Plenty to wrestle with this week, and whilst I haven’t counted, there seem to be a relatively high number of clues squeezed in.
This took me two or three sittings, with 6 down and 20 across beating me completely. They don’t seem unduly hard in retrospect, though I can see why the path from “crops” to OESOPHAGI wasn’t obvious to me.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FLASH MOB | Crowd appearing unexpectedly shamble off moving the last ones out (5,3) |
| (SHAMBL[e] OF[f])*. That ridiculous fad from a few years ago where large groups of idiots would descend on a given location without warning, and find some way to annoy the hell out of the general public. | ||
| 6 | FRACAS | Break up shale mostly, that’s like a free-for-all (6) |
| FRAC[k] + AS. | ||
| 9 | EEL | What keels might hold (3) |
| [k]EEL[s] and presumably &lit. I’m no mariner, but I’m fairly sure something quite drastic would have to have gone wrong for this to actually happen! | ||
| 10 | EFFULGE | F__! Glue all over the place and glitter (7) |
| EFF + GLUE*. | ||
| 11 | ADROIT | To break road up with that thing is resourceful (6) |
| ROAD* + IT. | ||
| 12 | INDEED | Bindweed regularly uprooted to be sure (6) |
| [b]IND[w]EED. | ||
| 13 | IKEBANA | Flower arranging bar installed in furniture store (7) |
| BAN in IKEA. | ||
| 14 | PENSIONER | What might highlight a change for senior is becoming this? (9) |
| PEN + SENIOR*. Very nice. | ||
| 16 | MEDIC | A word for ‘doctor’ in some dictionaries (5) |
| [so]ME DIC[tionaries]. | ||
| 18 | STATE | E.g. Georgia‘s condition say? (5) |
| Three whole definitions, no less. Nicely done. | ||
| 20 | OESOPHAGI | Crops area shortly beginning to grow – I hope so anyhow (9) |
| (A + G[row] + I HOPE SO)*. | ||
| 24 | MESSIAH | Hit a miss? He’s the one (7) |
| (A MISS HE)*. | ||
| 25 | AUGUST | Impressive gold rush? (6) |
| Au + GUST. | ||
| 27 | COOL IT | Crikey! On fire! Relax (4,2) |
| COO + LIT. That one raised a smile! | ||
| 28 | NAVARRE | Spanish community make mistake with a vehicle reversing (7) |
| (ERR + A VAN)<. | ||
| 29 | EGO | I featured in allegory (3) |
| [all]EGO[ry]. | ||
| 30 | CENSOR | Sadly I’m out of crimson and in the end use blue pencil (6) |
| (CR[im]SON + [us]E)*. Full marks for the surface reading there. | ||
| 31 | LONGHAND | Lad’s gutted – hang on, this is sorted out when put in writing (8) |
| (L[a]D + HANG ON)*. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | LIE IN | Alpine giant regularly recognised to be dormant (3,2) |
| [a]L[p]I[n]E [g]I[a]N[t]. | ||
| 3 | SOFTENS | First of sun in decades begins to warm (7) |
| S[un] + OF TENS. | ||
| 4 | MELODEON | A third note left on cinema organ? (8) |
| ME + L + ODEON. | ||
| 5 | BEEHIVE | Workers’ accommodation? (7) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 6 | FLAWED | Covered the ground, say, with a hole in it (6) |
| Homophone of “floored”. | ||
| 7 | AIR-LANE | Deviation from a linear flight path (3-4) |
| (A LINEAR)*. | ||
| 8 | AGITATING | Disturbing, the rubbish one’s collected in getting older (9) |
| (TAT + I) in AGING. | ||
| 15 | EXTEMPORE | Former office worker bored stripped on spur of the moment (9) |
| EX + TEMP + [b]ORE[d]. | ||
| 17 | COQ AU VIN | Uncovered surprisingly unequivocal ecstasy expressed It’s a classic French dish (3,2,3) |
| [u]NEQUIVOCA[l]*. I haven’t cooked this in years. Perhaps next weekend. | ||
| 19 | TUSSLES | Scraps of suet scattered round base of feeders, both small and large (7) |
| ([feeder]S + S + L) in SUET*. | ||
| 21 | ETHANOL | Short holiday getting squiffy with neat alcohol (7) |
| (HOL + NEAT)*. | ||
| 22 | HOGARTH | He depicted swine and dirt with no little energy (7) |
| HOG + [e]ARTH. | ||
| 23 | WINTER | When windcheater’s outer layers are needed? (6) |
| WIN[dchea]TER &lit. | ||
| 26 | SHEEN | An actor‘s lustre (5) |
| Double definition. Could be any of several actors with that name. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
OESOPHAGI was my LOI after the FRACAS/FLAWED crossers, so you weren’t the only one who found a couple of those difficult. Good puzzle.
I liked this puzzle in which OESOPHAGI was also my LOI.
In 17d (COQ AU VIN), there should be an E “expressed” (ie pressed out) from [u]NEQUIVOCA[l].
Many thanks, Simon (and Crosophile).
Have a look at the two long diagonals…
Ta Crosophile
Well spotted, flash!
You think, Crosophile is a fan? 🙂
For those without access to the grid now from NW to SE it says FIFTEEN SQUARED and from SW to NE CROSSWORD BLOGS.
In fact, I saw OESOPHAGI when I had a couple of crossers. Strange how what some find more or less straightaway others have to leave till last.
Good puzzle, which I enjoyed; and even more kudos to Crosophile for inserting the nina (well spotted, flashling) without making the entries or the grid too convoluted.
Simon, re your comment at 1ac: you are becoming even more of a grumpy old man than me. Keep it up.
Thanks for the very nice blog, Simon, and good nina-spotting, Flashling. And Sil, yep, of course I’m a fan! 😀
Thanks for the compliment on the gridfill, too , Kathryn’s dad. coQ au vin was the first in, as otherwise it was almost impossible from the very word go! not easy to clue! 🙂