*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone
After last week’s debacle, the crossword returned to the printed version in its usual spot inside the back cover. An added benefit to any sports-hating solvers is that it no longer appears in the sports section, since that’s been moved to a separate supplement. The puzzle was about the right standard for a Monday morning (challenging without being too difficult) and had some excellent clues, 1 across being my favourite.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pate de foie gras: &lit. (top geese afraid)*. |
| 10 | Argot: Art (a Yasmina Reza play) around “go”. |
| 11 | Intricate: In tric[k] ate. |
| 12 | Concave: Con + cave. Cave can be used as an alternative to “cave in”, so is acceptable for secession. The “dished” is obviously the definition and must refer to a concave shape being dish-like. |
| 13 | Wiretap: (Pater i[s] w)<. |
| 14 | Prune: I’m not totally sure about this one. I can’t see any wordplay, so I assume it must be a straight double definition. The dictionaries I’ve consulted define “prune” as a “disagreeable person”, so I suppose that could be “dull twit”. |
| 16 | Champagne: hom. of “sham pain”. |
| 19 | Dismissed: I think this is dis[h] (= fool) + missed (= lost) and out = (dismissed). |
| 20 | Yield: y + lied*. |
| 22 | Oarless: (loser’s)*. |
| 25 | Ox blood |
| 27 | Optometry: “Op to try” around me. |
| 28 | Guide: (Andre) Gide around u. |
| 29 | French Dressing: cryptic def (Folie Bergere dancers don’t wear much, so no dressing). |
| Down | |
| 2 | Argonauts: &lit. (Tars)* around gon[e] + au. |
| 3 | Extra: Double definition. A wide is an extra in cricket and Alfred Hitchcock was famous for his habit of appearing as an extra in his own films. Hitchcock was of course also rather wide, so the surface meaning is perfect. |
| 4 | Evidences: (e vice dens)*. |
| 5 | On tow: On to + w. |
| 6 | Epigraphy: (Epi)* + graph + y. |
| 7 | Riant: [F]ranti[c]*. |
| 8 | Steep le |
| 9 | Madcap: Map around ADC. |
| 15 | Epidermic: Mice* around [s]pider. A spider, for those who don’t yet know, is a rest used in snooker. |
| 17 | Androgyne: (gone randy)*. |
| 18 | Gregorian: Gregor (e.g. Gregor Fisher) + Ian. |
| 19 | Drop off: (Ford around fop)<. |
| 21 | Dodder: This seems to be (Ken) Dodd + ER. “Makes” to mean “comes after” seems a bit dubious. |
| 23 | Retie: Rete, which is a network of blood vessels, around I. |
| 24 | Sited: hom. of “cited”. |
| 26 | Bogus: Bog (slang for lavatory, as is John) + US. |
14a Collins defines a prune as ‘a dull, uninteresting, or foolish person’ and a twit as ‘a foolish person’ so the ‘dull twit’ seems fine to me.
There’s a Nina in this.
I’m so intent on doing the blog that I keep forgetting to look for NINAs, but I see what you mean. There seem to be at least two French regions hidden in the grid (French dressing theme, I suppose).
Isn’t 29ac “French undressing” for “Folie Bergere entertainment” minus “un” for “a Parisian missing” rather than a cryptic definition?
Just popped in to say a quick thank you to Eimi for getting the compiler’s name, and crossy number, in the online version – sneakily in the “Across” text (you little tinker).
You’re very welcome