfaces of which together I like to think tell a story. Thanks to Peter.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
1a Buttonhole with a carnation initially added to price (6)
ACCOST
A (from the clue) and the first letter of (… initially) Carnation placed next to (added to) COST (price)
4a Youngster taking male out (7)
SAPLING
SA[m]PLING (taking) with the removal of M (male out)
9a Letter given to speaker’s investigator in government department (9)
EXCHEQUER
EX (letter, X) placed next to (given to) CHEQUER, a homophone of (speaker’s) CHECKER
10a Relative embracing sources of child’s immunisation for young member of the family (5)
SCION
SON (relative) around (embracing) the initial letters of (sources of) Child’s Immunisation
11a Foreign weed given to British fool (5)
DWEEB
An anagram of (foreign) WEED next to (given to) B (British)
12a Enthusiast to hang elaborate ornament (9)
FANDANGLE
FAN (enthusiast) + DANGLE (to hang). I really thought the last six letters were going to be an anagram (… elaborate) of TO HANG, and I bet I wasn’t the only one
13a Performer died in front of a tipsy nurse (7)
DANSEUR
D (died) preceding (in front of) A (from the clue) and an anagram of (tipsy) NURSE
15a Dead skin points to burn (6)
ESCHAR
E S (points, of the compass) + CHAR (to burn). A new word for me, and I didn’t know which point would give the second letter
17a Cook made a new fillet (6)
ANADEM
Make an anagram of (cook) MADE A N (new). Another new word, and a bit of a guess as to where the letters go
19a Fabric close to crease in sail is damaged (7)
SILESIA
The last letter of (close to) creasE goes in an anagram of (… damaged) SAIL IS. New words are like buses for me today (only much cheaper and nicer to use)
22a Tree to twist over width of type of recess in wall (3,6)
BAY WINDOW
A charade of BAY (tree), WIND (to twist), O (over), and W (width)
24a Pungent plant without European identity (5)
ACRID
AC[e]R (plant) without E (European) + ID (identity)
26a Building material in publicity given award (5)
ADOBE
AD (publicity) given OBE (award)
27a Leader of lions died during Daniel’s unorthodox convincing victory (9)
LANDSLIDE
The first letter of (leader of) Lions, then D (died) inside (during) an anagram of (… unorthodox) DANIEL’S
28a New date not written in series of symbols (7)
NOTATED
An anagram of (new) DATE NOT
29a Handsome youth is following American college fellow (6)
ADONIS
IS (from the clue) appended to (following) A (American) + DON (college fellow)
Down
1d Last word written by Dickens’ first editor corrected (7)
AMENDED
AMEN (last word) written by Dickens’ first letter + ED (editor)
2d Hide money for the audience (5)
CACHE
This sounds like (… for the audience) CASH
3d Hebrew sad about loaves baked for sabbath (9)
SHEWBREAD
HEBREW SAD anagrammed (about)
4d Unusual compass found under edges of seat (7)
STRANGE
RANGE (compass) is after (found under, in a down answer) the outer letters of (edges of) SeaT
5d Dish of tomato sauce with half of salt omitted (5)
PASTA
PAS[sa]TA (tomato sauce) with half of SA[lt] omitted
6d Gelatine is in drinking vessel (9)
ISINGLASS
IS IN (from the clue) plus GLASS (drinking vessel). At least I’ve done enough crosswords to be familiar with this one!
7d Look for bird (6)
GANDER
A double definition
8d Dandruff in animal’s hair occurring twice (6)
FURFUR
FUR (animal’s hair) repeated (occurring twice). Anther I didn’t know, and I delayed writing it in as didn’t quite believe it either. It reminded me of this
14d Childcare provider learnt to accept charge’s third animal (5,4)
NANNY GOAT
NANNY (childcare provider) + GOT (learnt) containing (to accept) the third letter of chArge
16d Colonel slipped then fell over (9)
COLLAPSED
COL (Colonel) + LAPSED (slipped)
18d Confused smuggler carrying diamonds deserted at end of road (7)
MUDDLED
MULE (smuggler) containing (carrying) D (diamonds) and D (deserted), all next to the last letter of (end of) roaD
19d Shift featuring English seamstresses’ handiwork (6)
SEWING
SWING (shift) containing (featuring) E (English)
20d Direct soldiers next to arms base into annexes (7)
ADDRESS
RE (soldiers, Royal Engineers) next to the last letter of armS (arms base); this all goes into ADDS (annexes)
21d Get home after boat is damaged (6)
OBTAIN
IN (home) after BOAT is anagrammed (damaged)
23d Constituents of nitre surprisingly chemically inactive (5)
INERT
The letters in (constituents of) NITRE anagrammed (surprisingly)
25d King replacing fellow in fake government (5)
REIGN
R (king) replacing F (fellow) in [f]EIGN (fake)
Gentler than yesterday, but even so four new words to add to the vocabulary. I had heard of FURFUR from the fungus that causes dandruff, though I see now that it’s now thought to be caused by a different fungus of the same family.
I finally got around to looking what those ISINGLASS curtains on the “Surrey With The Fringe On Top” were. It makes much more sense that they were an early form of celluloid, rather than ‘gelatine’ or even the dried air bladders of fish such as cod or sturgeon! The crossword also signalled a very welcome ‘change in the weather’ here, brief though the respite may be.
Thanks to Kitty (including the pics and Eric Morecambe link) and to Peter
Golly! Lots of new words to me but happy to learn them. I couldn’t parse Pasta as Passata was also new. Thanks Peter and Kitty.
Yes, it was a case of work-out-the answer-from-the-wordplay-then-check-in-Chambers-that-it’s-a-word today – as we had to with FANDANGLE, ESCHAR, ANADEM, SILESIA and FURFUR. But a very accessible crossword which didn’t take us too long to solve; the NE corner proved the trickiest until we realised what was going on in 5dn.
We liked SHEWBREAD and the misdirection in the surface of 1ac.
Thanks, Peter and Kitty.