An enjoyable puzzle from Morph this week with some delightful surface readings. We were also very impressed by 17ac.
However, we couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed because we had expected to find a theme or nina. We can’t find one, but are we missing something?
| Across | ||
| 1 | Hit the wrong notes? Not here (7) | |
| MISSING | If you hit the wrong notes you could be said to MIS-SING | |
| 5 | Hint of something obscene in time line – fruity stuff between sheets (7) | |
| STRUDEL | S (first letter or ‘hint’ of ‘something’) + RUDE (obscene) in T (time) L (line) | |
| 9 | Hour’s seized by fresh type of music journalist (9) | |
| NEWSHOUND | H (hour) in or ‘seized by’ NEW (fresh) SOUND (type of music) | |
| 10 | Smoke to get high, leaving ends in vehicle (5) | |
| CIGAR | ||
| 11 | Beat the booze, but not ecstasy (5) | |
| THRUM | TH |
|
| 12 | The man’s brooding, inwardly worried, and can’t decide (9) | |
| HESITATES | HE (the man) SITS (is brooding) with ATE (worried) inside | |
| 13 | A French conservative online agitator, skilled at resisting government (14) | |
| UNCONTROLLABLE | UN (one in French) CON (Conservative) TROLL (online agitator) ABLE (skilled) | |
| 17 | Their goal is to search ground? (14) | |
| ARCHAEOLOGISTS | Cryptic definition – An anagram of GOAL IS TO SEARCH – anagrind is ‘ground’ | |
| 21 | Diminutive fixer feeds workers (4,5) | |
| GRUB SCREW | GRUBS (feeds) CREW (workers) | |
| 23 | Valuable property like Park Lane and Mayfair? (5) | |
| ASSET | AS (like) SET (Mayfair and Park Lane constitute a ‘set’ of properties in the board game Monopoly) | |
| 25 | It’s wheeled out of bankruptcy clearance (5) | |
| CYCLE | Hidden in or ‘out of’ ‘bankruptCY CLEarance’ | |
| 26 | Pen translation of Joshua 1, Latin and English (9) | |
| JAILHOUSE | An anagram of JOSHUA I L (Latin) and E (English) – anagrind is ‘translation’ | |
| 27 | Greedy person hoarding Chinese coin and old German one (7) | |
| PFENNIG | PIG (greedy person) round or ‘hoarding’ FEN (Chinese coin) N (‘and’, as in rock’n’roll) | |
| 28 | Cry for alimony? (7) | |
| EXCLAIM | Alimony could be described as a CLAIM on your EX spouse | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Greek character captured by relatively small monster (8) | |
| MINOTAUR | TAU (Greek character) in or ‘captured by’ MINOR (relatively small) | |
| 2 | Channel One producing seamy stuff? (5) | |
| SEWER | Cryptic definition – a SEWER (as in someone who sews) would produce ‘seams’ | |
| 3 | Cruel and senseless endlessly suppressing buzz (7) | |
| INHUMAN | INAN |
|
| 4 | Clumsiness of verbal encouragement to Blair? (9) | |
| GAUCHERIE | Sounds like (‘verbal’) GO CHERIE – encouragement for Cherie Blair | |
| 5 | Directions you take when joining a party? (5) | |
| SIDES | When joining a party, or group of like-minded people, you will presumably take SIDES | |
| 6 | Cheese tart cooked with chicory filling inside (7) | |
| RICOTTA | An anagram of TART (anagrind is ‘cooked’) with |
|
| 7 | It’s toxic, new tech is (9) | |
| DIGITALIS | DIGITAL (new tech) IS | |
| 8 | Poet‘s canon includes rousing lines (6) | |
| LYRIST | LIST (canon) round or ‘including’ RY (railway – ‘lines’) reversed or ‘rousing’ | |
| 14 | Fattening food followed by relative growth (9) | |
| CARBUNCLE | CARB (fattening food) UNCLE (relative) | |
| 15 | Perfect shot I hit with welly (4-5) | |
| LILY-WHITE | An anagram of I HIT and WELLY – anagrind is ‘shot’ | |
| 16 | Ideology holding alternative line relating to climate (8) | |
| ISOTHERM | ISM (ideology) round or ‘holding’ OTHER (alternative) | |
| 18 | Reject frightful banshee (3-4) | |
| HAS-BEEN | An anagram of BANSHEE – anagrind is ‘frightful’ | |
| 19 | Explicit image (7) | |
| GRAPHIC | Double definition | |
| 20 | Where clutch goes (partly), big end may well go first (6) | |
| EGGCUP | Cryptic definition – an EGG is part of a clutch, and when putting it into a CUP, it usually goes wide end first | |
| 22 | First person in France got up in outfit for makeover (5) | |
| REJIG | JE (I or ‘first person’ in French) reversed or ‘up’ in RIG (outfit) | |
| 24 | Hot place between Guinea-Bissau and Namibia (5) | |
| SAUNA | Hidden between Guinea-BisSAU and NAmibia | |
and when putting it into a CUP, it usually goes wide end first
Heresy!
A pleasnt diversion, thanks all.
I second your appreciation of 17A.
I did have reservations about 5D, SIDES, though. Is there something more to the clue? ID (you?) in S, E and S (directions) perhaps.
Overall, a satisfying challenge.
Thanks Morph and B&J. I agree, a very enjoyable puzzle. If we’re struggling for a theme, what about there being a lot of foreign words absorbed into English: strudel (German), cigar (French/Mayan), pfennig (German), Minotaur (Greek), gaucherie (French), soda (Latin), ricotta (Italian), digitalis (Latin), sauna (Finnish), isotherm (Greek).
I’m aware that one shouldn’t post on competition puzzles but this – for the second time this week – is simply wrong in that the clues in the print and on-line clues are at significant variance. See today’s 12ac. Who’s in charge?
I felt there is more to 20d than just the whole clue cryptic definition, but I admit I can’t quite get it. “Big end” is “g” and “may well” could be “eg”, giving me egg, but I can’t quite see where the “cup” comes from. But if it is just the whole clue, then it has a redundant “partly”, and would be a little simplistic. Anyone see something more?
Eric @5 ‘partly’ isn’t redundant as clutch normally refers to all the eggs laid so partly makes it just the single one.
So clue is “where single egg goes” = “egg cup”.
As for which end first I leave that to the Lillputians!