Raider provides our Tuesday challenge.
This one had its tricky moments, including an unusual spelling (to me at least) in 13a; and although Chambers Dictionary recognises many things that “A” can stand for, Raider has used two rather obscure options here. Plenty to enjoy too; I liked 20a (obvious when you see it) and the self-referential 10a.
Our Tuesday theme is indicated clearly in 8, where all the referenced clues have a word related to PAPER as their WRAPPING (outside letters):
- BOND paper (quality writing paper)
- WALLpaper (for interior decoration)
- TEST paper (in an exam)
- MATTE paper (dull not glossy)
- RICE paper (used in cooking)
- SILK paper (in between matte and glossy)
- TIMES (the newspaper)
- SHEET (a single piece of paper)
- SANDpaper (for smoothing wood)
I’ve marked these in the grid, though the gap in each one and the overlaps make it a bit hard to see the individual entries. But I think our setter has missed a trick in 11A – can’t we also include SCRAP paper (odd bits used for scribbling and rough calculations)? Thanks Raider for a fun puzzle.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | BEYOND |
Enemy’s cover protected by spy on the other side (6)
|
| Outer letters (cover) of E[nem]Y, contained in (protected by) BOND (spy: the name’s Bond . . . James Bond). | ||
| 8 | WINDFALL |
Wife to go down after hot date – that’s a bonus (8)
|
| W (abbreviation for wife), then FALL (to go down) after IN (hot = fashionable or popular) + D (abbreviation for date).
Windfall = an unexpected benefit, especially receiving money. |
||
| 9 | MONSTERA |
Giant, athletic climber (8)
|
| MONSTER (giant) + A (abbreviation for Athletic, according to Chambers).
Genus of climbing plants, including the houseplant known as “Swiss cheese plant” because of the holes in its leaves. |
||
| 10 | ENIGMA |
Imagine not having an Independent cryptic puzzle! (6)
|
| Anagram (cryptic) of [i]MAGINE with one I (abbreviation for Independent) removed. | ||
| 11 | SCRAPE UP |
Pull it together to dump fiancée at last during drink (6,2)
|
| CRAP (dump = slang for defecate) + last letter of [fiance]E, inserted into (during) SUP (to drink). | ||
| 12 | TAMEST |
Most boring cricket match involving Durham’s tail-enders (6)
|
| TEST (international cricket match) containing the last two letters (tail-enders) of [durh]AM. | ||
| 13 | MAISONNETTE |
Wilde’s second poem written in friend’s house (11)
|
| Second letter of [w]I[lde] + SONNET (poem), written inside MATE (friend).
More usually spelled with one N, but Collins accepts the NN variant: a small house, or a flat with its own external door to the street. |
||
| 18 | SHADED |
Mum shot dead in the shadows (6)
|
| SH (mum = an instruction to keep quiet) + anagram (shot) of DEAD. | ||
| 20 | POSTMARK |
Frank or Luke’s place? (8)
|
| In the New Testament, the four Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – so Luke’s place is POST (after) MARK.
A printed mark endorsing a postage stamp. |
||
| 22 | KRAKOW |
Two vessels travelling west in city (6)
|
| WOK (a cooking vessel) + ARK (a sea-going vessel), all reversed (going west = reading from right to left).
City in Poland. |
||
| 23 | PARALYSE |
Exercise securing high salary freeze (8)
|
| PE (abbreviation for Physical Education = exercise), containing (securing) an anagram (high) of SALARY. | ||
| 24 | RETAILER |
First to review online follower’s business (8)
|
| First letter of R[eview] + E (e- = prefix indicating electronic or online) + TAILER (follower). | ||
| 25 | NO-SHOW |
She doesn’t appear to eat contents of bowl (2-4)
|
| NOSH (as a verb = slang for eat) + inner letters (contents) of [b]OW[l].
No-show = someone who doesn’t arrive for an appointment. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | REJOICE |
Extremely rare broadcast of Irish writer’s triumph (7)
|
| End letters (extremes) of R[ar]E, then a homophone (broadcast = spoken on the radio) of JOYCE (Irish writer James Joyce). | ||
| 2 | BOTSWANA |
Boat dispatched to save swimmer somewhere in Africa (8)
|
| Anagram (dispatched) of BOAT, containing (saving) SWAN (water bird = swimmer). | ||
| 3 | ADHERE |
Mutilated head on stick (6)
|
| Anagram (mutilated) of HEAD, then RE (on = on the subject of). | ||
| 4 | UNSETTLE |
Rattle steel nut loose (8)
|
| Anagram (loose) of STEEL NUT.
Rattle = unsettle = to make someone uneasy. |
||
| 5 | AFFIRM |
Swear about loud football hooligans (6)
|
| A (a = abbreviation for about, according to Chambers) + F (f = abbreviation for Italian forte = musical term for loud) + FIRM (a gang of hooligans). | ||
| 6 | BLEMISH |
Spot book on language with preface missing (7)
|
| B (abbreviation for book), then [f]LEMISH (language spoken in Belgium) with its first letter (preface) missing. | ||
| 8 | WRAPPING PAPER |
Present coverage featured in 7A, 8A, 12A, 13A, 1D, 14D, 15D, 16D and 21D (8,5)
|
| Today’s theme: each of the solutions listed has a word associated with PAPER as its WRAPPING (outside letters).
Cryptic definition: something used to cover a present (gift). |
||
| 14 | SIDEWALK |
Way for American to act crabby? (8)
|
| Definition and cryptic definition. US word for a footpath at the side of a road (in the UK we’d call it the pavement, though in the US that word rather confusingly means the road surface); or to walk sideways as a crab typically does. | ||
| 15 | TIMELESS |
Perhaps Dennis bores by going on and on (8)
|
| LES (perhaps the comedian and TV presenter Les Dennis) inserted into (bores . . .) TIMES (by = multiplied by). | ||
| 16 | SHERBET |
Get hard cuddling Rosemary? “Sweetie!” (7)
|
| SET (as a verb = solidify = get hard) containing (cuddling) HERB (for example rosemary). | ||
| 17 | PRESS ON |
Don’t stop parking sensor going off (5,2)
|
| P (abbreviation for parking, in road signs and on maps) + anagram (going off) of SENSOR. | ||
| 19 | DIKTAT |
Youngster put up with crap Fiat (6)
|
| KID (slang for child = youngster) reversed (put up = upwards in a down clue), then TAT (crap = shoddy or worthless goods).
Fiat = diktat = an order from the sort of authority figure whose word is law. |
||
| 21 | STRAND |
Some nudist ran down beach (6)
|
| Hidden answer (some . . .) in [nudi]ST RAN D[own]. |
Enjoyed the puzzle. The theme is quite detailed. I missed it completely despite knowing it was Tuesday. I have more admiration for 8d now. I liked the clues for TIMELESS, ADHERE, and SHADED. Tops would have to be POSTMARK. Thanks Quirister and thanks Raider.
Nice theme from a rarely seen setter. I got WRAPPING PAPER very early on from def, enumeration and the initial W. As I only had REJOICE and BEYOND from the indicated themers, it was too early to make sense of it – I wondered if the solutions were going to be wrapped around the papers (I, FT etc) so it took me a while to spot what was going on. Everything fell into place by the end though MATTE was unfamiliar – it appears to be paper specially treated for inkjet printing.
Star clue for me (resisting the obvious!) was ENIGMA. I also liked BEYOND, the very rude WINDFALL, TAMEST, PARALYSE, BOTSWANA (very cheeky use of swimmer – as if there are not already enough words to which that could be applied, we now have the entirety of waterfowl!), ADHERE (despite the grim image), DIKTAT and another rude one in SHERBET. Only SIDEWALK held me up – I was thinking interstate, freeway etc but not a way for pedestrians.
Thanks Raider and Quirister (good spot for SCRAP)
Well done Quirister for spotting the theme, I couldn’t see it at all. Didn’t understand 5D as firm = gang of hooligans was new to me. 10A was wonderful. Thanks Raider and Quirister.
Tatrasman @3: I’m sorry to say it but the list of football firms given on Wikipedia runs to dozens and dozens and that doesn’t include the South Americans. West Ham’s Inter City Firm are one of the better known, being the team on whom the 2009 football hooligan movie, The Firm, was based.
COTD: WRAPPING PAPER
Also liked POSTMARK and TIMELESS.
Excellent puzzle and great blog!
Thanks Raider and Quirister!
I remarked in the last Raider crossword (also blogged by Quirister) that I particularly enjoy the surfaces. Again, I think each clue is worth a second look after parsing. Wonderful stuff. Couldn’t parse AFFIRM being another who has never met this meaning for ‘firm’.
ENIGMA was my favourite, too. Today’s crossword coincidence is that fifteensquared contributors feature in both Guardian and Independent. In the unlikely event that there are two more in the FT, that would make it a four-poster.
13a MAISONNETTE is the French spelling, so it’s been imported into English misspelt.
10a ENIGMA is very cute. Liked 20a POSTMARK (@2) too, being a synonym for Stamp myself.
Thanks R&Q
We filled the grid but could not sort out the themed clues. We were looking for ‘papers’ inside the answers so were completely lost. Can we blame it on the brain fog we both have from coughs/colds that just won’t shift? No, we thought not.
Thanks Raider – seems a while since we last saw you.
Thanks Quirister and well done to everyone who saw the themed answers.
On my own entering CRASH ON at 17 down for what you might do if the parking sensors were off?
Made steady progress through this with a few that held me up. Didn’t get MONSTERA (used a word finder) as I hadn’t heard of the plant and was never going to split the fodder up into 6/1. If I’ve come across A for athletic previously then I didn’t remember it. Hopefully it’ll stick now though.
My fave was ENIGMA, and I was left a little wide eyed at the surface of 8a!
Thanks to Raider and to Quirister
Enjoyed this, even without spotting the theme. I kept looking for something round the outside, which never appeared… cluing was pretty fair, altho didn’t immediately accept CRAP=DUMP until I had a few crossers. A=athletic wasn’t a stretch, going back to football clubs, eg AC Milan…
Thanks Raider n Quirister
Thanks Raider and the Q. Must admit it took an embarrassing long time to get the grid games in here. If I was blogging I’d have missed it and asked for ideas just to get it out in time.
Another one here who completed the grid but totally failed to work out what the theme was.
Thanks Raider for a well-crafted, fun crossword. I managed to get all the solutions and most of the theme. My top picks from a host of good clues were WINDFALL, ENIGMA, MAISONNETTE, POSTMARK, KRAKOW, SIDEWALK (didn’t know it was an Americanism), SHERBET, and DIKTAT. [I totally identified with the latter because the surface describes my experience with my 1st car, a Fiat, decades ago.] Thanks Quirister for the blog.
@11 Undrell. AC Milan = Associazione Calcio Milan. I cannot think off the top of my head of football club which includes Athletic AND is known as by its initials (but I am sure there are some big names).
A being athletic is not problematic IMO – for instance in AAA Amateur Athletic Association
Thanks Setter and Blogger
Thanks Quirister for the excellent blog. I can confirm that SCRAP was on my list for the grid fill but seems to have been lost in the post when writing the keystone clue – mea culpa.
And thanks to everyone else for commenting; much appreciated. A few replies…
PostMark @2 – sorry about expanding the swimming pool. I did get a slight eyebrow raise from a test solver, but it felt like too good a surface to pass on.
Hovis @6 – you’re too kind. I always appreciate a good surface when solving, so I try and make sure all my clues are coherent sentences when setting.
FrankieG @8 – I was surprised to see my Chambers app suggesting the double-n variant of ‘maisonette’ ahead of the single, as the latter is how I’ve always spelt it. Thanks for clearing that up.
B&J @10 – a perfectly valid excuse in my book. In fact, let’s blame the missing SCRAP on a cold, and not my sieve-like head.
Flash @12 – if it makes you feel any better, this is the type of grid I never suss. It’s usually Picaroon catching me out.
Tony S @14 – again, too kind. My friend had a Punto as his first car, it would rarely start. My old Saxo wasn’t much better.
Matthew N @15 – I agree with Quirister, it’s definitely a more obscure abbreviation. Obviously, the infamous line “it’s in Chambers” isn’t always particularly satisfying. One of my favourite films is Moneyball, which is about the Oakland Athletics baseball team, commonly known as the Oakland A’s. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
@Raider #16 – the A’s; should have remembered that one. If you like historical baseball (and find Field of Dreams a bit too saccharine) I would recommend the written works of W P Kinsella (who wrote the book the film is based upon) esp the Iowa Baseball Confederacy
rocket@10 – re “8a!” – 😉
My second favourite team is Athletic de Bilbao ‘Athletic Club (Basque: Bilboko Athletic Kluba; Spanish: Athletic Club de Bilbao),
commonly known as just Athletic domestically and often as Athletic Bilbao abroad…’
NB the English word, and not Atlético – they’re from Madrid. And we don’t hate them quite as much as we hate Real.
Sorry for the late response and thanks to PostMark’s enlightenment @4 regarding football ‘firms’, but I have to say it. The reason I was unaware of the expression is that I support Barnet, whose admittedly comparatively small band of followers is on the whole quite well behaved, compared to some. On the other hand, the so-called ‘supporters’ of Grimsby Town and Wealdstone………