The puzzle is available here.
Hi all. We have another very entertaining puzzle from Bluth. An unfamiliar name prevented me from finishing unaided, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment. Obviously, I CATEGORISED 18a as my favourite, and I liked 5d’s neat use of sports day too, amongst other touches. 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 Scoundrels covering borders of Nicaragua run fake news … (7)
CANARDS
CADS (scoundrels) surrounding (covering) the outer letters (borders) of NicaraguA and R (run)
5a … while soldiers from the east getting shot outside is matter-of-fact (7)
PROSAIC
AS (while) and OR (soldiers) reversed (from the east, in an across entry), with PIC (shot) around (outside)
9a & 10. Acting syllabus one’s found in a theatre (9,5)
OPERATING TABLE
OPERATING (acting) + TABLE (syllabus)
10a See 9a
11a We gel over base term for Alan Sugar (7)
SWEETEN
WE with SET (gel) around (over) + E (base) + the last letter of (term for) AlaN
12a Darts players want these drinks (7)
DOUBLES
A double definition, so to speak!
13a Hard done by pilots in court, principally supporting low-flying vehicles (11)
HOVERCRAFTS
H (hard) + OVER (done) + RAF (pilots) in CT (court) + the first letter of (principally) Supporting
16a Regularly picking the bay leaves (3)
TEA
We are taking alternate letters of (regularly picking) ThE bAy
17a Breaks in speech for king (3)
REX
WRECKS (breaks), homophone (in speech)
18a Perhaps Tom and I meet – wine drinking is arranged (11)
CATEGORISED
CAT (perhaps tom) + EGO (I) + RED (wine) around (drinking) IS
20a Danced – barracked soldier’s cutting in (7)
BOOGIED
BOOED (barracked); GI (soldier) is inserted (cutting in)
22a On reflection, I’m a nudist removing cardigan, essentially – it’s not desirable at the beach (7)
TSUNAMI
On reversal (on reflection), I‘M A NU[di]ST without (removing) the middle letters of (… essentially) carDIgan
24a & 25. Cast plan haiku with shy writer (5,9)
CHUCK PALAHNIUK
Make an anagram of (cast) PLAN HAIKU and place next to (with) CHUCK (shy). I failed to untangle the surname correctly, transposing the U with one of the As. Added to that I managed to write PLAIN instead of PLAN when writing up the blog. Thanks to Baerchen and Rabbit Dave for the correction
25a See 24a
26a Most trusting Parisian is on sodium drip (7)
NAIVEST
EST (Parisian is) by (on) NA (Sodium) and IV (drip)
27a Book edited – back issue reveals when to retire (7)
BEDTIME
B (book) + ED (edited), then reverse (back) EMIT (issue)
Down
1d Angry drunk hit bouncer – do this and there’s no going back (5,3,7)
CROSS THE RUBICON
CROSS (angry) + an anagram of (drunk) HIT BOUNCER
2d Relative flipped codpiece into trousers (5)
NIECE
The reversal of (flipped) codpiECE INto contains (trousers) the answer
3d Spit for example, from American tucking into roll (7)
ROASTER
A (American) going inside (tucking into) ROSTER (roll)
4d Web producer‘s film follows bowler (9)
SPINNERET
ET (film) follows SPINNER (bowler)
5d Called for silver during sports day (5)
PAGED
AG (silver) inside (during) PE (sports) + D (day)
6d Solicitors work on escape clauses (3-4)
OPT-OUTS
TOUTS (solicitors) with OP (work) preceding (on, in a down entry)
7d Behind schedule boarding coach after morning walks (9)
AMBULATES
LATE (behind schedule) going inside (boarding) BUS (coach) after AM (morning)
8d It’s said to make you smile – then fix sandwich? (6,3,6)
CHEESE AND PICKLE
CHEESE (it’s said to make you smile) + AND (then) + PICKLE (fix)
14d Very old 10p coin discovered – Hollywood maybe wanting a penetrating interview with the public (3,6)
VOX POPULI
V (very) + O (old) + X–P (10-p) + cOIn without outer letters (discovered), into which is inserted (… penetrating) P[a]UL (Hollywood maybe) without (wanting) A
15d 24, 25 produced this scrap iron, say (5,4)
FIGHT CLUB
FIGHT (scrap) + CLUB (iron, say). 24, 25, CHUCK PALAHNIUK (I can spell it now!), produced the book, not the film
18d Twist rope as sailor turns into icy area (7)
CRINKLE
C[ab]LE (rope) with the change of (as … turns into) AB (sailor) to RINK (icy area)
19d Sketched husband wearing make-up with daughter (7)
ROUGHED
H (husband) enveloped by (wearing) ROUGE (make-up) + D (daughter)
21d Arsenal half-heartedly topped up (5)
DEPOT
With the middle two letters halved to one (half-heartedly) TO{P[p]}ED reversed (up, in a down entry)
23d Backtracking, caught in fib, I laugh and say, “I was in Pizza Express in Woking at the time” (5)
ALIBI
In reverse (backtracking), the answer is found in (caught in) fIB, I LAugh reversed. This is actually my local Pizza Express, although I have never used it as an alibi …
Lovely stuff. Took me a while to get CRINKLE but the rest fell readily. I couldn’t help but be reminded of a certain Smith and Jones sketch when reading 12a. Ok, I admit it, I needed Google to get 25a but, at least, I correctly guessed 24a.
Thanks, B and K!
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog.
12a…so to speak 🙂
ROASTER, VOX POPULI and CRINKLE are my picks.
Delightful! A whole bunch of laughs and wit aplenty. Some typically clever constructions and, whilst I had no hope with the writer, everything else fell very nicely into place. VOX POPULI was a joy to parse, AMBULATES and ROASTER were very smooth, TSUNAMI was a laugh out loud and then the little gem saved til the very end – ALIBI. I can’t recall seeing such along definition for such a short word in ages but wasn’t it worth it. 10/10 and COTD for that one.
Thanks Bluth and Kitty
What an excellent puzzle – it was a lot of fun with ALIBI a LOL finish. However I think that one is just about edged out in the favourite stakes by CROSS THE RUBICON.
I’ve always thought that the plural of hovercraft is hovercraft, and I’ve never heard of 24a/25a which was a case of fiddle about with the anagram fodder and then Google for confirmation.
Many thanks to Bluth and to Kitty.
Superb. I would add BOOGIED to the favourites above. [I love the filing cat] Thanks, both.
Yes, great fun, thanks both. Agree with Rabbit Dave about all those HOVERCRAFT and while we’re being picky – does CRINKLE = TWIST ? If you twist something it may end up crinkled but if you crinkle something it wouldn’t be twisted.
Thanks both – great fun for the most part and admiration for much of the parsing. TSUNAMI was atop the pedestal for the evocative surface.
I enjoyed a lot of this but the clue for CHUCK PALAHNIUK was a complete non-starter for me, since not only I have I never heard of the geezer so good luck with an anagram but the clue in the online version reads “cast plan haiku” which is obviously bobbins.
Never mind.
Thanks to S&B
Baerchen @8. As far as I can see, the online clue for 24/25 reads “cast plan haiku with shy writer”, which is the same as Kitty has put in her review (although, Kitty, you have put PLAIN instead of PLAN for your anagram fodder).
Great fun, and on the whole I found the difficulty level on the sweet spot of being challenging but do-able. I was another ignorant of Mr Palahniuk, but that didn’t detract from the fun. Nice to see Bluth referincing his favourite peer at 11A.
Thanks to Kitty and Bluth
Baerchen @8, Rabbit Dave @9 – Oh dear! No I-dea where that extra I came from. Now removed.
baerchen @8. I took “Cast” in 24/25 in the sense of ‘a company of actors’ so the surface makes sense. Clearly not many have heard of him, making the anagram next to impossible, but Fight Club is well-known so maybe the book author should be better known.
I had heard of 24/25 from somewhere, although if I knew he wrote FIGHT CLUB I’d forgotten it, and I couldn’t remember how he spelled his surname, but with only four characters left from the fodder, I was able to guess the spelling.
I missed Fight Club but have remembered Chuck Palahniuk’s name since reading Guts, a short story, in the Saturday Guardian nearly 20 years ago. Literally unforgettable, I shudder even now. I got CHUCK from cast and didn’t read the rest of the clue very carefully but it looks OK.
Bluth puzzles are normally fun because you can pit the (often long) clues together logically to get even an obscure word. Palahniuk was quite ungettable though , a bit unfair!
Thanks Kitty. Thanks all.
baerchen @8, I think Hovis @12 explains the intended surface well.
Xcelomac @6, re Crinkle/twist the first definition in Chambers for crinkle is:
“To twist, wrinkle, crimp” so I think ‘twist’ is fair enough.
I can’t remember what inspired the reference to Woking’s Pizza Express as an alibi… oh… yes, I can