Clear clueing from Dante, and a couple of good jokes.
A straightforward puzzle which I managed in a couple of passes this morning.
But some neat tricks: SIERRA and WEASEL both got a chuckle out of me, anyway. Thanks to Dante for the gentle post-holiday fun.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CUT OUT | Naturally designed to be removed (3,3) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | CLOCK OUT | Wrong time to stop working (5,3) |
| If your clock’s out, your time’s wrong. I haven’t clocked in or out for years, happy to say. | ||
| 9 | REAGAN | Unuusual anger about a former US president (6) |
| Anagram of ANGER around A. | ||
| 10 | MUTINEER | True mien of a rebel (8) |
| Anag. of TRUE MIEN. | ||
| 11 | IN PLAY | Not out of touch, but not to be taken seriously (2,4) |
| Double def. Football (whatever code) and life in general. | ||
| 12 | PRECIOUS | Exquisite soup mixed with rice (8) |
| Anag. of SOUP & RICE. | ||
| 13 | IRE | I write a note showing anger (3) |
| ‘I’, then write ‘RE’, 2nd note of the sol-fa scale. | ||
| 14 | LEERED | Made a face before being taken outside (6) |
| ‘ERE’ (poetic for ‘before’) with LED outside it. | ||
| 17 | DRASTIC | Desperate doctor takes wine cold (7) |
| DR + ASTI + C (on your cold tap). | ||
| 21 | PHONEY | Fake ring revealed by youth leader (6) |
| PHONE (ring) by ‘Y’. | ||
| 25 | ONE | Our first cardinal (3) |
| Cryptic for the first whole number of quantity. | ||
| 26 | INEXPERT | Rex inept, awkward and unskilful (8) |
| Anag of REX + INEPT. | ||
| 27 | OPORTO | Good centre to find wine in? (6) |
| Centre of gOOd surrounds PORT & whole clue charade. Nice. | ||
| 28 | RESOLUTE | Persistent roués let off (8) |
| Anag (‘off’) of ROUES + LET | ||
| 29 | CHANGE | Some variation in pocket money (6) |
| Double def. | ||
| 30 | ALL FOURS | No variety in the numbers crawling (3,5) |
| i.e. all the numbers are fours. Wouldn’t that be interesting? | ||
| 31 | SPLEEN | Its disorder brings troubled sleep to the north (6) |
| Anag of SLEEP + N, and charade of first words, SLEEP doing double duty here. Tiny construction worry for the purists (does splenetic illness affect only northerners?) but clear enough. |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CARLISLE | Caller is redirected in city (8) |
| Anag. of CALLER + IS. | ||
| 2 | TRAMPLED | Vagrant in front gets trodden on (8) |
| TRAMP + LED | ||
| 3 | UNABATED | A French journalist covering a sports’ club is being relentless (8) |
| UN + ED surrounds BAT (a sports’ club, boom-boom). | ||
| 5 | LOUVRE | Art gallery for the blind (6) |
| Double def. | ||
| 6 | CLINCH | Embrace large number left in church (6) |
| ‘C’ (large number in Latin) + L + IN + CH. | ||
| 7 | OCELOT | Animal turns up to the French company (6) |
| Reversal (‘turns up’) of TO + LE + CO | ||
| 8 | THRUSH | Bird disease affecting humans (6) |
| Double def. | ||
| 12 | PRESENT | A gift coppers dislike (7) |
| ‘P’ for pence (coppers) + RESENT | ||
| 15 | DRY | Dull, but not raining (3) |
| Double def. | ||
| 16 | DIP | Go down for a swim (3) |
| Ditto. | ||
| 18 | CHOP-CHOP | Fast repeated punches (4-4) |
| Two karate chops and a piece of Pidgin, please. | ||
| 19 | ENTRANCE | Have effect that’s magical, if it’s not way out (8) |
| Double def. | ||
| 20 | TYROLEAN | Ornately turned out yodeller? (8) |
| Pleasing anagram of ORNATELY. | ||
| 22 | SIERRA | Opening secret codeword is rare in operation (6) |
| ‘S’ (the opening of Secret) is expressed in international radio code as ‘sierra’, an anagram (‘in operation’) of IS + RARE. | ||
| 23 | WEASEL | Creature featured in pop song (6) |
| As in ‘Pop goes…’ Very smile-worthy. | ||
| 24 | APOLLO | Greek god’s head set in a ring (6) |
| POLL (‘head’) in A + O. | ||
| 25 | ORATOR | He’s happy to give people his address (6) |
| Cryptic whole clue. | ||
*anagram
Not too difficult but enjoyable. I liked the ‘Art gallery for the blind’, the ‘Unusual anger about a former US president’ anagram and ‘pop song’ for WEASEL, my favourite.
Thanks to Dante and Grant.
Much better than his Rufus yesterday.The art gallery was great.
This was fun but I think yesterday’s Rufus was better and had a better grid. Thanks Dante and Grant.
Where is the anagram indicator in 10ac?
Just ‘of’? Probably.
But then it is oddly positioned, in my opinion: ‘fodder’ of ‘definition’.
But it was a nice crossword.
I have no idea what ‘crawling’ has to do with ‘all fours’ but that’s perhaps just me.
It took me ages to spot Carlisle.
And favourite? LOUVRE, I think.
Many thanks, Grant and Dante.
A great puzzle – thanks Dante! 30a’s def1, 5d’s surface, 22d’s def and 23d are probably my favourites, the pick of a strong bunch.
Thanks Dante and Grant.
“Wouldn’t that be interesting?”
Yes, Grant, it would. My birthday was 4 4 44, updated in digital times to 04!
Sil, I think the anagram indicator in 10ac is the definition itself: rebel, or more obliquely, perhaps,
rebellious from ‘of a rebel’; (rebel is in the list of Anagram indicators in Chambers).
mike04, if this is what you think it is, I am happy with it.
Did I say ‘happy’?
To mike04:
Happy coincidence, and what a pleasant birthday to have. It’s oddments like this that make the blog worthwhile. Btw, when I smugly posted up my 60th birthday, a very good friend mailed to say that her mother & I shared that birthday. ‘How old is she?’ I asked. ‘100 today’, says she. You never forget that stuff.
To Sil:
‘Of’ is quite a common anagrind, I presume as a shorthand for ‘made out of’ as in e.g., ‘the chalice was of gold..’
Thanks Dante and Grant
A nice gettable puzzle for early in the week … and as it turned out that was needed as the rest of the week was pretty tough in both FT and the Guardian !!! Did most of it during the second half of the train ride in on Wednesday and finished it that night – first chance that I’ve had to check it off tonight.
No real stand outs for me although I did have to revisit 4a where I had originally written in an unparsed BLACK OUT – knowing this setter and that if it is unparsed then it will generally be wrong – got back to work and saw the very clever CLOCK OUT. That was the last one to be finished after SIERRA and CARLISLE.
It is a nice coincidence of mike to have that birthday with a clue like 30a served up today !
Thanks Dante and Grant.
I too took “rebel” as doing double duty in 10ac.
This was certainly a game of four halves with only 12dn and 17ac linking the quarters. I ended up completing clockwise from the NE after the obligatory false start with Dante – I put CLOCK OFF at 4ac until the obvious THRUSH at 8dn made me change tack.
SIERRA and WEASEL were both excellent.
The rest typically Dante. He is what he is and does it well – so thanks again.