Knut has provided this Thursday’s cruciverbal challenge, compiled on a grid that accommodates four 15-letter entries and two 13-letter entries.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle, my solving of which was greatly aided by figuring out some of the above-mentioned longer entries fairly swiftly. I am pretty happy with my parsing, with the slight exception of 2, on which input from other solvers would be welcome.
My favourite clues today were 5 and 10, both for surface; and 1A and 4, both for ingenuity. I also rather liked the “Jack-in-the-box” device at 7. Incidentally, the entry at 13 was new to me.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | SEMI-CONDUCTOR | Barbi may be a product of Silicon Valley?
BARBI<rolli> (=conductor, i.e. Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970); “semi-“ means five of ten letters are used) |
| 08 | EROS | Lover boy barred from beerhouse on a regular basis
<b>E<e>R<h>O<u>S<e>; “on a regular basis” means alternate letters only are used; Eros is the Greek god of love, often portrayed as a boy, e.g. at Piccadilly Circus |
| 09 | MITIGATED | Calmed rumours that Thurber’s antihero is under house arrest
Homophone (“rumours”) of “Mitty (=Thurber’s antihero, in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) + gated (=under house arrest/curfew)” |
| 10 | ANGORA | Greek market stocking new yarn
N (=new) in AGORA (=Greek market(place)) |
| 11 | IN-AND-OUT | Unreliable Foreign Office abandons foundation in trouble
*(<fo>UNDATION); “Foreign Office (=FO) abandons” means letters “fo” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “in trouble” |
| 12 | COVERING LETTERS | Notes introducing the business of insuring landlords?
COVERING (=insuring, e.g. risks) + LETTERS (=landlords, i.e. who let out property) |
| 14 | ACKNOWLEDGEMENT | Confirmation neglected woman struggles to save a thousand
K (=thousand, as in kg) in *(NEGLECTED WOMAN); “struggles” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | DEFENCES | Guards daughter, beginning to expose criminal property dealers
D (=daughters) + E<xpose> (“beginning to” means first letter only) + FENCES (=criminal property dealers) |
| 19 | SKOPJE | Bad jokes about Head of Panama City
P<anama> (“head of” means first letter only) in *(JOKES); “bad” is anagram indicator; Skopje is the capital of North Macedonia |
| 20 | THE WINNER | Champ, looking leaner, secures two points
[E, W (=two points, i.e. east and west)] in THINNER (=leaner) |
| 21 | RILE | Wind up gun lacking force
RI<f>LE (=gun); “lacking force (=F, in physics)” means letter “f” is dropped; to rile is to irritate, hence “wind up” |
| 22 | ABIGAIL’S PARTY | Mike Leigh work broadcast by a plagiarist?
*(BY A PLAGIARIST); “broadcast” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the 1977 play by UK playwright and director Mike Leigh |
| Down | ||
| 01 | STRING ORCHESTRA | Small-time Liverpudlian drummer charters funky band
S (=small, of sizes) + T (=time) + RINGO (=Liverpudlian drummer, of Beatles fame) + *(CHARTERS); “funky” is anagram indicator |
| 02 | MISGOVERN | “Bugger Holyrood”, as homesick Glaswegian might say?
Homophone (“might say”) of “(I) miss Govan (=as homesick Glaswegian might say)”; cryptically, to “bugger (up) Holyrood” would be to misgovern Scotland! |
| 03 | CAMPARI | Mum got separated visiting an Italian island, which leaves a bitter taste
M + A (MA=mum; “got separated” means the two letters are split up) in CAPRI (=an Italian island) |
| 04 | NOTHING PERSONAL | Abusing Oprah, Sting, Lennon endlessly? Don’t take it to heart
*(OPRAH STING LENNO<n>); “endlessly” means last letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “abusing” |
| 05 | UPGRADE | Get a better room for day in Prague working
D (=day, on calendars) in *(PRAGUE); “working” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | TOTED | Carried letters from poor Sylvia addressed thus?
Cryptically, letters from poor Sylvia (Plath) would be addressed “to Ted (Hughes)” |
| 07 | REDCURRANT JELLY | Bloody dog bolted, covering Jack-in-the-box in sticky sauce
RED (=bloody) + CUR (=dog) + RAN (=bolted, dashed off) + [J (=jack, in cards) in TELLY (=the box, tv)] |
| 13 | TAMBOURER | Embroiderer less wild about our bishop taking the lead
[B (=bishop, in chess) + OUR] in TAMER (=less wild); a tambourer is a person doing embroidery on a tambour frame |
| 15 | WICHITA | Sandwich (Italian) fed Kansas city
Hidden (“fed”) in “sandWICH ITAlian” |
| 16 | GAS TRAP | Something in sewer forced rats into clothing store
*(RATS) in GAP (=clothing store, i.e. clothing retailer); a gas trap is a trap in a drain to prevent the escape of foul gas |
| 18 | ELEMI | Tree containing eastern island resin
[E (=eastern) in ELM (=tree)] + I (=island); elemi is a fragrant resinous substance obtained from various tropical trees |
Another treat from Knut – my favourite was 7d as I thought the Jack-in-the-box device was particularly clever
thanks to him and RR
I couldn’t parse MISGOVERN but it’s obvious now, and I had never heard IN-AND-OUT in that sense before. Nicely difficult, so thanks Knut and RatkojaRiku.
As our blogger says, quite an achievement to clue around those long ones with very few odd words creeping into the solutions as a result. Maybe ELEMI and TAMBOURER? But both gettable from the cluing and straightforwardly defined which is very fair. My two favourites have already been mentioned in the two comments above: REDCURRANT JELLY and MISGOVERN which is just – delightfully – outrageous in every sense.
Thanks Knut and RR
Unsurprisingly, I agree with crypticsue’s top favourite – but I’d like to add the splendid anagrams in 14ac ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, 22ac ABIGAIL’S PARTY (great surface, too) and 4dn NOTHING PERSONAL.
I also enjoyed SEMI-CONDUCTOR, MITIGATED, STRING ORCHESTRA, CAMPARI and TOTED.
(I opted out of the rhotic discussion long ago but, in deference to my late Scottish husband, I can’t let 2dn go without comment – a Glaswegian of all people?? 😉
Many thanks to Knut and RR.
Loved BARBI . And ABIGAIL
Most enjoyable.
Chapeau!
Those long answers were off-putting at the start, especially as they didn’t yield quickly. Everything in eventually, but TOTED was unparsed and TAMBOURER needed the wordplay.
Favourite was SEMI-CONDUCTOR; no doll in sight and luckily for me it didn’t relate to the name of a current rock band which I would be unlikely to have heard of.
Thanks to Knut and RR
No problems completing but needed to find a conductor BARBI?????, had to guess ABIGAIL’S PARTY and TAMBOURER (not in Chambers, although TAMBOUR is).
PostMark @3. Haven’t seen your posts for the last few days. Wondered if you were recovering from 19a in Tuesday’s Leonidas crossword.
[Hovis @7: Apart from spending yesterday in London for only my second visit to the capital in the last two years, I’ve also been fairly focused on completing two puzzles of my own, one of which has just gone out on MyCrossword and the other for submission to Big Dave’s Rookie Corner. I don’t know if you glance at either but, with regard to the latter, you might soon have the opportunity to see PostMark exposed to the potentially withering glare of an astute solving audience! I have been warned to expect what might be euphemistically termed a squeaky bottom time …]
Hovis @7: oh, very funny! I’m not an FT solver – for the simple and rather banal reason that they need to be printed out and that isn’t convenient for my routine of G&I over a cup of coffee before I get up. On the odd occasion I’ve dived into FT work, I’ve found it excellent, though. So I missed Leonidas’ clue which would certainly have been appreciated, had I solved. Thank you for bringing it to my attention – I think 😀
All good. Particularly liked the jack-in-the-box – very clever. I got MISGOVERN but found it to be a long leap from the (very whimsical?) definition. The Sylvia/Ted connection presented me with a blank in my GK which I will have to address (once I’ve worked up some resilience). Thanks both.
PostMark @8. Although a little tempted, I don’t feel I have the time to attempt any more than the 3 GiFT crosswords. I’m sure I’m missing out but there are only so many hours in a day.
Thanks for the blog, dear RatkojaRiku, and thanks to those who have commented.
[@PostMark I have had puzzles uploaded to both BigDave and MyCrossword. I’d imagine everyone who comments on fifteensquared.net is familiar with BigDave’s site but possibly might not be quite so aware of MyCrossword. I wholeheartedly recommend it. Great solving interface, very nice & friendly community, good range of puzzles. Best of luck!]
Best wishes to all, Rob/Knut
MISGOVERN reminded me of a joke that only works in a Scottish accent:
Customer in Glasgow cake shop: “Is that a doughnut or a meringue?”
Cake seller: “No, you’re right, it’s a doughnut.”
Great stuff. I liked the Sylvia Plath and Sir John Barbirolli moments.
Thanks both really enjoyed that done in s lull today during step daughter’s wedding bits and wotsits today in mostly but coole poole.
Thanks Knut for your usual well-clued crossword. I liked 1d and 7d in particular. I couldn’t figure out MISGOVERN without a word finder and I didn’t understand 1a or TOTED so thanks RR for explaining.