My goodness I was lucky as a blogger. Yesterday I never did the Independent crossword, being away, but by all accounts it was difficult. Today’s offering from Raich was much more the sort of thing you want on a blogging day — a pleasant crossword, nice and gentle, easy-to-understand.
Not that it was all that easy, or that Anax yesterday was to be avoided: I have the highest admiration for Anax; it’s simply that you don’t want him when you are blogging.
Raich’s theme is based on Shakespeare’s comedies, the word ‘comedy’ appearing in the top row of unches. In the grid are Verona (Two Gentlemen of), Windsor (Merry Wives of), Twelfth (Night) and Venice (Merchant of). There is also As You Like It and Shrew (Taming of The) and no doubt others that I have missed. But I suspect more is going on. He must have known that I would be blogging and moaning if anywhere there had been less than 50% checking: everything here was fine and he did well to get so much into the grid without breaking what I at least see as the rules.
Definitions in italics.
Across
7 Trip where a cult inhale, sadly? (11)
HALLUCINATE
(a cult inhale)* — not totally convinced by ‘where’, but perhaps it can be explained
8 Dry/ attitude (3)
AIR
2 defs
10 Book hotel after girl not available (5)
JONAH
Jo n/a h — the Biblical book
11 Lean adult adapted old carriage (9)
LANDAULET
(Lean adult)*
12 New front put on window frame in lower storey (8)
BASEMENT
casement with a new front, i.e. the c replaced by a b
14 Transported by lover, on about Italian city (6)
VERONA
Hidden in loVER ON About
17 Town/ House? (7)
WINDSOR
2 defs — some might complain that the two uses of the word are rather similar in that the name of the House of Windsor came from Windsor castle which is in Windsor, but the clue is in my opinion justified by the fact that the surface is so different from either of them.
19 Indicating position as some might, flew Tornado from East (7)
TWELFTH
Reverse hidden in migHT FLEW Tornado
20 Bad habit, imbibing eye-opener before noon – port? (6)
VENICE
(e{ye-opener} n) in vice
21 Take away American bishop’s pamphlet (8)
ABSTRACT
A b’s tract
24 Lose time moving having to carry new building material (9)
LIMESTONE
(Lose time)* round n
28 Keep quiet about wife, she’s bad-tempered (5)
SHREW
sh re w
29 Head wheels cask (3)
TUN
(nut)rev.
30 Bespoke/ work (2,3,4,2)
AS YOU LIKE IT
2 defs, one of them the work by Shakespeare
Down
1 Reports from family groups restraining Government (6)
CLANGS
clan(g)s
2 Starts to offer unkind criticism (harsh) that hurts (4)
OUCH
o{ffer} u{nkind} c{riticism} h{arsh}
3 Businessman making money on the Italian ship (8)
MILLINER
m il liner — ‘il’ = ‘the’ in Italian — quite why a hat-maker was a businessman originally troubled me a bit, but I suppose that if you are a hat-maker then you are in the business of making hats
4 Make money from tea producer by sound of it (4)
EARN
“urn”
5 Some have doubts about divine being (4)
DEVA
Reverse hidden in hAVE Doubts
6 Close to quay, needing hand tool for boat (4)
YAWL
{qua}y awl
7 Ladies’ clothing in Hello and Punch (5)
HIJAB
hi jab — hi = hello, jab = punch
9 How the acre may be converted? Instruct once again (7)
RETEACH
(the acre)*
13 Pleasing sound character from Athens reproduced accurately (5)
MUSIC
mu sic
15 Seventies’ contest (5)
EVENT
Hidden in SEVENTies — the hidden indicator is a mere apostrophe
16 At a distance from France (3)
OFF
of F
17 Vet English law changes: minor movement detected (7)
WAVELET
(Vet E law)*
18 Knight with posh name, member of order (3)
NUN
n U n — the first knight the one in chess
19 Dramatic scenes as expert (top class) is forced into short jacket (8)
TABLEAUX
(able A) in tux — whether a tux is short for tuxedo or is simply a short jacket as opposed to a long one like a tail coat I’m not quite sure, but it doesn’t really matter
22 Selfish desire to be seen with ace? That’s right (6)
AGREED
A greed
23 Pull: appeal (namely) (2,3)
TO WIT
tow it — it as in sex appeal
25 After short time kiss flirt (4)
MINX
min x
26 Son is able to analyse verse (4)
SCAN
s can
27 Just losing pounds? That’s wrong – a stone! (4)
ONYX
on{l}y x
28 25% of pack/ meet requirements (4)
SUIT
2 defs — the pack is a pack of cards, where one suit is a quarter of it
*anagram
An enjoyable puzzle, and for once I saw the nina in the top row and the themed answers. I didn’t get the congratulatory message when I thought I’d finished with the WAVELET/WINDSOR crossers, and it took me a couple of minutes to realise that I had entered an unparsed “tableaus” instead of the correct TABLEAUX.
With all of the Xs on the bottom row, I wonder if this was originally tried to be all Xs for ERRORS on the bottom to match the COMEDY on top row.
Very gentle today, but very enjoyable.
Thanks John and Raich
Indeed, John, this was a welcome half-hour distraction after yesterday’s monster. Well put together with a nice variety of clueing. And even I saw COMEDY and twigged the link to the Bard. No special favourites today; it was all good.
I too wondered about the random Xs on the bottom row.
Thanks to S&B.
All very gentle, but I spent some time wondering what ‘xnxxtd’ in the bottom unches could mean until I spotted the theme.
Given the theme, was this puzzle actually intended for the Bard’s birthday, commonly assumed to be tomorrow?
Thanks, Raich and John
Many thanks for blog and comments. The Xs were just coincidence. Bard’s 450th did not come to mind either…
Great fun for an early morning solve before breakfast – late home last night so too tired to even look at the puzzle!
Thanks Raich and John.