Neo steps up to the setter’s plate today.
It took me a few minutes to get started on this puzzle, but it was an interresting solve once I got going, with answers falling neatly into place quite quickly.
I thought it was going to be pangrammatic for a while, but that turned out not to be the case.
I liked NOOSE and FROM THE WORD GO, but thought the loose definition at 3dn was disappointing.
I can’t parse ODESSA, so I’ll rely on someone else to help me with that one!
Thanks Neo
| Across | ||
| 1 | MISERY | Anguish Scrooge thus described having lost money? (6) |
| MISER(l)Y (“Scrooge described thus” having lost L (£, so “money”)) | ||
| 4 | OFFENCES | Crimes attributed to criminal traders (8) |
| OF (“attributed to”) + FENCES (“criminal traders”) | ||
| 9 | NOOSE | Trap quickly springs back – end of mouse! (5) |
| <=SOON (“quickly”, springs back) + [end of] (mous)E | ||
| 10 | FLOWERPOT | Where one may grow finest cannabis? (9) |
| FLOWER (“finest” ie “the best”) + POT (“cannabis”) | ||
| 11 | REDCOAT | New cadet or old soldier (7) |
| *(cadet or) [anag:new] | ||
| 12 | TITANIC | Huge bird a kind with tail docked (7) |
| TIT (“bird”) + A + NIC(e) (“kind”, with tail docked) | ||
| 13 | LINK | Some part of mail attachment (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | ARTEFACT | Fat trace processed in manufactured product (8) |
| *(fat trace) [anag:processed] | ||
| 17 | ANTIPHON | Man outside one boozer provides church music (8) |
| ANTON (“man”) outside I (“one”) + PH (public house, so “boozer”) | ||
| 19 | WACO | Kelvin leaves crazy Texan city (4) |
| K (Kelvin) leaves WAC(k)O (“crazy”) | ||
| 22 | DREAMER | One to imagine me in miserable circumstances (7) |
| ME in DREAR (“miserable”) | ||
| 24 | DUNGEON | Subterranean cell – muck one out (7) |
| DUNG (“muck”) + *(one) [anag:out] | ||
| 25 | SUPERHERO | Great to be given her love in Kent? (9) |
| SUPER (“great”) to be given HER + O (“love”)
(Clark) Kent is the alter ego of Superman |
||
| 26 | See 16 | |
| 27 | AT LENGTH | Tiresome types speak thus in due course (2,6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | WHINGE | Grouse fly east retaining height (6) |
| WING (“fly”) + E (east) retaining H (height) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MANDRILL | School staff first to find baboon (8) |
| DRILL (“school”) wih MAN (“staff”) first | ||
| 2 | SNOWDONIA | Wind soon destroyed area in national park (9) |
| *(wind soon) [anag:destroyed) + A (area) | ||
| 3 | REEBOK | African native fine after drink chucked up (6) |
| OK (“fine”) after <=BEER (“drink” chucked up) | ||
| 5 | FROM THE WORD GO | Monopoly started here with no preliminaries (4,3,4,2) |
| Double definition, the first referring to the game Monopoly, where players start from the square marked “GO” | ||
| 6 | ELECTRA | Elite artist is complex woman? (7) |
| ELECT (“elite”) + RA (member of the Royal Acadmey, so “artist”) | ||
| 7 | CAPON | Chicken wearing hat? (5) |
| If you have a CAP ON, you could be described as “wearing a hat” | ||
| 8 | SHTICK | Quiet moment in comedian’s routine (6) |
| SH (“quiet!”) + TICK (“moment”) | ||
| 10 | FUTURE PERFECT | Utopian prediction will have been given as example (6,7) |
| A PERFECT FUTURE could be described as a “Utopian prediction” and the phrase “will have been given” is in the future perfect tense. | ||
| 15 | TRAGEDIAN | Get in RADA to become such an actor? (9) |
| *(get in RADA) [anag:to become] | ||
| 16, 26 | ROUND THE TWIST | Crazy making song and dance (5,3,5) |
| ROUND (“song”) + THE TWIST (“dance”) | ||
| 18 | TAMARIN | Monkey departs from tree (7) |
| D (departs) from TAMARIN(d) (“tree”) | ||
| 20 | ODESSA | Died having been flayed over in seaport (6) |
| Can’t parse this one, sorry! | ||
| 21 | SNATCH | Kidnapping sons as you’d expect (6) |
| S (sons) + NATCH (short for “natural, so “as you’d expect”) | ||
| 23 | EXPEL | Kick out former Brazilian striker unable to finish (5) |
| EX (“former”) + PEL(e) (“Brazilian striker”, unable to finish) | ||
*anagram
Thanks for the blog, loonapick.
I can’t parse Odessa either! I also didn’t get that ‘Natch’ = ‘as you’d expect’….
I rather liked 10dn.
Thanks to loonapick and Neo
“passed on” skinned and reversed
Thanks, Dansar
Natch, add me to The Odessa File (pronounced fail).
What Dansar says: {(p)ASSED O(n)}<. Parsing that took as long as the rest of the puzzle!
Great fun. Thanks Neo and Loonapick.
ODESSA was my last one to parse. Glad I wasn’t the only one who struggled to see it.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick. Great fun. I did not parse ODESSA, did not know SNOWDONIA, and struggled with TAMARIND.
Unless I’m missing something isn’t “money” = “L” asking us to think of an example (never mind a synonym) and use an abbreviation of that.
I’m not in favour of “think of a synonym and use its abbreviation”, e.g “student” = “learner” = “L”, and this seems a step further still.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Found this one at the harder end of this setter’s spectrum, not helped by only having short stints at it initially. Was another who came here with ODESSA unparsed, even after reversing it and not being able to make anything off it.
Have seen L for money often used in puzzles and in this clue it fitted the surface perfectly. Finished in the NW corner with that MISERLY (did take a while to see that L), MANDRILL (where it also took time to see DRILL for school) and the very clever LINK with its double use of link and mail.