Good fun, as usual, from Slormgorm . . .
I found myself repeatedly resorting to “whimsical” as a description for the clues, with a couple of the clues being so “whimsical” that I am not sure that I could give a proper parsing for them. Perhaps we will work these out in the comments.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BACK DOWN |
Support fellow over wife or chicken out? (4,4)
|
| BACK (support) + DON (fellow) around (over) W (wife) | ||
| 5 | STACKS |
Thin branches one dumped around area in piles (6)
|
| ST[I]CKS (thin branches) minus (dumped) I (one) around A (area) | ||
| 10 | COALMAN |
Fuel provider or firm with a large staff (7)
|
| CO. (firm) + A + L (large) + MAN (staff) | ||
| 11 | HEROINE |
Bit of embroidery found on horse lead (7)
|
| HEROIN (horse) + first letter of (bit of) E[MBROIDERY] | ||
| 12 | ADDICTION |
A speech broadcast in dependency (9)
|
| Homophone of (broadcast) A DICTION (a speech) | ||
| 13 | IDEAL |
Best discount offered on Apple products? (5)
|
| IDEAL or iDeal (whimsically, discount offered on Apple products, which have such names as iPhone and iMac) | ||
| 15 | AT SEA |
A meal in which there’s salt on the main? (2,3)
|
| I think this parses as: semi-&lit and A TEA (a meal) around (in which there’s) first letter of (on the main) S[ALT], where “on the main” is also the definition | ||
| 16 | ACHILLES |
Relax in NHS unit with small, weak-heeled bloke (8)
|
| CHILL (relax) inside (in) A&E (NHS unit) + S (small) | ||
| 19 | EINSTEIN |
One German mug or a Genius from Germany (8)
|
| EIN (one [in] German) + STEIN (mug), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 20 | BITER |
You might say Dracula’s resentful half the time (5)
|
| BIT[T]ER (resentful) minus one T (half the time) | ||
| 21 | CHESS |
Revolutionary shows (not How or The Mating Game) (5)
|
| CHE [Guevara] (revolutionary) + S[HOW]S minus (not) HOW | ||
| 23 | DAMNATION |
Madonna goes mad about SEX retrospective denunciation (9)
|
| Anagram of (goes mad) MADONNA around (about) IT (sex) reversed (retrospective) | ||
| 25 | AFFRONT |
A show heard on the radio in Diss (7)
|
| Homophone of (heard on the radio) A FRONT (a show), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 27 | VIOLIST |
Foremost of strikers tackled by new Tivoli player (7)
|
| First letter of (foremost of) S[TRIKERS] inside (tackled by) anagram of (new) TIVOLI | ||
| 28 | SPRITE |
Place to eat pricey rice starters or a brownie? (6)
|
| SITE (place) around (to eat) {first letters of (starters [of]) P[RICEY] R[ICE]} | ||
| 29 | PRISONER |
Crooked person: one inside tower ultimately? (8)
|
| &lit and {I (one) inside anagram of (crooked) PERSON} + last letter of (ultimately) [TOWE]R | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BACCARAT |
Grad joins cricket club with a singer to get a game (8)
|
| BA (grad) + CC (cricket club) + A RAT (a singer) | ||
| 2 | CLANDESTINE |
Secret tune in Let’s Dance (11)
|
| Anagram of (tune) IN LET’S DANCE | ||
| 3 | DEMOCRATS |
Party animals protest jazz fan stopping bit of revelry (9)
|
| I cannot quite work this one out. I can get this far: DEMO (protest) + CAT (jazz fan) around (stopping) first letter of (bit of) R[EVELRY], but I cannot see where the “S” comes from. “Jazz fans” would work. I am taking “animals” here as a whimsical reference to something like “political party members.” Just “party” would also work as a definition for DEMOCRATS, but then I cannot see any function for “animals.” | ||
| 4 | WONGI |
Leaders of West offer nothing good in informal chat in Australia (5)
|
| First letters of (leaders of) W[EST] O[FFER] N[OTHING] G[OOD] I[N] | ||
| 6 | TORSI |
One’s rubbish will be brought up in trunks (5)
|
| {I’S (one’s) + ROT (rubbish)} all inverted (will be brought up) | ||
| 7 | CHI |
Greek character rebuked after duke’s disappearance (3)
|
| CHI[D] (rebuked) minus (after . . . disappearance [of]) D (duke) | ||
| 8 | SPELL |
Period of pressure in market… (5)
|
| P (pressure) inside (in) SELL (market). I cannot see that the “. . .” between 8D and 9D signifies anything with the wordplay in the clues. | ||
| 9 | CHIN-CHIN |
…hits your health! (4-4)
|
| Double definition, the first being CHIN (hit) twice, and the second being a toast | ||
| 14 | ELECTRICIAN |
Tradesman whose shoddy work might shock you? (11)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 16 | ANECDOTE |
Oscar won by new version of a decent yarn (8)
|
| O (Oscar) inside (won by) anagram of (new version of) {A DECENT} | ||
| 17 | LABRADORS |
Bounders in coats and bra or lad’s pants (9)
|
| Anagram of (pants) BRA OR LAD’S, presumably referring to a retriever | ||
| 18 | URINATOR |
Run riot messing around with a goer (8)
|
| Anagram of (messing around) {RUN RIOT + A} | ||
| 21 | CHAPS |
Dudes that cowboys might have on? (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | SPORT |
Venue in which you’ll see runs in cricket? (5)
|
| SPOT (venue) around (in which you’ll see) R (runs) | ||
| 24 | MOVER |
Flash vicar knocked up? I’m likely to propose! (5)
|
| MO (flash) + REV. (vicar) inverted (knocked up), presumably in the sense of e.g., legislation | ||
| 26 | FAR |
A good way of finally getting to Arkansas (3)
|
| Last letter of (finally) [O]F + AR (Arkansas) |
Pop in for a cuppa and a bit of a wongi. It’s so long since hearing this in the wild that I have no actual memory, but it’s Aussie slang alright. Fun puzzle, ta both.
… @1 cont, … origin in regional WA, deriving from an indigenous word meaning speak [from Google AI]
Good puzzle. Liked clandestine, electrician.
I agree the clue for democrats lacks an s, and in 24d move and propose are synonyms in the context of a debate.
Thanks both.
Well, I’ve never heard of WONGI. And I’ve never needed the plural of torso, but I guess this must be it. Unfamiliar with chin/hit. I can’t shed any light on the S in DEMOCRATS. I thought perhaps the animals were cats, but no.
Well, I’ve never heard of WONGI. And I’ve never needed the plural of torso, but I guess this must be it. Unfamiliar with chin/hit. I can’t shed any light on the S in DEMOCRATS. I thought perhaps the animals were cats, but no.
What GDU@5 said
In addition, I found it a quick solve, helped by a good dose of anagrams, but time was needed in the SW corner
I liked IDEAL, ADDICTION, and DAMNATION. I would have ticked DEMOCRATS but I also cannot fully parse it.
On the other hand, I was not enthusiastic about the cryptic definitions for MOVER or URINATOR.
I vaguely remember pants as an anagram indicator from a previous puzzle, and the time taken to dragging it from my memory held me up a bit. I was also held up by not having seen tune as an anagrind (nor had my Chambers Crossword Dictionary). Two questions: why is duke DE and why is a brownie SPRITE?
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria
Martyn@6: Tuning is essentially a process of bringing something into alignment (such as the tonal qualities of a piano). (May I say “whimsical” again?) D is the abbreviation for duke. Chid is the paste tense of chide. A brownie and a sprite are both folkloric creatures similar to an elf.
Since S & P often appear on salt and pepper pots, I think S as an abbreviation for ‘salt’ is acceptable even if it doesn’t appear in dictionary lists. Others may disagree.
Hovis@8: That is at least plausible, and would certainly make the wordplay smoother. I could not find S listed as a conventional abbreviation for salt in any reference.
Thanks Cineraria@7. Late for you?
I got tune when I eventually solved the clue, and it makes sense. Thanks for explaining brownie and chid (I did not read the blog closely enough on the last one).
Hovis@8, I saw S for salt immediately and did not even think of resorting to the dictionary. No problem for me. PB?
Thanks again all! Crosswords are a great hobby, and this blog makes the experience very special.
I move to ban the use of tune as an anagram indictator – Chambers: “To propose formally before those present at a meeting”
Ticks for CHIN CHIN, CHESS and the Paulesque URINATOR
As Cineria says, I think it should probably have been “jazz fans”
Cheers C&S
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria
I solved this on a train journey this morning. At 15ac I decided that it had to be S as an abbreviation for salt, and thought this might be problematic, but I think Hovis@8 has the answer. When I got a chance to look things up, I could not find S for salt in any of the dictionaries I generally cite, but the same goes for abbreviations such as S for small. Abbreviations such as these do not generally appear in written or printed text, and hence do not make it into dictionaries, but I have come firmly round to the view that they are fair game for daily crosswords where no specific dictionary is recommended.
Thanks Slormgorm for the fun with my favourites being BITER, VIOLIST (for the surface misdirection), SPRITE, CLANDESTINE (I’m OK with ‘tune’ as an anagrind — if one tunes a musical instrument they are ‘adjusting’ it in a sense as Cineraria implied), SPELL, and ANECDOTE. The ‘salt and pepper’ issue has come up before; despite lack of dictionary support S meaning ‘salt’ is common, more common than many sanctioned abbreviations. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
I agree over “salt” though I’m not so sure I would be happy with “pepper” for P. Totally illogical of me I admit.
I found that quite tricky. It was a decent challenge but bit fiddly in places and not an example of it all looks so obvious in retrospect”.
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria