The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30013.
A delightful puzzle with Brockwell’s signature creative use of proper names. The crossword is built around 1D FISH, itself a part of the remarkable long anagram, which I was lucky enough to get very early through 8D PEEL .In addition to the references ‘1’, there are various fish scattered around the grid – IDE (9A), COD (10A), LING (15A), RUDD (16D), BLUEfish (3D), SAILfish (6D), COHO salmon (23D) and SMELT (4D) pop out – and 12A SHOAL and 5D TRAWLS are thematic also.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | IDEAL |
Perfect 1-wood (5)
|
| A charae of I (Roman numeral, ‘1’) plus DEAL (‘wood’). | ||
| 10 | MORSE CODE |
Communication system is common kind for Spooner (5,4)
|
| A Spoonerism of COARSE (‘common’) MODE (‘kind’). | ||
| 11 | HOOKE’S LAW |
Wales played by captain’s physical principle (6,3)
|
| A charade of HOOK (‘captain’, Peter Pan) plus ESLAW, an anagram (‘played’) of ‘Wales’. | ||
| 12 | SHOAL |
Hotel entertained by country backing group (5)
|
| An envelope (‘entertained by’) of H (‘hotel’) in SOAL, a reversal (‘backing’) of LAOS (‘country’). | ||
| 13 | CRUMBLE |
Sweet Caroline’s opening fight in Madison Square Garden (7)
|
| A charade of C (‘Caroline’s opening’) plus RUMBLE (‘fight’; the New York venue Madison Square Garden is mentioned to indicate that the gang fight meaning is primarily US). Sweet Caroline is a song title. | ||
| 15 | SLINGER |
Heather in Shropshire borders close to the heart of Percy Thrower (7)
|
| A charade of SLINGE, an envelope (‘in’) of LING (‘heather’) in SE (‘ShropshirE borders’); plus (‘close to’) R (‘the heart of PeRcy’). Percy Thrower was a gardener and television personality. | ||
| 17 | AMEER |
Agree Machiavelli partly reflected The Prince (5)
|
| A hidden (‘partly’) reversed (‘reflected’) answer in ‘agREE MAchiavelli’. The ‘The’ is there to give the (translated) title of Machiavelli’s best known work. | ||
| 18, 26 | SEAWIFE |
1 main partner (7)
|
| A charade of SEA (‘main’) plus WIFE (‘partner’). The SEAWIFE is a wrasse (‘1’, 1D FISH). | ||
| 20 | LIPID |
Fat detective wearing hat (5)
|
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of PI (Private Investigator, ‘detective’) in LID (‘hat’). | ||
| 22 | MICHAEL |
Harry Lime drinking tea for 1? (7)
|
| An envelope (‘drinking’) of CHA (‘tea’) in MIEL, an anagram (‘harry’) of ‘lime’. Michael Fish (‘1’, 1D FISH), now retired, was a weather forecaster for the BBC. For the surface, Harry Lime was the character played by Orson Welles in the film The Thir Man. | ||
| 25 | RESPRAY |
Shivering après-skier may finally put new coat on (7)
|
| An anagram (‘shivering’) of ‘apres’- plus RY (-‘skieR maY finally’). I considered and dismissed using ‘new coat’ as the definiition with ‘put … on’ indicating an envelope; the word order is too tortuous. | ||
| 26 | WAHOO |
Ashe regularly missed out in Court No.1 (5)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of AH (‘AsHe regularly missed out’) in WOO (‘court’). ‘No.’ is there for the surface, with Arthur Ashe as the tennis player, and the definition leads to 1D FISH. | ||
| 27 |
See 7 Down
|
|
| 30 |
See 7 Down
|
|
| 31 | SKATE |
Flat 1 has entrance in Shepherd’s Bush? (5)
|
| A charade of S (‘entrance to Shepherd’) plus KATE (Kate ‘Bush’ is a singer). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 |
See 7
|
|
| 2 | RESOLUTE |
Determined 1 cycling is overtaken by true rogue (8)
|
| An envelope (‘is overtaken by’) of ESOL, which is SOLE (‘1’) ‘cycling’, in RUTE, an anagram (‘rogue’) of ‘true’. | ||
| 3 | BLUE |
Down-and-dirty (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | SMELTERS |
Metal producers manufactured steel frames occasionally (8)
|
| An anagram (‘manufactured’) pf ‘steel’ plus RMS (‘fRaMeS occasionally’). | ||
| 5 | TRAWLS |
Thoroughly investigates tips from The Repair Shop to cover boring item (6)
|
| An envelope (‘to cover’) of AWL (‘boring iteem’) in TRS (‘tips from The Repair Shop’). | ||
| 6 | VERSAILLES |
Words in song embracing trouble ending for Crystal Palace (10)
|
| An envelope (’embracing’) of AIL (‘trouble’) plus L (‘ending for CrystaL‘) in VERSES (‘words in song’). | ||
| 7, 27, 30, 1 | SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH |
Flash Gordon in on the talks with Flash Liquid to produce a novel quote (2,4,3,6,3,3,3,4)
|
| An anagram (‘liquid’) of ‘Flash Gordon in on the talks’ plus ‘flash’. The quote is from the fourth book in Tht Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, by Doug Adams. | ||
| 8 | PEEL |
Strip from page 1 (4)
|
| A charade of P (‘page’) plus EEL (‘1’ – 1D FISH). | ||
| 13 | CHARM |
Allure of 1 million (5)
|
| A CHARade of CHAR (‘1’ – 1D FISH) plus M (‘million’). | ||
| 14 | BARCAROLLE |
Spanish players delivered part of song (10)
|
| A charade of BARCA (FC Barcelona, ‘Spanish players’) plus ROLLE[d] (‘delivered’ – a bit of a stretch, I think) minus its last letter (‘part of’). The answer may be spelled with one L, which would be a better fit to the wordplay, but not to the light. | ||
| 16 | RUDDY |
Amber perhaps originally yellowish-red (5)
|
| A charade of RUDD (‘Amber perhaps’ – Amber Rudd is a British former politician) plus Y (‘originally Yellowish’-). | ||
| 19 | ABRIDGED |
Potted game eaten by Bill (8)
|
| An envelope (‘eaten by’) of BRIDGE (card ‘game’) in AD (advertisement, ‘bill’). | ||
| 21 | PIRANHAS |
1 brief period gripping nation (8)
|
| An envelope (‘gripping’) of IRAN (‘nation’) in PHAS[e] (‘period’) minus its last letter (‘brief’). Again, ‘1’ is 1D FISH; note that ‘fish’ can be plural. | ||
| 23 | COHORT |
Group of hot men in bed (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of H (‘hot’) plus OR (soldiers, ‘men’) in COT (‘bed’). | ||
| 24 | LEAN-TO |
Shed Seven essentially leaving the Eastern Mediterranean with nothing (4-2)
|
| A charade of LE[v]ANT (‘Eastern Mediterranean’) minus the V (‘seVen essentially leaving’); plus O (‘nothing’). Shed Seven is a rock band. | ||
| 26 |
See 18 Across
|
|
| 28 | HUSS |
Pikachu’s sandwich contains dog meat (4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘contains’) in ‘PikacHUS Sandwich’. The HUSS is the dogfish, which is I suppose close enough to ‘dog meat’. Perhaps Brockwell felt that ‘1’ would not fit the surface as well as in other clues. | ||
| 29 | SEER |
Clairvoyant brought up on drugs (4)
|
| A reversal (‘brought up’ in a down light) of RE (‘on’) plus ES (‘drugs’). |
Thanks PeterO. The only one where I differ is BARCAROLLE, where I have “delivered part” = homophone of “role”. Wonderful offering from Brockwell.
Well that was a bit of fun! It was Mr Hooke’s H that made the long quote jump out and I went Oh no, bleeping fish! But the only total nho was Mr Fish himself, so Michael was a bung and shrug. Thanks Brockwell and PeterO, think I’ll celebrate with a pre-prandial snifter.
After scratching around a bit, the EEL in PEEL gave me the fish and then I was off. I didn’t bother with the anagram.
Shall I be the first to say I went with SEA LIFE until it proved impossible?
A good challenge throughout. I liked SLINGER, MICHAEL and ABRIDGED
Who will be @42 today…?
Thanks Brockwell and PeterO