This crossword from Hob was in the Nimrod league so far as difficulty is concerned. It took me absolutely ages, and even now I’m not sure about the parsing of one or two of the answers. Who knows just why, since when I can understand the answer it seems straightforward enough; perhaps it’s because the definition is often cunningly disguised and when you do have an idea what it is the number of options is so great that you aren’t exactly led by the hand towards the right one.
Definitions underlined.
So far as I can see many of the answers — and indeed the surfaces of the clues — lead to things connected with audio; perhaps we are led in this direction by 14ac. Whether these answers form any sort of a coherent whole that I am missing is for you to say. I’ve had enough.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COAL GAS |
Fuel from seaweed wrapped in lettuce (4,3)
co(alga)s |
| 5 | TWEETER |
Someone posting a few letters for one “doing bird”? (7)
Not sure here: it looks as if it’s an attempt at 2 defs, both of them cryptic, but it isn’t clear to me where one of them ends and the other one begins — there is obviously some sort of jokey connection with “doing bird” and tweeting, but beyond that … |
| 9 | NORMA |
Opera stars, mostly French (5)
|
| 10 | SUBWOOFER |
A sound driver, this underdog? (9)
An underdog is whimsically a sub-woofer |
| 11 | ACOUSTICS |
A surprised expression remains in the auditorium, by the sound of it (9)
“A coo sticks” |
| 12 | URAL |
Current selection from 1994 album (4)
Hidden in …-foUR ALbum — you have to spell out 1994 in words |
| 14 | HIGH FIDELITY |
Film made from a novel in good faith (4,8)
The film ‘High Fidelity’ was based on the novel by Nick Hornby — high = good, fidelity = faith |
| 17 | REPRODUCTION |
Discount’s included for having children (12)
re(pro)duction |
| 20 | PULP |
Group lost in small woofer (4)
pu(l)p, referring to the pop group — I searched in Chambers and Collins for l = lost but couldn’t find it, but the COD gives it (as in football league tables, obvious really and I can’t think why Chambers and Collins ignore this) |
| 21 | HEADPHONE |
Capering after split is 26’s alternative (9)
cape ring is the word split; cape = head, ring = phone —26 is SPEAKER so a headphone (more usually headphones I should have thought) is an alternative to this |
| 24 | AMPLIFIER |
Current long-term prisoner has one injected as booster (9)
amp [= current] lif(1)er — but an amp is a measure of current, not the current itself; all the dictionaries seem to confirm this |
| 25 | ENNUI |
Feeling of weariness when performing No.1, some would say (5)
“on wee” I suppose, but this seems to me to be stretched, since you’d never say that someone having a wee was ‘on wee’; I never would, anyway and I can’t imagine how anyone else would either |
| 26 | SPEAKER |
Criminal keeps a revolver on either side of chair in house (7)
(keeps a r)*, the r coming either from r{evolver} or from {revolve}r, the house being really the House [of Parliament]; this misleading use of capitals is borderline dodgy I think |
| 27 | ESSAYED |
Tried to bring back Purdey as sexy content (7)
Hidden reversed in PurDEY AS SExy |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CANCAN |
Steps taken to get a pair of 21s? (6)
21 being CAN, this repeated is the dance |
| 2 | AIR CON |
Actually it’s really cool – starts working in car, and nothing needs to be taken off (3,3)
Two lots of wordplay: A{ctually} i{t’s} r{eally} c{ool} on [= working]; (in car 0)*, the anagram indicated by ‘needs to be taken off’, &lit. — a bit strained, but quite nice |
| 3 | GRASS WIDOW |
One grows sad – poor wife, she’s missing husband (5,5)
(One grows sad)* w |
| 4 | SUSHI |
Girl hasn’t finished eating hot dish (5)
Sus(h)i{e} |
| 5 | TUBE SKIRT |
Ballerina eager initially to risk dancing in short ballet costume, a tight-fitting garment (4,5)
tut{u} round (B{allerina} e{ager} (risk)*) |
| 6 | EROS |
Love of Rolling Stones or Eagles (4)
Hidden rev. in StoneS OR Eagles |
| 7 | TAFFRAIL |
Topless group employed by bar, eliciting bit of a stern expression? (8)
{s}taff rail with rather a vague definition, a taffrail being a rail that goes round the stern of a ship |
| 8 | RURALLY |
In the country band together after game (7)
RU rally |
| 13 | DECOMPRESS |
Reviewing Elvis Costello, or Declan McManus originally, journalists make use of Chambers? (10)
(E{lvis} C{ostello} o{r} D{eclan} M{cManus})* press — decompression chambers |
| 15 | HAUGHTIER |
That woman’s a nasty thug, one intrinsically more arrogant (9)
h(a (thug)* 1)er |
| 16 | APPLE PIE |
Mix tape pile starts off covering Prince on piano? That’s sweet (5,3)
({t}ape {p}ile)* round (p [= Prince] p [= piano]) |
| 17 | REPLAYS |
Engineers drama in cup games? (7)
RE plays |
| 18 | HORNBY |
Bit of bromide taken by randy model railway man (6)
b{romide} in horny — Frank Hornby |
| 19 | BEHIND |
Bottom half of 14 commonly worn on bottom when retired? (6)
14 being HIGH FIDELITY, half of this commonly is hi [hi-fi], worn on bottom is {wor}n; so all this is in bed [= when retired?] and it’s be(hi n)d |
| 22 | AGREE |
Of all groups regularly entering Europe, top five are in concert (5)
a{ll} g{roups} r{egularly} e{ntering} E{urope} — these are the top five letters |
| 23 | NICK |
Cut either half of 1D (4)
Since 1D is CANCAN, either half of this is can = nick (as in prison) = cut |
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who found this tough. Slow going right from the start and quite a few answers still unparsed, eg 14, though good to have the hi-fi theme (I didn’t know about the author Nick Hornby, also two answers) which did help a bit. Many clues to like with my favourites being NORMA, SUBWOOFER, HEADPHONE, ENNUI (homophone of ‘when performing’=ON, ‘No.1’=WEE), TAFFRAIL, HORNBY and BEHIND.
Thank you to Hob and John.
Thanks Hob and John
5ac: 1st definition “Someone posting a few letters” – a Twitter user, and 2nd definition one “doing bird” – someone making bird noises.
Hob has risen in my ratings after this. Great double use of Hornby. I was quite impressed by Camden being transported to Chicago in the film, courtesy of John Cusack, Jack Black et al.
A good audiophile puzzle. Thanks John and Hob.
Too stiff for me mostly but still enjoyable where I succeeded. Thanks to both.
Started by getting 1ac straight off, then found most of the remaining clues almost impenetrable. Then a few down clues gave some checking letters and with lots of e-help a few more answers came. Then SUBWOOFER suggested 5ac might be TWEETER and I realised the theme. That enabled me to finish, but with no idea how some of the clues worked.
As well as having to fit into the grid, HEADPHONE needed to be singular for the clue to 1dn to work – ‘cans’ being a colloquial expression for ‘headphones’.
Thanks, Hob and especially John.
On the whole, I found this not too difficult, certainly easier than yesterday. Filled it in fairly quickly, although there were several I couldn’t parse, so thanks for the explanations. I spotted the audio theme but failed to get the link to Nick Hornby.
Thanks for all the parsing – although we got most of it we had no idea how several clues worked. I still need help with “Ural” – why is that current? I got the foUR ALbum but couldn’t fill it in as I couldn’t understand current.
Eric @7
River Ural..
No, it didn’t take since 2015 to complete it …though it did take a while. Just wanted a 2020 post on the 1515 blog!
Some brilliant clues, and the audio theme (plus Nick Hornby) added to the satisfaction.
Chambers foxed me. I thought cyclopaedia, bed pans and barristers, but not decompression!
Forthwith @9 Have you discovered idothei yet?
Topical discussions on the i cryptic.