A nice meaty challenge from Bradman today. Straightforward and for most part, cleanly clued – I have 2 clues which I did have a wee problem with. An enjoyable solve and a good start to the Friday morning.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | SHANDY |
Drink readily available after end of restrictions (6)
HANDY (readily available) after S (end of restrictionS) |
| 4 | STITCH |
Son, little fellow, seen as a pain (6)
S (son) TITCH (little fellow) |
| 8 | BAD DEBT |
What makes Dad be troubled – British company admitting that financial problem (3,4)
BT (british company – british tobacco) admitting anagram of DAD BE |
| 9 | ASININE |
Like one figure here, very stupid (7)
AS (like) I (one) NINE (figure here, 9ac) |
| 11 | DRAMATURGE |
Playwright is given small drink – a hint of thirsty desire (10)
DRAM (small drink) A T (hint of Thirsty) URGE (desire) |
| 12 | LYRA |
Pullman’s young girl stars (4)
Double definition; The first one refers to the book by Philip Pullman, a companion piece to the Northern Lights trilogy called “Lyra’s Oxford”. The second refers to a constellation by the same name. I didnt know either Pullman or the constellation before seeing this clue. |
| 13 | CANON |
Cleric’s set of church rules maybe (5)
double def |
| 14 | ACCIDENT |
Beset by stress I had mishap (8)
ACCENT (stress) around I’D (I had) |
| 16 | MATTRESS |
Mother takes time with hair – one probably in bedroom? (8)
MA (mother) T (time) TRESS (hair) |
| 18 | POSSE |
Group led by “star man” (5)
cryptic clue (and I hope I have this right). The term ‘posse’ was usually used to refer to the Sheriff’s men ; the Sheriff (in all the westerns I have seen) wears a nice shiny badge on his chest, presumably the “Star of David”. |
| 20 | LIMP |
Conclusion of evil and little devil is powerless (4)
L (conclusion of eviL) IMP (little devil) |
| 21 | MEDITATION |
Thought a timid note should be redrafted (10)
Anagram of A TIMID NOTE |
| 23 | BIGOTRY |
Large attempt to embrace love when bias is evident (7)
[BIG (large) TRY (attempt)] embracing O (love) |
| 24 | ULULATE |
Greek character and female pop singer about to wail (7)
ETA (greek character) LULU (female pop singer), all reversed |
| 25 | NUMBER |
Maybe one or two relatively dull (6)
cryptic definition, to be read as numb-er. |
| 26 | CYPRUS |
Island prince imprisoned by Persian king (6)
P (prince) imprisoned by CYRUS (persian king) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | STAIR |
Step made by the leading character in agitation (5)
A (leading character, A-Z) in STIR (agitation) |
| 2 | ABDOMEN |
Sailor leads party chaps exposing belly (7)
AB (sailor) DO (party) MEN (chaps) |
| 3 | DEBUTANTE |
Transport system held up by poet and young lady (9)
DANTE (poet) holding EBUT (transport system = tube, reversed) |
| 5 | TASTE |
Provider of sugar wants an extra bit of sweetness in —– (5)
TATE (provider of sugar, company in the UK) containing S (bit of Sweetness) – I am not confident about this clue. If indeed the parsing is right, then I think its a bit of an unfair clue (to me) requiring the knowledge of the company TATE to parse properly. |
| 6 | TANGLED |
Complicated flavour experienced (7)
TANG (fllavor) LED (experienced) |
| 7 | HINDRANCE |
Inadequate sort of believer managed church – certainly no help (9)
HINDu (sort of believer, inadequate i.e. without the last letter) RAN (managed) CE (church) |
| 10 | BROADSIDE |
England’s fast bowler leading team’s attack (9)
BROAD (england’s fast bowler) SIDE (team) |
| 13 | COALITION |
Governmental arrangement – trick taking in a lot, I repeatedly suspect (9)
CON (trick) taking in an anagram (suspect) of [ LOT I I (repeatedly) ] |
| 15 | CAPITALLY |
Very well – do better than that, friend! (9)
CAP IT (do better than) ALLY (friend) |
| 17 | TAPROOM |
Time before a concert with nothing being imbibed in bar (7)
[T (time) A PROM (concert)] imbibing O (nothing) |
| 19 | SETTLER |
Colonial who may sort out disagreement? (7)
cryptic def |
| 21 | MORSE |
TV detective a bit short (5)
MORSEl (a bit, short) |
| 22 | OATES |
Horrible to sea captain on dangerous mission (5)
Anagram of TO SEA |
a POSSE can be a group of followers of a pop star, if this helps
Thanks Turbo and Bradman. I think you are correct on 18 across and 5 down. Sheriff’s’ stars are usually five-pointed, though, as I recall from the old films.
Tate the sugar man was the chap behind the Tate gallery so including him isn’t too unfair.
I think the provider of sugar is probably Henry Tate, sugar magnate and founder of the Tate gallery rather than the current UK company whose name is “Tate and Lyle”
PeeDee they are the same person. Henry Tate and Abram Lyle were the founders of Tate & Lyle.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
The British company BT in 8A is British Telecom, not British Tobacco (that’s generally known as British American Tobacco, or certainly was, I don’t know if it still exists).
david @ 2 is right, sheriffs’/marshals’ stars were generally five-pointed.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Small typo in the parsing of 13dn: it should say “CON (trick) taking in an anagram (suspect) of [A LOT I I (repeatedly) ]”.
Enjoyed this, thank you Bradman.
Being another who’s not “au fait” with Pullman’s works I appreciated your confirmation of the answer to 12ac, Turbolegs. Was amused to see that the clues about which you expressed doubts were my two favourites: 18ac & 5d (then again, I am a UK resident, which I’m sure, was a help in finding the latter easy!). Many thanks for the blog.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Really enjoyed this from the Don – a nice variety of clues and his ‘traditional’ new word for me with DRAMATURGE. It did require a bit of general knowledge for a number of clues (5d, 18a and 22d) – or the ability to look them up with references if one didn’t know of them.
TASTE was my last one in and although it took a while, I did eventually remember that the founder of the Tate Gallery was a man who had made his fortune through sugar. Thought that POSSE was very clever when the penny dropped with the ‘star man’ – I guess one needs to be old enough to have watched those westerns with the star-badged sheriffs and marshals though !
I think that Philip Pullman’s trilogy was call “His Dark Materials”. “Lyra’s Oxford” was a follow up book. (Thanks to Wiki as I hadn’t heard of the author or the books previously)
They keep on coming this week!
Today there was once more a word that seems to be an unusual one in the English speaking world but one that wasn’t a problem for me (as one from the continent).
In Holland the (wo)man we call here a ‘playwright’ is a ‘dramaturg’ over there.
Sometimes I have an advantage when I solve crosswords, haven’t I?
In English I have never come across ‘dramaturge’ meaning ‘playwright’. But ‘dramaturgy’, meaning ‘the study or activity of writing dramatic texts’ is quite familiar.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs
Please could somebody explain the 5 hyphens at the end of 4ac and how they define TASTE? Thanks
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.
I parsed 1dn as double use of agitation – i.e. STIR around A.
Compulsory new word for me too was Dramaturge.
I remained uncomfortable about Led for Experienced in 6dn right to the end. Especially since I’m not familiar with the author in 12ac.
That meant Lyra as my LOI was a bit of a stab on the basis that a player might pull on the strings of the instrument after which the constellation was named. So thanks for the elucidation.