Tees has provided our cruciverbal entertainment today, which is theme day, of course.
I very much enjoyed solving and blogging today’s puzzle, which I found to be towards the easier end of the Indy difficulty spectrum. I think that I have parsed everything to my satisfaction.
Toilet humour is the order of the day today. There are numerous references to all things lavatorial dotted across clues and solutions alike, with some being more obvious than others – 4D/25, 5, 7, 15, 17, 22/1A, 27 … Tees has done an impressive job of including so much themed content in a bog (!) standard grid – perhaps I should add 23D to the list of clues above?!
My favourite clues today are 9 and 13, for smoothness of surface; 14, for making me laugh out loud; and, above all, 23A, for the quite brilliant & lit., which I don’t remember having seen anywhere before.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 04 | TOWN CRIER | Bank reserving personal credit for announcer
[OWN (=personal) + CR. (=credit)] in TIER (=bank, row) |
| 09 | INTERDICT | Popular criminal tried – court to impose ban
IN (=popular, trendy) + *(TRIED) + CT (=court, in addresses); “criminal” is anagram indicator |
| 10 | RECAP | Duke leaves MP to state main points again
RE<d>CAP (=MP, i.e. military policeman, colloquially); “duke (=D) leaves” means letter “d” is dropped |
| 11 | SCROOGE | Self-image ogres recalled in miser
EGO (=self-image) + ORCS (=ogres, in Tolkien); “recalled” indicates reversal |
| 12 | RENAMED | With a new handle man takes turn cutting grass
NAM (MAN; “takes turn” indicates reversal) in REED (=grass); colloquially, one’s handle is one’s name |
| 13 | AGEING | Getting on stage in garish clothes
Hidden (“clothes”) in “stAGE IN Garish” |
| 15 | POOH-POOH | Ridicule backing band twice
HOOP (=band, ring); “backing … twice” means the word is reversed and used twice |
| 18 | DIPLOMAT | See mum interrupting bath-time negotiator?
[LO (=see) + MA (=mum)] in [DIP (=bath) + T (=time)] |
| 20 | UPREAR | Finished bottom? Here’s lift
UP (=finished, over) + REAR (=bottom, behind); to uprear is to raise up, hence “lift” |
| 23 | BIRETTA | Attire worn by bishop?
B (=bishop, in chess) + *(ATTIRE); “worn (=shabby)” is anagram indicator; & lit. |
| 24 | USURPED | Pursued, beaten and violently seized
*(PURSUED); “beaten” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | SUN-UP | Greek character’s taken in drink for Dawn
NU (=Greek character, i.e. letter of Greek alphabet) in SUP (=drink) |
| 27 | ON-THE-SPOT | Son coming in having wee right there?
S (=son) in ON THE POT (=having wee, i.e. sitting on chamber pot) |
| 28 | CROSS-EYED | Yes, decor’s dreadful, not looking straight
*(YES DECOR’S); “dreadful” is anagram indicator |
| 29 | TIRES | Exhausts and // metal hoops for wheels
Double definition: tires is exhausts, wearies, as verb AND metal hoops for wheels (on vehicles), as noun, cf. tyres |
| Down | ||
| 01 | FRIESLAND | Province where chips the local staple?
Cryptically, chips (=fries) could be the local staple in Fries-land, a province of the Netherlands! |
| 02 | UTTER | Complete Charlie disembarks single-master
<c>UTTER (=single-master, i.e. small vessel with one mast; “Charlie (=C, in NATO alphabet) disembarks” means letter “c” is dropped); cf. a complete/utter/total disaster |
| 03 | HARPOON | Marx Brother talking about whale-killer
HARPO (=Marx Brother) + ON (=talking about, as in Judi Dench on Shakespeare, say) |
| 04/25 | TOILET PAPER | Business publication?
Cryptically, toilet paper is a publication (=paper) you need when you do your business! |
| 05 | WATERLOO | Flood with 4D is battle
WATER (=flood) + LOO (=toilet, i.e. entry at 4D); the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 brought the Napoleonic Wars to an end |
| 06 | CORINTH | Greek city rich, not poor
*(RICH NOT); “poor” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | INCOMMODE | Where chamber pot will be put out?
(a) chamber pot will be pot in (a) commode; to incommode is to inconvenience, put out |
| 08 | RAPID | Swift attack seizing power
P (=power) in RAID (=attack) |
| 14 | ESPERANTO | Person ate pickled tongue
*(PERSON ATE); “pickled (=drunk)” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | HERODOTUS | Period covered by champion US historian
DOT (=period, i.e. full stop) in [HERO (=champion) + US)]; Herodotus was a Greek historian in the 5th century BC |
| 17 | LAVATORY | Red flower blue in 4D?
LAVA (=red flower, i.e. red liquid that flows) + TORY (=blue, as in true-blue Tory); a lavatory is a toilet (=entry at 4D) |
| 19 | OCTOPUS | Sea creature best in place, not large
TOP (=best, finest) in <l>OCUS (=place; “not large (=L, in sizes)” means letter “l” is dropped) |
| 21 | PRUDENT | Discreet page fronts filthy book collection
P (=page) + RUDE (=filthy, dirty) + NT (=book collection, i.e. New Testament) |
| 22/1A | BUSTED FLUSH | Handle problem with 4D? Abandon this!
Cryptically, there could be a handle problem with (the) toilet (=entry at 4D) if the flush is busted! A busted flush is something that has to be abandoned as a failure |
| 23 | BASIC | Bog standard as in pen that’s disposable?
AS in BIC (=pen that’s disposable, biro) |
BUSTED FLUSH
There seems to be a poker reference as well.
A solid puzzle, with faves being BUSTED FLUSH (which is indeed a poker reference) for the reverse lift and separate “Handle problem”; DIPLOMAT for the evocative surface and intricate wordplay; BIRETTA for the concise &lit; LAVATORY for the red flower; and PRUDENT for being prurient.
I don’t think TOILET PAPER, whilst cryptically fun, really has a definition in the clue, although the question mark and the T checker was sufficient to get it.
Interestingly I got two of the solutions via foreign words: INTERDICT via the French interdit and INCOMMODE via the Spanish incómodo. Both were utterly plausible English words of course, so I had no qualms about entering them, but they are only vaguely familiar to me.
Thanks both
BTW I interpreted TIRES as “hoops – suitable for metalled surfaces – for wheels”; I couldn’t make much sense of it any other way. If that’s right then I’m not sure why there’s no indicator for this (albeit widely-known) American spelling difference.
There’s a whole lot of humour and originality in this puzzle; and, many of the clues made me think for a while.
“single-master”, is brilliant, for CUTTER (2d).
I felt that “pickled” in 14(down), was very cute….an anagrind, but also the solution ESPERANTO is a bit of a pickled language.
7(d), INCOMMODE, is simply super-setting.
Ironically, I did not really like the clue for TOILET PAPER, and some of the wordplays which cross-depend upon it seem a bit obtuse.
25(ac) was the only solution which I found disappointing (TIRES).
All-in-all, great setting, and great fun.
POOH-POOH in a crossword using lavatorial humour? Genius. Red flower = LAVA? Even better.
Definitely my cup of Tee.
Super stuff, Mr. T & Ratkoja
Good fun. Liked the misdirection of MP in 10a. Good to be reminded that MP has an alternative definition. Wondered whether to put TYRES rather than TIRES in at 29a but there was no indication of a homophone and reckoned the metal hoops must mean something so plumped for the former.
Thanks Tees and RR
Red Cap was a great series with she who was also in the later New Tricks. Fun puzzle, ta both.
The second meaning of tire in Chambers is ‘A metal hoop to bind a wheel.’
I enjoyed today’s puzzle and blog. Thank you.
I don’t often see the theme so it was an added bonus to spot that.
The series was, of course, all about MPs.
David S@7, thanks! Collins online doesn’t have that meaning, but I’m not at all surprised to hear it.
I was only thinking at the weekend that we have not see this setter for a while. First puzzle of the year. But great fun when it came. Tees has certainly gone full bore on his theme. Even if it was full of crap clues 🤣. AGEING, TOILET PAPER, INCOMMODE, PRUDENT and BASIC all made the faves list which is headed by UTTER and the splendid BIRETTA.
Thanks Tees and RR
Thanks both. All harmless fun, with a theme we all have good knowledge of, whether we choose to or otherwise. I hesitated over TOILET PAPER as I don’t previously recall a clue without a definition, and potentially with an anti-definition, as it’s not a publication at all, unless we are revisiting distant times when a few sheets from the Evening News did the ‘job’.
Enjoyed this, as did others. Is there no end to the anagrams to be found for ESPERANTO? ATTIRE my favourite.
Thanks both
Enjoyed the solve. Very smooth clues i.e. BIRETTA with a theme done well. BUSTED FLUSH my pick.DD. Fun tease. Thanks both.
Some very good clues in here – HERODOTUS, FRIESLAND and BIRETTA were my favourites. But I did not enjoy this as an overall puzzle.
Too much of the puzzle relies on the answer to 4D, and it’s just a terrible clue – it’s barely a cryptic definition, but you need the answer to get at 3 answers and 5 lines of the puzzle. The theme as an extra hint is about the only saving for giving an extra entry point.
I’m not the biggest fan of toilet humour in these puzzles anyway, and this pushed me over the edge into grumpy old man status.
A themed puzzle that was less than the sum of its parts.
Thanks Tees for a witty crossword. I’m going against the flow in picking TOILET PAPER as one of my favourite clues along with AGEING, POOH-POOH, CORINTH, and RAPID. I also liked ‘lava’ being clued as ‘red flower’. My only stumble was USURPED because I searched in vain for a triple definition when the simple anagram was staring right at me. Thanks RR for the blog.