A solid challenge from SOLOMON which was a lot of fun.
FF: 10 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FLOWER |
It might be Amazon that distributes perfume (6)
|
| cryptic def; amazon referring to the river, something that flows | ||
| 4 | STARSHIP |
Jason’s core sailors in vessel travelling far (8)
|
| S ( jaSon, core ) TARS ( sailors ) HIP ( in ) | ||
| 10 | ICE HOCKEY |
Play featuring Puck (3,6)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 11 | VOICE |
Cut the edges off box held in gripping tool, say? (5)
|
| O ( bOx, without edges ) in VICE ( gripping tool ) | ||
| 12 | YAHOO |
Youth Agency’s leaders lift the end of bonnet and search engine (5)
|
| YA ( Youth Agency, starting letters ) HOOd ( bonnet, without its end ) | ||
| 13 | LITTLE TOE |
Housebound pig allowed to go in reconfigured toilet (6,3)
|
| LET ( allowed ) in [ TOILET ]* | ||
| 14 | ANALYST |
Six-footer, drunk, lays inside — one’s bound to ask questions (7)
|
| [ LAYS ]* in ANT ( six footer ) | ||
| 15 | TREACLE |
Tree containing a measure of liquid that’s sticky (7)
|
| [ A CL ( measure of liquid ) ] in TREE | ||
| 17 | MADISON |
Commercial is being shown after mass cycle race (7)
|
| M ( mass ) AD ( commercial ) IS ON ( being shown ) | ||
| 19 | ARSENAL |
Team from Northern Amateur League behind at first (7)
|
| ARSE ( behind ) NAL ( Northern Amateur League ) | ||
| 21 | SOAP OPERA |
Show regularly screened at a popular time? (4,5)
|
| &lit; SO ( ShOw, regularly ) A POP ( popular ) ERA ( time ) | ||
| 24 | PLUMP |
Fat board-member, under suspicion, beginning to panic (5)
|
| PL ( board member ) UM ( suspicion ) P ( Panic, first letter ) | ||
| 26 | INDIA |
i is irrational, and 2 is (5)
|
| [ AND II ( 2 ) ]* | ||
| 27 | SCARECROW |
Brainless character stupidly races around bank (9)
|
| [ RACES ]* C ( around ) ROW ( bank ) | ||
| 28 | NORTH SEA |
Thrones destroyed by a division in Cnut’s empire? (5,3)
|
| [ THRONES ]* A | ||
| 29 | TERROR |
Fear to make mistake within the first part of recital (6)
|
| [ ERR ( make mistake ) in TO ] R ( Recital, first letter of ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FAIRY |
Fine, sprightly elf (5)
|
| F ( fine ) AIRY ( sprightly ) | ||
| 2 | OVERHEARD |
More than one group of cows outside getting caught (9)
|
| OVER ( more than ) [ HERD ( group of cows ) around A ( one ) ] | ||
| 3 | ECONOMY |
Online company working to return Solomon’s wealth (7)
|
| E-CO ( online company ) NO ( reverse of ON, working ) MY ( solomon’s ) | ||
| 5 | TRYST |
Meeting holy man after event leading to conversion (5)
|
| TRY ( event leading to conversion, rugby ) ST ( holy man ) | ||
| 6 | REVOLVE |
Spin LP by the Beatles, not Queen (7)
|
| REVOLVEr ( lp by the beatles, without R – queen ) | ||
| 7 | HOIST |
I shot Dicky and Jack (5)
|
| [ I SHOT ]* | ||
| 8 | PIECEMEAL |
Song, perhaps by Meatloaf? Or by Steps? (9)
|
| PIECE ( song, perhaps ) MEAL ( meatloaf ) | ||
| 9 | SKELETON |
Cut up leeks (100) as small as possible (8)
|
| [ LEEKS ]* TON ( 100 ) | ||
| 14 | ADMISSION |
Price paid once private investigator’s left operation (9)
|
| AD [ pAiD, without PI – private investigator ) MISSION ( operation ) | ||
| 15 | TEARAWAY |
Ruffian’s refreshment still to be prepared? Yes (8)
|
| TEA ( refreshment ) RAW ( still to be prepared ) AY ( yes ) | ||
| 16 | CONQUEROR |
Hoax in Castile that leads king to join old King William? (9)
|
| CON ( hoax ) QUE ( that, french ~ in castile ) [ R ( king ) O ( old ) R ( king ) ] | ||
| 18 | STOMACH |
Integrated food pouch attaches to machine-washable trousers (7)
|
| hidden in “..attacheS TO MACHine-washable..” | ||
| 20 | SUPREME |
Motown singer with American backing band seen in gym (7)
|
| SU ( reverse of US, american ) [ REM ( band ) in PE ( gym ) ] | ||
| 22 | ADDER |
Animal native to Britain in summer? (5)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 23 | ENSUE |
Follow topless blokes at the head of charge? (5)
|
| mEN ( blokes, without starting letter ) SUE ( charge ) | ||
| 25 | POWER |
One in debt is under pressure, right? (5)
|
| P ( pressure ) OWER ( one in debt ) |
Good blog. Not the easiest puzzle.
24A: I thought “board-member, under suspicion” was a reference to Professor PLUM in Cluedo.
16D: Castile is in Spain, so “Spanish.”
Some clues were missing from the PDF.
First time I’ve come here for clues rather than solutions! The online/PDF is missing the down clues 23 and 25. 🤦🏻♀️
Good puzzle and blog. I agree with Cineraria @1 re plump although not a classic clue. Much to like including North Sea. Thanks both.
As Cineraria @1, I too took 21A to be a reference to Professor Plum. And I came here thinking to see a comment that it wasn’t the little toe that was housebound but the second. Then the penny dropped.
Is 22D a cryptic definition? Summer is adder(sum it up/add it up).
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs. No thanks to whoever lost the last two clues from the PDF.
24ac: I agree with others about the reference to Cluedo.
26ac: I think the anagram fodder is “and 2 is” meaning AND + two copies of the letter I. Taking 2 as the Roman numeral seems to leave the last word of the clue doing nothing.
Agree with PB @6 that India = (and + i +i)*, but, bdg @4, I can’t find that penny: i still think it’s the second-littlest toe who’s housebound …
grantinfreo@7: This little piggy cried “Wee! Wee! Wee!” all the way home = bound for home, or cryptically “housebound”
Of course, aging brain, now I remember, it’s the big toe you start with so it’s the littlest that’s homeward bound, thanks you guys.
Many good clues which needed a close eye for detail in the exact parsing. I agree re Prof Plum and “and + 2 copies of i”, which came to me after seeing the answer.
However, for that clue, perhaps someone can help me out. I thought that there was a rule that a setter could falsely capitalise a word (e.g. making the past tense “rose” into the name “Rose”) but not vice versa. As “i” is the first letter in the sentence it has been decapitalised to make it into the imaginary number.
26ac revisited: I wondered about this, but Collins 2023 p 994 gives us India 2 communications a code word for the letter i. Chambers 2016 p 774 has the same definition. On that basis, the lower case italic letter at the beginning of the clue can be considered correct.
Pelham Barton @11: I wondered about the definition at first when questioning to myself whether the phonetic code referred only to capital letters and realised that was absurd as it is used to spell out words or names, so clearly “India” = “i” is fine for the definition, but that is not my point.
If one were to write the sentence “i is represented by the word India on the radio.” should it not begin with a capital, like all sentences? To make it grammatically correct I would write “The letter ‘i’ can be…” or, possibly, ” ‘i’ can be…”. So I do not think it is a question of definition, but one of grammar and/or style – the dividing line between the two is not solid.
Jack@12: I agree that it is a matter of style. I would not have started with the lower case letter, but I think there is something to which Solomon can point to support his choice here. I deliberately said “can be considered correct” not “is correct”.
My copy printed paper also missing the clues! Agree re “two i’s” and Prof Plum
In my intended surface reading of 26a, ‘i’ is supposed to be the square root of -1. My understanding is that this imaginary number is usually indicated by an i rather than an I, hence why I used that.
Thanks as ever to Turbolegs for the blog, and to commenters.
Solomon. I (or maybe i) wondered about that. That said, ‘i’ is not considered irrational (or rational) since these terms are for real numbers. It is algebraic (so not transcendental) mind you.
I’m sure you’re right, Hovis. And 2 certainly isn’t irrational. Does the inaccuracy of the surface take away from the clue? Perhaps it does a bit.
Solomon et al above: In my initial comment on this I deleted another point I was going to make as I did not want to cover two things in one go. I was going to comment that i is not irrational, but neither is 2 so the surface reading is an absurdity, but then so are many cryptic clues. As I understand it the surface reading of a clue should be grammatical but it does not have to be true or logical. Unless 7dn is a confession, I suspect that is untrue as well! For me, the fact that the numbers are not irrational is irrelevant and the clue is solid in that respect.
I forgot to thank Solomon for an entertaining puzzle and Turbolegs for the parsing so let me put that right.
Lots of good solid clues with nice surfaces (with a couple of stinkers thrown in). Overall, it was very enjoyable
I best liked HOIST, ECONOMY, VOICE, and ARSENAL
I could not parse PLUMP, not having played Cluedo since I was a young boy.
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
Thanks Solomon. I found this difficult enough to reveal the nho MADISON as well as PIECEMEAL and TEARAWAY but fun enough to enjoy YAHOO, ANALYST, ARSENAL, REVOLVE, CONQUEROR, and SUPREME. I couldn’t fully parse PLUMP, INDIA, and POWER. Thanks Turbolegs for the help.
Challenging in places but all gettable in the end. Thanks, Solomon and Cineraria.
Apropos the clues missing from the PDF, I appreciate that bloggers are probably working from the app or even from an advance copy, but when the omission came to light later could not a note, and the missing clues have been added to the preamble of thre blog to save having to scroll through. As it was we couldn’t help seeing several spoilers, including for the missing clues. Just a thought.
FLOWER and ADDER both double definitions, not cryptic surely?
Flower is both the Amazon and something that distributes perfume.
Adder both native to Britain and a summer – one who adds