If my calculations are correct we have just passed the seventh anniversary of when Rusty* first graced the inside back page of the Indy.
From the off he was recognised as one of the toughest setters in the stable and soon became a regular in the Saturday Prize slot. I do like to see his name on the banner, however when it is on a puzzle I’m supposed to blog, it does give me pause for thought. (Thoughts like: “Will I ever finish this? What can I say about this? Why did I ever volunteer to do this?”)
I made a good start on this, nearly a dozen on before the end of the first pass …
… but then only a couple more …
… before a gap of some days as “Real Life(™)” intervened.
Coming back to it I found it a real struggle to get the last dozen or so, and for some I kicked myself for not getting sooner (e.g. 16).
I’m going to use those fateful words to sign off this blog intro: No theme here that I can see
(If there had been, and I could spot it, I might’ve had less of a struggle.)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1/8 | DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT | Order accepted for two hamburgers initially – a youth writes it down adding … (2,3,4,5,4,4) (A[ccepted] F[or] T[wo] H[amburgers] A YOUTH WRITES IT DOWN) * AInd: Order. I’d call it an &Lit with the definition given by the whole clue really, especially the ellipsis |
| 9 | UPSHOT | Skier‘s result? (6) Double Def. one of the defs caused me to slap my forehead when I saw it: A skier is something you throw high up in the air |
| 10 | DETOUR | Diversion taking out the French actress (6) DE [LA] TOUR. The actress being Frances de la Tour, or Madame Maxime to Harry Potter fans. First One In from the definition and the actress springing to mind. |
| 11 | PREACHER | He’ll be telling you what to do before long, right? (8) PRE (before) ACHE (long) R[ight]. Completely flummoxed by this till I had all the crossing letters. |
| 12 | CONSIDER | Think my new team’s been accepted (8) N[ew] SIDE (team) inside COR (My) |
| 14 | UNREST | Trouble about entering most northerly island (6) RE (about) inside UNST (most northerly island) Last One In. I didn’t know about Unst and had to look it up: It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles so the clue couldn’t be clearer [Wiki] |
| 16 | BEYOND | Done by running further (6) (DONE BY)* AInd: running. That was definitely one I should have got earlier |
| 18 | PORT SAID | Rejected swim with old rats rotting in canal by here (4,4) (O[ld] RATS)* AInd: rotting, inside DIP< |
| 20 | MORTIMER | 75 per cent added – watch this fellow (8) MOR[e] (75% added) TIMER (watch). Is the def. just a male name or is there more going on here? |
| 22 | BOG OFF | Facilities not very nice – go elsewhere (3,3) BOG (Facilities) OFF (not very nice) |
| 24 | TRAMPS | Plods at centre investigate scams (6) [inves]T[igate] RAMPS (scams). I tried to make CRIMES (=scams) fit the wordplay for a very long time |
| 25 | NOCTURNE | Piece of music‘s rap – switch off radio! (8) Homophone: “Knock, turn” (rap, switch off) Homophone indiator: radio |
| 26 | WHIPPERSNAPPER | Young upstart hit a paparazzo (14) WHIP (hit) PER (a) SNAPPER (pap) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | DRIVE HOME | Make clearly understood in approach to head (5,4) DRIVE (approach, as in to a stately ‘ome) HOME (head? – unsure about that) |
| 2 | YAHOO | Brute of a horse restrained by youngsters not using force (5) A H[orse] in YOO[f]. I note that when I just had the final O I pencilled in an answer that proved to be wrong when I got the big 1/8. Now the real answer is so clear I cannot for the life of me remember what I had originally put in let alone why. |
| 3 | USHERED | Gave guidance to the female that’s stopped being exploited (7) HER (the female) inside (that’s stopped) USED (being exploited) |
| 4 | ANTIPERSPIRANTS | Pianist’s partner getting annoyed: ‘They should stop people humming’ (15) (Pianist’s partner)* AInd: getting annoyed. Tyrus found a top class anagram. |
| 5 | TRUDEAU | Prime Minister making real money, it’s said (7) Homophone of “True Dough” (real money). This is the current Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. No you haven’t fallen through a wormhole back to the seventies. While you weren’t paying attention, a Trudeau has become PM of Canada again. He’s the son of Pierre T. Just(keeping it )in the family, like. |
| 6 | REST CURES | You’re better not working with them (4,5) Cryptic Def. I’m sure I’ve seen something very similar to this from Rufus recently but can’t find it now. Yet another I now wonder why it resisted my solving so long |
| 7 | EVOKE | Cause upset during week overseas (5) Hidden Rev. weEK OVErseas |
| 13 | SHOOT ‘EM UP | Picture of Soho criminal and local police (5-2-2) Unsure about this: SOHO* AInd: Criminal (I’m happy enough with that bit), and MET< UP (MET = local police, maybe) but how is it possible for the reverse indicator UP to be part of the answer? Also, the definition: A “shoot’em up” is more of a video game than a film. |
| 15 | STIFFENER | Frenchman with female is the right size for mounting – Viagra? (9) RENE (Frenchman) F[emale] FITS (is the right size) All reversed (for mounting) Steady on |
| 17 | DEMESNE | Land seemed neglected around north (7) SEEMED* around N[orth] |
| 19 | REBECCA | Boris reportedly supporting most of left-wing book (7) RE[d] (left wing, most of) then homophone “Becker” Homophone Ind: reportedly. The German Boris, not the definitely-not-German Boris |
| 21 | OPRAH | Comedian saying nothing about American icon (5) HARPO< (Ref. Harpo Marx: comedian saying nothing – famously silent even in the age of talkies). Ophrah Winfrey is well aware of this reversal of her name, her production company is called Harpo |
| 23 | GRUMP | Good seat but he’s not happy (5) G[ood] RUMP (seat) |
Thanks Tyrus and beermagnet
13dn: I took the second part of this as an inverse clue, TEM UP being equivalent to MET(ropolitan Police)
25ac: I took “off” as part of the homophone indicator: “switch” is a sufficient definition for “turn”
I remember being happy with 1dn at the time, but cannot now think of a convincing justification for head=HOME.
I enjoyed this one.
Like Pelham@1, I see ‘local police’ in 13dn = TEM up, where the wordplay is indeed in the answer. I haven’t see this often, but quite like it as a device. As for the meaning of the solution, I was just thinking of westerns generally, which I think works well enough, but apparently there was a 2007 film of exactly that name.
As for 25ac, would “switch on radio” work better, where ‘on radio’ is the homophone indicator?
22ac made me smile.
(My captcha is six x seven: finally, the answer I’ve been looking for!)
An enjoyable challenge.
My only question mark was also 1D, but I think I can see it now: ‘in’ is defining the HOME part, with approach = DRIVE (golf, I assume, but are the drive shot and the approach shot the same? Presumably they can be on a short hole.), going to the head of the entry.
Ah, or approach could just equate to drive as you have already explained!
It’s a shame that this appeared on the website last week complete with answers. It’s still there.
A boring pedant writes. There are at least three islands just north of Unst.
Thanks to beermagnet for the blog and to others for their comments.
1d was intended as HOME/in after DRIVE/approach (eg to a big house).
Another superb puzzle from Tyrus. It’s a long time ago since I solved it but I particularly liked the “fries” and the antiperspirants clues.
I forgot to say, thanks beermagnet for the blog