A themed puzzle again today. Thank you Gozo.
I was amazed at how many of the more obscure fabrics I knew. I think the words must have stuck in my mind many years ago when reading historical novels. They have lain there ever since waiting for a chance to be useful.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CASHMERE |
Loose change only (8)
|
| CASH (loose change) MERE (only) | ||
| 5 | CALICO |
Girl cut into firm (6)
|
| ALICe (girl’s name, cut short) inside CO (company, a firm) | ||
| 9 | TERYLENE |
Serenely retiring – somewhat retiring! (8)
|
| found inside (somewhat) serENELY RETiring reversed (retiring) | ||
| 10 | DOMETT |
Party at the NY opera house at end of August (6)
|
| DO (party) with MET (the NY opera house) then last letter (end) of augusT | ||
| 12 | ORGANZINE |
New Zealand in the Iron Age, unusually (9)
|
| NZ (new Zealand) inside anagram (unusually) of IRON AGE | ||
| 13 | NYLON |
Last drop of bourbon only affected (5)
|
| anagram (affected) of bourboN (last letter, last drop of) and ONLY | ||
| 14 | FELT |
Four characters returning from the battlefield (4)
|
| found inside (four characters from) batTLEField reversed (returning) | ||
| 16 | FISHNET |
Finest end of cloth in tatters (7)
|
| anagram (in tatters) of FINEST and clotH (last letter, end of) | ||
| 19 | OIL SILK |
Painting a QC? (3,4)
|
| OIL (painting) and SILK (a QC, barrister) | ||
| 21 | LENO |
The French refusal? (4)
|
| LE (the, in French) then NO (a refusal) | ||
| 24 | BAIZE |
Victors’ awards broadcast (5)
|
| sounds like (broadcast) “bays” (laurels, victor’s awards) | ||
| 25 | HORSEHAIR |
Heroin at the musical (9)
|
| HORSE (heroin, slang) then HAIR ( a musical) | ||
| 27 | CHINTZ |
Clue in the Czech Republic (6)
|
| HINT (clue) inside CZ (the Czech Republic) | ||
| 28 | CHENILLE |
Poor Len, in bits and pieces, in the country (8)
|
| an anagram (poor) of LEN inserted sporadically (in bits and pieces) into CHILE (a country) | ||
| 29 | SATEEN |
Small, active adolescent (6)
|
| S (small) A (active) TEEN (adolescent) | ||
| 30 | CRETONNE |
No recent orders (8)
|
| anagram (cycling) of NO RECENT | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COTTON |
Get on with this, you understand? (6)
|
| add ON to COTTON and you get “cotton-on” (understand) | ||
| 2 | SPROGS |
First of scheduled broadcasts for kids (6)
|
| first letter of Scheduled then PROGS (programs, broadcasts) | ||
| 3 | MILAN |
Endless distance to an Italian city (5)
|
| MILe (distance, end-less) with AN | ||
| 4 | RUN RIOT |
Act unrestrainedly when batsmen are making hay (3,4)
|
| definition and cryptic definition (cricket) | ||
| 6 | ABOUNDS IN |
Teems with rain (not mid-March) around the jumps (7,2)
|
| rAIN missing middle letter of maRch containing (around) BOUNDS (jumps) | ||
| 7 | ICE PLANT |
Refrigeration unit in the garden? (3,5)
|
| an ICE PLANT is a common name for the fig-marigolds, that might be found in the garden | ||
| 8 | OSTINATO |
Musical phrase, last from radio station broadcast (8)
|
| last letter od radiO then anagram (broadcast) of STATION | ||
| 11 | BEEF |
A joint complaint (4)
|
| double definition | ||
| 15 | EPICENTRE |
Most shocking of locations (9)
|
| cryptic definition – the focal point of some destructive activity, originally the point on the Earth’s surface above the focus of an earthquake | ||
| 17 | ROEBUCKS |
Deer from Rhodes regularly on small county (8)
|
| every other letter (regularly) of RhOdEs then BUCKS (Buckinghamshire, small=abbreviation) | ||
| 18 | ALPINIST |
A record popular with first mountaineer (8)
|
| A LP (record) IN (popular) with IST (1st, first) | ||
| 20 | KOHL |
Make-up for former chancellor (4)
|
| double definition – a black eye liner and chancellor Helmut Kohl | ||
| 21 | LURCHER |
Hunting dog who is unsteady on his feet (7)
|
| double definition | ||
| 22 | RAGLAN |
Alan Sugar sadly got rid of USA garment (6)
|
| anagram (sadly) of ALaN suGAR missing USA | ||
| 23 | GREECE |
European country suggests musical (6)
|
| sounds like (suggests) “Grease” (a musical) | ||
| 26 | ERNST |
German artist, severe when cycling (5)
|
| STERN (severe) with letters cycled (moved from the front to the back sequentially) |
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
28ac: The parsing should note that the anagram of LEN is inserted in two separate parts into CHILE. Hence the “in bits and pieces” in the clue.
Thanks for that Pelham, well spotted. I have updated the bog.
It wouldn’t be hard, but you’ve obviously read many more historical novels than I have (Georgette Heyer might have come in handy) as I found this full of obscurities which only went in with the help of wordplay and in the case of LENO, making the right call on the coin toss. I failed on the crossing DOMETT and OSTINATO, neither of which rang even the vaguest bell.
No complaints though. I liked working out the tricky parsing of CHENILLE (as per PB @1 above and now corrected in the blog) and the EPICENTRE cryptic def among others.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
21a looked like the theme was footballers but…
Ha, I thought the same for a short while, Copmus -debatable which I’d have found easier.
Took me a while to COTTON ON but it was fun thereafter. I’ve never heard of DOMETT but the parsing was clear. Of the themed ones, CHINTZ and CHENILLE were my favourites.
I did struggle in the NE with 6d and 7d my last two in. The latter involved cheating but I was happy to learn this plant along with the unknown fabric.
Thanks to Gozo for the challenge today and PeeDee for a most welcome blog.
Really enjoyed this puzzle. Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
Fun challenge. DNF as I had RUN WILD at 4d and so couldn’t get FELT. Sigh.
Good puzzle, nice theme.
Verbose @7: Same here. 🙁
Great fun. Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
Seems like 15D should have a ? at the end.
Absent the ?, ’eminently’ also fits to some degree and could relate to ” of locations”
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Did this near publication time, but with a bit of post COVID travel and what not, only got to check it off now. Was an interesting theme and obviously I read a lot of different books to PeeDee as very few of the obscure fabrics have popped up in my reading. Having said that, only DOMETT, OIL SILK, LENO and CRETONNE were ones that I have not seen, at least in a crossword setting. OSTINATO and ICE PLANT were the other two terms that were knew to me.
Enjoyed the solve and finished in the NE corner with a couple of those unknowns – OSTINATO and DOMETT.
Modern authors often describe people’s appearance using brand names. Before the age of mass production clothing was hand made for individuals, there were no brand names so authors naturally described the clothing using names of the materials. He wore blue cotton trousers and a wide-brimmed felt hat, not “he wore Levi’s and a Stetson”. A modern author can say that the room had Laura Ashley curtains and a reader would know what sort of message this brand name conveyed. An old author would have fewer options, they would have to describe the individual curtain’s material, length etc.
Thanks PeeDee – hadn’t thought of it like that.