The puzzle is available here.
Hello all. Today we have another very enjoyable crossword from Bluth in his characteristic intricate and finely-crafted style. Thanks Bluth!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
Across
1a One page is encrypted – it involves spies … (9)
ESPIONAGE
ONE PAGE IS anagrammed (encrypted)
6a … as well as some revolutionary Yugoslavians (4)
ALSO
The answer is part of (some) the reversal of (revolutionary) YugOSLAvians
9a Contact old Ernest, occasionally (4)
LENS
Regular letters of (… occasionally) oLd ErNeSt
10a Cockney’s late to make toast (5,5)
BROWN BREAD
Cockney rhyming slang for dead, or late. To BROWN BREAD could also mean to make toast
11a Attack street artist with iron (6)
STRAFE
ST (street) + RA (artist) + FE (iron)
12a One that’s charged after bite gets support (8)
CHAMPION
ION (one that’s charged) after CHAMP (bite)
13a Head for sticky end without us entering crazy quiz show (10)
MASTERMIND
The first letter of (head for) Sticky and TERMIN[us] (end) without US inside (entering) MAD (crazy). Mastermind is a long-running British TV quiz show
15a Beginning CD (4)
SEED
SEE (C) + D
16a Sailors abandoning American on base – it’s a sin (4)
ENVY
N[a]VY (sailors) leaving out (abandoning) A (American) next to (on) E (base)
17a Toy with protecting wings from Salah – Mo’s one who could handle sweeper (10)
FISHMONGER
FINGER (toy with) around (protecting) the outer letters of (wings from) SalaH and MO. A sweeper is a fish – I’m not sure if I knew that, but it sounded like one
19a Estate agents defining border that’s out of bounds to begin with (8)
HACIENDA
CIA (agents) around (defining) END (border); at the start (to begin with) is tHAt missing its outer letters (out of bounds)
21a Rock music before entrance, ultimately an error for Trump? (6)
MISCUE
Make an anagram of (rock) MUSIC before the last letter of (… ultimately) entrancE. Happily not a different Trump, but Judd the snooker player
22a Politician is initially stopping VAT rebate – rejecting terms – one’s out for blood (7,3)
VAMPIRE BAT
MP (politician) and the first letter of (… initially) Is inside (stopping) VAt REBATe without final letters (rejecting terms)
23a One‘s seconds from ruin and disaster, statistically (4)
UNIT
The second letters of (seconds from) rUin aNd dIsaster, sTatistically
24a Grey area with cast (4)
ASHY
A (area) + SHY (cast)
25a A Netflix broadcast covering old cosmetic (9)
EXFOLIANT
A NETFLIX anagrammed (broadcast) around (covering) O (old)
Down
2d Yes-man fawned and sat around creating nothing (5,5,5)
SWEET FANNY ADAMS
YES–MAN FAWNED and SAT anagrammed (around)
3d Popular theatre left prop outside without hesitation (9)
INSTANTLY
IN (popular) + NT (theatre: National Theatre) and L (left) with STAY (prop) surrounding (outside)
4d Generous new joint served up shot of whiskey (5)
NOBLE
N (new) + ELBO[w] (joint) reversed (served up) without W (short of whiskey)
5d Short Disney film’s good for sanctimonious course (7)
GNOCCHI
[pi]NOCCHIo (Disney film) without its last letter (short …) has G in place of PI (good for sanctimonious)
6d Just out of bed and detective has crash involving vehicles heading north (5)
ATRIP
PI (detective) with RTA (crash involving vehicles) reversed (heading north). A nautical term which I constructed from the wordplay without any idea I was at sea
7d Sue if tycoon’s involved with tax avoidance – conclusively leading to court order (4,2,9)
STAY OF EXECUTION
SUE IF TYCOON is anagrammed (involved) together with TAX and the last letter of (… conclusively) avoidancE
8d What’s secured twice by binding both ends of the mass together (2,6)
IN TANDEM
What’s secured twice by bINdINg? IN. Add T AND E (both ends of ThE) and M (mass)
14d Polish railway leads to processing plant (8)
REFINERY
REFINE (polish) + RY (railway)
15d Carefree as cousins run amok (4,5)
SANS SOUCI
AS COUSINS anagrammed (run amok). A new term for me, but perfectly deducible from insouciant
18d Doctors maybe on TV getting platform (7)
SOAPBOX
SOAP (Doctors maybe) preceding (on, in a down entry) BOX (TV)
20d Start off truly intimate (5)
IMPLY
With the first letter removed (start off), sIMPLY (truly)
21d Some troops hiding underground (5)
METRO
SoME TROops is containing (hiding) the answer
Loved this. I admit I couldn’t be bothered to find any likely anagrams in 15d and opted for a word fit. Never heard the expression. Had to cheat on 6d though. ATRIP was also new to me and didn’t know the Road Traffic Accident initialism. Liked the construction for UNIT and the use of “shot of whisky” in 4d for removing the W. 8d took a bit of working out but all the nicer for having done so. I guess, given my nickname here, I should vote 10a as my favourite 🙂
Very good. I know not to take anything at face value with Bluth but was beaten by FISHMONGER. Could see what was being asked but spent too long trying to make sense of something along the lines of ‘dishmopper’ or ‘washmopping’ in until I thought to look up other definitions of sweeper. ATRIP new to me as well and failed to parse IN TANDEM even though it was obviously the answer. Lots to like and maybe next time I’ll get a clean fish.
Thanks to Bluth and Kitty
This was a more concise Bluth offering today, and one which I enjoyed. For me the level of difficulty covered a huge range from straightforward to very tough indeed, with everything in between. A handful of the tougher clues involved highly complex parsing which needed to be reverse engineered from the answers.
I’ve never heard of the “sweeper” in 17a and the specific meaning needed is not given in Chambers. When I checked Collins online it is listed there but only as an American word. Googling “sweeper fish” was rather more forthcoming.
I will refrain from my usual moan about using what I consider are unnecessary words to represent letters, the worst example being SEE which doesn’t even start with the letter it is describing. Whoops, sorry it just slipped out. I do concede that these words are in all the main dictionaries and therefore fair game for setters.
Top clues for me were: ESPIONAGE, BROWN BREAD, GNOCCHI, SOAPBOX and, my favourite, MISCUE.
Many thanks to Bluth and to Kitty.
As Rabbit Dave says, a nice mix of easy and challenging. I needed a word search for ATRIP, tried and failed to justify FASSBENDER and enjoyed GNOCCHI and BROWN BREAD. Thanks both.
Thanks both. SANS SOUCI triggered my phobia for struggling enough with just English words – there are approximately 33000 species of fish, so fair to say the clue might have been constructed differently, and perhaps more to the liking of many solvers
Enjoyed this. 6d, 18d and 20d eluded me, but was delighted when I read 15d, Just visited Schloss Sans Souci in Potsdam last weekend so it jumped aff the page at me. 🙂
Thanks Kitty. Thanks everyone.
I first encountered the phrase ‘Sans Souci’ as the title of an album by a sweary, Australian punk band called Frenzal Rhomb but – as tends to happen with this sort of thing – I’ve since encountered it many times.
TFO @6 – of course there are many fish and I wouldn’t expect many people to know of the sweeper – but I think the wordplay makes it very get-able and the word does have the quality, identified by Kitty, of ‘sounding like a fish’ whether you’ve heard of it or not. A definition involving a more well-known fish would probably have yielded a comment complaining that the answer was too easily guessed from the definition alone.
Thanks Bluth, very satisfying. There was a good bit I couldn’t parse so thanks Kitty for the blog.