The usual scheduled blogger is having a well-earned rest
I found this puzzle to be reasonably gentle but I seem to have lost my way in NW corner.
Any help gratefully accepted.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STOOGE |
House plant (6)
|
| I don’t understand this one. I think it’s a double def | ||
| 4 | SPROUT |
Piece of rig in jet that prompts expulsion of gas? (6)
|
| SPOUT (jet) containing R[ig]
(shades of Christmas day?) |
||
| 8 | BANANAS |
Fruit bats (7)
|
| (double def) | ||
| 9 | HAIR GEL |
Henry’s wind knocked over member and setter in Barnet (4,3)
|
| Henry+AIR (wind)+LEG (member; rev: over)
(barnet = Barnet Fair = hair) |
||
| 11 | STRIPTEASE |
An exciting divestiture of power seen in new treatises (10)
|
| Power+TREATISES (anag: new) | ||
| 12 | MAID |
Domestic relief must be started by the 1st of March (4)
|
| M[arch] (first)+AID (relief) | ||
| 13 | CONGO |
State of Tory leaders? Game over! (5)
|
| I think it’s CON (tory leaders)+G[ame] O[ver]
(but I can’t really justify either part) |
||
| 14 | GOODNESS |
My head goes after shot and excessive drug session (8)
|
| GO (shot)+OD (overdose)+NESS (head) | ||
| 16 | BEWILDER |
Instruction to get more adventurous in puzzle (8)
|
| Sounds/looks like “be wilder” | ||
| 18 | DECKS |
Packs of garnish coming with salad starter (5)
|
| DECK (garnish)+S[alad] | ||
| 20 | OPUS |
Love to have drink after flipping work (4)
|
| O (love)+SUP (drink; rev: after flipping) | ||
| 21 | COURTHOUSE |
Architect touch sour with Earl judging building? (10)
|
| TOUCH SOUR (anag: architect)+Earl | ||
| 23 | CHOOSER |
One picking cold nose makes tenor sick primarily (7)
|
| Cold+HOO[t]ER (nose) with Tenor changed to S[ick] | ||
| 24 | EGGHEAD |
What trick-or-treaters might do to chief boffin (7)
|
| Double/cryptic definition) | ||
| 25 | TAKE ON |
Enlist and fight (4,2)
|
| (double def) | ||
| 26 | BRASSY |
Insolent supporters say head of Arsenal must go (6)
|
| BRAS (supporters)+S[a]Y minus A[rsenal] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SMART |
Bright dawn sees top model leave around 7am finally (5)
|
| Another that I don’t quite get | ||
| 2 | ORATION |
Lot on the southern boundary of Ohio address (7)
|
| [ohi]O (southern border)+RATION (lot) | ||
| 3 | GIANT TOAD |
Animal picked up with over-sized little piggies? (5,4)
|
| Sounds like “giant toed”
(this little piggy went to market, etc,) |
||
| 5 | PLACE |
Line-caught fish often battered in a restaurant, say (5)
|
| Another one that I can’t quite solve
(beginning to wonder if I’m up to the task) |
||
| 6 | OARSMAN |
Racy sort of guy who wants to avoid catching crabs? (7)
|
| To catch a crab refers to mishandling an oar so that a stroke is not executed correctly | ||
| 7 | THE MISSUS |
My wife uses mist wafted about to mask husband (3,6)
|
| USES MIST+Husband (anag: wafted about) | ||
| 10 | DANGEROUS |
Hairy criminal and rogue close to Boris (9)
|
| AND ROUGE+{bori]S (close to) anag: criminal | ||
| 13 | CHEAP SHOT |
Cut-price dram and punch delivered unexpectedly (5,4)
|
| (double/cryptic definition) | ||
| 15 | OLD STAGER |
An experienced person retraining alert dogs (3,6)
|
| ALERT DOGS (anag: retraining) | ||
| 17 | IN STOCK |
Where in-country vet often has an arm available for sale (2,5)
|
| An oblique reference to a veterinary surgeon inserting his arm into a cow (stock) | ||
| 19 | CLOTHES |
Foolish types pinching His Eminence’s dresses (7)
|
| CLOTS (foolish types) around HE (his excellence) | ||
| 21 | CREDO |
Conscientious objector harbouring communist belief (5)
|
| CO (conscientious objector) around RED (communist) | ||
| 22 | SOAPY |
Extremely sorry about pensioner being all of a lather? (5)
|
| S[orr]Y (extremely) around OAP (old age pensioner) |
Thanks, Kenmac.
I came unstuck trying to parse the same ones you mention, along with OARSMAN which you’ve clarified. Didn’t know what to do with PLAICE/PLACE for 5d but I parsed CONGO as you did. A minor slip in 26a which requires BRAS + S(a)Y.
Liked SPROUT, CLOTHES and HAIR GEL.
Thanks for the entertainment, Slormgorm.
Can’t help with STOOGE which I bunged in as the most likely word that fitted the crossers; I can sort of see the ‘plant’ bit, as a subordinate planted to obtain covert information for those higher up, but not ‘House’; maybe it’s something to do with a STOOGE in the theatre (‘house’). A restaurant is a PLACE I suppose but I can’t get any further than that and I don’t understand EGGHEAD either.
I parsed CONGO as CON (‘Tory’) G O (‘leaders?’ Game over!’= first letters of ‘Game’ and ‘over’) but I agree that the question mark is a bit odd, even allowing for the fact that we’re meant to ignore punctuation in cryptic clues and ‘over’ by itself can be O, without needing the ‘first letter’ indication; your parsing is better. I think SMART is START (‘Dawn’) with the first T deleted (‘top model leaves’) containing (‘around’) M (‘7am finally’= last character of 7am).
Favourite was IN STOCK; too much “Yorkshire Vet” is never enough.
All in all, a good workout from Slormgorm. Thanks to him and our Beloved Leader kenmac for stepping up to do the blog
CONGO
State(nation)
CON-Tory
GO-Leaders (of) Game Over
SMART
START dawn
T model
Top model-The T coming near the top of the word
SART -START less T
M 7am finally
SART around M
STOOGE
A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with said person or organization.
I think this explains the plant part of STOOGE
Bad day for me today. Pasquale’s in the Guardian was a disaster, and this one not much better, despite my usually conquering Slormgorm with an abundance of smiles. But too many answers today were eliciting groans. How on earth was I to know Barnet is hair? Sheesh!
Perhaps I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow.
I can only imagine, Wordplodder, that it refers to possibly throwing eggs at someone during Hallowe’en, as well as being another word for boffin or brainy person.
Yes Diane. That’s how I understood it.
EGG as a verb works here (throw egg/eggs at). HEAD is chief. The def should be boffin, I think.
PLACE
Diane@1
Your remark on place and plaice is hard to ignore.
The ‘caught’ seems to be a homophone indicator.
Can ‘line’ be the def to mean ‘PLACE’?
Fish (caught-homophone) often battered in a restaurant, say: PLAICE-sounding PLACE.
Someone will soon correct me.
Yes, KVa, you’ve put a shape on my loose thinking.
Hmm…some real posers from Slormgorm today, as Geoff says.
Thanks Slormgorm and Kenmac. I got CONGO, SMART and EGGHEAD as described by KVa@3 and 7. I guessed wrong at 1ac and 5dn, and cannot help with the latter, but, for 1ac, Chambers 2014 gives us “a performer speaking from the auditorium” for stooge, so it could be a one-part cryptic definition.
WordPlodder@2
STOOGE
I agree with you fully. Sorry, I hadn’t read your comment properly.
I’m with Geoff Down Under where I also reside – both Pasquale and Slormgorm absolutely dreadful. PS Barnet Fair cockney rhyming slang for hair.
KVa@10: I do not think I had read WP@2 properly either, but I think the definition I have quoted in comment 9 fits with that.
Pelham Barton@9
STOOGE
You are right. ‘House plant’ must be a one-part cryptic def. WordPlodder@2 did mention the STOOGE in the theatre (house).
Me@7
PLACE
‘In line’ and ‘In place’ can be synonymous when we mean that things are done appropriately.
If we assume that the def is ‘line’, ‘caught fish’ explains PLAICE-sounding PLACE. There is more…
Is plaice particularly suited for ‘battering’? Or could the ‘often battered’ part be just a link to get to the restaurant?
‘Restaurant, say’ looks like another component, If we take ‘restaurant’ as an example for ‘PLACE’ (as mentioned by WordPlodder@2).
Thanks for all the comments. I’ve fixed 26a.
It’s good to see that others were foxed by the same ones as me.
And “beloved leader”? You know what, I’ll take it!
😎
Thanks for stepping in for the blog, more like having the headmaster than a supply teacher so everyone will behave . Really enjoyed this but a few quibbles , mostly dealt with.
I agrre with others that STOOGE is simply a cryptic definition, stooges very common in Music Hall for things like magic turns or Mr Memory.
SMART I think is rather clever , as WordPlodder@2 has it. CONGO is sorted.
PLACE may have gone wrong somewhere ? We have caught and say for homophones ? No real definition I am happy with. Slormgorm may enlighten us later.
I took ‘caught’ for indicating a homophone & ‘say’ for indicating an example.
Will be surprised if ‘plaice’ has no place in the ‘official’ parsing of PLACE.
Hope Slormgorm finds time to drop in.
Plaice is certainly a homophone and a battered fish. If line is the definition we do not need say for the restaurant being an example of a place. If “restaurant, say ” is an example of place then line is redundant.
Agree
Tho two definitions & a wordplay can’t be ruled out.
I have to agree with you that both definitions seem weak.
We need Slormgorm , he usually comments late on. I do not want to make a big thing of this, it was a lovely puzzle overall.
Glad it wasn’t just me not solving a few of these clues conclusively. I parsed SMART and CONGO as above, but wasn’t happy with PLACE – although I was wondering about L (line) in PACE as well as the PLACE/plaice homophones.
Thank you kenmac and Slormgorm.
Line-caught perhaps heard on the telephone? Battered plaice, really?
Thanks Slormgorm for a more-challenging-than-usual crossword. I failed with STOOGE but all else eventually fell into place. I liked GOODNESS, CHOOSER, THE MISSUS, and BRASSY, the latter for its surface. (I don’t know who the head of Arsenal is or if any fans really feel that he “must go;” the clue could be even better than I think.) Thanks kenmac for the blog.
I finished this with the same uncertainties as mentioned above.
I thought it was a poor puzzle due to several inexplicable clues and clumsy drafting.
Maybe poor editing?
I had lots of problems in the NW corner but not for the same reasons as everyone else – I confidently entered ORANGE for 1a, which fitted nicely with GIANT TOAD but made it impossible to solve 1d and 2d.
One I saw the correct solution, I thought STOOGE was a very nice cryptic def, but I struggled to make sense of SMART.
PLACE seemed OK to me – line as the def, caught for the homophone – though “in a restaurant, say” could have been excised.
Overall, far more to enjoy than to quibble over for me. Thanks, Slormgorm.
And thanks for the blog, kenmac.
Got about half. And even rampant guessing couldn’t get me the other half. ah well.
About a quarter done after three or four sessions. Then gave up.
Nobody will read this but I think James @23 has it right. ‘Line-caught’ as a homophone indicator is really good. Really liked 1a when I finally got it (LOI). As a cryptic definition you might have expected a ? but that would have spoiled the fun. Spent ages trying to find a double definition pondering SPONGE for the longest time! I thought this was a cracking puzzle. All the parsing works in the end. My only quibble would be ‘7’ in ‘7am’ where that just feels like padding. Tx Slormgorm, kenmac and all bloggers.
Nick@29: I can confirm that your first clause is not literally true. This comment proves it. Incidentally, while I am back in, my first thought for 1ac was ORANGE (House as in William III), but I decided it was not close enough to “plant” to write in without confirming with the checked letters.
Pelham Barton @29 you’ve made my day!