Typical Independent on Sunday puzzle, straightforward though not necessarily easy. Thanks Poins.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEAMAN |
Tar pits eventually found on each island (6)
pitS (eventual, final letter of) on EA (each) MAN (Isle of Man) |
| 4 | MURMUR |
Grumble when drinks are sent back (6)
RUM RUM (two drinks) reversed (sent back) |
| 9 | BASS |
Singer of inferior quality say (4) sounds like (say) base (of inferior quality) |
| 10 | SPOT CHECKS |
Random tests for cannabis leading to arrest on board (4,6)
POT (cannabis) with (leading to) CHECK (arrest) in SS (in a Steam Ship, on board) |
| 11 | OPENER |
What Boycott was to unfold before the Queen (6)
OPEN (unfold) before ER (queen) |
| 12 | SLIPSHOD |
Careless errors by half-hearted criminal (8)
SLIPS (errors) by HOoD (criminal, half-hearted) |
| 13 | PROMENADE |
Uncouth Roman peed in walkway (9)
(ROMAN PEED)* anagram=uncouth |
| 15 | ORFF |
Composer not wanting to embrace Russian leader (4)
OFF (not wanting) contains (to embrace) R (leading letter of Russian) |
| 16 | STAB |
Go crazy in retirement (4)
BATS (crazy) reversed (in retirement) |
| 17 | TREADMILL |
Philosopher standing by Thucydides’ initial study of routine drudgery (9)
MILL (John Stuart Mill, philosopher) following (standing by) Thucydides (initial letter of) READ study) |
| 21 | BROWBEAT |
Exhausted after b….. brawl with bully (8)
BEAT (exhausted) following B and ROW (brawl) |
| 22 | THOUGH |
Finished without Rex however (6)
THrOUGH (finished) missing R (rex) |
| 24 | SOLICITOUS |
Concerned South American admits feeding ducks is not forbidden (10)
S (south) US (American) contains (admits) LICIT (not forbidden) inside (feeding) OO (ducks) – some mental gymnastics required to determine what goes inside what here. |
| 25 | FLOW |
Animal’s back seen in stream (4)
WOLF (animal) reversed (back) |
| 26 | THEBES |
Happen to stop most of these coming from somewhere in Boeotia (6)
BE (happen) inside (to stop, like a cork) THESe (most of) |
| 27 | DECREE |
Law qualification essentially ludicrous for head of Geography (6)
DEGREE (qualification) with C (centre of ludiCrous) replacing G (head of Geography) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCARPER |
Leave hastily when Cliff starts to play Elvis records (7)
SCAR (cliff) then starting letters of Play Elvis Records |
| 2 | ARSON |
Woman getting upset over son’s crime (5)
NORA (woman) reversed (containing S (son) |
| 3 | ALSO-RAN |
Not entirely kind having article holding up Capone as a loser (4-3)
SORt (kind, not entirely) with AN (indefinite article) underneath (holding up) AL (Al Capone) |
| 5 | URCHIN |
Ragamuffin‘s discovered in church insensible (6)
found in chURCH INsensible |
| 6 | MAELSTROM |
Star mole abandoned by spymaster causing a state of confusion (9)
(STAR MOLE)* anagram=abandonned by M (spymaster, from James Bond) |
| 7 | RAKE-OFF |
One’s inclined to cover bad cut (4-3)
RAKE (something inclined) on top of (to cover) OFF (bad) |
| 8 | CONSIDERATION |
Payment of a fixed allowance by Conservative party (13)
RATION (fixed allowance) by CON (conservative) SIDE (party) |
| 14 | MEANWHILE |
Poor Henry’s taken in by a ruse at the same time (9)
MEAN (poor) then H (henry) in WILE (ruse) |
| 16 | SORT OUT |
Deal with the truth right away (4,3)
SO (the truth, |
| 18 | ARTISTE |
Performer finds time to appear in wicked satire (7)
T (time) in SATIRE* anagram=wicked |
| 19 | LUGHOLE |
Organ recital’s conclusion meets with exclamations of disgust and approval! (7)
recitaL (conclusion of) with UGH (disgust) and OLE (approval) |
| 20 | DEFINE |
Accurately describe part of plane found in river (6)
FIN (part of plane) in DEE (river) |
| 23 | OFFER |
Attempt to remove top of box (5)
cOFFER (box0 with top removed |
definitions are underlined
For some reason, I find Poins’ crosswords less easy than some people (including myself) think they seem to be.
I finished this one, yes, but it took me too long.
Only one clue in this enjoyable puzzle I couldn’t fully parse: 16d (SORT OUT).
Thanks PeeDee for what you think it is all about there but I’m still not fully convinced.
I would also like to take the opportunity to promote tonight’s BBC4 programme that features ‘Van the Man’ – the subject of last Monday’s Hob puzzle in all its glory.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b068fvks
Thanks, PeeDee.
Like Sil, I have found the last couple of Poins puzzles a bit trickier than I remember his previous ones. Maybe it’s just a natural variation in setters’ output. I’m not too concerned about it taking me a bit longer on a Sunday, since usually I have more time to spend on it.
LUGHOLE was funny, and I liked the surface for ARTISTE. Not keen on SORT OUT (mainly ‘cos I can’t sort out the parsing, although I have no alternative to our blogger’s interpretation).
Thanks to Poins too.
I just couldn’t get anything in the bottom left corner of this. This may have been because I was out last Sunday (the Proms) and didn’t get to start it till mid-week and there were too many other things occupying me.
For the record, I’m not convinced about the blogger’s interpretation of SORT OUT either.
Thanks Poins and PeeDee,
This took me longer than I expected, but was enjoyable. SORT OUT seems all right, the thesaurus give SO for ‘truth’; “that is the truth”, “that is so”.
I laughed at LUGHOLE, which tricked me for a while.
1a, EA (each), 16d, OUT (away)
Thanks to Cookie for explaining 16dn. Interestingly, everyone seemed so focussed on SO that we failed to notice the glaring typo OFF in place of OUT (corrected now).
PeeDee, I may not have explained it, that is why I have checked in again – the thesaurus reference is all right, but my example is not, it would have to be “that is truth”, not “that is the truth”, to correspond with “that is so”, of course some people do say ” ‘struth” (strewth) which sort of corresponds with “it’s so”. A better example may be “that which is true”, “that which is so”.
Sorry, that should be “that which is truth”, “that which is so”; but I still have my doubts although the Aussi slang may be all right.
I could image someone saying “…and that is the truth” meaning “…and that is so”. Your explanation works for me, and that’s the truth.