Bluejacket has provided our cruciverbal challenge this Thursday. He appears to be a relatively new addition to the Indy compiling team, and it is certainly the first time that I have blogged one of his puzzles.
I really enjoyed my first outing with Bluejacket, finding this crossword to be pitched at the right level for a mid-week puzzle, i.e. enough to give the grey cells a workout, but without the puzzle needing the solver to devote his whole day to it.
Having said that, I feel as though Bluejacket has got the upper hand on me today, since I have been unable to parse the wordplay at 1D, which cannot possibly yield an alternative solution to the one that I have found. I look forward to being enlightened by fellow solvers during the course of the day – thank you, blog now updated!
As for my favourite clues today, I rather liked 6, for the misdirection in the surface reading; 11, 18 and 26, all for smoothness of surface; 15, for the “naked” device and the misdirection around “foot”; 25D, for the amusing definition; and 28 for originality, since I don’t think I have ever come across this term in a broadsheet cryptic before. With so much to enjoy in this puzzle, I hope that it won’t be long before it again falls to me to blog this setter’s work.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
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||
| 1 | HYDROGEN CYANIDE |
Toxic chemical made by strange doc yearning to inhabit evil alter ego (8,7)
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| *(DOC YEARNING) in HYDE (=evil alter ego, from Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde); “strange” is anagram indicator | ||
| 9 | IMAGE |
Copied data source from installation wizard (5)
|
| I<nstallation> (“source from” means first letter only) + MAGE (=wizard) | ||
| 10 | APERIODIC |
Oscar won by impersonator – ridiculous and irregular (9)
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| O (=Oscar, in NATO alphabet) in [APE (=impersonator, mimic) + RIDIC (=ridiculous, colloquially)]; aperiodic means happening irregularly, infrequently | ||
| 11 | HIDEOUT |
Reported great uncertainty in criminals’ location (7)
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| Homophone (“reported”) of “high (=great) doubt (=uncertainty)” | ||
| 12 | IMAMATE |
I married a couple in cleric’s office (7)
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| I + M (=married) + MATE (=couple, copulate, as verb) | ||
| 13 | FUSELAGE |
Join prisoner heading for execution in Hull (8)
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| FUSE (=fuse, meld) + LAG (=prisoner, lag) + E<xecution> (“heading for” means first letter only); the fuselage is the body of an aeroplane, the hull that of a ship | ||
| 15 | ANKLE |
Naked Yankee claiming length is something over a foot (5)
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| L (=length) in <y>ANKE<e> (“naked” means first and last letters are stripped away); in human anatomy, the ankle lies physically above the foot! | ||
| 18 | HIKER |
Rambler almost here after covering one kilometre (5)
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| [I (=one) + K (=kilometre)] in HER<e> (“almost” means last letter is dropped) | ||
| 20 | FIST BUMP |
Mufti’s cryptically welcoming bishop with quiet greeting (4,4)
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| [B (=bishop, in chess) in *(MUFTI’S)] + P (=quiet, i.e. piano, in music) | ||
| 23 | CORSAIR |
Pirate heard ribald melody (7)
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| Homophone (“heard”) of “coarse (=ribald, vulgar)” + AIR (=melody) | ||
| 25 | CHAGRIN |
Cold laugh and smile expressing dismay (7)
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| C (=cold, on tap) + HA (=(a) laugh) + GRIN (=smile) | ||
| 26 | OMBUDSMAN |
Public official is pals with spymaster embedded in Arab state (9)
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| [BUDS (=pals, chums) + M (=spymaster, in Bond movies)] in OMAN (=Arab state) | ||
| 27 | LEMMA |
Dictionary entry‘s origin in light Austen novel (5)
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| L<ight> (“origin in” means first letter only) + EMMA (=Austen novel); a lemma is a word or phrase defined in a dictionary or entered in a word list | ||
| 28 | FRIEND OF DOROTHY |
Find rodeo unexpectedly hosted by bubbly gay man (6,2,7)
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| *(FIND RODEO) in FROTHY (=bubbly); “unexpectedly” is anagram indicator; the reference is likely to refer to Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, known for her eccentric friends | ||
| DOWN
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| 1 | HEIGHT |
Elevation of inaugural location for Black King’s castle (6)
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| In a game of chess, the black castle/rook starts out in square H8, i.e. H eight, on the board. | ||
| 2 | DEAD DRUNK |
Spooner’s awful basketball shot is wasted (4,5)
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| Spoonerism (“Spooner’s”) of “dread (=awful, frightful) dunk (=basketball shot)” | ||
| 3 | ONE-NOTE |
Repetitive ascending extract from twelve-tone nocturne (3-4)
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| Reversed (“ascending”) and hidden (“extract”) in “twelvE-TONE NOcturne”; “one-note” means unvarying in tone or emphasis, monotonous | ||
| 4 | EXACT |
Bang on about cutting taxes, endlessly regressive (5)
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| C (=about, i.e. circa) in EXAT (TAXE<s>; “endlessly” means last letter is dropped; “regressive” indicates reversal); bang on is spot on, precise, hence exact | ||
| 5 | CHEWINESS |
Tough quality of game stuffed with hock? (9)
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| WINE (=hock, i.e. type of German white wine) in CHESS (=game) | ||
| 6 | ALI BABA |
He said sesame and lettuce in buns are “burger amateur’s toppings” (3,4)
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| A<nd> L<ettuce> I<n> B<uns> A<re> B<urger> A<mateur>; “toppings” means first letters only; the reference is to Open sesame, the magical phrase spoken by Ali Baba in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves | ||
| 7 | INDIA |
Speaking in code, I elected to abet uprising (5)
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| IN (=elected, i.e. in parliament) + DIA (AID=abet, help; “uprising” indicates vertical reversal); India is used for the letter “i” in the NATO alphabet, hence “speaking in code” | ||
| 8 | ESCHEWED |
Avoided having key cut (8)
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| ESC (=key, on keyboard) + HEWED (=cut, chopped) | ||
| 14 | ALFA ROMEO |
Sports car in a large Somerset town keeping acceleration at zero (4,5)
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| A + L (=large, in sizes) + [A (=acceleration, in physics) in FROME (=Somerset town)] + O (=zero, pictorially) | ||
| 16 | KOMPROMAT |
Blackmail material to strike down MP with: corruption involving mother (9)
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| KO (=to strike down, i.e. knock out) + MP + [MA (=mother) in ROT (=corruption)]; from the Russian for “compromising material”, kompromat was used by the NKVD under Stalin to blackmail persons of interest | ||
| 17 | CHECK OFF |
Mark completed Russian author via audiobook (5,3)
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| Homophone (“via audiobook”) of (Anton) Chekhov (=Russian author); to check something off a list is to mark it as completed | ||
| 19 | RWANDAN |
African fish named in film when caught by sailors (7)
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| WANDA (=fish named in film, i.e. the 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda) in RN (=sailors, i.e. Royal Navy) | ||
| 21 | BRAWLER |
Fighter runs through sobbing person (7)
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| R (=runs, on cricket scorecard) in BAWLER (=sobbing person) | ||
| 22 | INFAMY |
Info, ultimately suppressed, had exposed setter’s disgrace (6)
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| INF<o> (“ultimately suppressed” means last letter is dropped) + <h>A<d> (“exposed” means external letters are dropped) + MY’S (=setter’s, i.e. Bluejacket’s) | ||
| 24 | RABBI |
International Baccalaureate excluding overthrown religious leader (5)
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| IB (=International Baccalaureate) + BAR (=excluding, except); “overthrown” indicates vertical reversal | ||
| 25 | CANID |
One Barking prison given official documentation (5)
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| CAN (=prison, colloquially, clink) + ID (=official documentation); a canid is a mammal of the dog family, hence “one barking”! |
1 Down: Black castle/rook begins a chess game on square H8 / H eight.
Well, I’m pretty sure I’ve encountered Bluejacket a few times before.
M R @1 has the parsing as I did, but I’m ashamed I had to use my fingers and the alphabet to get the Rook square.
I stared at Bluejacket’s clues for a very long time, before getting my first answer, FIST PUMP, 20(ac). I will gloss over that one.
The surfaces are wonderful, as is this puzzle.
DEAD DRUNK (2d) seemed a bit “green paint”, but no – an idiom as old as the 1500s.
I got 10(ac), APERIODIC, but not, to be honest, how. Thanks, RR.
Best in Show, CHECK OFF, 17(d); but that’s a bit like asking ” who’s your favourite daughter?”
Lovely stuff, BJ and RR
Like ENB, I got APERIODIC but without a parse beyond APE and something including an O. And, yes, H8 is chess notation. Unusual to meet a Spoonerism where both parts begin with the same letter. IMAMATE, FUSELAGE, ANKLE, HEIGHT, ALI BABA and INDIA are my faves with COTD going to the simple but delightful HIKER.
Thanks both
I liked the idea of the bubbly gay man hosting the rodeo. Apparently, there is a line in the book of the Wizard of Oz, where someone says to Dorothy, “You have some queer friends”. Some great surfaces.
Many thanks to Michael R @1 for parsing 1D. I had assumed there was a chess connection, but as a non-player I was on a hiding to nothing with this one.