The recent decision to move the prize puzzle blogs to the Saturday has spared my blushes somewhat, as in all honesty this post could not have happened without the “cheat” button. Well, it could, but you’d be solving the bottom half of the grid for me, as it was almost entirely empty after a week of staring at it.
It will be very interesting to hear how other solvers got on.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LONDON – ON in (L + DON) and this week’s theme. |
| 5 | SLIP ROAD – PROA in SLID. |
| 9 | HOLLOWAY – HOL + LOW + AY. |
| 10 | MALIBU – (A + L + I) in BUM*. |
| 11 | DEFENSIBILITY – SIB in DEFINITELY*. |
| 12 | SCULPT – S + (LP in CUT). |
| 14 | HEATHROW – HE + A THROW. |
| 16 | BEECHNUT – (BEEN CUT + H[andsaw])*. |
| 19 | LLOYDS – Sir Clive LLOYD + S[inclair]. |
| 21 | PETTICOAT LANE – PETTICOAT (slip) + LANE (road). |
| 24 | TIFOSI – T[remble] + IF + OS + I. A name given to fans of sporting teams in Italy, so I guess “Ferrari” here is the Formula 1 team rather than the car itself. |
| 25 | IRENICON – NICE* in IRON. |
| 26 | HEADBANG – HE + (BAND* in A + G). |
| 27 | THAMES – [wi]TH A MES[sage]. |
| Down | |
| 2 | OF OLD – 0 FOLD, that is to say “none fold”. |
| 3 | DOLEFUL – DO + (U in FELL*). |
| 4 | NEWINGTON – (WING in NET) + ON. |
| 5 | STYLISH – STYLI + SH. |
| 6 | IAMBI – I AM BI. Metrical feet, think “iambic pentameter”. |
| 7 | RALEIGH – RA + Vivien LEIGH. |
| 8 | ABBEY ROAD – (YE + B)< in ABROAD. |
| 13 | CHEAPSIDE – C + HEAPS + IDE. |
| 15 | ALLOTMENT – ALL + (MEN in OTT). |
| 17 | CATFORD – OFT< in CARD. |
| 18 | TOOTING – (GOT ON IT)*. |
| 20 | OCARINA – (CAR + IN) in OA. |
| 22 | IBIZA – I + BIZ + A. |
| 23 | EVOKE – KO< in EVE. |
Some diificult bits here, not helped by my putting ‘iambs’ instead of ‘iambi’ at 6d, but I got there in the end, helped by the theme. Thanks, Simon, for explaining NEWINGTON; it had to be that but I couldn’t follow the wordplay. Favourite clue PETTICOAT LANE.
Re TIFOSI I think the Ferrari reference might be to its use as an adjective meaning ‘of or from Ferrara’, i.e. somewhere in Italy. It was a new word to me; I guessesd it from the wordplay and googled it to get this reference – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tifosi
This one stretched me but I found it all the more enjoyable, firstly when I eventually solved it, and just as importantly (for me) when I managed to parse it (save for a couple). Once again thanks to Simon for clearing up all but one of my loose ends, namely, how does “biz” equate with “game” in 22 down?
Of course thanks to Anax for a great puzzle – I particularly liked the way the London theme avoided the usual stuff. My favourite clue was OF OLD , it just eeemed really neat.
Hi jmac, I must admit I intended to add a note to that one; I’m not quite sure how BIZ comes from “game”. I wondered if people refer to showbiz as “the game”, or whether there’s a reference to the, er, “oldest” profession, but I can’t clear that one up myself I’m afraid.
I think BIZ = game in “what’s your game?” = “what’s your business?”.
Very taxing but doable.
I took BIZ as the old Spectrum game.
The Biz
I agree with sidey – “what game are you in” is used for “what line of work – i.e. business”.
Enjoyed the puzzle but just failed on tifosi which I feel was a little vague. “Ferrari lovers for example” I’d have been happy with but the clue made it specific which it isn’t.
Petticoat Lane was also my fave.
Simon
Thanks for the blog. I too found the puzzle a bear, with some impressively ingenious wordplay; in many cases it required your expert guidance for me to get it. I was bothered by 12A: I would have thought that the word ‘sculpture’ might well be applied loosely to a cast, but sculpting and casting are surely distinct activities for a sculptor; however, it does make for a neat surface.
Thanks Simon.
This was pretty tough but the only answer I couldn,t parse was 20 down.I knew it must be OCARINA but the way I was looking at it left the ‘I’ unclued.Thanks to your blog I can now see how it works.
LLOYDS was my favourite,one of the easier clues perhaps, but lovely misleading surface.
I found this very hard too – over 40 minutes, from memory. Wondered where the “Stoke” had gone in 4D but then found that there’s a plain “Newington” just south of the river.
I was a bit late getting to this puzzle, but it gave great satisfaction when I finally solved it all and understood it all pretty much.I found it very hard to break into, and only managed to get one or two short answers for ages. Then I saw the ‘definitely’ anag and that gave me DEFENSIBILITY and shortly after my first thematic answer ABBEY ROAD. Two more followed so it had to be LONDON tho it took me quite a while to see why. After that, the puzzle yielded, taking not quite as much after I entered DEFENSIBILITY than before it. The puzzle contained much clever misdirection with excellently cloaked definitions. My favourite clue was the linking of PETTICOAT LANE to SLIP ROAD, but there was much else to admire also.
Anax still a waste of time for me.Got 2 clues
I would love to admire and finish an Anax but having tried many times I find it difficult to start and if you didn’t get 1a which I didn’t the majority of the crossword meant nothing!
Moose, I agree, if you can’t get 1ac then the rest becomes somewhat more difficult if not impossible. I take it that ‘smoke’ is a reference to London!
Yeah, The Smoke is a fairly common nickname for London. There even used to be a magazine by that name available in Waterstones.
How well known that is outside London is, I guess, another question. Many outside the capital seem to have this baby/bathwater dogmatic thing going on whereby anything that mentions That London is absolutely of no relevance to them, even in cases where it quite clearly is. Which makes it very hard to judge what can be assumed and what cannot.
No problems from a Cornish perspective with the theme – nothing bar tifosi and irenicon was new here, but the definitions and wordplay were so ingeniously hidden it made it all very, very hard. Took me ages!