A marvellously misleading menagerie of clues from Bonxie!
Every clue, across and down, contains the name of an animal but Bonxie has cleverly exploited the diversity of the English language to the full, with the result that, in fact, very few of them actually refer to an animal, which makes for some superb surfaces. I knew a fair few of the alternative meanings [but by no means all] but that didn’t stop me being led up the garden more than once. I found the top left corner the trickiest, my last entry being 7ac [with a big groan – it’s always so frustrating not to be able to get the very first clue!].
I found this a very fascinating and informative solve – many thanks to Bonxie for the enjoyment and the education!
Across
7 Bat following turtle all over the place
FLUTTER
F [following] + anagram [all over the place] of TURTLE
8 More likely to greet little mole
WEEPIER
WEE [little] + PIER [mole – breakwater]: ‘mole’ is a useful crossword word, with its other, perhaps more often used, sense of ‘spy’
9 Polecat produces foul air
SMOG
S [south – pole] + MOG [slang for cat]
10 Capable of producing a film about bears? Don’t!
ADSORBENT
Anagram [about] of BEARS DONT – ‘undergoing or causing to undergo a process in which a substance, usually a gas, accumulates on the surface of a solid, forming a thin film’
12 Suspend monkey behind door frame
DRAPE
D[oo]R [‘door frame’] + APE [monkey]
13 Standing, force cat to remove feet
PRESTIGE
PRES[s] [force] + TIGE[r] [cat], minus their final letters [feet]: this would work slightly better in a down clue but I’m not complaining
15 Snappy dog bit tail
CURT
CUR [dog] + T [tail – last letter of biT]: I initially, before I was properly awake, read this as ‘bit of tail’!
16 Day, perhaps, for primate to acquire new top
DORIS
[l]ORIS [this primate] changing its initial letter [top] to produce this star
17 Run out Roger Bird
ROOK
RO [run out, in cricket] + OK [Roger – in signalling telecommunications indicates message received / understood]
18 Strike seal on side
STOPPAGE
STOP [seal] + PAGE [side]
20 Incriminate fellow with a sheep
FIT UP
F [fellow] + I [a] TUP [sheep]
21 Fox – nightlife with menacing glare
DISCOLOUR
DISCO [nightlife] + LOUR [menacing glare]
fox: to cause [paper, wood, etc] to become discoloured with spots: like ‘discolour’, it can also be intransitive
22 Smoker approaches quiet mouse
LUMP
LUM [smoker – Scottish chimney] + P [quiet]: both Collins and Chambers have ‘mouse: a black eye or discoloured swelling’ but I found ‘a lump or discoloured bruise, esp a black eye’ in SOED
24 A police force stops horse, which provides identification
NAME TAG
A MET [a {Metropolitan} police force] in [stops] NAG [horse]
25 Dolphin making low noise around end of breakwater
MOORING
MOOING [making low noise] round R [end of breakwateR] – another new meaning for me – ‘a post or buoy for mooring a vessel’
Down
1 Mollusc rising with difficulty out of sea
CLAM
I thought I was going to have to admit defeat on the parsing of this one, searching vainly for possible reversals, but it came to me as I began to write the blog: CLAM[bering] [rising with difficulty] minus [out of – as a greengrocer might be out of {‘Yes, we have no’} bananas] BERING [sea] – a truly wonderful surface
2 Deer and little insect standing still
STAGNANT
STAG [deer] + ‘N [and] + ANT [insect]: I think ‘little’ refers to ‘and’ rather than ‘insect’]
3 Insect biting back inside cave
BEWARE
Reversal [back] of RAW [biting – as a wind might be] in BEE [another insect]
Cave is the imperative of the Latin ‘cavere’, to beware’, known particularly from the famous Pompeii mosaic and also the phrase ‘caveat emptor’ – ‘let the buyer beware’; also [public] schoolboy slang, as in Billy Bunter ‘keep cave’ = ‘keep a lookout’
4 Strange rites involving stray dogs
TERRIERS
Anagram [strange] of RITES round [involving] ERR [stray]
5 Buoyant whale riding in front
UPBEAT
UP [riding] + WHALE [‘to beat or thrash soundly’] – another unfamiliar usage
6 Hamster or guinea pig? Many found lining a fur coat
PELT
L [fifty- many] in [lining] PET [hamster or guinea pig?]
11 Wolverine comically tripped usher with rope
SUPERHERO
Anagram [tripped] of USHER and ROPE for the comic superhero
12 Dash over to secure a continental cow
DAUNT
Reversal [over] of TAD [dash] round [to secure] UN [French ‘a’] [ever since I’ve been doing crosswords, ‘dash’ = ELAN!]
14 Force frog to make a sticky mess
GLOOP
G [force] + LOOP [frog: ‘a decorative fastening of looped braid or cord, as on a military uniform’: here’s how to make one:
16 Lizard bites a master interpreter
DRAGOMAN
DRAGON [lizard] round [bites] MA [Master of Arts] for an Eastern interpreter
17 4 commonly catch large snakes
RATTLERS
RATTERS [terriers – 4dn commonly] round [catch] L [large]
19 Badger safe outside entrance to sett
PESTER
PETER [safe, cashbox] round [outside] S [first letter – ‘entrance] of S[ett] – another favourite surface
20 Little pigs have loud quarrel
FARROW
F [loud] + ARROW [a quarrel is ‘an arrow having a four-edged head, fired from a crossbow’]
21 It’s used for transporting dead fish
DRAY
D [dead] + RAY [fish]
23 Where rhino was struck?
MINT
Cryptic definition: rhino is slang for money
Thanks, Eileen. Well, the sun has certainly come out today in Guardian crosswordland! A highly entertaining primer for all those alternative meanings that one comes across from time to time – a few old chestnuts, perhaps, but enough new ones to make things amusing.
CLAM was the last one I saw too! 🙂
Many thanks, Eileen – and of course Bonxie.
I’m ashamed to say that I went all through this without noticing the theme. Duh… On the other hand, I enjoyed it – as you say, some lovely surfaces.
Some less so – 23d, for example, where “rhino” is a little desperate?
Interesting puzzle with every clue referring to an animal of some sort. I failed to solve 6d and could not parse 12d, 9a, 1d, 3d, 17d.
Plenty of new words and definitions for me in this puzzle: DRAGOMAN, ADSORBENT, TUP = ram, PETER = safe, QUARREL = arrow, GREET = cry, RHINO = money.
I like your parsing of 22a, although I had never heard of LUMP = black eye. I parsed it as LUMP = timid person = mouse.
Thanks for the blog, Eileen.
A terrific – if slightly terrifying – puzzle matched by an excellent blog. Parsing CLAM in itself deserves a reward! Re mouse, no less a source than the Daily Mail has ‘A “breast mouse” is a completely benign – that is non-cancerous – form of breast lump that can be moved around within the breast tissue.’
SMOG tops the lot for me.
re michelle@3
I didn’t mean that my parsing of 22a is correct. I just included it to show that I had parsed it incorrectly. Obviously a LUMP is not a timid person, but rather a stupid or awkward person.
Thanks Eileen, I was avidly awaiting the blog, as I finished the puzzle with many doubts which, as ever, you have cleared up nicely.
The unfamiliar meanings to FROG, ARROW and DOLPHIN made parsing difficult, but I managed to finish without recourse to anything but the “check” button, and now, with the explanations, I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent puzzle.
Curiously DRAGOMAN was vaguely familiar 😉
Thank you Eileen and not just for today. Lovely comprehensive blog for a skillfully crafted puzzle which made me look up Chambers for many new meanings to familiar words e.g. mole for pier & fox for discolour.
Fantastic puzzle and great blog – thanks to Bonxie and Eileen.
Clued so beautifully that, once an unfamiliar meaning confronted me (eg frog, dolphin, whale, mouse), I was at the same time confident about the answer and happily outraged.
I wasn’t sure I had the time to spend on the crossword today, but the animals intrigued me and with frequent use of the check button I managed to solve everything. This was accompanied by much shaking of the head as I saw words that fitted the letters and felt right, without any idea how to parse them. Some did succumb with a little thought and I came here to find the rest.
e.g. Having guessed SMOG for foul air quite early on, I reckoned it must be CLAM for the mollusc (having only thought of that plus SLUG as contenders with 4 letters); when they checked out I had no idea why I was correct on either of them!
Last in for me was WEEPIER, as I hadn’t come across the meaning of GREET as WEEP before.
Thanks Eileen as I would have been totally lost on several others too without you.
Hi ulaca @4
Thanks for the note on ‘mouse’: that sounds more convincing than the black eye. [I didn’t think to google after finding those dictionary entries.]
Apologies, michelle and george, for not commenting on ‘greet’: I was married to a Scot for so long that I forgot that I hadn’t always known that dialect sense of the word! [I know it, too, because my choir sometimes sings John Rutter’s lovely arrangement of the Scottish lullaby, ‘Oh can ye sew cushions’: http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_cushions.htm ]
Thanks for a lovely blog, Eileen, which I really needed this morning! Unlike you, I started with FLUTTER, but progress was quite patchy after that. I needed the check button in quite a few places, as the unfamiliar meanings — GREET, DOPLHIN, etc — meant that I couldn’t fully parse the clues. I would never have seen the wordplay for CLAM!
ROOK made me smile.
Thanks to Bonxie for an entertaining puzzle.
re LUMP, given my background, fibroadenoma or “breast mouse” leaped to mind but I discounted it as too obscure and went elsewhere in Chambers:
Mouse: 11 A timid, shy, colourless person.
LUMP: 8 An inert, dull, good-natured or fair-sized person.
This all seemed rather more likely. 😉
Good setting to include all the animals and some nice surfaces, despite the use of rather obscure [to me at least] synonyms.
Thanks Eileen; I didn’t get anywhere near parsing CLAM. I thought rhino=money was a bit naughty as Chambers gives it as archaic slang, although Collins just says ‘slang.’
The swelling which develops over a boxer’s eye as a result of repeated blows is often referred to as a mouse.
Thanks Eileen and Bonxie
I found this rather hard, and moving simply from clue to clue I sadly did not notice the full animal array. I failed to parse ‘clam’ (many thanks for that) and I wrongly entered 22d as mine (where one might strike gold).
Re mouse, I looked around in Chambers and plumped (wrongly no doubt) for small lead weight for balancing sliding windows.
I ticked 10a, 13a, 21a, 25a, 3d, and 5d.
Unlike several others, I was rather irritated by the obscurity of the definitions (not only of some animal names e.g. dolphin and frog, but also of greet which I did not know). But it was a very clever piece of setting and not without its pleasures.
Thanks for help on CLAM & DAUNT. For the former, rising with difficulty gave me MAL upwards, and C = sea, which didn’t sem to work properly, while for DAUNT I was thinking dash = DAH in Morse, which got me nowhere, so just entered it from definition and checkers.
I must Bonxie for his skill in fitting in the creatures – done so smoothly that I didn’t see that they were literally everywhere till it was pointed out in the blog.
I’m a little embarrassed to say that 23 had me (also) thinking of a certain chain of gentleman’s entertainment establishments.
What a great crossword – and blog. We loved every minute of it. First in was “flutter” and last “clam” – the only one we failed to parse. Like others, we made more use of dictionaries than usual. Interestingly, neither our Chambers or Collins (both a bit aged, like us1) had “gloop” although we both were sure it meant gooey. It was the “loop” (frog) we were searching for – successfully. Lucky we had this good crossword on a day when we both had a bit of time.
When you lot all agree that a crossword was good, that almost always means mere mortals will have struggled like hell with it! It was an object lesson in how to be obscure without using obscure words, hence my first sentence. I almost gave up several times.
Thanks Bonxie and Eileen.
Immaculate blog for what I found to be a very tough challenge (up there with Monk in the FT yesterday – many thanks to those who recommended it). Getting an animalistic surface into every clue was a tour de force. I don’t have much to add to the comments above, except that I dredged up MOORING = dolphin from reading Coot Club (one of the non-Swallows and Amazons stories by Arthur Ransome, based in the Norfolk Broads) about 1,000 years ago.
Dtd – you’re not the only one!
Thanks Eileen and Bonxie
Solved all without spotting the menagerie theme
Failed to parse SMOG, CLAM or LUMP
Thanks, Bonxie, for the inventive use of the English language and Eileen for the superblog.
I needed it for CLAM but what a clue.
Mitz @ 20,Arthur Ransome was a great source of nautical phraseology; I read Coot Club by torchlight after lights out and loved it.
Giovanna x
Sometimes a themed puzzle can seem clever, but more fun for the setter than the solver. Not this. For example, when I finally figured out how CLAM worked I felt really pleased with myself! Reviewing the puzzle, as well as admiring the way the theme words were worked into every clue, I was (as always) keen to find fault. The best I could do was that I don’t much like ‘a’ for I in 20ac.
Thanks Eileen for a blog worthy of a superb puzzle.
Really rather defeated by this, but what a masterclass in parsing it has produced!
Since I started doing crosswords, some 5 years ago, Bonxie was always one of my “least favourite setters” (yes, I had them too 🙂 ). The reason for it was that I found his puzzles impenetrable, too tightly clued and taking too many liberties. But since Bonxie’s marvellous Girls Girls Girls puzzle, I have become one looking forward to his crosswords.
Today’s offering was once more extremely clever.
We saw the animal theme right away and liked the fact that he used the various creatures not just for the surface but also for the construction of the clues.
We failed on two clues (3d and 23d). But getting that far when having a cup of coffee somewhere far away from resources shows that this was a fair crossword with even so-called ‘obscure’ solutions perfectly gettable.
Thanks Eileen for your blog and explaining 1d to us.
Some people may not like ‘bit tail’ for T – I am still not sure whether I am on Paul B’s wavelength or not when it comes to this – and a=one=I is also not one of my favourites, but this was a truly great crossword.
Only one quibble. While Bonxie is so precise with the use of articles, I cannot understand why he didn’t leave the ‘a’ out in 16d.
CoD for me PESTER (19d) because it sums up what is so good about Bonxie’s cluing. The ‘badger’ in the surface is not the ‘badger’ of the solution, ‘safe’ in the surface is not the ‘safe’ in the solution – meanwhile, Bonxie’s creating a wonderful surface.
Lovely stuff.
Delightful crossword from Bonxie. Admirable veiling of definitions.
Didn’t look promising at first sight; then NW corner fell into place; then SE, then slowed and got cross with the highly diagonal grid.
Some new meanings for me(e.g. for PIER, DOLPHIN, MOLE), but managed to get the solution before delving into dictionary.
Had figured out parsing structure for CLAM but couldn’t think of the appropriate other word (or suitable sea either) Grr.
Held up by being locked into 24a starting with ACID (viz a police force) and trying to parse ACID DYE.
Must look up Superhero Wolverine (sounds more exciting than Korky the cat).
Stella@6 – I too knew I knew DRAGOMAN somehow.
Many thanks Eileen for usual immaculate post.
Another great crossword from Bonxie.
I failed to parse CLAM and failed to get WEEPIER.
But finally some enjoyment this week.
Thanks to Eileen and Bonxie
Thanks Eileen, thanks Bonxie, great crossword.
To be honest, there were just a few too many obscure or tediously stretched definitions, (for the various parsing components), for my taste here.
Last in was “clam”, and that, at least, brought a smile for its structural audacity.
At the end threw in ‘CLAM’ and ‘SMOG’ without really knowing why. Had a lovely time with it. Didn’t think I was going to get started and then some fell, which made others possible. Lots of use of reference books to ascertain meanings (dolphin,mole etc), but they always seemed to confirm that I was on the right lines. Great fun! Thank you Bonxie and thank you Eileen
Thanks Bonxie and Eileen
Another difficult assignment from this setter leaving me unable to parse the very clever CLAM(BERING) – very well done Eileen – I kept trying to unsuccessfully find a sea with MALC involved. I also failed with WEEPIER, not knowing of or finding that Scottish meaning of greet – had opted for ‘peppier’ based on mole,the Mexican spicy sauce, which in hindsight probably is more likely pepperier!
As a keen collector of books, was very aware of the issue of foxing – which is not a good thing.
Many good tough clues and the imaginative use of an animal in every clue, however Bonxie unfortunately beats me again.
A very tough puzzle for me, which came in a hard week all around (though I’m not complaining at all!). The other 2 or 3 toughies eventually mostly came together, but not this one. I got about 2/3 or so of it before bailing.
Greatly admired the thematic words and the variety in their use, especially the odd synonyms.
Thanks for the blog, Eileen, and the bridge too far, Bonxie!