My apologies. This is dreadful. I’m standing in for today and it completely slipped my mind until late in the morning. Then I had trouble with the software and after almost completing the crossword it froze on me and I had to start all over again. But I’ve at least just about finished (the ones I’m unsure about I hope I’ll manage as I finish this off, or at any rate you will I’m sure help me with). To make it worse, I was very slow to finish this since I had MINICAB at 5dn.
Triplejumper@1 tells us this crossword is related to Cher.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TRAMPS |
Walks slope between treacherous edges (6)
|
| t(ramp)s — t and s are the edges of treacherous | ||
| 5 | THIEVES |
Mid-sixties man’s captured yesterday’s robbers (7)
|
| [six]t[ies], then his around eve = yesterday (does eve really = yesterday?). {I had he’s for man’s and that gave me an incomprehensible iev} | ||
| 9 | AVIATRIX |
A way to quote magic pilot (8)
|
| a via “tricks” — the homophone indicated by ‘to quote’ | ||
| 10 | URGENT |
Pressing your gentle heart (6)
|
| Hidden in yoUR GENTle | ||
| 11 | WARM-UP |
Preparation for heat (4-2)
|
| 2 defs, warm-up and warm up | ||
| 12 | CLEANING |
Cheerleading not straight chore (8)
|
| c leaning — does cheerleading = cheer leading? | ||
| 14 | TURN BACK TIME |
Visit the past to watch activity in Spring (4,4,4)
|
| we turn our watches back in Spring (no we don’t, surely) so facetiously it could be called turn back time | ||
| 18 | DANCING QUEEN |
Perhaps twisting piece of Swedish song (7,5)
|
| The twist is a dance; piece = queen (as in chess) | ||
| 22 | AGNUS DEI |
Prayer is idea sung at sea (5,3)
|
| (idea sung)* | ||
| 25 | IGUANA |
Lizard again desperately held to be fashionable (6)
|
| (again)* holding U — not sure U = fashionable | ||
| 26 | GAUCHO |
Centre of storm becomes close for inept rancher (6)
|
| gauche = inept, and its close (ie last letter) becomes [st]o[rm] | ||
| 27 | TAHITIAN |
Islander gives thanks for strike by Botham (8)
|
| ta hit Ian — Ian Botham, now Lord Botham | ||
| 28 | GYPSIES |
Wanderers in dodgy 5s (7)
|
| Hidden in dodGY SOMEthing I think, but I can’t see this I’m afraid — perhaps it’s just a CD and gypsies wander in dodgy taxicabs (??) [Thanks TonyC@2: in NYC unlicensed cabs are Gypsy cabs] | ||
| 29 | DEEPLY |
Thoroughly makes river work (6)
|
| Dee ply | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | REVEAL |
Explain extremely rare meat (6)
|
| r[ar]e veal | ||
| 3 | MIASMATIC |
Contagious diseased mathematicians Neath expelled (9)
|
| *(m[athe]maticia[n]s) — viewed askance in some quarters because the letters of neath aren’t in order in mathematicians | ||
| 4 | SCRAP IRON |
Old metal set to decrease (5,4)
|
| set = scrap somehow, decrease must be read as de-crease, or iron (as in ironing shirts) [TonyC has a better parsing: set-to = scrap. But then shouldn’t Gaff have had a hyphen, which would have mucked up the wordplay?] | ||
| 5 | TAXICAB |
Hackneyed conveyance that takes its toll (7)
|
| CD relying on the fact that a taxicab is a Hackney cab and it takes a fare (toll) | ||
| 6 | INURE |
Support to train people that is out of season (5)
|
| The NUR, the National Union of Railwaymen, can be seen as a support for train people, and NUR has ie (that is) outside it | ||
| 7 | VEGAN |
Some leave gangly animal free (5)
|
| hidden in leaVE GANgly | ||
| 8 | SYNONYMS |
Substitutes for setters (8)
|
| CD: for someone who is setting a crossword a synonym = a word substitute | ||
| 13 | AUK |
A British bird? (3)
|
| a UK — the question mark because it isn’t a British bird? | ||
| 15 | CHERISHED |
Treasured riches he’d assembled (9)
|
| (riches he’d)* | ||
| 16 | TONGUE-TIE |
Language to secure silence (6-3)
|
| tongue (= language), tie (= secure) — silence as a verb | ||
| 17 | BANG BANG |
Expel sports team over allowing novice gunman to start shooting (4,4)
|
| ban GB a[llowing] n[ovice] g[unman] | ||
| 19 | IOS |
Son follows satellite phone operator (3)
|
| Io s — iOS (Apple) — Io is a moon of Jupiter | ||
| 20 | QUIETUS |
Death could silence Trump and his people (7)
|
| quiet US | ||
| 21 | ENTAIL |
Require department to suff er (6)
|
| ENT ail — the Ear, Nose and Throat department — my copy has suff er but I suspect this is just a misprint | ||
| 23 | UNCAP |
Remove top and a lot of paunch wobbles (5)
|
| (paunc[h])* | ||
| 24 | DHOTI |
Leaders from Delhi have only tailored Indian cloth (5)
|
| First letters — a bit unsatisfactory because some words are needed for both definition and wordplay |
And of course Cher is 80 today. The puzzle contains a few of her singles and the album DANCING QUEEN.
UNCAP made me chuckle.
Thanks to GAFF and John
Good morning from NYC. I think 4D can be parsed as scrap = set-to and de(-)crease = iron. As to 28 A, in NYC, unlicensed cabs are Gypsy cabs.
14ac: Of course, we turn watches or clocks back one hour in Autumn if we can, but I was taught as a child to wind the hands forward 11 hours to avoid damaging the mechanism. Indeed, my radio controlled clock goes forward 11 hours without any intervention from me, and the clock on my central heating has to be adjusted manually, and I have to go forward 23 hours.
28ac: Thanks tonyc, but the clue still appears to be defective as 5s could refer either to 5dn or to 5ac: in the latter case it would be seriously racist.
3dn should cause no problems: the anagram can be formed first, “diseased mathematicians” giving MIASMATIC NEATH, and then the letters of “Neath” are in the right order to be removed.
I did not spot the anniversary . TURN BACK TIIME,GYPSIES and THIEVES were some of her other hits.CHER is hidden in 15d.
Thanks to TripleJumper @1 for spotting the anniversary , John for the blog under challenging circumstances and Gaff for an entertaining puzzle.
Nice to see Crossword land’s favourite singer get a puzzle of her own. Relieved to see a non racist parsing of GYPSIES, though even allowing the possibility seems wrong somehow.
Petert@5: I should have said that I do not believe that Gaff intended 28ac to refer to 5ac, but I would still say that more care should have been taken.
Happy birthday to Cher!
It was the central answers across the grid that prised this open for me (good thing, too, as I’m not particularly familiar with singer’s earlier work). MIASMATIC was my favourite.
Thanks to Gaff and John for persevering with the blog despite various setbacks.
Re parsing of 8D. Isn’t the explanation true for everyone not just setters ?
I ticked TAHITIAN. All parsed, barring GYPSIES, but it felt like a chore at times.
Thanks Gaff and John