Challenging puzzle from Zamorca this morning!
Plenty to enjoy in this morning’s crossword! Kept me busier than usual for a Monday. Clever surfaces, and misleading clues. Towards the end, a few had me really thinking – easy to see the solution, but took me a while to parse. Favourites include VEHICLE, LIBERATE, ONEROUS. Thanks to Zamorca!
| Across | ||
| 1 | LIBERATE | Free of charge following review of incomplete on-line invoice (8) |
| RATE (charge) following (E-BIL[l])< (on-line invoice, incomplete, <review) | ||
| 5 | EDITED | Corrected English and passed on final report enclosed (6) |
| E (English) and DIED (passed on), [repor]T (final) enclosed | ||
| 9 | DRAWLING | Speaking slowly when putting line in sketch (8) |
| L (line) in DRAWING (sketch) | ||
| 10 | USHERS | American girl’s retinue? (6) |
| US (American) + HERS (girl’s) | ||
| 12 | ENDED | Over-inclined to take top off (5) |
| [t]ENDED (inclined, to take top off) | ||
| 13 | IMPROMPTU | Spontaneous instant message by President Trump’s raving about nothing (9) |
| IM (instant message) by P (president) + (TRUMP)* (*raving) about O (nothing) | ||
| 14 | GAFFER | Manager reflected on start of fire by cigarette (6) |
| (RE (on) + F[ire] (start of) by FAG (cigarette)) < reflected | ||
| 16 | THEATRE | You once put pop art in a dramatic setting (7) |
| THEE (you once) put (ART)* (*pop) in | ||
| 19 | ONEROUS | Anxious, having no heart to pursue love that’s hard work (7) |
| NER[v]OUS (anxious, having no heart) to pursue O (love) | ||
| 21 | VOYAGE | Very complicated yoga on Oriental cruise (6) |
| V (very) + (YOGA)* (*complicated) on E (Oriental, Eastern) | ||
| 23 | URBAN MYTH | Setter’s dug out truth about the town before circulating dodgy story (5,4) |
| MY (setter’s) + T[rut]H (dug out), URBAN (about the town) before | ||
| 25 | FARCE | Countenance having Queen in comedy (5) |
| FACE (countenance) having R (queen) | ||
| 26 | ENCODE | Company’s filling desperate need to put data into a secure format (6) |
| CO (company) filling (NEED)* (*desperate) | ||
| 27 | OCCASION | Special day for children’s ending after cocoa is drunk (8) |
| [childre]N (ending) after (COCOA IS)* (*drunk) | ||
| 28 | TENANT | Lodger’s not applicable to occupy temporary accommodation (6) |
| NA (not applicable) to occupy TENT (temporary accommodation) | ||
| 29 | BETRAYAL | Double-dealing drug carrier’s caught in abandoned lab (8) |
| E (drug) + TRAY (carrier) caught in (LAB)* (*abandoned) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LADDER | Used to get high in long summer (6) |
| L (long) + ADDER (summer) | ||
| 2 | BOARD GAME | Risk perhaps sounding fed up and ready for anything new (5,4) |
| “BORED” (“sounding” fed up) and GAME (ready for anything new) | ||
| 3 | RULED | Decided King’s duel to be fixed (5) |
| R (king’s) + (DUEL)* (*to be fixed) | ||
| 4 | TANGIER | Fly over Italy and Spain reaching capital city (7) |
| (GNAT) (fly, <over) + I (Italy) and E (Spain) + Edit: thanks to Ilan @3 – much better thank you! |
||
| 6 | DISCOVERY | Criticise chap’s on-line finding (9) |
| DIS (criticise) + COVE (chap) on RY (line, railway) | ||
| 7 | TEE UP | Prepare for a drive getting out of bed after cuppa’s mentioned (3,2) |
| UP (getting out of bed) after TEE (cuppa’s “mentioned”, sounds like “tea”) | ||
| 8 | DISQUIET | Worry daughter is shy (8) |
| D (daughter) + IS + QUIET (shy) | ||
| 11 | SPAT | Beats up in a quarrel (4) |
| TAPS< (beats, <up) | ||
| 15 | FROWNED ON | Disapproved when father’s had on (7,2) |
| FR (father) + OWNED (had) + ON | ||
| 17 | TIGER LILY | Foolishly I let girl take unknown flower (5,4) |
| (I LET GIRL)* (*foolishly) + Y (unknown) | ||
| 18 | DOCUMENT | Record point about copper leading team (8) |
| DOT (point) about CU (copper) leading MEN (team) | ||
| 20 | SAYS | Mentions a year aboard ship (4) |
| A Y (year) aboard SS (ship) | ||
| 21 | VEHICLE | People carrier takes five plus one in revolutionary back ledge with middle removed (7) |
| V (five) plus I (one) in (CHE)< (revolutionary, <back), L[edg]E (with middle removed) | ||
| 22 | KENNEL | Quarters in bottom of boat where dog sleeps (6) |
| NN (quarters) in KEEL (bottom of boat) | ||
| 24 | BACON | Told to continue cooking meat? (5) |
| “BAKE ON” (“told”) | ||
| 25 | FLAIR | Adversarial facade concealed rising talent (5) |
| [adverse]RIAL F[acade] (concelaed, <rising) | ||
thanks zam and tea! lots of clever clues — I especially liked 1D which reminded me of my misspent youth.
Thought I was never going to finish this but got there in the end. LIBERATE, LADDER & BOARD GAME were my last ones in. I remember playing Risk in my student days. A single game could go on for days.
Got held up by putting SPAR instead of SPAT for 11d but eventually realised my error.
Wondered what “circulating” was doing in 23a. Never thought of taking it as part of the definition. D’oh!
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow.
Thanks Teacow & Zamorca.
I rather enjoyed this once I’d got myself into the right mindset.
I particularly liked the smooth surface of 1dn.
I’m never too keen on odd single-letter abbreviations, so reaching = r in 4dn made me grimace.
I didn’t get quarters = NN in 22dn – I assume it refers to quarters of the compass.
@3: I read 4d as r=”reaching capital” (Tangier isn’t the moroccan capital.)
Some really nice surfaces, but at the expense of too many liberties for me. 1d L for long seems dubious; not sure about “final report” being a fair indication of T in 5a either, or P for President in IMPROMPTU, an otherwise great clue. Maybe my dictionaries are out of date. Or maybe I’m just a miserable stickler, because BACON as a homophone of “bake on” doesn’t work for me, and neither does “pop” as an anagram indicator in the context of the clue for THEATRE.
I particularly liked TEE UP and ONEROUS.
I thought this was easier to solve than to parse; particularly 19a, 4d and 22d. Thanks for the elucidation Teacow
, also to setter.
Thank you, Zamorca. I think we were slightly patronising during your first appearances — ‘ideal for training a novice solver’ sort of thing. This was great in all respects (I loved Urban Myth). And thank you Teacow for your hard work.
Thanks Zamorca & Teacow
Nila Palin @ 5: L = LONG is a common abbreviation for the leg length of gents’ trousers, along with S = SHORT & R = REGULAR.
Thanks Zamorca & Teacow.
Nila Palin @ 5: Initial report would be a fair indication of R, so final report = T seems OK. P is the abbreviation for President in the American code name POTUS.
Simon @8, yes, I can see the logic, but none of those are in the standard UK dictionaries that cryptics adhere to, which is why you won’t have seen them in cryptics the way you do S for small and L for Large, say. So while L for Long isn’t inexplicable, I don’t think it’s fair to solvers in principle.
Psmith @9, sorry, but I don’t think “initial report” for R is fair either! “Initially, report”, “report initially”, “report’s initial”, all fine. I also disagree about President being okay by dint of POTUS. Same with P for Prime from PM.
I’m sure it seems like pedantry to some, but cryptics need certain conventions to keep a level playing field between setter and solver.
It does seem strange that P for president regularly appears in cryptics but seems elusive in the standard dictionaries. I agree that its appearance in POTUS does not justify it. On the other hand, I am perfectly happy with i for information as it appears on many remote controls and in tourist information etc even though, when I last looked, I didn’t find it in my dictionaries. I don’t mind “final report” for “final letter of report” but can see why several people object.
Thanks Teacow for the explanations. Almost every crossword has answers I get from the surfaces and partial parsing — it’s good to get the complete picture. Thanks Zamorca for another solid showing. Favorites include 19a, 23a, and 21d.
Collins online gives ‘president’ for P under its first American English section. I think we Brits are exposed to enough US culture to have picked up some of their more common abbreviations. That was my favourite clue by the way.
I do agree with Nila Palin @ 5 about the BACON/BAKE-ON homophone not quite working, but that was my only gripe in an otherwise very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to all.
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
Entertaining puzzle to begin the week. Particularly liked the misdirection (‘capital city’ that wasn’t) and some clever definitions (e-BILL, ‘people carrier’, ‘Risk’ as a definition by example of a board game).
Had to use a word finder in the end to find BOARD GAME (hadn’t heard of this particular game and the erroneous REEFER that I had at 14a didn’t help). The amended GAFFER was then my last one in.