Poat is a compiler whose advanced barred cryptic crosswords I have been familiar with for a long time, but this is the first time that I have encountered him as a setter of a standard daily cryptic.
I found this puzzle to be a real challenge, first to solve but then mainly to parse to my satisfaction once the grid was full. For me, it was definitely at the higher end of the Indy difficulty spectrum. I think that I have got there in the end, but I would be grateful if fellow solvers could confirm my parsing of 1D, where I don’t see how “potentially” fits in; and of the definition at 2. What’s more, the definition at 18 would seem to require an adverb as a solution, rather than an adjective.
An additional challenge was posed today by some of the more obscure items of vocabulary, such as at 20 and 24, and the expressions at 1A and 1D were both new to me.
My favourite clues today were 1D, for surface reading, once I’d understood it; 3, for its construction and well concealed definition; and in particular 9, for maintaining the musical theme across definition and wordplay alike.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
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| 1 | HALLUCINATING |
Align IT launch badly – it’s an AI problem (13)
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| *(ALIGN IT LAUNCH); “badly” is anagram indicator; hallucinating is “an AI problem” in that false or misleading outputs are presented as being factual | ||
| 8 | RETIREE |
Pot-holder about to exhaust last of incense (7)
|
| RE- (=about, regarding) + TIRE (=exhaust) + <incens>E (“last of” means last letter only); as the beneficiary of a pension pot, a retiree could be described as a “pot-holder”! | ||
| 9 | RONALDO |
Pitch master showing alto line in repetitive composition (7)
|
| [A (=alto, in music) + L (=line)] in RONDO (=repetitive composition, in poetry); Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo could be described as a “(football) pitch master”! | ||
| 11 | ENROL |
Join up components of eleven Rolexes (5)
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| Hidden (“components”) in “elevEN ROLexes” | ||
| 12 | AEROSPACE |
High-flying business quickly capturing asteroid (9)
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| EROS (=asteroid, i.e. a large near-Earth object) in APACE (=quickly); cryptically, aerospace could be described as a “high-flying” business! | ||
| 14 | ELLINGTON |
In pursuit of wife, this Duke would be capital (9)
|
| W (=wife) + ELLINGTON (=Duke, i.e. American jazz pianist (1899-1974) = WELLINGTON (=capital, of New Zealand); | ||
| 16 | YAHOO |
Oik rounds on upper-class twit (5)
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| YAH (=upper-class twit) + O O (=rounds, i.e. 2 x O (=round, i.e. pictorially) | ||
| 17 | THALI |
Asian devouring starter of lentils and curry selection (5)
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| L<entils> (“starter of” means first letter only) in THAI (=Asian); a thali is a set meal of a variety of curry dishes with rice or chapatis, hence “curry selection” | ||
| 19 | CONSTRICT |
Speaker’s fooled after Tories press together (9)
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| CONS (=Tories, i.e. Conservatives) + homophone (“speaker’s”) of “tricked (=fooled)” | ||
| 21 | EMERGENCY |
Not quite coming out, unknown character’s crisis (9)
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| EMERGENC<e> (=coming out; “not quite” means that last letter is dropped) + Y (=unknown character, in algebra) | ||
| 23 | LOOSE |
Left for good, nitwit is unattached (5)
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| GOOSE (=nitwit, fool); “left (=L) for good (=G)” means letter “l” replaces “g” | ||
| 24 | SATYRID |
Flapper disturbing stray papers (7)
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| *(SATYR) + ID (=(identity) papers); “disturbing” is anagram indicator; a satyrid is a kind of butterfly, hence a “flapper” (of wings) | ||
| 26 | OLOROSO |
A lot of aged Spanish gold provided aperitif (7)
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| OL<d> (=aged; “a lot of” means last letter is dropped) + ORO (=Spanish gold, i.e. the Spanish word for gold) + SO (=provided, in Chambers); oloroso is a golden-coloured medium-sweet sherry | ||
| 27 | CIGARETTE CARD |
Doctor created tragic picture for smokers (9,4)
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| *(CREATED TRAGIC); “(to) doctor”, adulterate, is anagram indicator | ||
| DOWN
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||
| 1 | HORSEFEATHERS |
Hack potentially taking down Leavitt’s fake news (13)
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| HORSE (=hack potentially) + FEATHERS (=down); “horsefeathers” is a US term for nonsense, hence “(White House Press Secretary Karoline) Leavitt’s fake news”! | ||
| 2 | LATERAL |
… as aside, a casual farewell to Gore? (7)
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| LATER, AL (=a casual farewell to Gore?); “lateral” means “as a side”, from the side, etc | ||
| 3 | UNRELENTING |
One cross-channel article and another occupying leasing firm (11)
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| UN (=cross-channel article, i.e. a French word for a) + [LE (=cross-channel article, i.e. a French word for the) in RENTING (=leasing)]; unrelenting is firm, as an adjective, steadfast | ||
| 4 | INELASTIC |
Moulded plasticine, not initially stiff (9)
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| <p>LASTICINE; “not initially” means last letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “moulded” | ||
| 5 | AIRER |
Ignoring the face, more beautiful frame (5)
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| <f>AIRER (=more beautiful); “ignoring the face” means first letter is dropped | ||
| 6 | INN |
House of Scandinavian clearing external angle (3)
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| <f>INN<ish> (=Scandinavian); “clearing external angle (=(to) fish)” means the letters “fish” at the beginning and end of the word are dropped | ||
| 7 | GOLIATH |
Big guy turning tail, bitten by pig (7)
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| TAIL in HOG (=pig); “turning” indicates reversal | ||
| 10 | ONE FOR THE ROAD |
Final order for AA lobbyist? (3,3,3,4)
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| An “AA (=Automobile Association) lobbyist” is “one (lobbying) for the road”!; “one for the road” tends to be a customer’s final order in a bar’! | ||
| 13 | SLY STALLONE |
Cut solo on soundstage for familiar actor (3,8)
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| Homophone (“on soundstage”) of “sliced (=cut) + alone (=solo)”; the solution is a more “familiar”, colloquial way of referring to US actor Sylvester Stallone (1946-) | ||
| 15 | NANNY GOAT |
Maybe she’ll bleat or nag crazily with Tannoy (5,4)
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| *(NAG + TANNOY); “crazily” is anagram indicator | ||
| 18 | ASEPTIC |
A non-believer’s caught out cleanly (7)
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| A + S<c>EPTIC (=non-believer; “caught (=C, on cricket scorecard) out” means letter “c” is dropped) | ||
| 20 | IPOMOEA |
Flowers one penny each, with powder inside (7)
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| OMO (=(washing) powder, laundry detergent) in [I (=one) + P (=penny) + EA (=each)]; ipomoea is a plant of the jalap and morning glory genus | ||
| 22 | NADIR |
Minimum bill permitted in Northern Ireland (5)
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| AD (=bill, poster, i.e. advert) in [N (=Northern) + IR (=Ireland)]; if a nadir is the lowest point of something, then it could be the mininum (level) | ||
| 25 | RAG |
Scrap of fish chucked up (3)
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| GAR (=fish); “chucked up” indicates vertical reversal |
I found this quite hard, too, though, in retrospect, it all seems fairly clued. I liked RONALDO, ONE FOR THE ROAD, and GOLIATH. Thanks for explaining “familiar”.
Thanks RatkojaRika.
1d. I think “potentially” is there to suggest that one of several possible uses for a horse is as a hack (a horse kept for hire or as an ordinary riding horse, to use the Chambers definitions).
2d. This appears to be an instance of misleading spacing. We need to read “as aside” as “as a side”. Some people quite like this device. I don’t. “Aside” is not the same as “A side”.
4d. Tiny error – you meant to say “first”, not “last”.
9a. There’s also a famous Brazilian footballer called Ronaldo, a bit older than Cristiano.
Defeated at the end by the crossing IPOMOEA and OLOROSO. I also hadn’t heard the yah in YAHOO, so that was a bit of a mystery.
I agree with Hector@2 – not all horses are hacks, so it is a definition by example.
It’s funny how subjective difficulty can be – I found this relatively straightforward, with the unfamiliar solutions clearly clued (although I needed the crossers before teasing out the anagram in 24).
Thanks all