I very much enjoy Redshank puzzles. I cannot give any explicit reason why I find them so pleasing. The clues use just the same sorts of words and devices as every other crossword but somehow I find the end result more elegant than most. Thank you Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PRAGUE / PLAGUE | Badger changes hands in capital (6) |
| PLAGUE (badger) with L replacing R (changing hands). I think the answer could be PRAGUE or PLAGUE – they both fit. | ||
| 4 | APPRISED | Did judge, gutted, get told? (8) |
| APPRaISED (did judge) with centre removed (gutted) | ||
| 9 | INSTAL | Place where horse is docked (6) |
| IN STALL (where horse is) shortened (docked) – variant spelling of install | ||
| 10 | BOUFFANT | Polish worker crosses over in hair-raising style (8) |
| BUFF (polish) ANT (worker) contains (crosses) O (over) | ||
| 12 | THEREFORE | Article describes cattle margins dropping as a result (9) |
| THE (definite article) contains (describes, goes round) hEREFORd (breed of cattle) missing teh outside letters (margins) | ||
| 13 | RHINE | Big flower in her novel (5) |
| anagram (novel) of IN HER – a river is something that flows | ||
| 14 | ONE-ARMED BANDIT | Bet on it endlessly and dream, going bust (3-5,6) |
| anagram (going bust) of BET ON It (endless) AND DREAM – definition is &lit (the whole clue is both construction and definition) | ||
| 17 | GLOSSY MAGAZINE | Explain unknown round container that sits on coffee table (6,8) |
| GLOSS (explain) Y (unknown) MAGAZINE (round container, a round is a bullet or shell) | ||
| 21 | CONDO | US block or unfinished one elsewhere? (5) |
| I can’t explain this. My guesses are that ‘one’ is slang for a CODOm somewhere in the world or that condominium is only abbreviated to condo in the US? Neither seem likely to me. | ||
| 22 | ENLIGHTEN | Brief answer to clue in eastern river flowing west (9) |
| LIGHT (answer to clue) in NENE (river in the east of England) reversed (flowing west, right to left on a map). In a crossword grid the ‘lights’ are the unshaded squares into which the solutions can be written. | ||
| 24 | ANCESTRY | Some possess crest, possibly revealing this? (8) |
| ANY (some) contains (posses) CREST* anagram=possibly | ||
| 25 | UNFAIR | Not just dodgems etc don’t start (6) |
| fUN fAIR (dodgem etc) missing first letters (don’t start) | ||
| 26 | OBTUSEST | Coaches keep time in books? Nothing’s more witless (8) |
| BUSES (coaches) contain T (time) all inside OT (books, of Bible) | ||
| 27 | SEANCE | Notice a knock occasionally interrupting this? (6) |
| SEE (notice) containing (with…interrupting) A kNoCk (occaisional letterrs from) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PAINTBOX | Before 10, quietly obtain mixed blocks of colour here (8) |
| P (quietly) OBTAIN* anaram=mixed following X (10, Roman numeral) | ||
| 2 | AUSTERE | Cold lecturer left overcoat in hospital department (7) |
| ULSTER (overcoat) missing L (lecturer) in A & E (hospital department) | ||
| 3 | UKASE | Edict from the Kremlin: “Employ Ford parts” (5) |
| USE (emply) contains (parted by) KA (Ford car) – an edict from a Tsar, former resident of the Kremlin | ||
| 5 | PROVERBIALLY | Saw supporter holding one, so tradition has it (12) |
| PROVERB (saw) ALLY (supporter) containing I (one) | ||
| 6 | REFERENDA | Polls are free for a change around North Dakota (9) |
| anagran (for a change) of ARE FREE contining (around) ND (North Dakota) | ||
| 7 | SWAHILI | Hailstorm in Belgravia area heard in parts of Africa (7) |
| HAIL* anagram=storm in SWI (SW1, Belgravia area, London postal code) | ||
| 8 | DOTTED | Like small eyes, say, in the form of ellipses (6) |
| like i (eye, by the sound of it, small=lower case) and … (ellipsis) – plurals of | ||
| 11 | LONELY HEARTS | They need dates in 51 Harley St to get treatment (6,6) |
| anagram (get treatment) of L ONE (51, 50 and 1, Roman numeral) HARLEY ST | ||
| 15 | RESPONSES | Answers concerning partners when letter turns up (9) |
| RE (regarding, concerning) SPOuSES (partners) with N replacing U (when letter turns up, u -> n) | ||
| 16 | WET NURSE | She feeds bouncy wee runts (3,5) |
| anagram (bouncy) of WEE RUNTS | ||
| 18 | LINOCUT | Groovy artwork, old copper wrapped in cotton (7) |
| O (old) CU (copper) inside LINT (cotton) | ||
| 19 | IN TRAIN | In the shower he gets scrubbed, making progress (2,5) |
| IN The RAIN (in the shower) missing (getting scrubbed) HE | ||
| 20 | OCTAVO | Old tax firm’s revolutionary book (6) |
| O (old) VAT (tax) CO (company, firm) all reversed (revolutionary) | ||
| 23 | GUNGE | Nasty material’s begun getting seized (5) |
| found inside (siezed by) beGUN GEtting | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Cheers PeeDee. I agree entirely that Redshank’s crosswords are a real pleasure to solve.
Re 21ac I think you are correct – that condominium is abbreviated to condo, chiefly in the US being the implication here.
Especally liked 17ac and 18d
Thanks Redshank and PeeDee
Agree that this setter is one that you look forward to when you see his name in the banner, although today he has a couple of clues that are uncharacteristically loose:
PLAGUE is what I went with at 1a – based on the clue saying that ‘change hands IN capital’ rather than IN ‘badger’ (this is probably my pet hate in a puzzle where there is ambiguity with a blocked letter)
CONDO – both online Oxford and Collins call it out as US informal for condominium – if this is what he means, it is clumsy.
Lots of others to like including PAINTBOX, BOUFFANT and SWAHILI as my favourites.
Finished in the NW corner with PAINTBOX and AUSTERE (which I couldn’t fully parse) as the last couple in.
Chambers gave condo as informal North American, which to me did not exclude Canada and other American speaking countries.
My thought was that a truncated CONDO[M] could be thought of as a “block”(i.e. blocking device), though that doesn’t really account for the “elsewhere”.
Thanks Redshank and PeeDee
25ac: It is only the first F of fUNFAIR that is removed.
11dn: This must be L + ONE (50 + 1) + anagram of HARLEY ST.
21ac I thought as 4 Andrew. Condo being US block and Condo(m) being a “block” elsewhere than US where it would be a rubber.
Thanks, PeeDee. I’m a great fan of Redshank’s puzzles, too, and really enjoyed this one.
I interpreted 21ac as Andrew and Maagran did.
Many thanks to Redshank.
Thanks PeeDee and Redshank.
I had CENTO (like NATO) but I couldn’t parse it either…
Good fun.
PeeDee…
I thought 11d is:
l+one+harley+st
Thanks PeeDee and Redshank.
I found this tough going. All of the constructions were at the harder end of the scale for me (e.g. u to n in 15, L + one for 51 in 11, double insertion in 26, the insertion and missing letter in 2) and a new word – UKASE.
I’m still not sure about GLOSS = explain in 17.
Probably felt harder after I’d just done the previous day’s Picaroon in record time. This took the train ride home, thought overnight and half the train ride back in this morning.
I share Brucew’s pet hate on the indeterminacy of clues like 1ac – I went for Prague but see from the published solution that it’s PLAGUE after all.
Oh well. Got there in the end. And it’s all about the challenge, so thanks again.
Hi Hamish, initially I did not like GLOSS=explain either, but it is in the dictionary so fair enough.