Found this fairly easy for a Paul, and one with a little theme of Yorkshire towns at that. Several lovely and inventive clues.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SPONSOR | S[econd] + NS=”team” in bridge inside POOR=”poxy” |
| 5 | PEP TALK | P[hysical] T[raining] inside PEAL=”ring” + [whac]K |
| 9 | TORSI | =”trunks”. TOR=prominence + S[wimming] + I=one |
| 10 | PENISTONE | hidden in “…oPEN IS TO NEarest…” |
| 11 | LAST-MINUTE | LAST=survive + MINUTE=small=”far from great” |
| 12, 24 | PASS WIND | (swan dips)* &lit |
| 14 | GIGGLESWICK | GIGGLES + WICK |
| 18 | EXTRAPOLATE | EXTRA PLATE is needed for an unexpected guest, taking in O=nothing |
| 21 | SAGE | double def |
| 22 | PONTEFRACT | (ref not)* in PACT |
| 25 | UNANIMITY | [t]UNA + NIMIT[z] a class of aircraft carriers [wiki] with a Y for the [z] |
| 26 | OTLEY | [m]OTLEY |
| 27 | YEAR DOT | =”way back”. YET around (road)*. |
| 28 | ESSAYED | SAY=perhaps inside “cheESE Dish” |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SETTLE | double def |
| 2 | ONRUSH | [te](n hours)* |
| 3 | SEISMOGRAM | IS MOG inside rev(MARES) |
| 4 | RIPON | RIP ON as opposed to “tear off” |
| 5 | PANATELLA | rev(TAN) inside PAELLA |
| 6 | POST | double def |
| 7 | AROMATIC | A ROMA[n]TIC |
| 8 | KEEPSAKE | KEEP as in sustenance or food (“earn their keep” etc) + SAKE as in rice wine |
| 13 | ISLE OF DOGS | (Fido’s legs)* around O[ld] |
| 15 | GEOLOGIST | GET=understand around O[xygen] + LOG~chart + IS |
| 16 | DEWSBURY | rev(RUB SWED[e])=”Polish European not finishing up” + Y[ear] |
| 17 | STIGMATA | SIGMA=”Greek letter” around T[yrannical] + TA=”that’s appreciated” |
| 19 | BATLEY | BALE around [per]T + Y[ou] |
| 20 | STAYED | =”Didn’t go”. (steady)* |
| 23 | THYME | sounds like “time”, which heals all wounds. |
I was very disappointed. How could Paul, of all people, include PENISTONE and then not give us the obvious charade. Either he’s been censored by the crossword ed, or he’s teasing us!
A pity that the NE theme was spoilt by 13, but then again if 13 was not there I probably would not have started this crossword. Some very clever clues and a crossword despite being quite difficult maintained by interest. So enjoyable
Is it cheating if I’ve had to use a map?
Thanks manehi.
Mick, I seem to remember seeing him use this town’s name in a clue before and a craftsman like Paul wouldn’t do the obvious twice. But I don’t have Eileen’s encyclopaedic knowledge to confirm this.I suppose the inclusion of the name, anyway, is enough to put his signature on the puzzle! (Along with the pert bottoms passing wind etc.)
Thanks for the blog. I couldn’t think why ‘keep’ in 8 so thanks for the explanation.
Yes, quite straightforward to complete. I particularly liked 18. It’s a word I use quite a lot in my job but never once have I noticed ‘extra plate’. And that’s why Paul is a setter and I’m not!
Jobs – don’t worry about using a map. Missionaries travelling in Yorkshire still use them 😉
A nicely balanced puzzle for a weekday: where I found the parsing tricky (SPONSOR, UNANIMITY), the answer was easily deduced; where the answer was not too familiar, the straight-forward parsing made the solution visible (SEISMOGRAM). Very enjoyable.
Thanks for the blog, manehi.
A good crossword. Entertaining and just the right level of difficulty for my one hour lunchbreak. I particularly liked 18.
I do like placenames as a theme. I’ve compiled charity quizzes consisting of placenames defined by cryptic clues on a number of occasions and they prove popular even with people who don’t normally do cryptic crosswords.
Thanks, manehi. Very enjoyable puzzle from Paul, with plenty of risque allusions! Managed to get most of the towns unaided, but had to google to get 19dn and 26ac. A lot of smiles in this one.
Thanks for the blog.
Is NS = “team” really fair? I assume it refers to bridge, but being a bridge player, NS (or EW) are only ever referred to as a “pair”. A “team” consists of at least four players.
Other than that, great xword (I guess I must be on Paul’s wavelength now, I got PASS WIND almost instantly!).
Cheers to Paul and manehi.
Being Paul and including 10a, I was half expecting Scunthorpe to be included, can’t think why!
Lanson,
Scunthorpe isn’t in Yorkshire, and neither is Newark (anag)!
The usual pun: Swan Dips for Pass Wind 🙂
Nice but can we have some Lancashire Hot sPOTs please?
I also concur with Jim: As a Bridge player I agree NS are a pair not a team so, perhaps:
Second pair invested in poxy finance
Would have worked better for 1 across.
Paul missed some other ‘amusing’ Yorkshire localities. Par for Paul.
I haven’t managed to track this story down properly, but I’ve heard two versions of it and I’m not sure which is correct. It’s certainly up Paul’s street.
Hawes is part of William Hague’s constituency. According to one version, he telephoned a constituent but dialled the wrong number and asked “Is this a Hawes number?” “Certainly not!” came the sharp reply.
In the version I prefer, he was trying to familiarise himself with his constituency by car and got completely lost. Eventually, he wound down the window to address a passing woman thus: “Excuse me, I’m looking for Hawes”.
This took me a while to get into — I was determined not to reach for the map — and it wasn’t until Pontefract turned up that I was able to deduce whether the Yorkshire towns were all or part of the answers. Only one bout of flatulence this week, and, as noted above, a ‘pert rear’, but I thought ‘Prominence one observed on front of swimming trunks’ was an intriguing and witty surface (and the last one to be solved).
After being initially naffed off about my O-Level Geography being tested I was quite surprised at my knowlegde of Whiterose towns being a Redroser. Spent a few minutes scanning clues for Leeds, Bradford and Ilkley but then just went for it.
eimi, I take it you are from the south?
How VERY dare you My Ellison…. like I said, I’m a Redroser… as in the house of Lancaster…..
This was really enjoyable, for all the reasons mentioned above.
NeilW #4 You flatter my memory! A long time ago, I was alerted to the excellent facility on this site, located on the right hand side of this page, under ‘Site Search’, where you can search for past answers. Unfortunately, typing in ‘Penistone’ reveals only today’s puzzle, so you must be misremembering. As has been said, not like Paul to miss a trick like that! 🙂
It was a good puzzle, doable without sources and only the memory of a single visit to Yorkshire, in the sixties – due to great clueing. Particularly liked YEAR DOT and SEISMOGRAM.
Indeed, enjoyable crossword.
Our highlights were the much mentioned EXTRAPOLATE (18ac), AROMATIC (7d), PANATELLA (5d) [because the smoke of the solution is not the smoke in the surface] and ESSAYED (28ac) [at first, it looked that it had to be an anagram of ‘tried’ inside EE (the middle of ‘cheese’) giving us a ‘dish’ – but it wasn’t like that, very clever].
Apart from the ‘team’ comments, there was not much reason to complain about fairness, construction and the master’s ‘signature’.
Still, I was wondering if the word ‘on’ should be allowed as a container indicator in 9ac (TORSI).
For me, it looked like the S was coming at the start or the end of the word.
And I wasn’t very keen on the construction in 2d (ONRUSH).
The clue reads “after end of ten” “hours being furious”, so it had to be E + (HOURS)* – otherwise the word ‘after’ is misleading. Well, alas.
But we enjoyed it.
Sorry, at the end of #21 it should read N + (HOURS)*.
And another one from me (sorry, again).
But I withdraw my comment on the construction of TORSI.
It should be read as TOR + S on I, and not, as I thought, TOR + I around S.
Though, still not happy with ONRUSH.
Nevertheless, fine crossword.
My God, don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight.
Of course, I meant that it should not be read as (TOR + I) on S.
[I promise, you won’t see me anymore today 🙂 ]
Places that must have tempted Paul…
Sorry, accidental submit…but the places he may have been tempted by…
Mankinholes (near Hebden Bridge)
Idle (with the famous working mans’ club)
Netherthong (no really!)
and more Barnoldswicke is the longest place name I know with no letters recurring.