I am late again this week, for which I apologise – we are living in unprecedented times and I have had a number of practical, real-life problems to sort out today. With everything else in a state of flux, at least we can rely on Klingsor to produce a puzzle of his usual high standard.
I found this one to be of medium-difficulty on the Indy scale, and it appears on a grid that allows for considerable variety in terms of the length of entries.
There is plenty to admire here, my particular favourites being 9, for the misdirection around “conductor”; 26, for foxing me yet again with “do”; the brilliant & lit. at 2; and 3, for the clever inclusion of two tree species, one in the wordplay and one (misleadingly) in the definition. Incidentally, I would appreciate some confirmation (or otherwise) of my parsing of 1A.
Let us all, setters, solvers and bloggers alike, stay safe at this difficult time. There’s nothing like a good crossword or two to take one’s mind off things, if only briefly.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | SERGE | Maybe Prokofiev’s material
Cryptically, the twilled material known as serge may have been used by the Russian composer Serge(y) Prokofiev (1891-1953) |
| 04 | IN CAHOOTS | Colluding, old S American riots
INCA (=old S American, from Peru) + HOOTS (=riots, i.e. hilarious people) |
| 09 | ELECTRODE | Conductor’s chosen baton before Mahler’s fifth
ELECT (=chosen) + ROD (=baton) + MAHL<e>R (“fifth” means fifth letter only is needed) |
| 10 | NEPAL | Mate from Newcastle maybe representing country
Cryptically, a “NE (=north-eastern) pal” could be a “mate from Newcastle |
| 11 | ASSENT | Comply when told to go
AS (=when, as conjunction) + SENT (=told to go) |
| 12 | STEERAGE | Always goes in coach – it offers cheapest fares
E’ER (=always, i.e. ever) in STAGE (=coach, as in to travel by stagecoach) |
| 14 | GLADSTONE BAG | Cheerful male carries single black suitcase
[ONE (=single) + B (=black, as in HB or chess)] in [GLAD (=cheerful) + STAG (=male)] |
| 17 | HEART AND SOUL | Leader includes awful rant in speech, only with total sincerity
[*(RANT) in HEAD (=leader)] + homophone (“in speech”) of “sole (=only)”; “awful” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | ANTEROOM | Make fast returns on advance payment for foyer
ANTE (=advance payment) + ROOM (MOOR=make fast, tie up, e.g. a boat; “returns” indicates reversal) |
| 21 | ORISON | Old Nick initially ignored prayer
O (=old) + <p>RISON (=nick; “initially ignored” means first letter is dropped) |
| 23 | PIANO | Some thespian orations could be grand
Hidden (“some”) in “thesPIAN Operations” |
| 24 | TRATTORIA | One rubbish dessert set back a restaurant
TRATTORI (I=one + ROT=rubbish + TART=dessert; “set back” indicates reversal) + A |
| 25 | SHELTERED | The lee side rightly described, for starters? Possibly
*(THE LEE + S<ide> R<ightly> D<escribed>); “for starters” means initial letters only are used in anagram, indicated by “possibly”; semi- & lit. |
| 26 | LUTON | Do nothing in extremely leaden town
[UT (=do, i.e. musical note) + 0 (=nothing, zero)] in L<uto>N (“extremely” means first and last letters only are needed) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | SHEBANGS | The woman reports affairs
SHE (=the woman) + BANGS (=reports, of firearms); shebangs are affairs, matters, as in the whole shebang |
| 02 | RHEOSTAT | Device ultimately put in so that resistance varied?
<devic>E (“ultimately” means last letter only) in *(SO THAT + R (=resistance, in electronics)); “varied” is anagram indicator; & lit. |
| 03 | EAT ONE’S HEART OUT | English solicitor imports ash tree? No, a gnarled pine
*(ASH TREE NO A) in [E (=English) + TOUT (=solicitor, as in ticket tout)] |
| 04 | ICON | Picture of fraud’s admission?
Cryptically, “I con (people)” is an admission of fraud |
| 05 | CHEW THE FAT | What Jack Sprat wouldn’t do to have a natter!
According to the nursery rhyme, “Jack Sprat would eat no fat” |
| 06 | HANSEL AND GRETEL | Genre developed with last Handel opera
*(GENRE + LAST HANDEL); “developed” is anagram indicator; Hansel and Gretel is an 1893 opera by Engelbert Humperdinck |
| 07 | ORPHAN | One’s parents are late turning up for Chinese
ORP (PRO=for; “turning up” indicates vertical reversal) + HAN (=Chinese, one of a native Chinese people); the “late” of the definition means “deceased” |
| 08 | SOLVER | You succeeded with sweetheart, promoting love
S (=succeeded) + LOVER (=sweetheart; “promoting love (=0, i.e. zero score)” means letter “o” moves to the front of the word |
| 13 | FOUR-POSTER | Nurse keeps our Penny in bed
[OUR + P (=penny)] in FOSTER (=nurse, nurture) |
| 15 | BOWSPRIT | Defer start of shopping trip around Spar
BOW (=defer, i.e. show deference) + S<hopping> (“start of” means first letter only) + PRIT (TRIP; “around” indicates reversal); a bowsprit is a strong spar projecting over the bows of a ship |
| 16 | PLANTAIN | Worker perhaps tucked into basic, staple food
ANT (=worker perhaps) in PLAIN (=basic, simple); a plantain is a coarse, green-skinned banana used as a staple food in tropical countries |
| 18 | CAMPUS | Parties around university and its grounds
U (=university) in CAMPS (=parties, groups) |
| 19 | ETHANE | Gas giving energy to former nobleman
E (=energy) + THANE (=former nobleman) |
It was a case of unlucky column 13 for me. Used word fits to get both ORPHAN & BOWSPRIT. The rest solved relatively easily. I always find Klingsor to be the master of &lits.
Sorry to hear of your problems RR. This anagram of carnivorous is very scary and my daily cryptics are a source of welcome distraction.
Thanks to S & B.
I agree with your parsing of 1ac. It took me a moment because at first I thought Kingsor had sunk to the level of indicating a hidden with an apostrophe, but no, of course not.
PRIT isn’t TRIP backwards!
Many thanks to blogger and setter. Re #3, I think “around” in that clue may be an anagram indicator.
Our parsing of 1ac was that it’s simply a DD. SERGE is an English (or at least French) version of Prokofiev’s forename – Russians often used French forms when transliterating from Cyrillic.
We rattled through the first four across clues and thought Klingsor must have been kind to us today – then we slowed down rather a lot, but we finished eventually without help, Anyway doing the crossword was a welcome relief from coping with the upset to the schedules of various organisations we’re involved with. One just has to stand back and take a break now and again,
Good to have several music allusions asa one might expect from Klingsor, both in clues (Mahler, conductor) and answers (piano, Hansel and Gretel). We also liked IN CAHOOTS, GLADSTONE BAG and FOUR-POSTER.
Thanks, Klingsor and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks Klingsor, RatkojaRiku
On 1ac, sorry if I’m misunderstanding the blog and stating the obvious; Prokofiev is just an example of a Serge. Sergey, however transliterated, in Russian, but often just Serge in the west.
I was diddled by 21; I invented cratch, which turns out to be a word, just not the right one.
Probably my first ever attempt at a Klingsor, due to self-isolating and looking for a 3rd crossword of the day.
Found it quite tricky, but completed it with just one solution unparsed, SHELTERED. I should have persevered with it.
Thanks for the blog, RR.
I’m pretty much with allan_c [and James @6 re SERGE in 1ac] – I didn’t give it a second thought ] on all counts today.
Another lovely puzzle! – 4ac and 13dn particularly tickled me and I enjoyed working out 2dn – but all good, as ever. Many thanks, Klingsor.
[NNI – I do hope you’ll continue with Klingsor [Alberich in the FT] now that you’ve found him – one of my top favourites 😉 ]
Thanks, Eileen.
Just completed my first Alberich, and found Neil’s website. Should keep me busy for a while.