A fun challenge from WANDERER this Friday.
I am unsure about my parsing for 17d.
FF: 9 DD: 7
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STAND OFF |
Rotten weather earlier, causing deadlock in conflict (5-3)
|
| STAND ( weather ) OFF ( rotten ) | ||
| 5 | SPADES |
Pass? Finally bid these, perhaps (6)
|
| & lit; [ PASS D ( biD, finally ) E ( thesE, finally ) ]* ; card game | ||
| 9 | LOCKABLE |
First of all, locate one’s crucial keys –- and “bingo!”, largely everything’s this? (8)
|
| starting letters of “..Locate One’s Crucial Keys – And Bingo Largely Everything ..” | ||
| 10 | PROLES |
Piano parts for Common People (6)
|
| P ( piano ) ROLES ( parts ) | ||
| 12 | CLUBS |
Young reporters covering liberal organisations that might need remembering? (5)
|
| CUBS ( young reporters ) covering L ( liberal ) | ||
| 13 | ON THIN ICE |
Supply no hint before 18 at risk (2,4,3)
|
| [ NO HINT ]* ICE ( 18d, diamonds ) | ||
| 14 | FROCKS |
Dresses with fine 18 (6)
|
| F ( fine ) ROCKS ( 18d, diamonds) | ||
| 16 | WOMBATS |
Cut back 12 for Australian natives (7)
|
| WOM ( reverse of MOW, cut ) BATS ( 12a , clubs ) | ||
| 19 | INDOORS |
Wife described using her this, perhaps, getting Rodin so agitated (7)
|
| [ RODIN SO ]* , ‘her indoors’ means wife – i’m not very confident about the clue construction | ||
| 21 | GENTRY |
Good opening for those of good social standing (6)
|
| G ( good ) ENTRY ( opening ) | ||
| 23 | MOONSHINE |
Liquor drunk in one’s home after dropping Ecstasy (9)
|
| [ IN ONES HOMe ( without E – Ecstacy ) ]* | ||
| 25 | CADGE |
Bum 18 in prison (5)
|
| D ( 18d, Diamonds ) in CAGE ( prison ) | ||
| 26 | NITWIT |
Fool North with one trump initially, then with 22 being discarded (6)
|
| N ( north ) I ( one) T ( Trump, initially ) WITh ( without H – hearts, 22d ) | ||
| 27 | STICKLER |
Label describing lecturer as pedant? (8)
|
| STICKER ( label ) around L ( lecturer ) | ||
| 28 | SCORES |
Results from 22 following 5 (6)
|
| S ( 5, spades ) CORES ( 22, hearts ) | ||
| 29 | SYNOPSIS |
Run-down little horse is backed by sibling (8)
|
| SYNOP ( reverse of little horse is, PONY’S ) SIS ( sibling ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SPLICE |
Marry childless learner driver, 18 (6)
|
| SP ( childless, Sine Prole i.e. without issue ) L ( Learner driver ) ICE ( 18d, diamonds ) | ||
| 2 | ACCOUTRED |
Equipped with wrong court card, East lacks one king or queen (9)
|
| [ COUrT ( without an ‘R’ – king or queen ) CARD E (east ) ]* | ||
| 3 | DEALS |
Distributions of 20s in contracts (5)
|
| cryptic def; 20d is SUITS, playing cards; the distribution of which would be a deal. | ||
| 4, 20 | FOLLOWS SUIT |
Behaves just the same, after heart-to-heart? (7,4)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 6 | PERSIMMON |
Fruit for each male, including Mark (9)
|
| [ PER ( each ) SIMON ( male ) ] containing M ( Mark ) | ||
| 7 | DELHI |
Talking shop in Asian city (5)
|
| sounds like DELI ( shop ) | ||
| 8 | SUSPENSE |
Soups regularly served with neeps, mashed in anticipation (8)
|
| SoUpS ( alternate letters of ) [ NEEPS ]* | ||
| 11 | STOW |
Pack player’s given to opponent (4)
|
| S ( south, player in bridge ) TO W ( west, south’s opponent ) | ||
| 15 | CROSSWISE |
One of the Xs and Ys, say, positioned transversely (9)
|
| CROSS ( X ) WISE ( sounds like Ys ) | ||
| 17 | AIREDALES |
Broadcast covering drinks for dogs (9)
|
| AIRED ( broadcast ) ALES ( drinks ) – if this parsing is correct, i am not sure what ‘covering’ is doing in the clue; i did think about the drinks being both red and ale in the clue but ‘AIS’ didnt allow for much after that. | ||
| 18 | DIAMONDS |
Backup help given to Scotsman DS Stones (8)
|
| DIA ( help = AID, reversed {backup} ) MON ( scottish for man ) DS | ||
| 20 |
See 4
|
|
| 21 | GREATLY |
Discontented yet regal characters, playing in 5 (7)
|
| [ YeT ( discontented ) REGAL ]* – answer to 5 is spades; “in spades” is the def | ||
| 22 | HEARTS |
Team tries tackling tenaciously at the outset (6)
|
| HEARS ( tries ) containing T ( Tenaciously , at the outset i.e. beginning letter ) ; referring to the scottish football club, heart of midlothian | ||
| 24 | OUTDO |
Cap needed, as party not 19? (5)
|
| cryptic def; 19a is INDOORS, a party not indoors can be described as an ‘ out do’ | ||
| 25 | CACAO |
Caught adult beginning to ask around 12: “Love some chocolate?” (5)
|
| { [ C ( caught ) A ( Adullt ) A ( beginning to Ask ) ] around C ( Clubs ) } O ( love ) |
I think “covering” in 17d just means “lies on top of” in a down clue. I had a question mark against the definition in 12a but, on reflection, think it is a play on “remembering” to mean “getting new members”.
Found this good fun but a lot easier than the Independent and Guardian offerings today.
19A “Using ‘HER’ plus “RODIN SO” agitated gives a phrase meaning “Wife described”. Wasn’t this what George Cole used to refer to his wife in “Minder”?
I agree with Hovis re 17D – covering means on top of.
I found this challenging enough, though the theme helped. The only bit I couldn’t parse was the SP = “sine prole” for ‘childless’ at 1d. I don’t think I’ve come across it before but something to keep in mind for the future.
Admittedly only parsed post-solve, but I liked the ‘organisations that might need remembering’ def for CLUBS at 12a and the ‘after heart-to-heart’ wordplay for FOLLOW SUIT at 4d . Best for me were the “Minder” reference at 19a and the last in WOMBATS, one of my favourite furry creatures.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Wanderer
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs. To my surprise given my usual difficulty with this setter I finished fairly quickly but I needed help parsing SPLICE and was slow getting SCORES, OUTDO, and GREATLY.
Thanks for the blog. Peter @2 – Arthur Daley did frequently use the term HER INDOORS making it well known. I do not think Mrs Daley ever appeared in any of the episodes ??
Forgot to say CLUBS , HEARTS , DIAMONDS , SPADES .
Quite a few bridge references as well. 5AC 22AC 4D 3D 11D
26AC 28AC
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs. Roz, I would say that the theme is cards or card games in general rather than bridge in particular. Only 11dn has any reference to the partnership system in bridge.
Late to the party but agree largely with comments above re the use of ‘covering’ but not knowing the SP parsing of ‘splice’.
I’m not a bridge player but I wasn’t slow to pick up on the theme which I greatly enjoyed. Besides the fun chasing down those interconnected clues, I liked PERSIMMON and MOONSHINE.
Wanderer’s offering today capped a week of particularly entertaining puzzles so thanks to our setter and to Turbolegs for the insightful blog.
I’m in a minority (possibly of one) here, as I didn’t particularly enjoy this. As often when there is a theme I found some of the theme-related clues rather strained – eg 5a where there is no satisfactory definition. However, redeemed by some good non-themed clues such as 15d, which was definitely worth a tick.
Perplexus@11 . 5AC just about works as an &lit with the theme. You can pass in bridge and then finally bid spades ( these ) .
I found this easier to solve than parse with 1 5 12a and 1 2 21 22 all needing at least some help from Turbolegs. It was also a dnf as I had COCOA rather than CACAO and couldn’t think of a _Y_A _SIS word – maybe if I’d used a word search I’d have reviewed 25d. CROSSWISE was my favourite. Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
We worked steadily through this and got it all (with just a little help from our thesaurus for 2dn) but didn’t think it sparkled despite generous provision of DIAMONDS. Probably because it came a bit close to over-dependence on linked clues. But we liked PERSIMMON and CROSSWISE among others.
Thanks, Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Though I missed a few I enjoyed this a great deal. Favourites included STAND-OFF, SYNOPSIS, CROSSWISE, and GREATLY. Thanks Wanderer and to Turbolegs for filling in my gaps in parsing.
[Hovis @1: I found this a good bit more difficult than Tramp’s crossword in today’s Guardian. Maybe it’s one of those “wavelength” things.]
Well better than most of the rest of the week.. for me anyway.. n I often struggle with this setter.. I forgot I was looking for HEARTS when I came to 22dn n anagrammed TRIES n T to get TETRIS.. doh.. otherwise all good but defo needed help on the parsing of a few..
Thanks WANDERER n Turbolegs
Can’t complain – as a bridge player this was meat and drink.. particularly loved the reference to (S) in Greatly (21 d)..
Half expected some whist references .. The Devil’s Bedpost?! (4 of Clubs)
Well done Wanderer!
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Only got to this on the weekend and also found it a little easier going than normal from this setter. Got SPADES quite early on and when DIAMONDS appeared not much later, it was straightforward to see where HEARTS and CLUBS would be which opened the puzzle right up. Fortunately remembered the Latin phrase sp. for having no children, so no holdups with that one. Was a little surprised to see ‘diamonds’ = ICE pop up a couple of times at 13a and 1d. INDOORS raised a wry smile.
Finished in the SE corner with GENTRY, STICKLER and CACAO the last few in.